A group of people or things dealt with as a unit, especially in processing or production contexts. In education, it often refers to a group of students processed together or assessed simultaneously.
From Old English 'bacan' meaning 'to bake,' originally referring to the amount of bread baked at one time. The meaning expanded to any group of items processed or produced together in one operation.
The word comes from baking! A batch was originally all the loaves baked together in one oven session - that's why we still talk about 'batch processing' in computers and 'batches' of students, like they're all being 'baked' together!
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