This document outlines the quality assurance process for the Scottish Baccalaureate Inter-disciplinary Project (IP). It involves internal quality assurance by centers, an external Quality Forum event, central verification, and post-verification procedures. At the Quality Forum, center representatives discuss IP assessments and quality assurance with External Verifiers. External Verifiers then verify grading decisions at central verification and issue reports. The goal is to ensure national grading standards are met and certification can be completed on schedule.

1. Quality Assuring the Scottish
Baccalaureate
Inter-disciplinary Project
Matthew McCullagh
Quality Manager

2. Introduction
 Collaborative approach to quality assurance of the
Baccalaureate IPs.
 IPs are internally assessed, graded and quality assured
by centres and their partners.
 Grading decisions are then externally verified by SQA
External Verifiers (EVs).
 An important feature of this external verification process
is dialogue between centre representatives and EVs
during a Quality Forum event.

3. Overview of Quality Assurance
Processes
The following stages are involved in the quality
assurance of the IP:
 Internal quality assurance by centres
 The Quality Forum event
 The Central Verification event
 Post-central verification procedures

4. Internal Quality Assurance by Centres
Purpose
The purpose of internal quality assurance is to ensure, as
far as possible, that:
 all those involved in delivering and assessing the IP in
your centre develop a common and appropriate
understanding of the national standards.
 the templates and candidate guidance are capable of
generating sufficient evidence
 all those involved in assessing the IP in your centre have
made grading decisions for all candidates in line with the
national standard.

5. Internal Quality Assurance Models
Effective internal quality assurance model will normally
involve the following:
 a standardisation process
 verification of the templates and candidate guidance you
are going to use with candidates
 verification of internal assessment decisions

6. The Quality Forum event
Purpose
The purpose of the Quality Forum is to give your centre’s
representative opportunities to:
 outline assessment and internal quality assurance
processes used in your centre, and learn about those
used in other centres.
 develop their understanding of the national standards of
competence for the IP share examples of good practice,
and alternative approaches to the delivery and
development of the IP.

7. Preparation for the Quality Forum event
Your centre representative will need to gather the five
pieces of mandatory evidence for each candidate
selected:
 the candidate's project proposal
 the candidate's project plan
 the assessor's record of the candidate's presentation of
his/her project findings/product.
 the candidate's evaluation of the project
 the candidate's evaluation of his/her generic and
cognitive skills development.
 plus the checklist
along with the associated assessor comments.

8. The Quality Forum Event - Roles
The role of your centre representative is to:
 bring the mandatory evidence for all candidates who
have been identified for sampling to the event, along with
related assessor comments.
 outline the internal IP assessment and quality assurance
processes used in your centre.
 participate in a peer review of a small selection of
candidate evidence from other centres
 feedback to all colleagues in your centre following the
event.

9. The Quality Forum Event - Roles
The role of the EV is to:
 record information about each centre’s internal quality
assurance processes
 assist centre representatives during the peer review
process
 identify examples of good practice in the assessment of
generic and cognitive skills, and/or internal quality
assurance
 support centre representatives in developing their
understanding of the national standard of competence
for the IP

10. The Quality Forum Event - Roles
The role of the QEM
The role of the QEM is to chair the event.
They will ensure that:
 the forum starts and finishes on time, following the stated
agenda
 all participants are clear about their roles and the stages
of the event
 all centre representatives have an equal opportunity to
provide information and discuss evidence in relation to
their candidates’ IPs
 the event is conducted in a supportive and professional
manner throughout.

11. The Quality Forum Event - Format
The Quality Forum will be a half-day event with a fixed
agenda.
09.30 Registration and tea/coffee
10.00 Welcome and introductions
10.05 Outline of internal assessment and quality
assurance processes by centre reps
11.15 Peer review session
12.25 Sharing good practice
12.55 Next stages in IP quality assurance process
13.00 Close

12. What Happens after the Quality Forum?
The purposes of post-Quality Forum procedures
are to:
 externally verify centre grading decisions at a
central verification event – Central Verification
 inform centres of the results of external
verification – Central Verification Reports
 ensure all outstanding issues are fully resolved
to allow certification to take place on time.

13. Possible Outcomes of External
Verification
There are three possible outcomes of IP
external verification. These are:
 Accepted
 Advised to Review Assessment Decision/s
 Not Accepted

14. Key Dates and Timings
 26th March - confirmation of date and venue
Quality Forum
 9th April - confirmation of candidate sample
selected
 12-13th May - Quality Forum events
 14-15th May - Central verification event
 19th May - EV reports received by centres
 4th June - All outstanding issues resolved

15. A Final Note……….
SQA will value feedback from all centres involved
in delivering and assessing the IP. At the end of
the quality assurance process you will be asked
to send feedback on you and your centre’s
experiences this year. However, feedback from
centres is also welcome at any stage in the
processes and will be used to inform evaluation
of the IP, its assessment and quality assurance
processes.

16. Any Questions?