Memorandum to Schools 73/2007

31 July 2007

Reporting Arrangements For Final VCE June Examinations And Studio Arts Results 2007

Schools are advised that Final results for the VCE June examinations and Studio Arts School-assessed Task 1 will be available through VASS from 3:00 pm Sunday 5 August 2007. Results must not be released to students before Monday 6 August. GAT results will be released to students on 17 December 2007.

1. ADVICE TO SCHOOLS ON THE RELEASE OF RESULTS

The VCAA is confident that all VCE providers have prepared appropriate procedures for the delivery of results and for follow-up advice to be provided to students. Schools may wish to consider the following advice based on feedback that the VCAA has received from schools:

a) Students should receive their results in a private and confidential manner. This may be achieved in a number of ways, e.g. personally addressed and sealed envelopes to be collected from the VCE Co-ordinator at the end of the school day.

b) All students should have the opportunity to discuss the possible implications of their results for post-VCE outcomes with appropriate school staff: Year Level Coordinator, Careers Teacher, House Teacher, Form Teacher or VCE Coordinator. Some schools have set aside periods for group and/or individual advice from selected staff. This opportunity should be available to all students undertaking Unit 3 & 4 studies.

c) Study teachers should emphasise the ways in which both individual students and whole classes can build on their results. One way is to discuss what lessons the results hold for the remaining assessments for the year.

d) Individual study teachers should not be placed in a position of defending or debating final grades awarded to students. All students and parents should be reminded that Graded Assessment results are the responsibility of the VCAA whether for examinations or School-assessed Tasks. All final grades have been arrived at following a rigorous process involving further marking where required.

e) In advising individual students who are disappointed with the initial results, schools should remind them that the VCE is a cumulative certificate. Results for Outcomes in Unit 4 count towards satisfactory completion; one set of disappointing Graded Assessment results does not mean that the whole year is lost. For all students, initial results at this time allow them to plan their selections for tertiary courses.

2. SPECIAL PROVISION - Derived Examination Scores (DES) for June Examinations

Results subject to later DES processing are prefixed with ‘d' or ‘i'. The following reports VCE Summary Anomalous Grades Report and School Statistics Graded Assessment Rrsults will contain the trailing message:

‘d' – Indicates a Derived Examination Score (DES) has been approved. The grade reported here represents the score achieved by the student in the examination. Derived Examination Scores will be calculated in December. If the DES is greater than the achieved score it will become the final score. A new grade will be reported if the DES is equivalent to a higher grade.

‘i' – Indicates this grade is subject to an irregularity in the examination and has been approved for a Derived Examination Score (DES). The grade reported here represents the score achieved by the student in the examination. Derived Examination Scores will be calculated in December. If the DES is greater than the achieved score it will become the final score. A new grade will be reported if the DES is equivalent to a higher grade.

The final result for examinations for which a DES has been approved will be available to schools on VASS from Sunday 16 December, 2007 and to students via the Results Service on Monday 17 December, 2007 and by mail from Tuesday 18 December, 2007.

3. ANOMALOUS GRADES

Anomalous Grades Reports will be available on VASS from Wednesday 8 August , 2007 using the menu: RESULTS ADMIN → VCE Reports → Anomalous Grades.

An anomalous grades check has been undertaken for all June examinations. Details of the anomalous grades check process is available on the VCAA website:

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/results/anomalousgradesv1.html

4. APPLICATION FOR A STATEMENT OF MARKS/INSPECTION OF SCRIPTS

A Statement of Marks/Inspection of Examination Scripts application form for the June 2007 examination period was published in the July 2007 VCAA Bulletin. It is also available as a download through the VASS menu: SYSTEM ADMIN → Downloads → Statement of Marks Inspection of Scripts June 07 and the VCAA website:

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/schooladmin/forms/vce/statmarkinspscriptsjune.pdf

Schools will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the PDF file.

Please note that the closing date for Inspection of Examination Scripts applications for the June 2007 examinations is Friday 12 October 2007.

5. GENERATING VCE RESULTS REPORTS ON VASS

The Results data will confirm Graded Assessment results in the form of letter grades ranging from A+ to UG and NA. These will be prefixed with ‘d' or ‘i' if they are subject to later DES processing.

To produce VCE Results Summary Reports for Students.

Go to Results Admin → VCE Reports → VCE Summary .
Enter the Year Level or leave as ALL.
Enter a Form Group or leave blank.
Select the required Report Order : Year Level, Form Group, Name, Student Number OR Year Level, Name, Student Number .
Place a tick in the box against Report only students with at least one unit 3 or unit 4 enrolment .
Place a tick in the box against Report only students with released GA results .
Leave the Study Sequence Code set to ALL.
Click on the [ Run VCE Results Summary Report] button. The screen will change to the VCE Results Summary Report page.
Click on the [ Print ALL Students] button to produce reports for the year level/form group in the order selected above.

To produce VCE Results Reports for Teachers:

Go to Results Admin → VCE Reports → Graded Assessment Results .
Select the required Study/Sequence code e.g. AC03 – Accounting. The ALL option will produce a report for ALL Studies offered by the school.
Enter a Class Code or leave blank for all classes for that study.
Select Semester 1.
Select the required Report Type: Graded Assessment Results by Class on Screen OR Export Graded Assessment Results.
Select the required order of the report: Unit Code, Class Code OR Teacher Name, Unit Code, Class Code .
Click on the [ Run Graded Assessment Result by Class Report] button. The screen will change to the Graded Assessment Results by Class Report .
Click on the [ Print ALL Classes] button to produce reports in the order selected above.

To produce an Anomalous Grades Report:

Go to RESULTS ADMIN → VCE Reports → Anomalous Grades.
Select Cycle 1 – June Examinations & GAT.
Select the required Study OR leave set to ALL .
Leave the Graded Assessment set to ALL.
To include Students Assessed Elsewhere change the default value from ‘No' to ‘Yes'.
Click on the [Run Anomalous Grades Report] button. The screen will change to the Anomalous Grades Report.
Click on the [Print all GAs] to produce reports in the order selected above.

The reports on VASS will list, for each June examination, the students whose scripts were reconsidered by the Chief Assessor's Panel as a result of the anomalous grades check.

6. GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS FOR MID YEAR GRADED ASSESSMENTS VCE

In the week beginning Monday 6 August the summary of the grades for each graded assessment awarded in the mid year will be published on the VCAA website.

The information will consist of the grade distribution for the Mid Year Graded Assessments (GAs) for each Unit 3 and 4 sequence, in graphic and tabular form. For small studies (less than 100 enrolments state wide) the graphs are omitted.

7. VCE EXAMINATION RESULTS SERVICE

The results of the June 2007 examinations will be available through the VCE Examination Results Service from Thursday 9 August, 2007 . This service will enable Principals and Classroom teachers to access details of the class and school performance on each of the June VCE examinations. Teachers will be able to view:

the results of their class as they compare with school results;
the results of their class as they compare with state-wide results; and,
the data for multiple choice examinations in either tabular or graphic form.

This examination information for teachers and schools can be used to assist teachers in the delivery of VCE curriculum programs.

The VCE Examination Results Service reports are accessed through the following VASS menus:

SCHOOL ADMIN → School Statistics → Examinations
SCHOOL ADMIN → School Statistics → Examinations – Multiple Choice
SCHOOL ADMIN → School Statistics → Examinations – Extended Answer

The Multiple Choice report may also be produced as a graph.

The VCE Examination Results Service is available to the following VASS User groups:

VA – VASS Administrators
SSRG – School Statistics and Results Group
TE – Teacher Unrestricted
TR – Teacher Restricted

Please Note: The production of these reports requires various complex calculations which occur in the background and this may result in a slightly longer response time before the reports are displayed on the screen.

8. ACCESS TO VASS

VASS Administrator s are reminded that if they are going to be using a different PC to access results on Sunday 5 August 2007, the PC must be configured as per the VASS Browser Setup document. In particular the MeadCo ScriptX Licence agreement must be downloaded. The VASS Browser Booklets for Windows 2000, Windows XP and for IE 7 are available on VASS through the menu SYSTEM ADMIN → Downloads → VASS ADMIN - Browser Booklet.

9. HELP DESK ON SUNDAY 5 AUGUST 2007

The following VCAA staff contacts will be available between 3 pm and 6.30 pm on Sunday 5 August 2007 . If your call is directed to the VASS Support VoiceMail service during these hours, please leave a number that we can return your call to, taking into account that school switchboards will be unavailable.

Problem/issue

Contacts

Contact details

Administrative Support Unit

• Technical and system support for problems such as inability to access VASS and production of reports.

Frank Lepore

Pam Gawith

1800 827 721 or 9651 4482

vass.support@edumail.vic.gov.au

Fax: 9651 4551

Student Records and Results Unit

• Enrolments.

Belinda Too

Kerry Veal

1800 653 045 or 9651 4402

student.records@edumail.vic.gov.au

Fax: 9651 4470

10. HELP DESK AFTER SUNDAY 5 AUGUST 2007

The following VCAA staff contacts are available for school personnel to access if they have any queries in relation to the June VCE results.

	Problem/issue	Contact point	Contact details
Student Records and Results Unit	• Queries regarding students' final June Examination and Studio Arts School-assessed task results.	Belinda Too Shirin Arulanandam	Ph 1800 653 045 or 9651 4402 student.records@edumail.vic.gov.au Fax: 9651 4470
Administrative Support Unit	• Technical and system support for problems such as inability to access VASS and production of reports.	Frank Lepore Pam Gawith Margaret Andersson Cathy Jones Ivars Sulcs	Ph 1800 827 721 or 9651 4482 vass.support@edumail.vic.gov.au Fax: 9651 4551
Assessment Operations Unit	• Queries regarding Derived Examination Scores (DES) for June Examinations.	Chris Byrt Andy Murphy	Ph 9225 2220 or 1800 205 455 vcaa.special.provision@edumail.vic.gov.au
	• Queries regarding Studio Arts visitation review	Susan Meadows	Ph 92252214 school.assessment.vcaa@edumail.vic.gov.au
VCE Examination Results Service	• Queries regarding the VCE Examination Results Service.	Joe Bui	Ph 9651 4428

Schools are encouraged to use the Help button on the appropriate screen for information regarding the use of specific VASS menus and functions.