National Agenda Testing in Abu Dhabi

The regulator has issued guidance for the academic year 2022-23 stating that all private schools in Abu Dhabi should administer “online standardised benchmark assessments”.

Guidance for testing with GL Education’s assessments is set out below along with recommendations for additional assessments that will help schools in developing a more complete picture of their students’ learning needs. 

ADEK has instructed schools to sign a data sharing agreement so that we are able to compile the reporting that they require. You can do this here.

Please note that Testwise, the GL onlinetesting platform, has been updated. The URL is https://www.testwise.com. When using the updated platform for the first time, you will be asked to update your password. Further information can be found here.

Testing window

The testing window for mandated Progress Test Series testing opens on 1st May 2023 and will close on 16th June.

Benchmark Testing with the PT Series – academic year 2022-23

All schools are required to carry out standardised benchmark assessments with their students in mathematics, science, and English. 

The testing should take place between 1st May and 16th June.

Find out more about the Progress Test Series here.

To support schools to meet these requirements, our Progress Tests in maths, English and science are available for schools following UK, IB, SABIS, Bangladeshi, Canadian, Pakistani, and Philippine curriculums.

Which students to test?

ADEK guidelines state that all students in Grade 3 / Year 4 to Grade 9 / Year 10 should be tested.

Refer to the table below to identify the appropriate test for each Grade / Year.

Year (UK)	Grade (IB, Others)	Level: Progress Test Maths	Progress Test English	Progress Test Science
4	3	9	9	9
5	4	10	10	10
6	5	11	11	11
7	6	12	12	Not Required
8	7	13	13	13
9	8	14	14	14
10	9	15	15	15

Individual student example

A student who is in Year 6 for academic year 2021-22 should sit the level 11 tests in April-June 2022.

Please note: 

The PT Series assessments are currently not compatible with iPads or tablet and must be administered using a desktop computer or a laptop only. Please ensure that the screen is kept at 100% zoom. You can find out more about the Testwise minimum system requirements here.

Level 11T is not available for use in the UAE.

Potential to Learn Testing with CAT4 – academic year 2022-23

We encourage schools to test with CAT4 this academic year in order to attain a reliable measure of their students’ ability. Testing with CAT4 will provide you with a unique profile of your students’ strengths and areas for development, ensuring that you know your students’ potential and can therefore set challenging but realistic targets.

The suggested grades for CAT4 testing are grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 or years 4, 6, 8 and 10.

Best practice is to test students with CAT4 every two years, while we advise new schools that have not administered CAT4 before to test the suggested grade and levels.

Schools that use CAT4 are eligible to use GL Education’s Value Added service, at no additional cost. Find out more here.

Refer to the table below to identify the appropriate test level for each grade/year.

CAT4 Level	Grade	Year
X	1	2
Pre-A	2	3
A	3	4
B	4	5
C	5	6
D	6	7
E	7	8
F	8 / 9	9 / 10
G	10 / 11	11 / 12

Understanding students’ attitudes to learning and willingness to re-engage with school

The effect on students of a prolonged absence from school is something that many schools are concerned about.

The Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) survey is a reliable benchmark of student engagement and motivation used by international schools globally. The accompanying interventions have been strengthened with the addition of new strategies to address this specific challenge.

Find out more about PASS here.

Contact us at [email protected] for more information and advice on how to use these assessments to support teaching and learning in your school.

Data Sharing Agreement and Declaration of Use

All schools are required to sign and return a data sharing agreement. This enables us to share assessment data with school inspectors and regulators to support school evaluation. Bespoke inspection reports cannot be shared with you until we have received a signed agreement. Please note that all PT Series test data (including archived data) will be shared with the regulator.

Complete DataSharing Agreement here.

If you have any queries about data sharing, please contact us on [email protected]

Updating Student Records

During registration, schools must clearly identify all Emirati students and provide the eSIS ID for each student. Click here for further guidance on how to achieve this on the Testwise platform.  

Please see the video below for guidance on updating your student records.

Training

We offer a wide range of online training courses to support schools in using individual assessments as well as in analysing data from a wide range of tests to gain greater insight. With options including timetabled presentations, moderated courses with flexible working and completely self-guided content it’s easy to find a course that suits your needs and schedule.

This year we are also offering a range of training opportunities for schools in the UAE. These are available for you to register now and will cover:

Testwise: Updating for the new academic year

PASS: Identifying learning and wellbeing priorities

CAT4: Getting more from your data

NGRT: Using data to support literacy

Find out about all our other training courses here.