Ending days for the ATAR

COVID-19 is an opportunity to end the uni admission score as now constructed  

Universities are announcing new and promoting existing alternative entry schemes, arguing the crisis makes the ATAR a variously unfair/impractical way to allocate undergraduate places.

David Curtis (Flinders U) argues the states will use different assessments and it is not possible in performance and placement based subjects.  And he suggests schools hold information on years of individuals’ achievements, which “can be aggregated help build a valid ATAR”.

“In general, the more information that is used to assign a grade, the more reliable is that grade. Schools’ records of student achievement are based on teachers’ judgments of student performance. We should not be concerned about this; we must take the view that the aggregate judgments of experienced and competent professionals are legitimate assessments of student capability.”