Years 11 and 12 | Assessment Task Review

Assessment Task Review

The purpose of the Assessment Task Review (ATR) is to support teachers to develop assessment tasks and marking keys to reflect course requirements and standards, provide for comparability of assessment between schools and promote the principles of assessment.

The ATR operates with other moderation activities to provide a broader picture of assessment practices in a course and at a school for a particular course.

In the ATR process, the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) reviews the school’s assessment tasks and marking keys of a specified number of assessment types for selected senior school courses. A letter regarding the ATR process and procedures (including the courses and the nominated assessment types) will be emailed to the principals of schools with courses involved in March 2025.

In any given year, for a selection of ATAR, General and/or Foundation courses, schools may be required to submit one assessment task and its marking key for two nominated assessment types to the Authority for review. These documents and the criteria on which the Assessment Task Review is based are described below.

View All Assessment task

Each assessment task will be reviewed using the following criteria.

Evidence from the task	Action/s
The task is consistent with the assessment type description in the assessment table in the syllabus	no action required revise the assessment task to reflect the description provided for this assessment type in the assessment table in the syllabus
The task assesses only content from the current syllabus	no action required revise the assessment task to ensure only content from the current syllabus is assessed
The task provides opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of achievement	no action required revise the assessment task to allow students to demonstrate achievement at a higher level revise the assessment task to allow students to demonstrate achievement at a lower level
The time allocation for the task is appropriate	no action required time allocation for the task is not shown increase time allocation for completion of the task, or reduce the number of questions/requirements reduce time allocation for completion of the task, or include additional questions/requirements
The weighting for the task is appropriate	no action required weighting for the task is not shown decrease the weighting of the task increase the weighting of the task
The instructions are clear, including time allocation and assessment conditions	no action required provide clear instructions for completion of the task provide clear information on the time allocation provide clear information on assessment conditions
The mark allocation for each question and/or component of the task is clearly shown	no action required show mark allocations for each question or component of the task

Marking key

Each marking key will be reviewed using the following criteria.

Evidence from the marking key	Action/s
Performance criteria have been clearly identified and descriptions of each criterion are appropriate	no action required identify the performance criteria and associated performance categories to be used provide an appropriate description for each criterion
The number and nature of categories between ‘the best’ performance and ‘the weakest’ performance on each criterion is identified	not applicable no action required identify the number and nature of categories between ‘the best’ performance and ‘the weakest’ performance on each criterion
The response/s in the marking key are consistent with what the question asks	no action required revise the response to ensure it answers the question or revise the question so that it reflects the response
Allocation of marks allows for discrimination between different levels of response	not applicable no action required review the allocation of marks to questions to better allow discrimination between responses
The marking key makes clear how marks are allocated	no action required allocate marks to each criterion revise the marking key to increase the clarity of the mark allocation
Model responses exemplify ‘the best’ performance that students may demonstrate in the task	not applicable no action required ensure model responses exemplify ‘the best’ performance that students may demonstrate in the task
Model responses utilise appropriate subject-specific language	not applicable no action required use the appropriate subject-specific language for model responses

Schools are advised, through the 7 to 12 Circular, of courses that will be involved in the Assessment Task Review in that particular year in the correspondence titled, ‘Information to schools’.

For enquiries relating to the Assessment Task Review, please email moderation@scsa.wa.edu.au or contact Nick Ognenis, Manager Curriculum and Assessment on 9273 6354.