Applied quality assurance FAQs

Applied quality assurance is the annual QCAA-led review process that ensures the quality, comparability and reliability of schools’ implementation of Unit 3 internal assessment for Applied and Applied (Essential) subjects.

All Applied (2024) and Applied (Essential) subjects are included in Applied quality assurance processes.

The schedule of subjects that will participate in Applied quality assurance review meetings in a particular year will be published in a memo to schools and can be viewed in the Applied QA application (app) in the QCAA Portal.

Essential English and Essential Mathematics participate in endorsement of internal assessment for Units 3 and 4 each year.

For Applied syllabuses other than Applied (Essential) subjects, internal assessment for Unit 3 will be reviewed in the relevant Applied quality assurance review meeting. These subjects do not participate in endorsement.

The Applied QA application (app) in the QCAA Portal is the ICT platform for facilitating the Applied quality assurance process.

Schools use the Applied QA app to upload, track and manage the submission of Unit 3 assessment instruments and marked student response samples, and receive Applied quality assurance decisions.

Reviewers use the Applied QA app to review school submissions during Applied quality assurance review meetings and provide feedback on subject-specific instrument design and the school’s application of the instrument-specific standards/marking guide to the student samples.

Essential English and Essential Mathematics are quality assured annually.

The QCAA will determine the Applied subjects that will be reviewed at Applied quality assurance review meetings each year and publish the schedule in a memo and in the Applied QA application (app).

Schools will receive their feedback via the Applied QA application (app) in the QCAA Portal. This feedback is called Advice to schools and outlines the findings of:

• the assessment design review for Applied subjects
• the review of teacher judgments for Applied and Applied (Essential) subjects.

It is the responsibility of schools to apply the advice, as appropriate, to their current and future cohorts

The QCAA will provide intervention support to schools whose submissions contain evidence that QCAA policies and procedures are not appropriately applied or there are syllabus implementation concerns.

For process-related issues that require additional support, the QCAA will work with the school’s principal’s delegate to review the school’s quality management systems.

For syllabus-related issues that require additional support, the school will be contacted by the syllabus Principal Education Officer.

Each campus for a school is required to participate in the scheduled Applied quality assurance review meeting and is responsible for preparing the required submissions for their campus.

Only evidence generated in the student’s preparation of an assessment response collected on or before the due date can be used to make a judgment. The judgment must be made by matching the characteristics in the evidence to the instrument-specific standards/marking guide. (See Section 8.2.7 Gathering evidence of student achievement of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook).

A not rated (NR) is only entered if there is no evidence from the student’s preparation of an assessment response. (See Section 11.1.2 Determining results: Units 3 and 4 — overview of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook).

The school’s assessment policy sets out the school-based policies, procedures and strategies for managing response length and making judgments about student responses that exceed syllabus assessment conditions.

Schools require strategies to manage student response length proactively before assessment submission. The strategies for marking student responses that exceed assessment conditions for response length should be suitable for the school and assessment context and may include:

• marking only the work that meets the assessment conditions for response length, excluding evidence outside the required length
• allowing the student to redact a response to meet the required length before a judgment is made on the student work.

When marking student responses, schools cannot penalise students for submitting a response that does not meet the response length conditions by arbitrarily reducing their result by any number of marks or standard.

Further information is available in the School assessment policy resources accessible to schools through the Noticeboard app in the QCAA Portal, or in Section 8.2.6: Managing response length of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook.

Schools are expected to identify the characteristics of the student response matched to each criterion on the instrument-specific standards/marking guide. This can include highlighting, circling, checking or otherwise clearly marking the match of the characteristics identified in the student response to the descriptors. The judgment for the overall standard (A–E) should also be clearly identified on the instrument-specific standards/marking guide.

In preparation for the Applied quality assurance process, schools must collect and store student responses to make judgments. Schools decide how best to gather evidence for Applied quality assurance in accordance with their resources and context. These are provided to the QCAA electronically via the Applied QA application (app).

Schools should be prepared to electronically submit:

• samples of students’ responses
• the marked instrument-specific standards/CIA marking guide, indicating how judgments were made and the decision about the overall standard
• any supporting documentation specified by the QCAA for each summative internal assessment instrument and to meet specified times.

Further guidance about collecting and submitting evidence for the Applied quality assurance process is provided in the Applied QA submission information, accessed from the Syllabuses app in the QCAA Portal.

Schools are not required to remove teacher comments and annotations on responses.

Reviewers will be directed to use the evidence in the student response and the school’s annotated instrument-specific standards/marking guide to make a decision for each sample.

Submission information for Applied quality assurance is available in the Resources tab of the Syllabuses app in the QCAA Portal. Schools should consider the Applied QA submission information when collecting, storing and submitting evidence for Applied quality assurance.

As part of the school’s internal quality assurance processes, back-up strategies for the collection, storage and submission of evidence for Applied quality assurance should be considered.

Schools must submit the required evidence via the Applied QA app in the QCAA Portal by the date identified in the SEP calendar. Typically, submissions will be due in the weeks prior to the end of Term 2 to prepare for review meetings in early Term 3.

For Applied subjects, schools are required to submit:

• two summative internal assessment instruments developed by the school for one of the selected topics for Unit 3
• two marked samples of student responses for each of the submitted assessment instruments (four responses in total). Where possible, the samples selected should represent a high and mid-range response (e.g. an A and C standard response)
• annotated instrument-specific standards that demonstrate how the judgment was made for each submitted response.

For Applied (Essential) subjects, schools are required to submit:

• the endorsed IA1 and common internal assessment (CIA) that was administered for Unit 3
• three marked samples of student responses for the endorsed IA1. Where possible, the samples selected should represent an A, C and D standard response
• three marked samples of student responses for the CIA. Where possible, the samples selected should represent an A, C and D standard response, and
• annotated instrument-specific standards/marking guides that demonstrate how the judgment was made for each submitted response.

Each school will compile a submission for one complete Unit 3 option for the purposes of the Applied quality assurance review meeting. The school should choose one option that was implemented in Unit 3 and provide the assessment instruments and associated sample responses for that option only.

Schools can only submit the requested sample responses.

Schools select the samples they provide for the Applied quality assurance review meeting and should avoid selecting a sample that required a comparable assessment instrument. Adjustments that do not require a comparable task (such as additional time or use of a scribe) are suitable for submitting as evidence of a school’s capacity to make judgments.

Responses for students who have been provided with access arrangements and reasonable adjustments (AARA) are marked using the same instrument-specific standards/marking guide as other students for the summative internal assessment instruments or CIA.

The feedback from Applied quality assurance is called Advice to schools. Schools access their Advice to schools from the Applied QA app.

The Advice to schools includes:

• feedback about the demonstration of the validity and accessibility attributes for the assessment instruments (not for Essential English and Essential Mathematics — the IA1 is endorsed through the endorsement process and the CIA is written by QCAA)
• feedback about the reliability of the school’s match of judgments to the instrument-specific standards/marking guide
• comments pertaining to the application of QCAA policies or with accessing the submission, if applicable.

Schools can access their Advice to schools through the Applied QA app. They should consider the advice for the development of the remaining assessment for the current cohort and strengthening assessment practices for future cohorts. Schools should also consider how advice about judgments for the sampled students is applicable to other students in the cohort, before student results are entered in the Student Management app, prior to exit.

Schools should reflect on the advice as part of their ongoing internal quality management processes, including any feedback about the school’s application of QCE and QCIA policies and procedures.