03/12/2012

Currently, an internal review of the QSA is being conducted. The Premier’s office is holding requests from the Education Minister to begin parliamentary inquiries into both (i) the OP Scoring system and (ii) Senior Assessment of Maths, Chemistry and Physics. Please do write a letter and ask that the Senior Assessment inquiry be begun urgently (due to extreme student and teacher drop-out) by the Parliamentary Education and Innovation Committee.

(The Premier, PO Box 15185, City East, Q 4002).

Please do ask for terms of reference to include:

* Input from university discipline expert and relevant professionals, e.g., psychologists and engineers;

* uptake and completion rates of these subjects relative to others over last decade;

* effects of assessment methods on students, parents and teachers regarding workload and fairness;

* validity and reliability and thus accountability and comparison with other jurisdictions and their outcomes.

Once the inquiries get started, we can point out the demonstrable assessment faults of these cut-and-dried subjects so that improved assessment of others subjects can follow suit too.