Naplan: High school scores decline for students immersed in digital devices

NAPLAN writing scores for students in the early years of high school have plummeted over the last five years, and educators are worried. Are you smarter than your kids? TAKE THE NAPLAN PARENT QUIZ.

St Patrick’s Marist College, Dundas students Sophie Sassen, Marcus Georges and Imani Cogger have improved their Naplan scores. Picture: Richard Dobson

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NAPLAN writing scores for students in the early years of high school have plummeted over the past five years, with educators fearing “grab reading” on digital devices could be affecting their performance.

“I would hope they are not doing grab writing, too,” one senior educator said yesterday as preliminary results from the 2016 National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy showed NSW Year 7 students’ mean writing score fell from 529 to 515 and Year 9 from 562 to 546.

The three year seven students have all recently sat their Naplan tests. Picture: Richard Dobson

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority said the writing scores of Year 7 and Year 9 students showed a “significant” decline nationally since 2011.

But some schools such as St Patrick’s Marist College at Dundas in Sydney’s west have defied the trend and recorded major improvements.

“We have put a lot into writing in the last three years,” principal Angela Hay said.

“We are building the professional capacity of our staff to explicitly teach the skill, also how to mark and give feedback to the students.

“We have a language focus in every lesson in every subject.”

Younger students have made strong gains in Naplan but overall results from the May tests have flatlined, despite record government funding poured into schools.

ACARA chief executive Robert Randall said: “No one welcomes a decline in results. We need to look more at what is causing the decline in Naplan writing in Years 7 and 9.

“It may be to do with student motivation, the instructional practices in secondary schools and/or teacher preparation to teach writing at these levels.

“We are not seeing a decline in results at the primary school level for writing — only in Years 7 and 9, at the secondary level.”

There have been record funding for schools but results from May’s test show a decline. Picture: Richard Dobson

The Naplan national results also show that literacy and numeracy results plateaued from 2015 to 2016.

“Plateauing results are not what we should expect or assume from our education systems,” Mr Randall said.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham yesterday called on schools, families and education experts to focus on evidence-based measures to lift student achievement.