Since 2016

Every year we conduct many thousands of online assessments of students in mathematics and language across the grades in a wide spectrum of South African schools.

One of the most popular assessments is the year-end benchmark assessments typically conducted in October and early November. The year-end benchmark assessments in language and mathematics are available for grades 1 to 11 in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa (other languages are available according to demand). These assessments provide schools with a trusted external benchmark of their school and students.

Participating schools can either participate independently (receiving only the results for their school), or they can participate as part of the greater collective and have their results contribute (anonymously) to the combined results of all participating students and schools.

In so doing the school’s results contribute to establishing norms and averages across the grades, in turn, enabling them to compare their results with those of the participating schools and students. In 2019 more than 16,000 private school students and well over 100,000 government school students participated in one or more of the available assessments.

Schools have access to a wide range of analyses, from performance data at the granularity of the test items to performance data aggregated by curriculum topic and cognitive level. At the school, and school group-level, data is provided at the individual student, class and grade level. The key benefit of participation is the robust analysis that schools receive which enables then to benchmark their performance against other South African schools while at the same time taking advantage of the detailed, easy-to-use, data with which to improve learning and support teachers to develop interventions at the grade, class and learner level.

The benchmark assessments also allow for a year on year comparisons, enabling schools and school groups to monitor trends and evaluate the impact of their responses to the lessons learned from one year to next. At this stage, there are already schools who have participated for long enough to enable them to compare the year groups across a number of grades and even to track their progress of their primary school students into the early high school years.

Although the assessments are digitally administered, the question types are not limited to multiple-choice and one-word responses. Drawing on artificial intelligence (AI) informed marking approaches we are able to incorporate a wide range of question types which, in turn, force students to engage at a more cognitively demanding level. Rubrics are used to evaluate free text and essay type responses with results being available a few short days after the students have completed the assessments.

New schools are invited to pilot a grade at no charge in their first year if they like, or they can subscribe and administer the assessments to all of their students across all of the grades.

Schools that, additionally, opt to deploy JumpTrak™ as their learning management system (LMS) enjoy the additional benefit of JumpTrak’s Smart-Learning adaptive Library where learners can monitor their own progress. A learner’s JumpTrak™ Library content is aligned to their personalised learning needs and pathways. Using the JumpTrak™ platform, teachers are able to publish textbooks, lessons and associated learning material directly to the classroom or to leverage off the growing JumpTrak’™’ catalogue of our own digital resources.

Registration for participation in the independent benchmarks assessments closes at the end of September. The JumpTrak™ team is standing by to assist schools with all that is needed, from on boarding the student details, to support with the deployment of the App, administration of the assessments and navigating the wide range of reporting that is available to schools.

We look forward to starting (or continuing) this journey with you!

Costing*

Each assessment is R48 per assessment or R81.60 for both Language and Mathematics.Prices exclude VAT.

* Non-Profit pricing is a 30% discount off the unit prices.

Grade 8-12 Baseline Diagnostics

The Baseline Diagnostics are typically administered early in the year but can be used throughout the year. Use these to inform any bridging requirements to help learners to successfully transition into High School or to help orientate a new learner to the school midway through the year.

The diagnostic will give you the following for your learners, classes and schools: -

• Averages and curriculum topics scores
• A grade level developmental score
• Bridging requirements from identifiable gaps in topics
• At the beginning of the Grade 8 year this is particularly useful to identify bridging gaps as learners transition from Primary School to High School.
• Grade 12's can use their diagnostics in identifying areas of focus before the final year exam.

The Baseline Diagnostics cost R62 per assessment or R105.40 for both Language and Mathematics per learner. Prices exclude VAT of 15%.

Grade 1-7 Mathematics Diagnostics Tools

The Grade 1 – 7 Mathematics Diagnostic tools have been developed to assist teachers and schools in determining the grade equivalent mathematics performance levels for students.

The assessment assesses performance on the range of skills for the subject. Each skill is assessed at a range of developmental levels. The student progresses through the assessment via extend and halt gates based on their performance on each skill and level. On completion of the assessment, the student is assigned to a grade equivalent developmental level based on their dominant performance level across the skills. 

Knowing the grade equivalent developmental level of the child will enable the teacher to provide targeted intervention to support the student.

The Diagnostic Tools cost R52.00 per tool or R88.40 for both Language and Mathematics per learner. Prices exclude VAT of 15%.