ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies Annual Report 2016-17

Section A: Transmittal Certificate

BSSS Signed Transmittal Certificate (121 kb)

Section B: Performance Reporting

B.1 Organisational Overview

The Board of Senior Secondary Studies (the Board) was established in 1991 and the Board of Senior Secondary Studies Act 1997 (the BSSS Act) was enacted in January 1998.

The key functions of the Board are to:

• provide students with ACT Senior Secondary Certificates, Tertiary Entrance Statements and vocational certificates
• maintain the credibility and acceptance of courses through a regular accreditation program
• monitor and support the validity of assessment in years 11 and 12
• improve the comparability of standards across ACT and overseas schools through moderation procedures
• gain the widest possible recognition for the credentials awarded by the Board
• service the information needs of the community.

The Board is committed to:

• a general education of high standards providing equal opportunity for all students to the end of year 12
• choice of courses for students supported by expert advice
• senior secondary college responsibility for course development
• senior secondary college responsibility for the assessment of its students
• shared responsibility for education
• open access to information.

Twenty five ACT colleges and seven schools located in Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and China are delivering courses certificated by the Board. These schools are listed in Appendix B. Students from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart International School, Kavieng, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea received ACT Senior Secondary Certificates for the first time in December 2016. Students from the Australian Curriculum Centre, Shanghai, China will receive ACT Senior Secondary Certificates for the first time in December 2017.

The Board’s goal is to provide a high quality curriculum, assessment and certification system that supports:

• all young adults to achieve an ACT Senior Secondary Certificate or equivalent vocational qualification
• high levels of achievement in literacy and numeracy
• improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged students
• effective transitions from school to post-school pathways.

In 2016 the Board developed a new strategic plan to guide its activities for the period 2017-2021.

The plan differs from previous plans in three major respects. Firstly, the aims of the new plan are strategic in nature as opposed to previous plans which have been mainly operational. Secondly, the plan is the first BSSS strategic plan to be made available to the wider community in a publication format on the BSSS web site and on social media. Finally, the plan will run over five years rather than three as has been the case with previous plans. This allows for longer term strategic objectives to be addressed.

The key focus areas of the plan are:

• Community engagement – Working collaboratively with community groups to identify, address or discuss issues that impact the well-being of students
• Tertiary partnerships – establishing collaborative partnerships with the Australian tertiary sector who share common goals, knowledge and resources
• Digital assessment – innovating in the adoption of the methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure and document academic readiness, learning progress and skill acquisition of students
• Quality assurance – maintaining a desired level of quality in all programs, products and services delivered by the BSSS
• Global education – integrating multiple dimensions, perspectives and citizenships into the BSSS senior secondary system
• Sustainability – Bringing an entrepreneurial mindset to governance, programs and financial planning to ensure long term relevance, sustainability and economic viability.

During 2016-17, the Board commenced full implementation of the senior secondary Australian Curriculum following a two year trial period. Australian Curriculum courses in English, English as a Second Language, Mathematics, Science, History and Geography are now available to students in the senior secondary sector. The ACT is one of three jurisdictions to have commenced delivery of year 11-12 courses embedding the Australian Curriculum. The others are South Australia and Western Australia.

The upgrading of the course moderation database within the BSSS certification database gained funding in the ACT Government Budget 2016–17. Work commenced on this project in October 2016 and is scheduled for completion by July 2017. The project has three phases – Pre moderation, Moderation day and Post moderation. The first two phases were released in 2017. The upgrade will enable the Office of the Board and colleges to analyse longitudinal data on the quality assurance of grades in units delivered by each college. The entry of data from course reviewers on Moderation day itself will be digital rather than hand written.

In July 2016, the Office of the Board was Highly Commended in the Innovation category of the ACT Public Service Awards for Excellence for, their commitment to innovation in improving the quality of the ACT Senior Secondary Studies curriculum.

This recognition of the work of the small team at the Office of the Board was well deserved.

The Australian Curriculum Centre, based at Shanghai Paddington Bilingual School, commenced operation in February 2017 after gaining Board approval in December 2016. The current cohort is small but has the potential to grow significantly over the coming years.

The Board granted provisional registration, as a specialist education provider, to the Canberra Academy of Languages in December 2016. The academy commenced operation in 2017 with a small number of students. The academy provides an option for students to study a language which is not offered by their home college. The principal has been investigating the possibility of developing an Aboriginal Language and Culture course in consultation with the Office of the Board and the local indigenous community.

In August 2014, the Review of Certification committee recommended to the Board that the Assessment and Certification Committee (ACC) explore online, adaptive literacy and numeracy testing developed with a view to:

• implementing online, adaptive literacy and numeracy testing in the ACT for years 10 to 12
• deciding on how and to what extent students’ literacy and numeracy attainment could be reported on the ACT Senior Secondary Certificate
• determining how students who do not meet the requisite level of literacy/numeracy can gain the necessary support to do so.

The Board approved the recommendation and the investigation is ongoing. Negotiations were held throughout 2015 with the West Australian School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) resulting in two ACT trials of the SCSA’s Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (OLNA) tool. In November 2015, year 10 students from four schools across the three sectors participated in the OLNA Reading, Numeracy and Writing tasks. The trial provided valuable information to the schools and to the students on Literacy and Numeracy standards including detailed diagnostics on those students who fell below the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) level 3 in literacy and/or numeracy. The trial also provided an indication of the technological capabilities of the individual schools in relation to online testing.

In 2016, a more extensive trial was conducted with year 10 and year 11 students across eleven schools sitting the Reading and Numeracy components of the OLNA. This extended trial provided insights into the issues associated with rolling out the test on a larger scale and once again gave the schools valuable data on students’ Literacy and Numeracy levels.

In the Strategic Plan 2017–2021, the Board has now made commitment to introduce online literacy and numeracy testing by 2020. The Board is exploring a number of the options for the delivery of this test.

Processing of year 12 results occurred on schedule and certificates were issued to ACT colleges on Tuesday 13 December 2016 for distribution to students. Over 9,900 certificates were produced by the Board for students in year 12 and over 1,300 vocational qualifications were issued for students in year 10.

Key focus areas over the next year will be based on the Board’s latest Strategic Plan.

Internal Accountability

Board Membership

The BSSS Act (s8) creates a board with a broad membership of 15 from the many stakeholders in senior secondary education. Members, other than the Director-General of the Education Directorate, are appointed by the Minister for Education for a period of up to three years. Members can be reappointed if they are eligible. Five new members were appointed to the Board and two members were reappointed in 2016.

Nominees from the following two organisations will be submitted to the Minister for appointment:

• ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations Inc nominee appointed from 2016-2019 resigned in February 2017; and
• the ACT branch of the Australian Education Union nominee appointed from 2015-2017 resigned in December 2016.

Table BSSS 1: Board Membership as at 1 July 2016

The Board has six scheduled meetings each calendar year. The Board met on three occasions from July-December 2016.

Table BSSS 2: Board Membership as at 30 June 2017

The above Board has met on three occasions from January to June 2017.

Remuneration for Board members

The Chair is the only member eligible to receive remuneration, at a rate determined by the ACT Remuneration Tribunal.

Risk Assessment and Management

The Board operates under an MOU with the Education Directorate. The Office of the Board is a section within the Directorate. The Office of the Board provides support to the Board on policy, procedures and innovations. Under the MOU the Directorate includes the Office of the Board and its activities within its Risk Assessment and Management Framework and consults with the Board Chair as appropriate. The Office of the Board monitors areas of significant risk including data systems and end of year processing of senior secondary and vocational certificates.

Ethical Standards

Prior to appointment, Board members are provided with the Bowen Code of Conduct as a guide to ethical behaviour. Members sign a declaration that they have read and agree to observe the principles of the code, and agree to disclose all conflicts of interest that arise during their term on the Board. The Board meeting agenda has declaration of conflicts of interests as a standing item. ACT public servants on the Board are also bound by the ACT Public Sector Management Act 1994.

Resources Available

Board members have access to staff at the Board Secretariat if they require assistance or advice to carry out their duties.

Standing Committees

The Board appoints committees and panels to provide advice on specific matters. The main standing committees and their roles are listed below; membership is for 2016 and 2017.

Table BSSS 3: Board Standing Committees and Their Roles

Table BSSS 4: Board Sub-Committees that Operated in 2016

Table BSSS 5: Board Sub-Committees that Operated in 2017

Table BSSS 6: Accreditation Panels 2016-17

Board Secretariat

The Board Secretariat is managed by the Director of the Board and consists of 10 other staff; six teachers and four administrative officers, all employed through the Directorate. The Director reports to the Board on its legislated functions and to the Directorate on ministerial, financial, audit, human resource and other corporate functions.

B.2 Performance Analysis

An Informed and Effective Response to International, National and Local Initiatives

The Board has continued to provide and facilitate ACT feedback on national curriculum and reporting initiatives through formal responses, teacher participation in curriculum development and surveys, consultation and membership of national working parties. The Board has made contributions to the Consultation on the Transparency of Higher Education Admissions Processes, the Review of VET in Public Colleges, the Review of the Interstate Transfer Index (ITI), the Review of the NSW/ACT meshing processes for the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), the national International Baccalaureate/ATAR conversion process and the Australasian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authorities’ (ACACA’s) application for research funding to investigate the benefits of VET to students after they complete secondary education.

In 2015, the Office of the Board (OBSSS) assumed responsibility for the leadership for ACACA when the Director was appointed as the Chair of ACACA and the Technical Advisor assumed responsibility for secretariat services to ACACA. ACACA is a high level forum composed of the Chief Executives of Australian and New Zealand Boards of Studies, the Chief Executive of ACARA and a representative from the Commonwealth Department of Education.

The Office of the Board has continued in this role throughout 2016 and 2017.

A High Quality, High Equity Curriculum, Assessment and Certification System that Caters for All Students

In 2016-17, frameworks in Philosophy, Health, Outdoor & Physical Education and Industry & Services have been endorsed by the Board. Twenty courses were approved for delivery to year 11-12 students from 2016 and six teams are currently developing courses for implementation from 2018. These courses are reviewed by expert panels of teachers, representatives from tertiary institutions, industry and the community, who provide advice on accreditation to the Board. A list of the panels that met to consider courses in 2016-17 is included.

In 2016-17, the Office of the Board of Senior Secondary Studies (OBSSS) Curriculum section implemented new design specifications for development of courses in order to maintain high quality courses and system coherence. Senior secondary design specifications for courses mandate four units (of 55 hours each), a negotiated study unit, content descriptions and year 11 and 12 Achievement Standards.

The new design specifications for senior secondary courses are located in current educational research on curriculum design. Content descriptions convey knowledge, understandings and skills in a discipline. Teachers write programs of learning informed by content descriptions. Programs of learning specify learning activities including selected texts and case studies.

The new design specifications for senior secondary courses compliment school improvement initiatives. Content descriptions provide teachers with cues for quality pedagogy. They provide flexibility enabling teachers to determine how best to plan for and teach students according to their needs and interests.

In 2016-17, new Registered (R) Units were implemented in order to create consistency of quality and improve how they are reported on the ACT Senior Secondary academic transcript. R Units enable students to receive credit for the time they are engaged in an organised learning experience. An R Unit is a discrete area of learning. R Units mandate goals, content descriptions and assessment.

The Board has continued its focus on the enhancement of assessment in colleges. Feedback on the quality and effectiveness of school-based assessment and consistency in the application of grade achievement standards has continued to be provided to colleges through system wide moderation. Over 1,000 senior secondary teachers from the ACT and overseas participated in each of the Moderation days in August 2016 and March 2017.

Year 12 Outcomes 2016

In 2016, 4,676 students met the requirements for an ACT Senior Secondary Certificate. This included 4,407 students enrolled in ACT colleges, including CIT Pathways College, and 158 students enrolled in overseas colleges. In the ACT, this represented 91.2 percent of year 12 students compared with 90.5 percent in 2015.

Of the Senior Secondary Certificate receivers 2,981 students also achieved a Tertiary Entrance Statement (TES), having met the requirements for university entrance and calculation of an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). This included 2,862 students enrolled in ACT colleges and 117 students enrolled in overseas colleges.

One hundred and sixty nine students (87 females, 82 males) from 17 colleges completed an H course through the Australian National University Extension Program in 2016.

Table BSSS 7: H Courses Studied by Graduating Students in 2016

One hundred and fourteen students (67 percent) used their scaled H course score in their ATAR calculation.

To achieve an ACT Senior Secondary Certificate, students are required to study a minimum of 17 standard units, which form at least four accredited courses from three different course areas. However, it is pleasing to see that a large majority of students are studying more than the minimum number of units across a broader range of course areas. In 2016, 78.2 percent of Senior Secondary Certificate receivers (Standard Package) completed 20 or more standard units and 78 percent of Senior Secondary Certificate receivers completed five or more accredited courses from different course areas. These percentages have increased since 2015.

Figure BSSS 1 displays the percentage of Senior Secondary Certificate receivers achieving a TES from 2002 to 2016. In 2016, 64.1 percent of ACT students receiving a Senior Secondary Certificate also received a TES. This is higher than in 2015 when it was 62.3 percent.

Source: ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies

Note: From 2006 students classified as Mature Age are included in the data.

Figure BSSS 2 illustrates the range of ATARs across colleges for 2016

Source: ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies

Note:

1. The names of the colleges are listed in Appendix B.
2. The central line in the box represents the median ATAR.
3. The block indicates the spread of 50 percent of the scores.
4. The single vertical line indicates the spread of the next 15 percent of scores.
5. Circles represent individual results in the top and bottom ten percent of ATARs.

The horizontal lines show an ATAR of 80 (green) and an ATAR of 65 (Red).

Of students in the ACT who achieved an ATAR, 74 percent achieved an ATAR of 65 or more.

The following table gives the percentage of Senior Secondary Certificate and TES receivers who completed an accredited course in the nominated areas.

Table BSSS 8: Selected courses on Senior Secondary Certificates and Tertiary Entrance Statements, 2015 and 2016

Source: ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies.

Whilst the minimum number of courses from different course areas required for an ACT Tertiary Entrance Statement is two T and/or H courses, 66.6 percent of ACT students used scaled course scores from four different course areas in the calculation of their ATAR. This is an increase of 2.7 percent from the 2015 cohort.

A course from the English course area is now compulsory for graduating students in the ACT. For Mathematics, 92 percent of ACT Senior Secondary Certificate receivers and 94.8 percent of TES receivers completed courses.

The Board recognises on a student’s Senior Secondary Certificate the contribution of learning undertaken outside the college environment during years 11 and 12. In 2016, 1,170 students received such recognition under Recreational Activities, 1,005 students received recognition under Community Involvement and 248 students received recognition under Recognition of Outside Learning.

The Board issues vocational certificates to years 10 and 12 students who have completed vocational qualifications through college based Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), including for the first time, four merged public college network RTOs. In 2016, this included 600 year 10 students and 973 year 12 students. Of these students, nine completed an Australian School-based Apprenticeship with their college as the RTO. In 2016, an additional 233 students received recognition on their Senior Secondary Certificate for undertaking an Australian School Based Apprenticeship or Traineeship with an RTO other than their home college.

The following figure displays the number of students receiving vocational certificates issued by the Board for each RTO by year level in 2016. It should be noted that students may have received more than one vocational certificate.

Figure BSSS 3: number of students receiving vocational certificates, 2016 by college and year level

In addition to vocational studies undertaken during years 11 and 12 in colleges, vocational programs undertaken with external RTOs can contribute to the requirements for year 12 certification and be included on the ACT Senior Secondary Certificate. In 2016, vocational qualifications achieved through an external RTO and registered by the Board were recognised on the Senior Secondary Certificate as an E course. In 2016, 323 students were awarded an E course, compared to 8 in 2015. The E courses were in the areas of Business, Early Childhood, Retail and Hospitality.

B.3 Community Engagement and Support

The Board facilitates community input through representation on committees, course writing teams, accreditation panels, working parties and at consultation forums. Groups represented include parents, teachers, principals, tertiary institutions, industry, business and unions.

The Board Website complies with WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines. In 2015, the Board opened Facebook and Twitter accounts to provide alternative channels of communications with the wider community.

The Board encourages and welcomes both positive and negative feedback and is committed to responding to complaints in a timely and positive manner. This enables staff, students, parents and community members to contribute to the Board’s continuous improvement strategy. The Board’s Feedback and Complaints policy is available on its website. The Board received no formal complaints in 2015-16.

For more information contact:
The Executive Director
Board of Senior Secondary Studies
GPO Box 158
CANBERRA ACT 2601
(02) 620 57181
bsss.enquiries@act.gov.au
http://www.bsss.act.gov.au

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