Arnhem, 3 September 2008

Cito 40 years

On September 4, 2008, Cito celebrated its fortieth anniversary. Since it was founded in 1968 Cito has been located in Arnhem, where it began as a small institute in a private home with two staff members. It has since developed into a major organisation with 500 staff. With offices in Germany, Turkey, and the United States, Cito has a top-three ranking in the international world of testing. Agencies in Japan and Korea also work on behalf of Cito.

Foundation

One of Cito’s co-founders was Adriaan de Groot, who passed away in 2006. In 1958, he visited Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States, an institute engaged in measuring learning achievement. As there was at the time no such institute in the Netherlands, upon his return Adriaan de Groot, impressed by what he saw at ETS, proposed the establishment of a similar institute in the Netherlands. His proposal led to the 1967 memorandum entitled Memorandum for the Establishment of A Central Institute for Test Development. One year later, the Central Institute for Test Development (Cito) was a fact.

Activities

High-quality and fair testing is Cito’s task. Cito’s assessment and monitoring methods provide objective evaluations of individual’s knowledge, skills, and competencies, which can be used to make sound decisions regarding personal and professional development. Cito uses its expertise not only to carry out its own tasks, but also offers advice, support, and research to others. Cito is active in pre-school education, primary education, secondary education, professional and adult education, higher education and the corporate world.

The Book Chest project

To celebrate its fortieth anniversary, Cito held a fundraising campaign among its staff to fund the Book Chest project. This project provides schools in townships in the Cape Town region with chests containing children’s books in the recognised languages of several population groups, such as English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, and Zulu. The Cito board also donated a sum to this project. The total sum of money that was raised was announced during a celebration event on September 19 by Cito’s Chief Executive Officer, Marten Roorda.