Online NAPLAN testing will mean lower scores for SA students, principals says

SOUTH Australia will “look foolish” and fall further behind other states’ literacy and numeracy results if it goes ahead with plans to switch to online NAPLAN testing next year, principals say.

SA principals are concerned online NAPLAN tests will see students underperform in comparison with interstate students who use pen and paper.

SOUTH Australia could fall further behind other states’ literacy and numeracy results if it goes ahead with plans to switch to online NAPLAN testing next year, principals warn.

SA intends to switch to online testing next year, pending the results of large scale trials later this term.

But principals fears students will do worse in computerised tests, based on overseas experiences.

The SA Primary Principals Association is also concerned that junior primary and Year 3 teachers will feel pressured to focus on typing skills, at the expense of handwriting, to prepare students for their first NAPLAN tests.

President Pam Kent said states that were waiting until as late as 2019 to go online were advantaged, as were students from wealthier backgrounds with greater access to technology at home.

“How are they going to do fair comparisons between states?” she said.

“It’s going to paint a fairly grim picture (for SA). One thing is that SA will look even poorer compared to other states because it’s not a fair comparison.”

Ms Kent said principals had routinely found that scores in another type of standardised testing, known as Progressive Achievement Tests, were consistently lower than anticipated the first time students took them online.

In the US, students who took a type of standardised arts and maths testing in 2014-15 were found to achieve lower scores if they did it online. The differences were reportedly “substantial” in some cases.

SA students improved mean scores in a majority of NAPLAN test categories last year but the state still lagged behind national results. The results of this year’s tests, which students sat in May, will be released on Wednesday.

Schools will take part in large scale online trials later this term to test their technical capacity to run them online. Ms Kent anticipated problems with internet black spots and lack of bandwidth, but was more concerned with what would happen in the lead-up to the “real” tests next year.

“Our concern is that the learning of writing is not about typing on a keyboard. It’s about forming letters and putting them together and pen and paper is the best way to do it,” she said.

“A lot of time is going to be spent getting kids familiar with keyboards rather than writing.”

A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which runs NAPLAN, said online testing “will not be a test of computer skills, just as it is not currently a test of handwriting skills”.

“Schools simply need to teach the Australian Curriculum,” he said.

The SA Education Department did not respond to queries.

Originally published as Online NAPLAN testing will mean lower scores for SA students, principals says