APPENDIX D STATISTICAL FINDINGS FROM SCHOOL SURVEY
1. Description of Sample and Respondents
APPENDIX D
• Most respondent schools (75%) were co-educational, with about 12% each of boys-only and girls-only.
• About 10% of responses were from Central schools and 5% each from Senior high schools and selective schools.
Table 2: School Characteristics
Respondents
No %
Location
1«5 A
Non-metropolitan town/city 102 23
Rural area 102 23
Year 11 and 12 enrolment
Less than 50 40 11
50-100 49 13
101-200 115 31
201-300 109 29
More than 300 64 17
Gender composition
Co-educational 329 75
Boys only 52 12
Girls only 59 13
Special Features
Senior High School 27 6
Central School 40 9
Selective School 18 4
2 Purposes of HSC Assessment Program
Respondents were presented with a list of possible purposes for the HSC Assessment Program and asked to rate:
(i) How important they consider each purpose to be;
(ii) How well the purpose was currently being met by the HSC Assessment Program in their school.
The results are shown in Table 3 (overleaf).
Table 3: Views on Purposes of HSC Assessment
Importance of Purpose
How well purpose is being met currently in your
school Very Quite Not
Important Important Important
Very Well
Quite
Well Not Well
% - % % % % %
. Provide students with feedback on
their current progress in the course 88 11 1 68 31 1 . Assess learning progressively over a
number of tasks rather than a single 87 12 1 68 29 3 exam
Provide feedback to teachers on
student progress 70 28 2 58 40 2
Give students the opportunity to demonstrate achievement in non- exam tasks
. 75 24 2 40 52 8
Measure syllabus outcomes that cannot be measured by the HSC external exam alone
71 29 1 26 66 8
Assist students achieve the course
outcomes 64 31 5 32 62 6
Provide information to be used in the case of illness or misadventure in the HSC exam.
60 36 5 64 33 3
Give students information on their relative position in the course in the school
51 42 7 70 28 2
Provide students with confidence
and motivation 44 49 7 19 71 10
Give students the time and
opportunity to undertake substantial projects
38 49 14 23 62 15
Provide students with practice for the
HSC examination 31 53 17 44 51 4
Provide a close correlation with
students' HSC exam results 9 43 48 17 76 7
The pattern of responses to these items is also summarised in Figure 1 (overleaf), which illustrates the mean ratings for importance and achievement of each of the purposes. The full scale of each axis in Figure 1 ranges from 1 to 3, where "1" would indicate that all respondents indicated that the item was not important-(on the vertical axis) or not well met (on the horizontal axis) and "3" would indicate that all respondents felt that the purpose was very important (on the
vertical axis) or very well met in their school (on the horizontal axis). Note that the axes in Figure tare truncated, with the lower values of each axis omitted to enable clearer delineation of items.
Figure 1: Relationship of Importance and Achievement of Purposes
3
t
Chance to achieve in non-exam tasks
•
• Measure range of syllabus outcomes
+ Assist to achieve course outcomes
Student feedback Multiple assessments
• Teacher feedback
Illness/ misadventure information
^ Provide confidence and motivation
+ Information on relative position
• Opportunity for substantial projects
• Exam practice
^ Correlation with exam results
2 2.5 3 How well being met
It can be seen from Table 3 and Figure 1 that:
• The HSC Assessment program is seen as serving a wide range of purposes. Five of the purposes in Table 3 were rated as "very important" or "important" by virtually all respondents, another four purposes as "very important" or "important" by over 90% and a further two purposes by about 85% of respondents.
• There was also general agreement that these purposes were being met to some extent in
most schools, although the proportion of respondents who saw them as being met "very
well" varied from 70% for some purposes to below 20% for others.
• Two purposes of the HSC Assessment program were seen as most important - to provide students with feedback on their current progress in the course and to assess learning progressively over a number of tasks rather than a single exam. These purposes were seen as very important by about 85% of respondents and important by virtually all of the remainder. About 70% of the respondents felt that these purposes were being met very well in their schools, with most of the remainder feeling that they were being met quite well.'
• Providing feedback to teachers on student progress was rated as a very important purpose by about 70% of respondents and important by most of the remainder. Virtually all of the respondents felt that the purpose of teacher feedback was being met very well (60%) or quite well (40%) in their schools.
• Giving students the opportunity to demonstrate achievement in non-exam tasks, measuring syllabus outcomes that cannot be measured by the HSC external-exam alone and assisting students to achieve course outcomes were also seen as relatively important purposes, with 65% - 75% of respondents seeing them as very important. Schools were generally seen as meeting these purposes fairly well, but generally to a lesser extent than for the "feedback" items mentioned in the preceding points. About 25% - 40% of respondents felt that these purposes were being achieved very well and about 50% - 65% quite well, while about 10% felt that they were not being met well in their schools.
• About 95% of respondents saw the provision of information to be used in case of illness/misadventure in the HSC exam and giving information to students about their . relative position in the course in the school as very important (50% - 60%) or important (35%> - 40%) purposes. Most respondents felt that these purposes were being met very well (65% - 70%) or quite well (30%) in their school,
• About 90% of respondents saw providing students with confidence and motivation as very important (45%) or important (50%). While most saw their school as achieving this purpose quite well (70%) and a further 20% as very well, about 10% felt that it was not being achieved well.
• About 85%) of respondents saw giving students the time and opportunity to.undertake substantial projects as either very important (40%) or important (50%). About 60% saw their school achieving this purpose quite well and a further 25% very well, while 15% felt that it was not being achieved well.
• About 80% of respondents saw the provision of exam practice for students as a very important (30%) or important (50%) purpose of the assessment program. Most felt that this purpose was being met quite well (50%) or very well (45%) at their school.
• The pattern of ratings for the final purpose was quite different from that for other purposes.
Only half of the respondents saw the provision of a close correlation with students HSC exam results as a very important (10%) or important (45%) purpose of the assessment program. Most (75%), however, saw this purpose being quite well met in their school, with a further15% seeing it as very well met.
3 School Assessment Programs 3.1 Number of Assessment Tasks
Respondents were asked to indicate the approximate number of assessment tasks used per 2 Unit course in each subject area in their school. The results are shown in Table 4 (overleaf).
Table 4: Number of Assessment Tasks (per 2 Unit course) in each Subject Area
English Maths Science HSIE Creative Arts
Techno-
logy LOTE PDHPE Number
of tasks
%of schools
% of schools
%of schools
%of schools
%of schools
%of schools
%.of schools
%of schools Less
than 4 2 4 2 1 3 2 4 • 3
4 9 24 18 9 10 12 18 13
5 23 40 31 42 26 33 26 " 39
5 36 21 33 32 32 33 26 33
7 12 7 9 7 11 10 11 7
8 12 3 ' 6 7 11 6 7 3
More
than 8 6 1 2 2 7 5 8 2
Average 6.14 5.19 5.52 5.65 6.05 5.80 5.99 5.49
It can be seen from Table 4 that:
• In each subject area, the majority of schools (generally about 55% - 65%) used 5 or 6 assessment tasks per 2 Unit course, with the average number of tasks ranging from 5.19 (Maths) to 6.14 (English).
• About 10% - 20% of schools used 4 tasks per course while fewer than 5% used fewer than 4 tasks.
• In English, Creative Arts, Technology and LOTE, about 20% - 25% of schools used 7 or 8 tasks and about 5% used more than 8 tasks. In the remaining four subject areas, the corresponding percentages were somewhat lower (10% - 15% and 2% respectively).
• There were typically more assessment tasks used in English and Creative Arts courses than for other subject areas. In these two areas, the average number of tasks exceeded 6 and about 30% of schools used 7 or more tasks.
• Maths generally had the least number of assessment tasks, with an average of 5.19 tasks per course and 70% of schools using 5 or fewer tasks.
• There was noticeably more variation in the number of assessment tasks used in LOTE courses than for other subject areas. While the average number of tasks was 5.99, about 25% of schools used 4 or fewer tasks while 25% used 7 or more tasks. .
• In the remaining subject areas (Science, HSIE, Technology, PDHPE), an average of about 5.5 tasks was used. In general, about 35% of schools used 5 tasks and about 35% used 6 tasks. About 10% - 2 0 % used fewer than 5 tasks and about 15% - 2 0 % used more than 6 tasks.
In addition to information on current school practice, the survey also sought respondents' views on the number of tasks that students should undertake. Opinions were split with regard to the
total number of tasks - while about 35% of respondents agreed (10% strongly) that it would be desirable to reduce the number of assessment tasks that the typical student 'is. currently required to complete, about 40% disagreed (10% strongly), while about 25% were neutral. On a related item, less than 5% of respondents felt that there were not enough assessment tasks in 1 Unit and 3 Unit course, with over 75% disagreeing.
3.2 Types of Tasks
Table 5 shows the proportion, of schools using various types of tasks in each subject area.
Table 5: Types of Tasks used in Each Subject Area
English Maths Science HSIE Creative Arts Technology LOTE PDHPE
%of schools
%of schools
%of schools
•%of schools
%of schools
%of schools
%0f schools
%of schools
Trial HSC Exam 98 99 99 98 97 97
97
98Yearly/Half-Yearly Exams
•
94
92 92
" I r f i ^ - i i i i •
90 92 92
Class Tests 46 36 57 64 57
Oral Tasks 97 5 9 65 35 19
jS^S 25. •
Listening Tasks 1 1' 6 25 1 # 8 4 # 2
Fieldwork 1 10 63 9 32 1 20
Workbook / Process Diary 17 4 17 21
fyfrYflir»«-iift
62" 4 16
Class Essays 4 11 52 27 27 48
Practical Work 3 21 92 17 5 61
Research Projects . 45 35 . 49
^^^8t^'
68 13 M MPresentations / performances : 48
J
3 11 30 68 24 19 36
Other 7 4 6 3 5
•
= 90%>+ of schools 5 5 6= 7 0 % - 9 0 %
•
= 50%) - 70%= 25% - 50%
•
= <25%83
It can be seen from Table 5 that:
• Trial HSC Exams were used by nearly every school in every subject area.
• Yearly or half-yearly exams were used by about 90% of schools for each subject area.
• Class tests were used in about 90% of schools in Maths, about 75% in Science and HSIE, about 60% in Technology, LOTE and PDHPE, about 45% in English and about 35% in Creative Arts.
• Oral tasks were used by abouf.95% of schools in English, 85% in LOTE, 65% in HSIE and about 30% in Creative Arts and PDHPE.
• Listening tasks were used in 80% - 85% of schools for English and LOTE.
• Fieldwork was used by about 65% - 70% of schools for Science and HSIE and about 30%
for Technology.
• Workbooks or process diaries were used by about 85% of schools in Creative Arts and about 60% in Technology.
• Class essays were used by about 85% of schools in English and HSIE and about 50% of schools in.Creative Arts and PDHPE.
• Practical-work was used in about 85% - 90% of schools in Science, Creative Arts and technology and about 60% in PDHPE!
• Research projects were used in 80% - 85% of schools in HSIE and Creative Arts, 70% - 75% in Technology and PDHPE, 45% - 50% in English and Science and 35% in Maths.
School responses indicated that research projects were, for the most part, generally undertaken outside class-time, although in about 40% of cases at least some projects were mainly completed within class-time.
• Presentations and performances were used in about 70% of schools in Creative Arts, about 50% in English and in about 30% - 35% in HSIE and PDHPE.
3.3 Weighting of Tasks
For each subject area, schools were asked to indicate the maximum and minimum weightings attached to individual assessment tasks; In most subject areas, the maximum weighting typically ranged, between 20% and 40%, with an average of about 30%. The exception was Mathematics, where the maximum was typically higher, ranging between 30% and 40% with an average of about 35%. Minimum weightings generally ranged between 5% and 15%, averaging about 10% for all subject areas.
Respondents were also asked for their views on the construction of weightings. Over 90% of respondents agreed (45% strongly) that assessment tasks and weightings in their school, are constructed to reflect the weightings given to the components in each HSC syllabus.
3.4 Scheduling of Tasks
A number of survey items dealt with the scheduling of assessment tasks in respondents' schools, with the following results:
• About 55% of respondents agreed (20% strongly) that there is a significant problem with ensuring that students are not over-burdened with multiple assessment tasks at a particular time, with 25% disagreeing and 15% neutral.
• About 90% of respondents agreed (50% strongly) that their school made efforts to co- ordinate assessment tasks to minimise instances of multiple tasks occurring together.
• About 65%) of schools designated "assessment-free" times, where assessment due dates cannot be placed.
• About 40% of schools designated blocks of time as "assessment periods" to enable tasks to be undertaken across courses.
• About 45% of respondents agreed (15% strongly) that there is a significant problem in Term 3 with HSC assessment tasks " coinciding with dates for other HSC tasks (performances, major works, etc) while 25% disagreed and 25% were neutral.
• About 40% of respondents agreed (10% strongly) that the closing date for submission of HSC Assessment marks to the Board is too early. About 30% disagreed with a further 30% neutral.
• In virtually all schools, HSC students were issued with an assessment calendar listing dates and tasks for each course.
3.5 Across-class Consistency
While about 35% of respondents agreed (10% strongly) that their school had difficulties in co- ordinating assessments for multiple classes in the same course, they were out-numbered by the 45% who disagreed (10% strongly) with 20% neutral.
Respondents were presented with a list of possible approaches that could be used to assist consistency when there is more than one class studying the same course and asked to indicate how often they were used in their school, with the following results:
• About 95% used common assessment tasks "often".
•_About 85%o often used marking done by the same teacher(s) for the multiple classes, with most of the remainder using this approach "sometimes".
• About 80% used common marking scales often, with a further 10% using them sometimes.
• Double marking was used often in about 15% of schools, sometimes in 45%, rarely in 30%
and never in 10%.
• Marking- being done by different teachers who then discuss marks to ensure consistency occurred often in about 15% of schools, sometimes in 40%, rarely in 30% and never in 20%.
4 Completion of T a s k s by Students
4.1 Problems.
Respondents were presented with a list of issues relating to student completion of assessment tasks and asked to rate to what extent each issue had been a problem at their school. Results are shown in Table 6.
Table 6: Extent of Problems in Completion of Assessment Tasks by Students '
Major Problem
%
Minor Problem
%
Not a Problem
% Students giving insufficient attention to tasks which
are not part of the HSC Assessment program 51 44 6 Difficulties in preparing alternative tasks for students
absent from assessment tasks 25 59 17
Student absenteeism prior to assessment tasks 17 70 14
"Suspect" use of Doctor's Certificates to account for
student absences from, or prior to, assessment tasks 16 52 33 Inequity in student access to resources to complete
assessment tasks 10 57 33
Authenticity of assessment tasks undertaken by students outside the classroom (ie is it the student's own work?)
5 68 27
It can be seen from Table 6 that each of the issues had been a problem in the majority of schools, but that they were generally seen as minor rather than major.problems. The exception was students giving insufficient attention to tasks which are not part of the HSC Assessment program, which was a major problem in about 50% df schools and a minor problem in most of the remainder. Issues associated with student absenteeism (ie preparation of alternative tasks, absences prior to assessment tasks, "suspect" use of Doctor's Certificates) were a major problem in about 15% - 25% of schools and a minor problem in about 50% - 70%-. Inequity in student access to resources was a major problem in 10% of schools and a minor problem in about 55%, while authenticity of student work was a major problem in 5% and a minor problem in about 70%.
4.2 School Approaches to Student Completion of Tasks
Respondents were presented with a list of approaches relating .to student completion of
assessment tasks and asked to indicate how often each approach had been used at their
school. These approaches fell into two areas: those concerned with authentication of student
work and those concerned with student absences from assessment tasks.
With regard to authentication, the most frequently used approach was the requirement that while research and preparation for projects may be done outside class-time, the final assessable piece of work was done within the class. This approach was used often in about 30% of schools and sometimes in a further 55%. This is consistent with the finding in Section 3.2 that research projects of this type were used in many schools, although significantly less commonly than projects which were largely done outside the classroom. Monitoring of student- tasks undertaken outside class-time by the use of progress diaries or reports was used often by 20% of schools and sometimes by a further 50%. As discussed in Section 3.2, this approach was used most commonly in Creative Arts and Technology subjects,- but was also used in most other subject areas (with the exception of Maths and LOTE) by about 15% - 20% of schools.- The final approach, verification slips to be signed by students for projects done outside class- time, was used often in about 10% of schools and sometimes by a further 20%, but in the majority of schools it was used rarely (35%) or never (35%).
With regard to student absenteeism, the majority of respondents reported the use of strict policies relating to the absence of students prior to assessment tasks. However, while these policies were used often in 45% of schools and sometimes by a further 20%, there were 35% of schools where they were used rarely (20%) or never (15%). The setting of alternative tasks for students who are absent from assessment tasks was used often by about 25% of schools and sometimes by a further 60%, while the use of estimated marks for absent students was less common, being used often by 10%, sometimes by 40%, rarely by 45% and never by 10%.
5 Effects of HSC Assessment on Students and Staff
Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements regarding the effects of the HSC assessment program on students and staff at their school. The results are shown in Table 7.
Table 7: Effects of HSC Assessment on Students and Staff
Strongly Agree
%
Agree
%
Neutral
%
Disagree
%
Strongly Disagree
% Students are inappropriately focused on
their HSC Assessments to the detriment of their wider learning.
22 45 17 15 1
The introduction of the HSC Assessment program has led to an overall decrease in the level of student stress.
1 8 16 53 22
Teachers make particular efforts to reduce the level of pressure placed on students from HSC Assessment tasks.
6 54 25 14 1
HSC Assessments have an unhealthy effect on relations between students due to competitiveness and unwillingness to assist one another.
6 19 24 45 7
Students are increasingly likely to seek 18 56 14 12 0
i
Strongly
Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
% % % % %
justification from teachers for their marks in HSC Assessment tasks.
There are increasing workload and other pressures on teachers as a result of the HSC Assessment program
36 43 11 10 1
It can be seen from Table 7 that:
• About 65% of respondents agreed (20% strongly) that students are inappropriately focused on their HSC assessments to the detriment of their wider learning. This is consistent with the findings in Section 4.1 that 50% of schools reported a major problem in students giving insufficient attention to tasks which are not part of the HSC Assessment program.
• Only 10% of respondents felt that the introduction of the HSC Assessment program had decreased student stress, with about 75% disagreeing (20% strongly).
• About 60%> bf respondents agreed (5% strongly) that teachers make particular efforts to reduce the level of pressure placed on students from HSC assessment tasks.
• About 25% of respondents agreed (5% strongly) that HSC assessments have an unhealthy effect on relations between students due to competitiveness and an unwillingness to assist one another. About 50% of respondents disagreed with this statement (5% strongly).
• About 75% of respondents agreed (20% strongly) that students are increasingly likely to seek justification from teachers for their marks in HSC assessment tasks.
• About 80% of respondents agreed (35% strongly) that there are increasing workload and other pressures on teachers as a result of the HSC Assessment program.
6 Moderation and Reporting
Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements regarding moderation and reporting as they applied to their school. The results are shown in Table 8..
Table 8: Moderation and Reporting Strongly
Agree
%
Agree
%
Neutral
%
Disagree
%
Strongly Disagree
% Moderation of marks is necessary to
ensure that Assessment marks from different schools can be compared fairly.
57 32 7 3 .1
There is concern at the use of the 5 22 34 31 7