The SDU has been closely involved in the Western Cape Education Department’s annual language and mathematics systemic testing since the province commenced large-scale testing back in 2002.
Once again in 2019 the Unit with our partner Darkdata, will be administering language and mathematics tests to Grade 3,6 and 9 learners in schools across the province. In total, over 260 000 learners in 1 413 public ordinary schools and 147 Independent schools will participate in the testing which will take place over a ten-day period in early October. In addition to administering the tests, the SDU and Darkdata will mark 520 000-odd language and mathematics scripts and undertake an extensive analysis of the data which emanates from the testing exercise.
A project of this magnitude requires meticulous planning and monitoring at every stage of the process. The scale is such that over 1 200 people are employed on short-term contracts across the various phases of the project – from the test administrators and their supervisors in the schools, to those involved in marking the thousands of scripts.
The extensive experience of the SDU in running large-scale systemic testing exercises underscores the Unit's commitment to Assessment for Learning.