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FOREWORD BY DIRECTOR GENERAL 4 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PURPOSE OF ANNUALNATIONAL ASSESSMENTS 5 3. THE PRESENTATION OF THE RESULTS6 3.1 Quantitative information 6 3.2 Qualitative information 8 4. LIMITATIONS OF THE ANA INFORMATION11 5. THE USE OF THE RESULTS 11 5.1 Broad application11 5.2 Specific use at different levels of the system12 6. REPORTING 19 6.1 Reporting results to parents19 6.2 Reporting learner achievement to the Head of Department 19 7. MONITORING 20 7.1 Target setting20 7.2 Monitoring of schools and Districts 20 8.
It is my privilege to release together with the Report on the Results of the Annual National Assessment, a Guideline on the Interpretation and Use of ANA results, at school, district and provincial levels of the Education system. ANA results are not an end in themselves, but a means to learner improvement and therefore appropriate utilisation of these results must be supported and facilitated at each of the levels of the schooling system.
In South Africa for many years, there has been much focus on learner performance at the Grade 12 level.
This has created much hype around the SeniorCertificateand National SeniorCertificateexamination results.
However, over the last few years, there has been a strong realisation that to improve Grade 12 results, the performance of learners in lower grades have to improve. Therefore in, Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025, which has 27 goals the first three goals relate to outputs in Grades 3, 6 and 9.
Increase the number of learners in grade 3 who by the end of the year, have mastered the minimum language an numeracy competencies for Grade 3.
Increase the number of learners in grade 6 who by the end of the year have mastered the minimum language and mathematics competencies for Grade 6.
Increase the number of learners in grade 9 who by the end of the year have mastered the minimum language and mathematics competencies for Grade 9.
However, there has been insufficient, credible measurement of the quality of teaching and learning below Grade 12. Without credible monitoring of what learners learn, it is not possible for parents and district officials or teachers themselves to know what action needs to be taken. Therefore, the output of establishing a world class system of standardised national assessment is the priority of the Department of Education. This system essentially involves having all learners in key grades and learning areas sit for standardised tests which are comparable across provinces and schools.
Guideline which will assist in enhancing your role as a change agent in the educational transformation process.
Information is the basis for any successful improvement process and I am confident that the ANA results will equip you with the information that is an accurate reflection of the health of the system.
Thank you for your committed and dedicated support.
MR PB SOOBRAYAN DIRECTOR GENERAL: BASIC EDUCATION 28 June 2011 1.
The results of ANA should be seen as complimenting and further supporting the assessment programmes used by schools to continuously assess the progress of learners. The ANA results will form an important part of the school academic performance improvement plans (APIP).
The guidelines outline the purpose of ANA, the manner in which the results have been presented and should beinterpretedandused. Boththebroad andspecificpurposes forwhichtheresults shouldbeusedat different levels of the system are given. Finally and most importantly, the guideline outlines how ANA results should be integrated into all the programmes in the schooling system.
The purpose of ANA is to track learner performance each year in Literacy and Numeracy as the Department works towards the goal of improving learner performance in line with commitments made by government. The ANA results will be used to monitor progress, guide planning and the distribution of resources to help improve Literacy/Language and Numeracy/Mathematics knowledge and skills of learners in the grades concerned.
ANA data is limited to assessing only Literacy and Numeracy knowledge and skills in the targeted grades. However, this does not mean that other subjects or learning areas are less important. Literacy and Numeracy have been identified as critical competencies that underpin educational success across the board. It has been shown that an improvement in Literacy and Numeracy will translate into an improvement in other subjects.
The results will be used for both broad and specific purposes and at different levels of the system to realise improvements in the levels and quality of learner performance (see Annexure).
The ANA results provide valuable baseline information for the system to benchmark performance in both Literacy and Numeracy and provide a measure so as to track progress over the years towards the achievement of set targets.
For grades 3 and 6, the analysis of items will be provided and will be used to develop a range of courses to support teachers to improve teaching and assessment in the areas identified as problematic. The courses will be immediate, "Just in time", other short and longer term.
In areas of particular weakness, the results will give clear indication of any additional learning materials to be developed both by the teacher or subject specialist to support classroom teaching and assessment.
Districts will develop focused interventions, based on what the results show, for schools that need them the most. Schools will be able to set annual targets in relation to the national benchmark of 60% of learners achieving acceptable levels in Literacy and Numeracy by 2014.
For learners, information will be provided on the skill areas where they are strong and where they experience challenges. Information from ANA will be used to direct teachers towards particular kinds of teacher development programmes and to engage seriously with school principals around what the problems in the school are.
ANA results will enable districts, parents and schools to have a standard source of information to determine which schools, learners and teachers are most urgently in need of support. They will be alerted to programmes that may not be working as intended, for instance, filling critical teaching posts, ensuring that schools receive full allocation of resources in line with the funding policy, etc.
However, ANA results will not be used as a basis for providing more than the normal amount of resources for a school as this could produce a situation where schools deliberately perform poorly in order to attract additional resources. Instead, the current approach of providing more resources to poorer school communities to compensate for home background disadvantage should be continued.
At the heart of all school improvement efforts is the important understanding that learning can and should improve on a continuous basis. Learners come to school to learn, to find new challenges and to gain new understandings. The role of schools and classrooms is to create environments that enable learners to learn meaningfully using evidence to guide all decisions about learners and learning. The information that is generated from assessments is key evidence to continuous improvement in learning and teaching. It must be used to inform all decisions, plans and programmes for improvement.
Decisions and plans on what, when and how to teach must be informed by the evidence that comes out of the assessments, both school-based and ANA assessments.
"What is the overall level of literacy/numeracy competency of my class?
Calculate the average score percent obtained by the learners in each of the literacy and numeracy tests (Sum of the scores obtained by individual learners divided by the number of learners and expressed as a percentage1).
of or above the total test score), then the class as a whole has achieved the "acceptable" level of performance in that particular subject (literacy or numeracy), BUT some individual learners may not have achieved the acceptable level. Remember, we must have evidence that every learner succeeds!
If the average score in the subject is less than half of the total expected test score, then the class as a whole has NOT achieved the "acceptable" level of performance in that particular subject, ALTHOUGH some individual learners may have achieved the acceptable level.
Decide whether the evidence suggests that it is the whole class or part of the class that requires focused attention to help them improve their performance.
ii Which learners in my class have not achieved the acceptable levels of performance in each of literacy and numeracy?
iii What were the knowledge and skills that the underperforming learners could not demonstrate in the tests?
Find out in which individual test questions learners obtained the lowest scores in each subject, i.e. challenging questions, as indicated by the Question Analysis data.
Use your professional knowledge of the subject to find out the knowledge and skills that the learners required in order to answer each of the challenging questions correctly.
Develop focused teaching strategies to teach the knowledge and skills that the evidence at hand shows were lacking among the learners and, as a result, they found specific questions challenging. For example, learners who could not answer questions that required knowledge of operations on different types of fractions may be lacking either the conceptual knowledge of fractions or the techniques required for this purpose or both. In literacy, learners who could not answer questions based on reading comprehension passages may be lacking 'reading fluency' skills.
Decide whether you will need any specific professional support in order to effectively teach the identified knowledge and skills which your learners lack, e.g.
(i.e. addition, subtraction, division or multiplication) on different types of fractions, or expert guidance on how to teach 'reading fluency'.
Decide if there are any specific resources that you will need to enable you to teach the knowledge and skills that evidence shows are lacking among your learners. If so, decide if the required resources are readily available at school or need to be obtained from outside the school and submit your request to the SMT.
iv How will the collected evidence be used to improve learner performance?
Record the average score percent of your class in each subject as baseline information, i.e. the starting point towards improvement, and set a target score.
Decide on the amount (as a percentage) by which you want the average score percent of your class to increase in the next round of assessment. For instance, if the current average score of your class is 45% (baseline), you may decide that you want this score to increase by 5% to 50% (target).
"What are you going to do differently to achieve your target?
Develop teaching strategies that will ensure that each of your learners learns effectively.
Set tests of high quality that include questions which challenge learners in the target knowledge and skills that you want them to improve and assess regularly through both informal formative assessment and summative assessment (e.g. weekly, monthly and quarterly tests) to monitor if average class scores (in percentage) increase.
Ask your learners to set personal improvement targets as well and provide them with continual feedback at individual level, i.e. discuss with each of them whether their scores are improving, remaining the same or decreasing.
"What is the baseline performance of our school in literacy and numeracy?
Collect mark schedules from class teachers and find out what the average scores (in percentages) in each grade are.
If the average score in a grade is equal to or greater than half of the total expected score (50% of or above the total test score), then the grade as a whole has achieved the "acceptable" level of performance, BUT some individual learners may not have achieved the acceptable level. Remember, we must have evidence that every learner succeeds!
If the average score in a grade is less than half of the total expected test score, then the grade as a whole has NOT achieved the "acceptable" level of performance, ALTHOUGH some individual learners may have achieved the acceptable level.
"What kind of support needs to be given to teachers in the underperforming grades" To have evidence-based answers to this question?
Discuss with the affected grade teacher(s) which learners in the grade are underperforming. Are they mostly girls or boys Are they learners who are often absent from school (from attendance registers) Are they learners who receive little or no educational support at home Is there anything common among the underperforming learners that require interventions at school level, e.g. policies regulating learner attendance, parental involvement, etc.?
Discuss with the affected grade teacher(s) the specific professional support that they have identified as their need and assist to get the assistance within the school or from the district.
Pool the resource needs identified by grade teachers and prioritise these in the school budget on short-, medium and long-term basis. Short-term could be six months or less, medium-term one year and long-term two years.
"How will the collected evidence be used to improve learner performance?
Discuss with all grade teachers what they propose as improvement targets based on the current baseline average scores.
Ensure that targets are meaningful. For instance, targets that that can be achieved easily without challenging the learning abilities of learners are not helpful.
In collaboration with grade teachers, identify individual learners who may have been provided with or may need more learning support (especially in the case of a learner with identified learning barriers).
"What are you going to do differently to achieve your targets?
Ensure that school remedial programmes address teacher development, learner support, subject support, material support or possible re-organisation.
Provide support to ensure school functionality.
Analyse performance of all the schools in his/her circuit. This will entail looking at the average score per school, per subject, per grade, together with the acceptable level of performance of each school, per subject, per grade.
Every school that has an average score of below 50%, and an acceptable level of performance, below 50%, in a particular subject and grade, must be regarded as under-performing.
Management competency of the principal.
Collective management competency of the SMT.
Vacant posts at the school, which includes SMT.
Qualifications and experience of the teachers, in the subjects where poor performance is noted.
Availability of LTSM at the school, in the identified subjects (e.g. Mathematics).
Are teachers spending the required time on the subject?
A visit by the circuit manager and the subject specialist.
During the school visit the school principal, SMT and the teacher must be interviewed to establish the specific reasons for the under-performance.
Collectively, an improvement plan must be established, targeting the specific areas of under performance and clear improvement strategies.
Together with the management and the teacher, a school target must be set for the school in the specified subject.
The circuit manager and the subject specialist must on a continuous basis support the school in terms of the implementation of the improvement plan and monitor the improvement.
Collect all annual reports from schools in his/her circuit.
Cluster schools and identify common areas of support.
Develop a circuit intervention plan based on plans submitted by the schools in the circuit with clearly defined targets.
Support schools in providing identified needs such as textbooks and resources.
Work in conjunction with the circuit manager to analyse the quantitative data per school and identify schools that demonstrate poor performance, in specific subjects.
Identify the reasons for poor performance at the identified schools, based on the evidence that he/ she has available regarding the school. This will include the factors listed in (a) (iii) above and more specifically the teaching competency of the teachers where under-performance is identified.
Together with the circuit manager visit the school and identify the reasons for the poor performance.
Knowledge and skills deficiency in particular aspects of the subject.
Planning a teaching programme and preparation for a lesson.
Development of an assessment programme.
Development of assessment tasks that are of appropriate standard.
Marking of assessment tasks.
Train the teachers in conducting item analysis at school level.
Development of remedial programme targeting specific areas of weakness.
Conduct a question analysis on a sample of scripts from across the schools in the circuit or from the item analysis reports of the schools, identify the common areas of weakness across the district/circuit.
Development of support material.
Monitor and support the under-performing schools and teachers and provide them with feedback with progress made, based on their agreed target.
Analyse the quantitative data per district, to identify poor performing districts and schools.
Support poor performing districts in developing their remedial programme.
Identify areas of weakness relating to particular learning areas and grades. The PED must develop special support programmes directed at these specific learning areas.
Agree on targets for each district and monitor these districts with regard to reaching these targets.
Must use the ANA results to inform the APIP.
Monitor the national progress on learner achievement in mathematics and languages against set targets.
Use the ANA results as a systemic tool for the development of policy, review and support.
Write annually, a national report that informs parents and relevant stakeholders on the results of learners.
Write and amend guidelines on the utilisation of results.
Construct a management plan for the interventions with based on the results.
releases them. It is suggested that ANA results be incorporated into the learners' quarterly report cards. The report card containing ANA results must be discussed and explained to parents.
A summary of the results with a school improvement plan needs to be tabled at the governing body meeting after the release of the ANA results within the spirit of Section 16A of the South African Schools Act. This must reflect how the school will effectively utilise available resources to improve on the shortcomings raised by the report. The SMT together with the SGB must drive this national initiative to ensure that all parents are aware of ANA, its importance and overall strategy to improve learner academic achievement.
Parents will receive reports on learner performance that indicates areas of difficulty in terms of concept and skill development, as well as what support their learners need.
As part of their legal obligation, school principals are supposed to complete and submit an Annual Academic Report to the Head of Department for consideration.
Report by principals is a legislated requirement in Section 16A of the South African Schools Act of 1996, as amended. The report is expected not to only contain the academic performance of that school in relation to minimum outcomes and standard and procedures for assessment determined by the Minister in terms of Section A, but must include the effective use of available resources.
The ANA results will form an important part of the school academic performance improvement plans (APIP).
Provinces, districts and schools will use their current respective results as baseline information and then set improvement targets. Targets need to be both realistic and meaningful. To be realistic targets need to take into consideration available resources and capacity. To be meaningful they must not be too low or too high.
External IQMS moderators will be visiting feeder schools to under-performing schools and districts from July 2011. The focus of their visits will not only be to monitor IQMS implementation, but the factors that impact on the quality of teaching and learning. They will also be visiting District offices to monitor their performance as well as the quality of support they are rendering to their schools.
This intervention will contribute, firstly in orientating the schools that they are visiting as well as the district offices, in understanding and interpreting the content of this guideline document. In addition, moderators will play a role in monitoring whether reports have been completed and submitted on time, and whether planned interventions are taking place. In this way, struggling schools can be identified and assistance provided. The monitoring reports will be able to assist the DBE to assess the level of utilisation of these ANA results, as well as the level of remedial action that is being undertaken by schools and districts.
The utilisation of the ANA results will be monitored on an ongoing basis across the education system.
Components of the system that fail to utilise the results appropriately will be identified and targeted for special support. The effective utilisation of the ANA data will contribute to moving the system to the next level and it calls for a united and concerted effort from all involved in education.