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National
Test
The national test aims at achieving the following five major goals:
• To provide Ministry of Education specialists with necessary
information about the extent to which the students of the Kingdom
as a whole have achieved the major objectives of the national curriculum
for basic education, as a key element in overall quality assurance.
• To provide information about what the typical student knows,
and can do, on graduation from the cycle of basic education, as
an indicator of overall educational quality.
• To analyse the strengths and weaknesses of typical student
performance, as a basis for setting targets for strengthening overall
student learning performance.
• To provide detailed information about the strengths and weaknesses
of typical student learning achievement, as a basis for setting
priorities for developing curriculum, instructional materials and
teaching methods.
• To act as a model of good assessment practice for schools
and Directorates of Education.
Development work in this component started in the second half of
1999, in six subjects:- Islamic Education, Arabic Language, English
Language, Mathematics, Social Sciences and Science. In each subject,
the content of the textbooks for the basic stage was analysed, and
a specification document was developed covering the main content
areas and skills. In English Language, the listening skill was included.
Items were developed centrally according to the specification, piloted
and item-analysed. In each subject, a final test form was assembled
according to the specification, from the items that met the item
analysis criteria.
The first national test was administered in May 2000, on a 5% sample
of the 10th grade students in all directorates of education throughout
the Kingdom. This percentage was equivalent to about 4500 male and
female students, who were drawn from 150 schools which were randomly
selected. Equal numbers of boys’ and girls’ schools were
chosen, and the number of rural and urban schools chosen reflected
the number of rural and urban students. The number of schools selected
from each directorate of education was chosen on the basis of the
number of students in the directorate. Within each directorate,
the required number of schools were randomly selected. All the students
in a single section were tested, up to a maximum of 30. Where the
number of students in the section was less than the required minimum,
students from another section were added where possible, in alphabetical
order.
The test papers were corrected centrally, to guarantee uniformity
of criteria. The students’ results were entered to the computer
and statistically analysed. A report was prepared, including both
statistical analysis and some analysis of students’ achievement
against broad goals, and variation in performance by gender and
school.
In 2001, the process was repeated, with some modifications. The
test instruments were refined and developed. A short listening test
was introduced in Arabic language. In May 2001, the test was administered
to a 5% sample of ninth grade students including all the directorates
of education, military, private and UNRWA schools.
Specification documents and reports for 2000 and 2001 can be found
on this site.
During future years, the national testing will be extended to include
the primary stage. Item banking using item response theory (IRT)
calibration will be introduced, to allow different forms of the
national tests to be equated, for example from year to year. Up
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