| 1. |
Introduction
The Senior Certificate is subjected to a quality assurance process that is led by the quality assurance agency, Umalusi. Quality assurance of assessment includes moderating provincial departmental examination systems, moderating both national and provincial question papers, monitoring the conduct of the examinations, monitoring the marking process and the statistical adjustment of marks. The statistical approach to adjusting the marks is used during national and provincial standardisation meetings for the Senior Certificate, ABET and vocational education. Previous information regarding the standardisation process appeared in Circular 0076/2002.
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| 2. |
Purpose of standardisation
Standardisation is conducted in order to ensure that standards of the Senior Certificate are maintained across years, subjects and examination authorities. It aims to deliver a constant product to higher education institutions and employers.
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| 3. |
General principles in standardisation
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| 3.1 |
Raw marks which are close to the norm are not normally adjusted.
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| 3.2 |
Both positive and negative adjustments may be made.
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| 3.3 |
No adjustments of more than 10 percent will take place in either direction except in exceptional cases.
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| 3.4 |
No candidate's marks will be adjusted to below the mark required for a converted pass at a lower grade.
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| 3.5 |
Adjustments will not be more than 50% of the candidate's mark, e.g. at 10%, marks may be adjusted by no more than 5%.
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| 3.6 |
Comments by the chief examiner and the internal moderator are taken into account in considering adjustments to the marks.
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| 3.7 |
Where the number of candidates is too small to provide a statistical model, no adjustment is usually made. Marks from subjects with small numbers of candidates are generally not adjusted.
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| 4. |
Standardisation process includes the following:
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| 4.1 |
Ogiving consists of a comparison of the median and the distribution of a particular year's marks for a subject and grade with those of previous years and with a norm made up from the raw marks of the previous five years. The purpose is to attempt to match the median and the distribution by adjusting marks no more than 10%. In the case of provincial papers, no individual school's marks are examined in the process whereas in the case of the national common papers, no individual province's results are taken into account in the process.
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| 4.2 |
Pairs analysis is a comparison of the average marks of a group of candidates in a subject (anchor subject) with those of the same group of candidates in other subjects. The purpose is to make a comparison between the level of performance of a group of candidates in various subjects in the same examination.
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| 4.3 |
Besides the statistical data, the panels also consider qualitative reports from the chief markers and moderators when making decisions regarding the adjustment of marks.
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| 4.4 |
Schools should note that practical marks are included in the standardisation process as these components are regarded as part of the examination. Only CASS marks are not included in the standardisation process.
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| 5. |
Continuous Assessment marks
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| 5.1 |
According to Umalusi, a comparison between examination marks and CASS marks suggested that many teachers are not yet competent in allocating CASS marks. The CASS mark is often significantly higher than the examination marks in certain subjects. Adjustments are performed for each subject in a particular school. As this is done per subject, there is no adjustment process involving the overall pass rates of schools.
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| 5.2 |
The following table provides an indication of the statistical adjustment that is done for a particular subject in a school:
| 5.2.1 | The school's CASS average is more than 10% above the school's examination average | CASS adjusted downward to 5% above the exam mean of the school |
| 5.2.2 | School's CASS average is below the school's examination average | CASS adjusted upwards to 5% above the exam mean of the school |
| 5.2.3 | CASS average between 5% - 10% above the school's examination average | No adjustment of CASS |
| 5.2.4 | Standard deviation of the CASS marks of the school too narrow relative to standard deviation of the school's examination marks | CASS mark is ignored and all candidates obtain 1,25% added to their examination mark |
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| 5.3 |
Finally, there will be a compensation of 5% on the final mark for non-language subjects for candidates whose home language is an African language. Further analysis will be conducted on this issue by Umalusi.
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| 6. |
Integrity of the standardisation process
Educators and learners can be assured that the highest standards of integrity are maintained throughout this process. In the possible adjustment of marks in the provincial papers, no individual school is singled out, while in the possible adjustment of marks in the national common papers, no individual province will be singled out. The Western Cape Education Department is satisfied that all its candidates will be treated fairly in this process, and the Department is well represented at the meetings that discuss the results in December.
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| 7. |
Kindly bring this information to the attention of all teachers at your school. |
SIGNED: M. CAMERON
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2007:007:30
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