During Terms 3 and 4, at the invitation of districts, officers from Professional Support and Curriculum Directorate have been conducting district professional development meetings for teachers in the HSIE learning area.

The district meetings have enabled us to, not only unpack the standards packages, but to provide detailed information about the judging process and answer all those questions about how standards were set in the 2001 HSC marking process. In addition, we have been able to provide information and assistance in relation to changes to the Years 7–10 syllabuses, the 2002 School Certificate and ongoing issues with HSC assessment tasks and marking guidelines.

Standards packages
Many teachers were apprehensive about the first HSC under the standards-referenced approach. In preparing students in the first year they were hampered by not knowing explicitly the standard of students’ work that represented the various bands. They looked forward to two sets of information:

1. Their students’ results
By knowing how each of their students performed in the first examination this information would contribute to their image of students’ work at each band level. This information is very important for these teachers but not helpful for those teachers who did not teach an HSC class in 2001.

2. Standards packages
In the HSC Standards Package for each subject, the Office of the Board of Studies has provided
statistical information and samples of student work that indicate the standards at the crucial borderlines between the bands. This material enables all teachers to develop further their picture of students work to match the standards represented by the band descriptors.

Getting started
The opening page of each CDROM sets out the questions in the examination paper and allows teachers to click onto the question and, where work samples are involved, the samples at borderlines between bands. But this opening page has other information that can easily be missed in the rush to look at work samples. In fact, teachers would be well advised to explore the other information first. For example:

Introduction: This section contains a very concise and precise explanation of the judging process and should answer most teachers’ questions about that process.

Examination paper: A copy of the HSC examination paper is provided in case teachers do not have their own copy.

Marking guidelines: As will become apparent in looking at student work samples, the marking guidelines are needed to make sense of these samples.

Performance band descriptors: Similarly, the work samples, marking guidelines and the band
descriptors make up a package illustrating the standards. These three pieces of information help
teachers to create an image of standards for each band.

Syllabus: Teachers can quickly refer to the syllabus to see how particular questions reflect the outcomes, learn to and learn about statements.

Navigation tips: Provide some short cuts to help teachers to access the material.

Multiple-choice
For examination papers with multiple-choice questions, the package provides a set of statistics in graphical form. Here teachers have information about the percentage of students that chose each answer at each band borderline. The pattern shows mostly that increasingly more able students got the correct answer at each successive band borderline.

Most teachers will be pleased to see how well these questions do high and low ability. The Office of the Board of Studies is not able to pre-test questions in a high stakes examination like the HSC and a few questions show aberrations to the desired pattern with some students at higher borderlines not performing as well as those at the preceding border. These are rare and could indicate that a lot of knowledge can confuse some able students who read more into the question than is intended, or may in some subjects with a small number of students at the Band 5/6 borderline, be a factor of group size.

There is no reason why teachers should not use these questions with their students and compare the results for each student and the group with the information provided on the CD-ROM.

Short-answer
The examples of short-answer responses are helpful to see how the marking guidelines were used and the way that explicit and often short responses were rewarded. This matter should put to rest the issue of how much students should write. Unless the student has abnormally large handwriting, the space provided should be sufficient to write an answer that can score maximum marks.

Extended responses
The extended responses have attracted the most teacher interest. In its professional development package, the Office of the Board of Studies has emphasised that after satisfying curiosity by a quick look at some of the samples, teachers need to take a systematic approach to using this material. This will help teachers to develop an image of the standards and make them confident about standard-referenced judgements on student performance.

The package recommends starting with a question and looking at the Band 5/6 borderline responses. To make the most of this reading, look first at the marking guidelines and make notes as you read the samples to indicate how these responses meet the marking guidelines. You
could also look at the band descriptors to see how the sample meets most of one band but not
the higher band. Establishing these links and building an image of the standard of work at this borderline will be the first step in developing an understanding of the standards. You will need to repeat this process at the other borderlines using the samples, marking guidelines and band
descriptors.

In this 2001 package from the Office of the Board of Studies, samples at the borderlines have been provided to give teachers an opportunity to engage in the range of standards represented. One of the great things about standards-referenced assessment is that each student can be shown the next level of work to aim for. This can be an encouraging aspect that would not exist for most students if the Office of the Board of Studies had provided only the top samples from Band 6.

Teachers should note that the three responses are typical of responses at the borderline and that each has different strengths and weaknesses. There is no set way to respond at these borderlines. While the better answers tend to be longer, length in itself is not a predictor of quality.
The packages do not contain samples for all options and marks are not provided. The reason for not providing marks can be understood from a reading of the judging process indicating that raw marks at the same borderlines could vary between questions. Similarly, not all options were judged with work samples collected as part of the judging process.

Teachers are reminded that these packages not only provide vital information for HSC teachers, they provide it also for students. Many teachers are using the package in the classroom as a teaching and learning resource (see article on Using the HSC Standards Package with a Geography class). Students should also be encouraged to access the packages and to explore the responses for themselves. This can help them to develop their own understanding of how their work compares with these standards and then plan to improve their performance to achieve the higher standard represented in the next band level.

Working with these packages can be made easier by working in teacher networks. Teachers of the same subject are encouraged to support each other either within schools or between schools across a district.

It is this package of standards that will be used by all judges at the 2002 HSC examinations. The judges will need to apply the same standards to the 2002 scripts because in standards-referenced assessment there is no predetermined number of students in each band. Those who reach the standard will get the marks.

John Gore
CEO, HSIE