Assessing the Consistency and Accuracy of Teacher Judgements on the NCCD on School Students with Disability: Final Report

The Australian Government Department of Education appointed Monash University working with PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting (Australia) Pty Limited (PwC) to undertake an Australia-wide project to examine the consistency and accuracy of teacher judgements on the NCCD model and to investigate the factors that influence teacher decision-making processes such as roles, years of service, professional learning undertaken on the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA), Disability Standards for Education 2005 (DSE), NCCD and any in-school moderation processes used within their schools.

This project required participants (randomly selected from all over Australia) to make independent judgements about complex case studies. Out of a possible highest score of 14, the most commonly occurring score for LoA was 11 and for CoD was 10. The average score for LoA was 10.09 and for CoD was 9.51. Past research suggests that moderation and wider consultation with school personnel is necessary to make more accurate judgements. Considering the difficulty of the task that participants undertook, without consulting with other staff from their schools and also without having access to any additional information regarding the case studies, the findings are encouraging. More specific findings of the project are provided in the detailed report.