Getting the Quality Right

Getting the Quality Right Prepared by: Eleanore Thomas Tel: (028) 9026 1200 ext 2209 Mob: 07717504587 ethomas@ccea.org.uk

Direct Claims - Overview

The Direct Claims System allows centres to determine the outcomes of

internal assessment without having to wait until External Moderation.

awarded on a qualification and level basis claims may be forwarded to CCEA and

certificates will be issued.

Direct Claims – How it works

When the quality criteria have been met CCEA will:

automatically award Direct Claims Status for the

relevant qualification and levels. inform the centre’s Examination Officer and

Qualification Coordinator that Direct Claims Status has been awarded.

Direct Claims External Moderation Process

Quality Assurance Moderation for Direct Claims qualifications will take place annually after the issue of results based on a random selection of centres.

Centres must hold onto learner’s work (i.e. Action-based activity and Desktop Task) for 13months after certificates have been issued

There will be no adjustment to centre assessed levels

Direct Claims Moderation Process

If external moderators disagree with centre assessed levels then:

Direct Claims Status for a specific qualification

and level is withdrawn. The centre must submit samples for moderation

before the issue of results at the next series for which they have an entry.

Maintaining Direct Claims

To maintain Direct Claims Status centres must Retain records of assessment, internal

moderation and coursework. Ensure that all staff are appropriately trained to

deliver, assess and internally moderate qualifications

Submit updated centre information to CCEA annually – the Annual Form (generally the deadline for this is in October)

Adhere to CCEA centre monitoring requirements Comply with CCEA policies and procedures

JCQ Regulations

The Essential Skills qualifications are subject to JCQ General and Vocational Qualifications General Regulations for Approved Centres (1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014)

http://www.jcq.org.uk/

Internal Assessment Arrangements

Learners should be provided with advice and support Systems must be in place to ensure validity and

authenticity of candidate work Systems must be in place for recording and reporting

accurate assessment Confidentiality and security of assessment materials

must be assured Internally assessed work must be submitted to CCEA

within agreed deadlines See Qualifications Administration Handbook

http://www.ccea.org.uk/examhandbook/

Internal Moderation Arrangements

Arrangements must be in place for internal moderation

Roles and responsibilities in assessment and internal moderation must be clear

Up to date records of internal moderation must be retained

Internal moderation procedure must be reviewed and amended as appropriate

Arrangements must be in place for external moderation and any actions resulting from external moderation

Internal Moderation – what is it?

Good Practices, Standards and Consistency

Moderation

The process of checking that assessment standards have been applied correctly and consistently between assessors, between centres and over time, and making adjustments to results where required to compensate for any differences in standard that are encountered. The statutory regulation of External Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2004

Standardisation

A process to ensure that the assessment criteria for a qualification, unit or component are applied consistently by assessors, moderators and verifiers.

Standardisation can be carried out within centres (internal standardisation) as well as by awarding bodies across their centres.

NVQ Code of Practice 2006

Questions for good practice

Assessment standards How do we make sure they are consistently reliable?

Comparability of results

How do we ensure these are consistent over time? How do we ensure consistency across centres?

Evidence

How do we help centres (and ourselves) ensure it is relevant? authentic? sufficient?

M-O-D-E-R-A-T-I-O-N What’s in a word? Good Practices, Standards and Consistency

Expertise Authentic Documentation

What’s in a word?

M O D E R A T I O N

Monitoring / Making changes / Maintaining Organising / Objectivity / Openness Direct checking / Differentiation / Decisions Explaining / Evidence / Enough? Reporting / Reliability / Results Advising / Action plans / Assessment Training / Tracking / TAC forms Improving / IA and IS / Instructions Observing / Outcomes / Options Negotiating / New tutors / Next time?

Internal Moderation

Internal moderation is a process undertaken to ensure that:

Assessment instruments (assignments) are fit for purpose - i.e. they enable the learner to produce evidence which meets the grading criteria.

Assessment decisions accurately judge learner work (evidence) against the standards

Assessment is consistent across the qualification and across assessors.

Role of the Essential Skills Coordinator

To ensure that: Appropriately qualified and trained staff are involved in

the assessment and moderation process Staff are familiar with assessment criteria and that

assessing and moderating is about applying the assessment criteria

Staff are familiar with CCEA recording systems, documentation and procedures for assessment and internal moderation

Staff are supported and guided in their roles Staff and learners are notified of assessment dates

including dates of external moderation All communication from CCEA is disseminated promptly

Role of the Internal Moderator

Draw up an internal moderation schedule for the qualification. (Internal moderation should be planned so that it detects any assessment issues early in the assessment cycle.)

Ensure that assessors are fully aware of the internal moderation procedure and timescales

Provide advice and support for assessors on a timely basis as appropriate

Sample across all assessors to ensure that assessed work is consistent with assessment criteria and standards

Provide feedback to assessors, identify actions to be undertaken and complete & sign internal moderation documents

Sampling

During the course of the qualification work must be sampled across the qualification and from each assessor delivering the qualification.

The sample should be constructed in a way that assures the entire assessment process.

Internal Moderation Records are a compulsory requirement and must be retained for centre monitoring and External Moderation.

The sample should consist of:

The full range of assessment decisions made; Experience of assessor: new or inexperienced

assessors should have more work internally moderated than an experienced assessor;

New qualifications: when a qualification is first introduced the sample should be increased;

The size of the group of learners should be taken into consideration.

Centres are free to design their own Internal Moderation Records

Conducting Internal Moderation

The Internal Moderator reviews the judgments of the Assessor :

Check the learner work against criteria and judge whether it has been accurately assessed

Check the feedback from assessor to learner If the work is inaccurately assessed, appropriate action

should be identified on the Internal Moderation Form The assessor should re-assess the learner work in light

of the internal moderator comments and it should be checked again by internal moderator, signed and dated,

It may be necessary for the learner to do some additional work

Internal moderation records

The centre is free to devise internal records, however, there must be a record of the following as a minimum requirement for internal moderation:

Candidate Name Title and level of qualification Name of assessor Name of internal moderator Dates of all assessments and outcomes Dates and outcomes of internal moderation Actions resulting from internal moderation Certification claims (TAC1s / Learner Outcome Form /

Staff development/training)

Some issues to focus on

Charts, Graphs and Diagrams Application of Number requires candidates to interpret information

presented in different graphical forms and to produce these themselves in order to present their own findings.

For the purpose of the essential skill, it is not necessary to distinguish between “graph” and “chart”. The basic differences between these representations are set out in the table below

Chart or graph

A representation of the relationship between variables such as categories and frequency data, or x and y coordinates

Pie or bar chart, frequency polygon, frequency chart or diagram. Single or multiple line graph; scatter graph with or without line of best fit.

Diagram Any other graphical method of representation where scale is or is not a factor

Scale drawing, plan or workshop drawing, 3D representation, flow chart, critical path or network diagram, organization chart.

Some issues to focus on

Source Materials There must be clear evidence that original source material

containing a table, graph, chart or diagram, relevant to the purpose of the activity, has been used.

Learners are expected to show that they have extracted appropriate information from one or more of these different types of source.

Where a graph or chart is used it must be clear that the scales have been used to read relevant values. Values cannot be written on the source material.

When a scale diagram is used then correct scaled calculations will be needed to support any results used from the diagram.

Learners must use 2 different types of source material, at least one of which must come from the list above.

Some issues to focus on

Calculations and checks for N1.2 All calculations claimed as evidence must be checked Incorrect calculations do not constitute evidence Learners must show clearly at least one correct calculation

and a check for it for each of the categories Answers only to calculations are not acceptable The working or calculation that is being carried out must be

shown When using a calculator learners must write down the

calculation being carried out in full and show how they obtained their result.

External moderators check candidate evidence using calculators

Some issues to focus on

Calculations and checks for N2.2 All calculations claimed as evidence must be checked Incorrect calculations do not constitute evidence Learners must show clearly at least one correct multi-step

calculation and a check for it, for each of the categories. A multi-step calculation is a calculation involving 2 or more

mathematical operators Answers only to calculations are not acceptable. All steps in the working out must be shown When using a calculator learners must write down the

calculation being carried out in full and show how they obtained their result

External moderators check candidate evidence using calculators