Memorandum to Schools 82/2009

22 July 2009

Reporting Arrangements For Final VCE June Examinations And Studio Arts Results 2009

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 2 August 2009. 

Results must not be released to students before Monday 3 August 2009.  GAT results will be released to students on 14 December 2009.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 Results 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 13 December 2009 and to students via the Results Service on Monday 14 December 2009 and by mail from Tuesday 15 December 2009.

3. Anomalous Grades

Anomalous Grades Reports will be available on VASS from Wednesday 5 August, 2009 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 2009 examination period is available as a download through the VASS menu: SYSTEM ADMIN → Downloads → SRRU - Statement of Marks June 2009 and also on the VCAA website:

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

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

On request by a vision impaired student, the VCAA will provide the Statement of Marks in a nominated accessible format, for the same fee as the standard format statement.

Please note that the closing date for Inspection of Examination Scripts applications for the June 2009 examinations is Friday 18 September 2009.

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 (ü) in the box against Report only students with at least one unit 3 or unit 4 enrolment.
• Place a tick (ü) 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 3 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 2009 examinations will be available through the VCE Examination Results Service (VCE ERS) from Thursday 6 August, 2009.  :

The VCE ERS can be used by teachers to assist in improving the delivery of VCE curriculum programs through identifying strengths and weaknesses in their classes’ performances. This service enables Principals and Classroom teachers to access the results for both individual classes and overall school on each of the June VCE examinations. The information is available at both a summary examination level and an individual question/criterion level.  

The VCE ERS reports are accessed through the following VASS menus:

• SCHOOL ADMIN → School Statistics → Examinations
  Teachers can compare their classes’ results with both the school and state wide results at an examination summary level.

• SCHOOL ADMIN → School Statistics → Examinations – Multiple Choice
  Teachers can compare their classes’ results with both the school and state wide results state at an individual level for multiple choice questions. This includes being able to drill down on each question and analysis the responses selected by students.

• SCHOOL ADMIN → School Statistics → Examinations – Extended Answer
  Teachers can compare their classes’ results with both the school and state wide results for extended answer questions.

The VCE ERS 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 Administrators are reminded that if they are going to be using a different PC to access results on Sunday 2 August 2009, the PC MUST be configured as per the appropriate VASS Browser Settings booklet.  In particular the MeadCo ScriptX Licence agreement MUST be downloaded.  

TheVASS Browser Settings booklets for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista and for Internet Explorer 7 are available for download on VASS through the menu SYSTEM ADMIN → Downloads → VASS ADMIN - Browser Booklet and also the available on VCAA website via the following link. http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/schooladmin/vass/iesettings.html

9 . Help Desk On Sunday 2 August 2009

The following VCAA staff contacts will be available between 3 pm and 6.30 pm on Sunday 2 August 2009. 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
Applications Support Unit	Technical and system support for problems such as inability to access VASS and production of reports.	Frank Lepore Cathy Jones	1800 827 721 or 9651 4482 vass.support@edumail.vic.gov.au Fax: 9651 4551
Student Records and Results Unit	Enrolments.	Angie Burton Kerry Veal	9651 4376 or 9651 4479 student.records@edumail.vic.gov.au Fax: 9651 4470

 

10. Help Desk After Sunday 2 August 2009

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	Contact details
Student Records and Results Unit	Queries regarding students’ final June Examination and Studio Arts School-assessed task results.	Angie Burton Shirin Arulanandam	Ph 9651 4376 or 9651 4630 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 Cathy Jones Val Dobson	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.	Christine Byrt Marilena Ciccullo Andy Murphy	Ph 9225 2219 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 (available after 6 August 2009)	Joe Bui	Ph 9651 4484