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Assessment

Assessment is the purposeful and systematic collection of information about students’ learning. In Religious Education, students are assessed against the Achievement Standards in the Good News for Living curriculum. These describe the expected achievement for students who have been taught the associated curriculum content for a particular year of schooling. Both formative and summative assessments provide evidence that enables judgments to be made about a student’s learning and informs reporting on student progress.

  • All assessment practices should be conducted in line with Catholic Education Tasmania (CET) Principles of Assessment (adopted from ACACA).
  • Teachers should collect evidence of student achievement as described by the Good News for Living Achievement Standards.
  • The five-point A–E scale (or an equivalent five-point scale) should be used only twice a year—on mid-year and end-of-year reports—and not on individual pieces of work throughout the year. Teachers should use both formative and summative assessment to inform these judgments.
  • The CET A–E matrix should be used by teachers when making decisions about student achievement.
  • Throughout the year, teachers should provide regular, quality feedback for students to assist their learning. This may be supported with an online system.
  • Assessment tasks should be designed in line with the Features of Quality Task Design.
  • Assessment should be supported by a system of intra-school and inter-school moderation.

Principles of Assessment 

  1. The main purpose of assessment should be to inform teaching and improve learning.
  2. Assessment should be underpinned by equity principles. It should take account of the diverse needs of students and diverse contexts of education.
  3. Assessment should be aligned with curriculum, pedagogy and reporting. Quality assessment should have curricular and instructional validity: what is taught should inform what is assessed, and what is assessed should inform what is reported.
  4. Assessment aligned with curriculum, pedagogy and reporting should include assessment of deep knowledge of core concepts within and across the disciplines, and assessment of skills in problem solving, collaboration, analysis, synthesis and critical thinking.
  5. Assessment should involve collecting evidence about expected learning as the basis for judgments about the achieved quality of that learning. Judgments of quality should be based on evidence, with reference to established standards.
  6. Assessment evidence may come from a range of assessment activities. Assessment activities should be selected because of their relevance to the knowledge, skills and understanding to be assessed, and to the purpose of the assessment.
  7. Information collected through assessment activities should be sufficient and suitable to enable defensible judgments to be made. To show the depth and breadth of student learning, evidence of learning should be compiled over time. Standards should be reviewed periodically and adjusted according to evidence to facilitate continuous improvement.
  8. Approaches to assessment should be consistent with and responsive to local jurisdictional policies, priorities and contexts. Schools should have the freedom and support to develop quality assessment practices and programs that suit their particular circumstances and those of the students they are assessing.

Principles of Reporting Student Achievement

Reporting should:

  • be an accurate, evidence-based representation of learning, teaching and assessment
  • communicate clear and relevant information on student learning, progress and achievement to students and parents
  • support and motivate student learning and indicate areas for further development
  • provide a formal record of the student’s progress and achievement
  • be inclusive and accessible to the intended audience
  • provide explicit reporting on learning disposition
  • protect the privacy of individuals
  • be consistent in format and transportable within the Catholic system in Tasmania
  • be efficient and manageable (in plain English)
  • meet the requirements for accountability