By KATE HUNTER
Next week two of my three kids will sit the NAPLAN tests, and I couldn’t care less.
Seriously, if the testing was done and I wasn’t informed of my kids’ individual results I wouldn’t be bothered at all.
But I seem to be alone in my ambivalence. There are NAPLAN preparation books on sale at Coles, and parents are saying no to birthday parties and soccer camps this weekend so their kids are ‘fresh’ for the tests. Teachers are pulling their hair out and private tutors are raking in the cash.
My understanding is the test was introduced so the government would have accurate information about which schools need more resources. Who’s falling between the cracks? How are ten year old kids in north Queensland doing compared to ten year olds in western Sydney?
The concept of a standardised test is a great one, in my opinion. That’s stuff administrators and legislators need to know. No problem at all with my kids sitting the tests.
It’s how the results are being used that burns my crumpets.
Because from where I sit, it’s being used as (a) a cheap selection tool for private and independent school principals and (b) fuel for people to feel either smug or ashamed about how their kids’ school ‘performs.’
Over the past couple of years I’ve applied for places at 5 independent schools for my kids. Every one asked for NAPLAN results to be supplied. A couple did not even ask to interview us or meet our kids.
It seems they’re using NAPLAN as a cheap, easy way to choose the best and brightest. It’s that and the usual old boy / old girl network and a family’s ability to pay the fees.
The last two I think are fair enough, they’re businesses after all, but asking for NAPLAN results is wrong because it’s not what the tests were designed for. If a school wants to select academically, fine, but they should do their own testing.
Interestingly some of the most expensive private schools don’t ask for NAPLAN results, they’re happy to take anyone whose name was on the list at conception and can pay the $20k a year.
But it’s not a private v public school thing. Bloody myschool.com.whatever pits all schools against each other.
Publishing a school’s results makes ‘school browsing’ a new kind of recreation. The schools that do ‘badly’ will haemorrhage students (and funding) and those that do ‘well’ will be swamped. The divide between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ schools will get wider and all kids and families will suffer, but the ones at the ‘bad’ schools will suffer worst.
People will reject the school down the road and travel ridiculous distances for ‘the best’ even if it’s inconvenient and unaffordable. Schools used to be the heart of a community. Kids walked to school together, knocked about on weekends and parents socialised. It wasn’t about, ‘what’s best for my particular child,’ but what’s right for us as a family, as a community.
Now education is a commodity. Something to be shopped for, like a fridge or a new car. And no kid will be taken seriously by the salesperson unless there’s a decent NAPLAN result in their back pocket.
I realise the NAPLAN genie is out of the bottle, and it would be nice to think NAPLAN stress is something parents could choose to buy into or not. But as long as results are being requested as proof of a kid’s ability and myschool publishes results like some kind of academic Tripadvisor, the ante will continue to be upped.
How do you feel about the way NAPLAN data is used? Do you care about your kids results?
Top Comments
Kate, you are so right to question the efficacy of Naplan Testing. The
failure of many students to complete the persuasive writing question on the
2014 NAPLAN is symptomatic of the fact that many of our children are not being taught the fundamental skill of learning. Despite being poorly constructed, that question could have been at least partially decoded by students, if their brains understood how to physically process (i.e. make sense of
and complete) writing tasks. The results demonstrate very clearly, that young
students are not being taught how to train their brains to learn. Australian fourth
graders were ranked number 27 for Literacy achievement in the world, in
the most recent (2011) International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement (IEA) testing. And we are unlikely to see any real
improvement in the upcoming 2016 IEA testing,until primary educators focus upon
activities that will actively assist students to develop the skill of learning.
Parents need to learn how they can help their children now. Changing the education system is beyond most of us, and we can't afford to wait 5 to 10
years for the system to improve. Families can work with an educational
consultant who focuses on brain processing to develop learning skills in children.
Our family has seen truly remarkable results.
My son 'failed' the previous Naplan's written component (on the topic of cooking) and that too was attributed to poor test design. But the school used those test results to move him to a remedial literacy group. That's when we too sought outside help. Our son is not a genius, but he was never remedial and the school's use of Naplan to label him as such was unjust. We found a former teacher who works as a consultant and focuses on the skill of learning. Within 4 months our son was in the top literacy group and he has remained there even as he has moved to a higher grade.
My son 'failed' the previous Naplan's persuasive writing component (on the topic of cooking). The underwhelming results that year were also attributed to poor test design. Nevertheless, the school used those results to move my son into a remedial literacy group. He is not a genius, but he was never remedial. We too sought outside help. We heard about a great consultant (a former teacher) who focuses on the skill of learning. Within 4 months our son was moved to the top literacy group and he has remained there even as he has moved up a grade. Naplan is supposed to help schools identify their weak spots so they can improve delivery in those areas of their curriculum. But I don't know anyone who's seen that outcome.
First thing us first, NAPLAN scores are averages and in no way reflect the progress of individual students within a class or across years. Some kid can get a high score A+ and balance out two others with low scores C-, the problem kids won't show up in NAPLAN because the school average will be something like B. Don't bother comparing NAPLAN across schools, it's useless for that. So many principals like to show off with their average, but they are probably relying on parental tuition or kumon for their scores, not the teachers. They bring out the NAPLAN scores when they want to boast about their students an teachers, although they know it means little. NAPLAN is only useful to gauge your child against average performance.
Secondly, for NAPLAN should really publich distribution charts and medians, this would be immensely more helpful for parents, teachers, schools and anyone else interested. The same distribution charts that are mandated by the government in national curriculum based Report Cards these days. Take a look at your childs report card and you'll see the distribution figures. It's more helpful to see where your child is in relation to other children in his subjects. But, NAPLAN don't publish that information and while principals and teachers have it, they don't show parents.
What best then is to look at report cards and rely on ongoing tests to gauge your kids performance, because if you just ask your teacher most likely political correctness sets it and they just tell you junior is doing fine. Don't trust them, rely on tests, figures and your own intuition.
Some of those comments about more worrying about walking in a seeing happy learners, that's great, but you need your kids to actually learn something too, solid facts, concepts and methods so they can build on it later. Don't make the mistake of thinking happiness in the classroom = learning the right things.
A lot of wishy washy comments and learning other skills as more important, these come naturally as basic content is analysed and used, don't walk before you can crawl.
If you don't think having a solid educational grounding is important, think of that next time you are in your surgeons waiting room or traveling in a plane. If they were taught how many children are these days....