I believe that making consistent and comparable judgements about student learning is paramount and feel that being able to provide evidence for why a student received a particular mark is a professional obligation.  Moderating students against the rest of the class or cohort, or against other students of the same age, Nationwide, provides teachers, students and parents accurate representations of their strengths and weaknesses. Over my 25 years of teaching I have had experience with administrating and analysing numerous standardised tests and results including the Brightpaths Ruler for Writing, Informal Prose Inventory (IPIs) for Reading, PLD and Soundwaves Placement test for spelling and the Australian Council for Educational Research's (ACER) Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT), that moderate students results on a National scale. 

Establishing and introducing students to marking rubrics is also a way to work towards comparable judgements. Wherever possible I use rubrics (success criteria) and WAGOL’s (What A Good One Looks Like), particularly in the Mathematics Learning area and in Writing and Reading. Through introducing students to a rubric before they complete an activity, the success criteria become clear and a target is set for them to achieve. Marking against a rubric provides evidence of achievement enabling specific feedback to be given.  I am currently teaching in a double stream school so it is important that the other Year 5 teacher and myself communicate regularly to check moderating of work samples so that comparable judgements are made and report grades can be consistent.