2018 National Assessment of Mathematics in the First Grade of Secondary Education in Flanders (A-stream)

In 2018 a national assessment was carried out, which was commissioned by the Flemish government, to assess the extent to which students have achieved the attainment targets for mathematics at the end of the first grade of secondary education (A-stream). This assessment is a reiteration of the previous national assessment on mathematics conducted in 2009. Data were collected through 10 written tests covering 4 domains: (1) number sense, (2) algebra, (3) data and (4) geometry. A representative sample of 2985 students from 104 Flemish secondary schools participated. Each student took 5 tests. Tests were supplemented with background questionnaires for students, parents and mathematics teachers. The questionnaires collected, among other things, information on general background characteristics of students and their families, students' and parents' attitudes, classroom practices and teachers' didactic approaches. The response rate to the student questionnaire was 96%. Teachers were able to complete part of the questionnaire online, for which the response rate was 93%. For the paper part, the response rate was 86%.