Schools demanding NAPLAN results with enrolment applications

Private and selective schools are demanding potential students share NAPLAN results in enrolment applications in a practice slammed as a ‘misuse’ of the controversial test.

Queensland’s most popular schools are demanding student NAPLAN scores in their competitive enrolment applications, despite experts slamming the practice as a “misuse” of the controversial test.

While NAPLAN is pushed by stakeholders as a “low stakes” assessment which should involve little preparation, parents are turning in droves to private tutors to ensure their kids land a spot at their high school of choice.

University of Sydney’s Professor Jim Tognolini said schools which assess a student’s NAPLAN scores as part of their selection criteria were “wrong” to do so.

“It was never ever designed as a test to be used for a student’s entry into a school,” he said.

“This is a chance for students to demonstrate skills in literacy and numeracy in a different form.

“The people asking for it as part of the selection criteria are wrong.”

Professor Tognolini said NAPLAN was always meant to be a low stakes test, but years of “misuse and misunderstanding” of the assessment had caused increased pressure on students, parents and teachers.

Brisbane State High School is one institution that asks for a student’s NAPLAN results. Picture: AAPimage/David Clark

“The test itself is a very good test – it isn’t the test that’s the problem – it is that it is being misused to make these sort of judgments which it was never designed to do,” he said.

Brisbane’s major prestigious private schools require previous NAPLAN results as part of their enrolment processes, while state schools with selective entry offerings such as Brisbane State High School and Kelvin Grove State College also request a student’s NAPLAN scores.

Brisbane mum Jane Harvey hired a tutor for her eldest daughter, 8, this year to prepare her for her Year 3 NAPLAN test, and plans to do the same for Year 5.

“I hadn’t even considered a tutor before this year, but a number of my school mum friends had all been talking about how important NAPLAN results were when applying for high school,” she said.

“There are a few schools which I would like her to potentially attend, and I don’t want them to be out of reach because of NAPLAN – I think it is worth spending the money now if it helps in the future.”

A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, who administer the test, said “NAPLAN assessments are not designed to be a school admission test”.

University of New South Wales Professor of Education Policy Pasi Sahlberg said NAPLAN was designed to inform policymakers and taxpayers about how the education system is performing.

“Requesting student NAPLAN results to be part of schools’ enrolment criteria is like using a teaspoon to check if a person has a fever or not,” he said.

“What may happen is that we just try to measure a person’s body temperature using a teaspoon more often, or little bit longer, or perhaps use a bigger spoon instead.

“Evidence from other countries shows that ‘that practice’ can lead to perverse, unethical practices in schools and homes, and eventually corrupt the entire teaching and learning, that can have severe negative consequences to children.”