NAPLAN: Independent review finds in favour of the controversial national benchmark exam
DESPITE being loathed by teachers and their state governments, the annual NAPLAN tests kicking off this week lets parents know exactly how their offspring are doing compared with their classmates — without hurting students or schools.
NSW
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DESPITE being loathed by teachers and their state governments, the annual NAPLAN tests kicking off this week lets parents know exactly how their offspring are doing compared with their classmates — without hurting students or schools.
That’s the finding of a Centre for Independent Studies review to be released today which concluded there was no evidence NAPLAN was “inherently more stressful” compared to other exams, because “there are no consequences for low performance or rewards for high performance”.
It follows a push by NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes for the tests — assessing literacy and numeracy in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 — to be dumped at a meeting of his interstate counterparts earlier this month, calling it dishonest and open to abuse.
But CIS analyst and review author Blaise Joseph said many of the criticisms of the test — that it was “useless, harms students and schools and is an unreasonably narrow assessment” — did not stand up under scrutiny.
And there was no evidence NAPLAN was “inherently more stressful” than other exams, especially because “there are no consequences for low performance or rewards for high performance”,’ he found.
“If students are experiencing high levels of anxiety, it is arguable that this is the result of pressure ... from the adults around them.”
Kirsty and Mark Williams, whose two children have sat the NAPLAN, said it “works well for the kids who are academic” but failed for those who “aren’t necessarily book smart”.
Their daughter Sophie, 12, did well but son Daniel, 9, struggled with his handwriting.
“It doesn’t make adjustments for the children who aren’t necessarily book-smart, but talented in other areas,” Ms Williams said.
Mr Stokes is also pushing for NAPLAN results to be removed from the MySchool websites, which lets parents compare local schools, concerned it led to a test obsession. “Using NAPLAN results to inform school choice — an objective measure of school performance — is better than the alternative of just relying upon school reputation, school websites, and school location,” the CIS report reads.
Mr Joseph denied the tests had failed because there had been no significant improvement since they were introduced by the Rudd government in 2008.
“It is illogical to use NAPLAN results alone as a basis for determining if NAPLAN has succeeded or failed,” he wrote.