The Victorian Curriculum Advisory Authority (VCAA) is a statutory authority established under the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority Act 2000. The VCAA has responsibilities relating to both curriculum and assessment across year levels Prep to 12 for all Victorian school students. The VCAA is committed to protecting student information and all personal information collected is handled in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2000.
In order to perform its function the VCAA collects the personal details of all VCAL students and all students undertaking one or more VCE units of study, including performance data related to the VCE assessment program. It also collects personal details of all IB students who are to sit the General Achievement Test (GAT). The personal details of students other than those with VCE, VCAL or IB programs are collected to supply support for these students or for reporting purposes. All information is collected directly from students by the school.
Where additional information is required, such as in the case of applications for Special Provision, this is also collected from individual students.
The information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origins is used by the VCAA to report to the Commonwealth and State Governments to assist in the planning of support for all students who fall within these categories. No individual students are identified in such reports.
All student data is submitted to the VCAA via the Victorian Assessment Software System (VASS).
The student data collected by the VCAA, including personal details, unit results, graded assessments, VET certificate results and data on Special Provision, together with study scores and GAT scores, is used by the VCAA to provide individual students' final VCE, VCAL and GAT results. The assessment data which is provided to the student directly is also provided to his/her home school and, if it is not the home school, to the school where the study was undertaken.
The purpose of disclosing the student VCE, VCAL and GAT assessment data to the schools is to enable schools to analyse the effectiveness of their school assessment programs. In this way the VCAA ensures quality assurance of the VCE and VCAL assessment programs across the State of Victoria. The purpose of disclosing the student AIM data to the schools is to enable schools to analyse the effectiveness of their teaching programs.
Personal details of all VCE, VCAL, IB and Year 10 students are forwarded to the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) for inclusion in CourseLink, a password-protected interactive, web-based program, which enables individual students to access career and course options tailored to take into account their place of residence, interests, existing studies and future plans.
The VCAA also forwards individual students' personal information, VCE, VCAL and GAT results, and, if applicable, data for Special Provision to VTAC for the calculation of the Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank (ENTER) and, if necessary, for the submission of student applications for tertiary course selection.
The VCAA will not provide identifiable student data to any other person or organisation without the consent of the individual student, unless required by law or other regulation to do so.
Students will be notified of what information has been collected from them and the level of disclosure to which they have consented via a 'Student Full Details Report' which will be available from the school following lodgement of Personal Details Forms at the time of enrolment or registration.
Student information collected by the VCAA is stored on its database and access is limited to authorised staff at the VCAA and at the school.
Data collected from students and the results awarded to them are retained permanently by the VCAA. These records are held in the database and backed up on microfiche. All records are held securely.
Correspondence concerning access to student records held at the VCAA including individual assessment and contact details should be addressed to the Manager, Student Records and Results, VCAA, 41 St Andrews Place East Melbourne 3002.
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