Scottish National Standardised Assessments: national report

Summary of outcomes at a national level on the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) in the 2018 to 2019 academic year.


Appendix 4: Quality assurance

In preparation for the presentation of the assessments in the 2018 to 2019 academic year, a number of quality assurance activities took place in relation to the replenishment questions developed for inclusion within the assessments. The assessments and resulting data on learner outcomes, which is summarised within this report, are underpinned by thorough quality assurance processes that were completed prior to the 2018 to 2019 academic year. These processes are summarised below.

5.4.1 Scottish Government reviews

ACER used the outcomes of discussions that took place with Scottish Government, including Education Scotland and the Learning Directorate, at the start of the SNSA project to inform the number and nature of the replenishment items to be developed for potential inclusion in the 2018 to 2019 assessments.

Table 7 shows the main activities undertaken in the development, review and customisation of items for the live assessments, and development and review of replenishment items for trialling in the 2018 to 2019 academic year.

Table 7: Development and review of SNSA item pool, October 2016 to August 2018

Date Activity
October 2016 to January 2017 Item writing and internal review within ACER
January to March 2017 & September 2017 SG/ES item review of new items for 2018 to 2019 instruments, including inspection of items' alignment with CfE and Scottish culture and language; subsequent revision and customisation by ACER
November 2017 to March 2018 In-test trialling of new items within the 2017 to 2018 assessments
April to May 2018 Analysis of performance of in-test trial items
May 2018 ES review and sign off of item pool from which the 2018 to 2019 assessments were selected
May to June 2018 Selection of items / construction of clusters / branching rules for 2018 to 2019 adaptive instruments by ACER
May to July 2018 ACER build and quality assurance of the assessments
July 2018 ES/SG review and sign off of 2018 to 2019 assessments

Contact

Email: nationalimprovementframework@gov.scot

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