Year 12 A Summary of OP Calculations, QCS, QCCA, QCE, OP & QTAC and all other acronyms!

End of Year 12 Senior Statement Q’ld Certificate of Education (QCE) Tertiary Entrance Statement VET accreditation School Reference (from Emmaus)

Senior Statement Issued by the Queensland Studies Authority (“Authority”). All students who complete Year 12 receive this certificate.

Senior Statement Authority Subjects and Authority Registered Subjects -Number of semesters studied -Level of Achievement (VHA, HA,..) Voc Ed modules QCS result (A-E) (Recorded subjects (AMEB, etc))

Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) Certificate that is awarded to students who achieve 20 credit points – Sound achievement or above in at least three subjects studied through year 11 and 12 Meet literacy and numeracy requirements

Tertiary Entrance Statement Overall Position 1 – 25 -------------------- Field Positions (FP) 1 – 10 Up to 5 FPs -------------------- Field A Field B Field C Field D Field E

Field Positions A : Extended written expression B : Short written communication C : Basic numeracy D : Solving complex problems E : Substantial practical performance (physical, creative, expressive)

What is an OP? OP stands for overall position A number taken from a rank order of eligible Yr 12 students in Queensland (based on their achievement in Authority subjects) Tertiary institutions use OP in selecting students The most favourable OP is 1 and the least favourable is 25

To get an OP Study at least 20 semester units of Authority subjects (usually 5 subjects for 4 semesters) At least 3 subjects for all 4 semesters Do the QCS test

QCS Test 2 days (Tue, 4 Sept, Wed 5 Sept) All Queensland OP eligible students 4 papers: Writing Task (WT) Multi Choice Questions 1 (MCQ1) Short Response Items (SRI) Multi Choice Questions II (MCQII) 7 hours of testing over 2 days

Format of QCS Test Tuesday am WT (2 hrs) pm MCQ I (90 mins) Wednesday am SRI (2 hrs) pm MCQ II (90 mins)

Why have the QCS Test? The purpose of the QCS Test is: (1) To compare subject group with subject group within the school (2) To compare school group with school group across state

What QCS Test measures Measure of the skills acquired in 12 years of schooling regardless of subjects studied Common Curriculum Elements (CCE)

Why preparation? Test wise! Familiarity with phrases: Key terms, CCE, stem & cue, star value. How to plan your time Methods of approach Comfortable!

How is OP for an individual calculated? Individual contribution AND Group contribution Pdf file: calopfps.pdf

Individual contribution Subject Achievement Indicators (SAI) What is an SAI: shows one student’s achievement in relation to the achievement of other students in that subject in that school SAI’s range from 400 (highest performing student) to 200 (lowest performing student) This range of numbers is used to compare the achievement of students in the subject group

Subject Achievement Indicators (SAI) Each student will have an SAI for each Authority subject The school’s ranking of students for each subject - (1) in order (2) with correct relative gaps SAI’s are published and students are encouraged to check these

Group contribution The purpose of the QCS Test is to: (1) To compare subject group with subject group within the school (2) To compare school group with school group across state

Scaled SAIs Purpose: Within a school, to compare results in one subject with results in other subjects Need standard baseline of comparison What’s used- QCS subject group results: Mean and Measure of spread

Scaled SAIs In the within-school stage of scaling, the average and spread of the subject-group SAI’s are re-set (scaled) to the group’s average and spread of performance on the QCS test The relative order and gaps are retained – only the scale has changed Different processes used for small subject groups

Overall Achievement Indicator OAI To produce a single rank order of students with the school, an Overall Achievement Indicator (OAI) is calculated – regardless of what subjects studies This is the average result across each student’s ‘best five subjects’ (best – best scaled SAI’s; five subjects – 20 semester units of credit)

Example calculation for Sandra (p.1) Subject Level of Achievement SAI Scaled SAI English HA 342 206 Mod Hist VHA 385 248 Japanese LA 221 145 Economics SA 314 183 Graphics 263 172 Drama 240 131

Example calculation for Sandra (p.2) Scaled SAI 206 English 248 Mod Hist 145 Japanese 183 Economics 172 Graphics 131 Drama Calculate OAI Mod Hist 248 * 4 Eng 206 * 4 Eco 183 * 4 Graph 172 * 4 Jap 145 * 4 -------------------- Total 3816 OAI = 3816/20 = 190.8

First stage of scaling – produced a single rank order with each school given by each student’s OAI Second stage of scaling – allows these rank orders to be compared across all schools The average and spread of OAI’s for each school are reset (scaled) to the average and spread of QCS test score for all students in that school

Example calculation for Sandra (p.3) Statewide Scaled OAIs Sandra’s School OAIs Top scaled OAI in Sandra’s school 190.8 mean Sandra’s scaled OAI Bottom scaled OAI in Sandra’s school

Scaled OAI’s provide a single rank order for the whole state. These scaled OAI’s compare each student with all other students in the state regardless of their combination of subjects and regardless of the school attended.

OP Slice Up Approximate distribution of students across OP bands Band 1 - about 2% of students Bands 2 to 6 - about 19% of students Bands 7 to 21 - about 73% of students Bands 22 to 24 - about 5% of students Band 25 - about 1% of students

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