National Performance Assessment in a South African Context: A Case Study of Issues of Classroom Implementation and Task Design

In this qualitative study of one urban South African Grade 9 mathematics classroom we examine how the classroom teacher interpreted and implemented the national assessment tool known as the Common Tasks for Assessment (CTA). We examine the teacher's actions and students' responses, focusing on two fundamental components of the CTA design rationale - the notion of addressing barriers to learning, and the use of real life, performance based assessments. Our analysis reveals six issues of concern in the conduct of the CTA - knowledge gaps, task language, information overload, lexical density, messy numbers and real life contexts. We conclude by examining the implications of the study for classroom practice and the design of assessment tasks in mathematics.