Independent study finds QCE system has sound foundations but lacks clarity for parents and students

The Queensland year 11 and 12 schooling system has “sound foundations” but is difficult for students and school communities to understand, an independent review has found.

The University of Melbourne analysed the senior schooling system introduced in 2020 – called the Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) system – finding it was largely working as intended.

However, the review said explanations of the curriculum and assessments threatened to exclude students and parents from conversations about senior schooling.

“The handbook is written primarily for teachers and education professionals,” the review said.

Although the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) commissioned the study more than two years ago, the findings follow a state review into the authority after a miscommunication led to nine schools teaching the wrong final unit.

Schools discovered as little as 24 hours before the 2025 external ancient history exam to prepare 134 year 12 students on the correct topic, Julius Caesar, rather than the unit they had studied on his grandnephew emperor Augustus.

The state report, released in November last year, blamed a “perfect storm” of errors from both the assessment authority and schools.

A committee hearing held in March proposed parents and students could keep track of the curriculum units being taught at schools by reading it through the QCAA’s online portal.

While the review flagged five additional areas for improvement, QCAA chief executive Claude Jones said the findings were “strong evidence that the QCE system [was] working well”.

Lead researcher professor Therese Hopfenbeck said the review indicated the QCE system was one with “sound foundations”.

“Results are highly reliable and we found little evidence of bias against particular groups of students,” she said.

Hopfenbeck said the review drew on stakeholder surveys and consultations, school case studies, observations of assessment processes, analysis of student results, and comparisons with international research and benchmarks.

Through surveys of stakeholders, the review found there were “mixed levels” of public confidence in the new system, with school leaders and assessment authority staff being the groups who felt most positively about it.

Three in four school leaders the review team surveyed across 344 schools agreed the QCE system was better than the previous OP system.

While less than 2.5 per cent of respondents favoured the old system, about 21 per cent said comparing the two systems was not a straightforward yes or no question.

School staff were among the least confident in the QCE system.

Surveys of nearly 900 teachers indicated although agreed the new system was fair to students and fully addressed community needs, fewer than half strongly endorsed it – even outright agreed with the given statements.

Among parents, the review found parents associations believed the new senior schooling system was fair and external exams in particular helped boost public confidence.

Parents believed external exams provided a benchmark between schools, aligned with state assessment policies, and were robustly supervised.

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