Abstract
Background: Reform of senior secondary school certificates is occurring in many countries. Such reform is driven by a desire to have a better understanding of student achievement and clearer pathways into further education and employment.
Aims: This paper examines trends since the reform of the New South Wales Higher School Certificate (HSC) initiated by the State Government White Paper “Securing Their Future” (Aquilina, 1997).
Sample: The paper reports data from the total population of candidates for the HSC from 2001–2004.
Results: The results show that a previous trend in New South Wales schools towards “dumbing down” has been reversed and meaningful vocational education and training (VET) subjects have been incorporated successfully as a major pathway in student choice.
Conclusion: Reducing the number of curriculum offerings has not had an adverse effect on participation and reporting results according to a marks model of standards-referencing has made the content of achievement clear and has led to better understanding of the standards required for improvement in performance. These trends are of interest to systems planning reform.
| Keywords: | senior school certificate reform; standards-referenced reporting; student achievement |
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