The Assessment Resource Centre (ARC) provides useful information for teachers to help them understand how the Common Grade Scale (A–E) works. This information helps teachers make balanced judgements on student achievement for reporting to parents and scaffolding student learning. For more information on ARC, click here.

The Board will be running workshops in Term 3 especially for primary teachers. These workshops will help build an understanding of the standards and provide a refresher on how teachers should be using the Common Grade Scale (A–E).

The dates for the primary workshops are:

• 13 August – North Rocks
• 27 August – Goulburn
• 4 September – Sydney and Erina Heights
• 5 September – Maryland.

For more information on the workshops, and to register, visit the professional development page on the Board’s website. Places are limited.

Will the Common Grade Scale (A–E) change when the new syllabuses are implemented?

This scale and method of reporting will not change when the new syllabuses commence implementation in 2014 so it’s important your school has the correct understanding of their use and purpose.

Using the Common Grade Scale (A–E)

Click here to see the full grade scale.

At any point, you can look at what your students have been learning and how well they have achieved.

This means that at any time you can:

• compare student achievement with the standards represented by each grade and
• make an on-balance professional judgement and give the appropriate grade.

When reporting grades before the end of a stage:

• consider the knowledge and skills covered up to that point in time
• give the grade that best matches the standard achieved so far.

The full range of grades can be awarded at any point in the course or stage. For example, you will award a grade A to a student if, taking into account what has been taught up to that point, the student has an extensive knowledge and understanding of the content and can readily apply this knowledge. In addition, the student has achieved a very high level of competence in the processes and skills and can apply these skills to new situations.

Early in a course or stage students are not limited only to grades C, D and E. Always consider what has been covered so far and how well the students have achieved.

There are a number of approaches you can use to allocate grades. Possible approaches include:

• Approach 1 using the grade scale for each task or activity.
• Approach 2 collecting assessment information and using the scale only when grades need to be allocated.

In both approaches teachers should use the available assessment information to make an on-balance judgement of the most appropriate grade to reflect the overall achievement of the student.

For K–6 enquiries, contact:
Christine Taylor
Board Inspector, Primary
christine.taylor@bos.nsw.edu.au
(02) 9367 8199