QCATs 2008 extended trial: Report to teachers
The Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) today released the Queensland Comparable Assessment Tasks (QCATs) 2008 extended trial: Report to teachers on the QSA website.
QCATs were first trialled in Queensland in 2006 in Years 4 and 9 English and Mathematics. The trial was extended to include Years 4, 6 and 9 Science in 2007, and further extended in 2008. In total, over 1300 schools were involved in the extended trial.
The primary value of the information provided by the QCATs is at the school level, where teachers analyse individual and class responses to improve teaching and learning.
A key purpose of the 2008 trial was to refine the range of QCAT products and processes in all three Years and KLAs, before implementation in 2009.
The 2008 extended trial provided the QSA with a set of key learnings organised around:
- student achievement
- consistency of teacher judgment
- teacher feedback on QCATs.
The 2008 extended trial provided teachers with the opportunity to build their assessment capacity and further develop the required professional skills for making consistent judgments.
The significance of the trial was three-fold. It provided:
- detailed information to schools about students' knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to specific tasks
- understanding of the refinements required for implementation of the QCATs in 2009
- awareness of the moderation processes that support consistency of teacher judgments, and the practical experience of these gained by large numbers of Queensland Years 1 to 9 teachers.