Our ref: ER0208; 2016/39978v4
To the Principal and EST Coordinator
All Secondary Schools
Dear Colleague
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your staff for the work that has been
undertaken in implementing the Externally Set Tasks (ESTs) this year. This piece of work is
one of the final elements to be implemented in terms of the reforms which have seen the
introduction of WACE 2015–16.
The ESTs are a very important component of the reform that contribute to developing a
shared and common understanding of the content and standards of Year 12 General and
Foundation courses.
We have spent time reviewing processes undertaken by the Authority in relation to the
development of the ESTs, and for 2017, we will include an additional step with critical
reading of the tasks by teachers who have now taught Unit 3 General and Foundation
courses. This opportunity was not available to us in 2016 and should assist in clarification of
any design issues in future tasks.
On the basis of this year’s experience we have also determined that the marking keys would
provide greater clarity for teachers if they have been ratified using the process we use for
ATAR course examinations. To this end, we will be investigating how we can implement a
marking key ratification process prior to the distribution of the marking keys for use by
schools in 2017.
We have identified a number of courses where we believe teachers would benefit from the
opportunity of working together to examine the content and standards of Units 3 and 4 in
seminars or workshops. We are exploring opportunities to work with professional
associations and school systems/sector to provide these opportunities. Late in Term 4, we
are planning to offer seminars at the Authority for a small number of courses and will also
provide these as webinars to support teachers in rural and remote locations.
We have reviewed feedback from Principals and Deputy Principals on the 2016 process and
considered what could be improved in 2017 and beyond. In some schools with large
numbers of General and Foundation classes the process of scanning student scripts has
proved challenging. To this end, in 2017, schools will not be required to scan any scripts that
are selected for reviewer marking. Schools will be asked to collect the selected scripts and
forward them to the Authority and we will organise the scanning.
As you would be aware, the process this year required schools to mark the ESTs using the
marking key supplied, to submit marks for all students who completed each EST and then to
submit selected scripts for reviewer marking. The submitted scripts were reviewed by a
teacher from a panel of reviewers. (In a few courses where the number of samples was very
small the Authority’s curriculum consultant reviewed the scripts.)
303 Sevenoaks St CANNINGTON WA 6107
PO Box 816 CANNINGTON 6987
Telephone (08) 9273 6300
[email protected] www.scsa.wa.edu.au
ABN:51367968690
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The reviewers examined a set of student scripts against the marking key and reached
common understandings of what marks should be allocated for each sample. Following this,
the reviewers marked the scripts they were allocated. Where the reviewer and the school
mark for the script were outside tolerance a second reviewer remarked the script. In this first
year, a tolerance of +/-15% was set. It is anticipated that over coming years as teachers
become more familiar with the courses, the tolerance could be reduced.
The following reports and documents can now be accessed either online
(www.scsa.wa.edu.au) and/or through SIRS.
Task and marking key (on the relevant course page on the Authority website)
 2016 EST
 Marking key for the 2016 EST (the marking keys that have been published online
include any corrections that were identified following the delivery of the original
marking key to schools and prior to the commencement of the reviewer marking).
Feedback accessible via SIRS reports
The process for locating EST reports in SIRS is attached.
For each course the school has access to the following SIRS reports:
EST010
A Scattergraph on which each school is shown by plotting the school
mean mark against the reviewer mean mark for the selected scripts.
A guide to reading the 2016 Externally Set Task Scattergraphs is
available as part of the EST010 report.
EST011
A list showing the school mark and the reviewer mark for each
selected script, the means of these marks and the difference between
the means.
EST013
A list of the mark submitted for each student and the reviewer mark
for selected scripts.
Student samples (logon to the extranet via www.scsa.wa.edu.au)
The extranet page for each course will contain two samples of student responses to
the EST with the final mark as determined through reviewer marking.
As a general comment in relation to the 2016 ESTs, the full range of marks was allocated in
most courses in most schools. In the majority of courses it is evident that they have been
taught as described in Unit 3 with a sound understanding of the pitch and standards
expected of the published syllabus content.
In some courses teachers may need to review the content of Unit 3 to confirm that the
content related to the EST was taught prior to the assessment and to ensure they have an
understanding of the expected pitch and standard. The pitch of the Unit 3 and 4 courses in
General courses has been raised above that of the former Stage 1 units as an element of
the WACE reform. This process of adjustment to the demands of the new courses may take
some time and the Authority will continue to focus moderation activities on the General
courses in the coming years.
The EST is a compulsory element of school-based assessment and is included as a
separate assessment type with a weighting of 15% for the pair of Year 12 units. Where
students have not performed as well in the EST as compared to other course work, schools
are to include the teacher marks and then consider each student’s overall performance over
the two units. Decisions about assigning grades are based on a professional judgement,
made by the teacher, of the student’s assessed work for the pair of units, reviewed against
the grade descriptions for that course. Decisions about where to set grade cut-offs against
marks should reflect this process and will typically vary between courses and between
schools. The allocation of grades is not determined on basis of the performance on one task.
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I trust that the reports and documents relating to the ESTs are useful and I thank you for
your continued support. If you have any enquiries in relation to the reports and documents,
please direct your questions to [email protected] and we will organise to get you
responses as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely
ALLAN BLAGAICH
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
16 August 2016
Att
Process for locating EST reports in SIRS
Logging on to SIRS
Click on the following URL to launch the Student Information Records System (SIRS):
https://sirs.scsa.wa.edu.au. The following screen will appear:
Click on [Launch]. The Login screen will appear as follows:
Enter your Username and Password.
Click on Login or press Enter on your keyboard.
The Welcome to SIRS screen will appear with the main horizontal menu bar at the top.
In the horizontal blue bar, place cursor over the Reports menu item.
Click Other Reports from the dropdown menu.
In Report Type field, select Externally Set Tasks
In the Report field, select the relevant report (i.e. EST010 – Mean School Mark vs Mean
SCSA Reviewer Mark Graph).
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Reports relating to EST marks which are available in SIRS
Schools are able to run a number of reports to review their students’ EST marks and how
these compared with the SCSA reviewer’s marks for the selected scripts. These reports
include:
EST010 - EST Mean School Mark vs Mean SCSA Reviewer Mark
This scatter graph compares for a course, the mean of the SCSA reviewer’s marks for
selected scripts against the mean of the school marks for the same scripts. The blue dot
refers to your school’s position on the graph.
The graph also shows other schools where:
 the school marks and reviewer marks are different by less than ± 15 percent
(identified as green dots)
 the school marks and reviewer marks are different by greater than ± 15 percent
(identified as red dots).
A solid line indicates the mean school mark equalling the mean SCSA reviewer mark. In
addition, the two dashed lines (on either side of the solid line) indicate the ± 15 percent
tolerance range.
Please refer to the last page of the report for details on how to interpret the graphs.
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EST011 - EST school mark v SCSA reviewer mark 2016
This table lists, for each course and class, the EST marks of the selected scripts and the SCSA
reviewer’s marks for the same scripts. The table also indicates where the:
 school mark and reviewer mark are different by less than ± 15 percent (gold)
 school mark and reviewer mark are different by greater than ± 15 percent (purple)
 script was not reviewed (no fill colour).
Also included are some summary statistics for each course and class as follows:
 mean of EST marks from school
 mean of EST marks from SCSA reviewer
 mean difference between the EST marks from school and SCSA reviewer
 number and percentage of scripts within tolerance (± 15 percent of the maximum
mark for the EST).
EST013 - EST Mark Comparison by Provider 2016
This report lists, according to course and within a class, the school mark and where selected,
the SCSA reviewer’s mark for the EST. The students are listed according to ascending school
mark order within a class. The maximum mark for the EST is also provided.
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