[Yr7-10it] VELS and progression points

[Christophersen, Paula P]

Dear colleagues

 

Apologies for crossing into the IT apps territory, but this has been the
venue for some VELS discussion. I'm a little late in joining in on this
discussion, but I would like to clarify some points that have been made.

 

Progression points represent markers of student progress at several
points towards the standards. VCAA has published examples that accompany
each progression point and the purpose of these examples is to:

*         Support teachers to determine if a student is achieving as
expected at a particular time of schooling

*         Assist teachers to make on-balance judgments about progress
towards the standards for the purpose of reporting to parents.

 

The examples at each progression point are illustrative of student
progress rather than prescriptive, and they have not been written for
every element of a standard. This is deliberate because it means they
cannot be used as a syllabus. The VELS clearly encourages schools to
determine the most appropriate ways of delivering the standards. The
VCAA examples for each progression point should not determine how
schools design their curriculum. As from the discussion, some schools
run intense semester-based programs; others run totally integrated
programs over a 2-year period to coincide with a VELS level; and the
options between are plenty.

 

Schools are encouraged to develop their own examples of student progress
for each progression point, to match their courses of study. The
standards are the benchmarks, however, schools have the flexibility to
determine how students will progress from one level to another. It is
therefore important that schools determine the specific evidence or
characteristics that must be demonstrated in student work at each
progression point and at each level.

 

I would strongly urge schools to use the VCAA progression point examples
as a starting point for discussion - on what basis is student progress
being measured? Breadth/depth of coverage? Level of precision? Level of
cognition? Etc It is important that your school identifies the evidence
or characteristics expected to be seen in student work during a
reporting period so that you can make an on-balance judgment as to
whether the student is progressing as expected. Documenting this
evidence in examples of progress is an effective way of establishing the
stepping stones between each standard.

 

For further reading visit http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/whatsnew.html#1
and download the PowerPoint file.

 

VCAA is not responsible for the reporting side of things, so if you have
any queries, I suggest you contact Denise Jacobsson
(jacobsson.denise.k at edumail.vic.gov.au) or Maurie Sheehan
(sheehan.maurice.j at edumail.vic.gov.au) for expert answers.

 

Regards

Paula

 

Paula Christophersen

ICT Curriculum Manager

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment

Authority

41 St Andrews Place

EAST MELBOURNE 3002

Phone: 03 9651 4378

Fax: 03 9651 4324

 


Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received=
 in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using=
 attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, dam=
age or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, r=
esulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liabi=
lity is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations=
 or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessari=
ly those of the Department of Education.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/yr7-10it/attachments/20070618/78dae992/attachment.html