WA Year 12 students who get a D grade will still pass ATAR and achieve WACE under new reforms

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Year 12 students in Western Australia who get D grades will still be able to pass ATAR subjects and graduate from high school from this year. The government hopes the move to treat D grades as C's, will encourage students who previously felt ATAR might be too difficult to embrace the challenge.

Transcript

00:00Year 12 exams are a stressful time, but the pressure is being eased for those struggling

00:08to pass.

00:09The minimum standard required to achieve a WA certificate of education officially lowered

00:15from this year.

00:16A student that undertakes an ATAR course and gets a D grade, average D grade, is essentially

00:24producing the same academic output, if you like, from want of a better description, as

00:29a student that does a general course and gets a C grade.

00:32The School Curriculum and Standards Authority has changed the standards so that a D result

00:37in a Year 12 ATAR subject or exam will be treated as a C. Students will still need to achieve

00:4314 C grades or equivalents across Year 11 and 12 to meet WAIS requirements.

00:49Skaza says the move is based on extensive analysis of student data and research.

00:55We should really trust this conclusion because it's based on evidence, it's based on data.

01:00I feel that the A to D grading system is rather archaic and we should rather think about the

01:08Year 11 and 12 subjects within a competency-based model.

01:12Students taking both ATAR and general courses agree.

01:15The amount of effort required for ATAR is so much more than people think and that they're

01:22not even being, like, rewarded, they're just passing high school.

01:26The government thinks the move will encourage more students to give ATAR a go.

01:31The reality is many kids are avoiding ATAR in 11 and 12 because of the perceived toughness,

01:38so I think this is about making sure more young people choose ATAR courses.

01:43The opposition is less convinced, saying the focus should be on improving student outcomes,

01:50not lowering expectations.

01:52It says more support and resources for teachers and students will achieve that.

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