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10.5 Preparing for external assessments

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Schools are responsible for communicating the Directions for students: External assessment to students. They are provided by the QCAA in Semester 1.

10.5.1 Academic integrity in external assessments

The QCAA publishes directions and procedures in the QCAA Portal each year to help schools prepare for external assessment. The DFA allows schools to administer the assessments using a consistent approach across the state and ensuring student responses are their own. For information about academic integrity, see Section 8.1: Understanding academic integrity.

The academic responsibilities inherent in assessment administration should be approached by all parties in an honest, moral and ethical way. The following table sets out specific responsibilities of schools, EA coordinators, teachers and students.

Table: Academic integrity responsibilities

Academic integrity in external assessments: Responsibilities

Schools

  • communicate directions and procedures for external assessment to their school community, including teachers, students and parents/carers
  • maintain the security of external assessment materials
  • provide supervision and conditions that comply with the external assessment schedule and procedures

EA coordinators

  • ensure that all external assessment directions and procedures are shared with, and adhered to by, teachers and students
  • manage the supervision of external assessment

Teachers

  • comply with directions and procedures when supervising the external assessment
  • tell students that the EA coordinator will be advised of any incident of suspected academic misconduct
  • report incidents of suspected academic misconduct to the EA coordinator

Students

  • read and comply with the directions and information provided by the school and the QCAA
  • understand the importance of academic integrity when completing external assessment and what constitutes academic misconduct (see Section 8.1: Understanding academic integrity)
  • understand that breaching any of the external assessment directions and procedures is a form of academic misconduct

10.5.2 Preparing for an external assessment session

The following table sets out information about the main responsibilities in preparing for an external assessment session.

Main responsibilities of preparing for external assessment

Main responsibilities in preparing for the external assessment session

Policy and procedures

Assessment materials — delivery

If assessment materials are not delivered to the school by the due date (communicated to schools via the QCAA Portal), the EA coordinator must contact the QCAA.

Assessment materials — movement and storage

Collection and security of external assessment materials are the responsibility of the principal. Security breaches must be reported to the QCAA immediately.

Allocation of supervisors

Senior secondary teachers are ineligible to supervise an external assessment for any subject they are teaching that year. The EA coordinator allocates suitable staff to supervise at a 1:25 supervision ratio (not including QCAA-appointed invigilators/observers; see Section 10.1: External assessment roles and responsibilities).

AARA

The EA coordinator gathers information about principal-reported and QCAA-approved AARA to ensure that students are provided with the required AARA, such as appropriate materials, supervision, rooms and equipment.

Technology

Guidelines for the use of technology will be provided for each external assessment. There are exceptions for approved AARA (see Section 6: Access arrangements and reasonable adjustments (AARA), including illness and misadventure).


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