The VCE Data Service : helping schools to help themselves

The VCE Data Service began its life in 2003 following several years in which a limited form of 'value-added' VCE reporting was trialled in a sample of schools. Through this service, the VCAA provides schools with online access to extremely detailed data about their own students' VCE performance, and to a comprehensive range of analyses and reports. Through the VCE Data Service, schools are able to trace the level of their students' performance in any studies, or in all studies offered by their school. They are able to look at performance in the current year, or examine trends over a period up to seven years. They can extract information on performance in each assessment task or on study scores. And for all of these analyses, they are able to see how their own school compares with all schools, with schools in their sector, and with schools having similar student intake. For the first time, school staff are able to analyse performance using study scores adjusted to reflect changes from year to year in patterns of ability and gender. They can construct their own analyses by introducing comparisons unique to particular schools. For example, one school is monitoring the long-term effectiveness of its middle school programs by comparing VCE performance several years later. The information provided by the VCE Data Service is confidential to the school, and access to it is strictly controlled to protect its privacy. Professional development programs for teachers are provided in February/March each year, focusing on the range of reports available to schools and how they can be obtained and interpreted. Since 2004, this has been followed by a program in which VCAA staff have met with school leadership teams for confidential advice on the analyses they can generate from their own school data. To provide this assistance, VCAA staff have travelled to all corners of Victoria, meeting with staff from more than 100 schools in each of the past two years. Through the VCE Data Service, senior management teams in every school can easily generate charts and tables addressing questions concerning topics such as the school's overall performance or changes in student ability trends and student cohort consistencies.