This study has analysed the performance of pupils in reading in the provincial school systems of South Africa using a “Traditional View” and an “Alternative View” of school system performance. Two views of school system performance were used to identify the “best school system” and to determine the usefulness and meaningfulness of each view of school system performance as a tool for making cross-provincial comparisons of school system performance.

The data used in this study were derived from the SACMEQ II Project and stored within the SACMEQ Data Archives. These data were collected as part of SACMEQ’s second large-scale educational policy research project conducted by the 14 Ministries that comprise the SACMEQ network of countries in Southern and Eastern Africa.

One of the premises in this attempt to identify a useful and meaningful view of school system performance in pupils’ reading and writing skills was that the socioeconomic status (or background) of the pupil’s family could determine his or her achievements.

The relationship between the socioeconomic statuses of pupils’ home backgrounds and their academic achievements was explored in the review of literature and in the overview of previous research undertaken on the evaluation of the quality of education in the provincial school systems of South Africa.

A socioeconomic status construct developed by Dolata (2005) was employed that was based on the educational level of parents; the quality of the family home; and family goods.

The general conclusion was that a more useful and meaningful view of school system performance was the “Alternative View” as it took into consideration the influence that the socioeconomic status of the pupil intakes could have on the academic achievement of pupils.