Presently, a plethora of instruments designed to assess a mathematical skill, disposition, or
competence prevail in South Africa. Yet few of them adhere to the basic requirements of the
unidimensionality and invariance of measures. The Marko-D is a mathematical instrument
designed to test learners between the ages of 4 and 8. The instrument, thus far, appears to adhere
to the central tenets of fundamental measurement, which hold that a test should be invariant
across different groups of people and that it should measure a single variable to a level of pre-
cision that is useful practically and theoretically. The Marko-D was used to assess the mathe-
matical competence of 249 foundation phase pupils. Even though we cannot conclude at this
stage that the Marko-D satisfies the requirements of invariance and unidimensionality com-
pletely, this study provides an elucidation of the need for invariant assessments in South African
education.

doi: 10.15700/201412071158