Will NAPLAN Changes Benefit Students?

There are big changes ahead for NAPLAN, including reducing the assessment bands from 10 to four, holding the test in March not May, moving the test online and introducing a new panel to oversee changes.

The idea is to simplify the assessment and gain insights into students’ performance at the beginning of the year which might be worked on in the following months. But the simplification of NAPLAN testing bands might come at the cost of relevant, granular information when more investigation is needed around equity issues

Professor of Education Leadership, Jeff Brooks (Curtin University) says, “While I am pleased to see changes to NAPLAN, and particularly welcome ACARA establishing a panel of teachers to deliberate and set new standards, I also have many questions and concerns. First, there needs to be heightened scrutiny of equity issues around the administration, assessment and consequences of NAPLAN. For example, what is the impact of an increased literacy standard for students who speak English as a second language, or for students in remote and regional education settings?

"Second, simplifying scorecards sounds like a good idea, but will we lose nuance and detail that might help parents, teachers and students identify exactly where improvement is needed…and who will provide the differentiation and support for students who excel or fall below the standard?

"Third, any time we make a change in an education setting or system, we should ask ourselves what is the original purpose of the endeavour and what are the potential intended and unintended consequences of that change. If these changes are developmental, that is, if they are meant to provide better information that will help shape teaching and learning, then I welcome them. If instead NAPLAN is used as a tool that makes a wholistic judgement (with attendant consequences) about a student rather than taking the data as a performance “snapshot” that can only ever be a limited representation of an educational process or outcome, we are heading down the wrong path."

Professor Susanne Gannon, Western Sydney University, thinks that the NAPLAN bands have been poorly understood by parents and four levels of reporting will be more accessible.

“Education Ministers’ adjustments to NAPLAN indicate that they are at last responding to some of the more trenchant critiques of NAPLAN. Bringing NAPLAN testing forward will hopefully make it more useful where it really matters – in schools and classrooms.

"The NAPLAN bands have been poorly understood by parents and four levels of reporting will be more accessible. Pleasingly, the new descriptor for the lowest quartile - ‘Needs additional support’ – puts the onus on the school and school systems to respond to student needs. That means that staffing and professional expertise in literacy, numeracy and inclusive education support must be prioritised.

"Providing results in July means schools can make more effective use of the data. It is likely that the earlier provision of results will mean that many schools will have robust evidence about their need for additional resources. Parents might be able to resist the inclination to shuffle their children from school to school as a reaction to media headlines, school rankings, and promotional campaigns from the independent sector. Alliances might form between parents and schools to support greater action by state and federal Ministers to address deeply the entrenched divisions that have become baked into Australian schooling.

Image by Todd Trapani