Welcome to QSA Focus
An email bulletin for Queensland teachers, QSA Focus shares relevant and timely information about key education issues and is distributed periodically to coincide with these issues.
With only one article per issue, QSA Focus provides detailed information and resources that we hope add value to your everyday work.
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Online videos help teachers to assign and check SAIs
Five short videos now on the QSA website provide information about Subject Achievement Indicators (SAIs) and demonstrate the BonSAI software program designed to make assigning and checking SAIs easier for teachers.
Professional development
At around five minutes each, the videos are a convenient professional development resource. These step-by-step guides are organised as follows:
- Video 1: SAIs – an overview.
- Video 2: Four steps to making SAI decisions.
- Video 3: Introduction to BonSAI.
- Video 4: Demonstration: using BonSAI to assign SAIs.
- Video 5: Demonstration: using BonSAI to check SAIs.
Assigning SAIs
SAIs are the primary data for calculating Overall Positions (OPs) for tertiary entrance. They indicate how well a student has achieved compared to all other students doing the same Authority subject at the student's school.
Teachers assign the top student an SAI of 400, and the least successful student an SAI of 200. Other students are assigned SAIs between 400 and 200, depending on their achievement.
Using BonSAI software
To help with the SAI process, the QSA developed BonSAI. All teachers responsible for assigning SAIs can benefit from using it.
BonSAI, meaning 'good SAI', can be downloaded free of charge from the QSA website and has several key features including:
- a drop and drag interface for placing students' names along a 400 to 200 scale
- automatic allocation of SAIs based on the amount of difference teachers place between students on the scale
- simple graphs and tables for checking the reasonableness of SAI distributions
- data for an example school so teachers can become familiar with the tools in BonSAI.
All data are saved in an internal database so changes can be stored and retrieved later. Distributions generated using BonSAI can be easily imported back into the Student Data Capture System.
The BonSAI user guide (PDF 741kB) contains comprehensive information about installing and using the program.
For more information about SAIs or BonSAI, please email: analysis.reporting@qsa.qld.edu.au