Teacher: NAPLAN makes our kids feel like they’re not good enough

NAPLAN. The test that is supposed to represent a student’s understanding of literacy and numeracy and we place so much emphasis on it. This Victorian teacher explains why you shouldn’t let it affect your child’s learning.

One Victorian teacher reveals why NAPLAN results are flawed.

NAPLAN. It’s one test on one day.

This is something I always try to remind my students and their parents when they receive their results.

These tests represent a student’s understanding of literacy and numeracy on one day through one test. That’s it. And yet, we place so much emphasis on it.

What if they are sick? What if they slept badly the night before? What if they didn’t eat breakfast that morning? All these variables, and so many others, can affect a child’s ability to learn or complete tasks.

As a teacher, NAPLAN is the last thing I value as evidence of a child’s progress.

Firstly, it is just one piece of data and teachers collect data constantly.

This may be via pre- and post-testing, writing samples, listening to students read, portfolio tasks or classroom observation.

The ways in which teachers collect data is so broad because throughout the year students are constantly developing their understanding of concepts and demonstrating this in a variety of ways — ways that don’t always translate to, or can’t be reduced to, ticking a multiple-choice box on a test.

Teachers use this “real-time” data to inform their teaching and that’s a far more accurate representation, and infinitely more useful, than one test on one day.

A NAPLAN reading test cannot assess a child’s ability to read fluently or with expression.

Nobody is listening to these students read, their ability is assessed purely on responses to multiple-choice questions answered in a strict time limit.

A NAPLAN maths test cannot assess a child’s ability to problem-solve or take steps in answering a complex question. Teachers are able to watch how students approach questions, observe the strategies they use and help them refine these strategies so they can apply them accurately.

Providing this information about a student’s progress is far more valuable to parents than a black and white “correct or incorrect” from one standardised test.

Secondly, the data sent home to parents doesn’t accurately show the growth of their child.

The parents receive a graph that shows a dot representing their child in comparison to a line that represents the state average.

Often when a parent opens a NAPLAN report to see a dot well below the state average, they immediately wonder what’s happened.

But we need to remember not all students start school at the same level — some students can read, while others don’t know a single letter of the alphabet.

This range of knowledge continues to widen and by the time students sit their first NAPLAN test in grade 3, the gap can be huge.

I had the pleasure of teaching grade 3 two years ago and I teach grade 5 this year, so I have many of the same students and I can tell you — the data is misleading.

I taught a boy two years ago who got his NAPLAN results and saw his dot sitting well below the state average. When he opened his results this year, his dot was sitting only just below the state average.

He had still made the expected ‘two years growth in two years’, in fact he has made more growth than many of the students who were sitting above the state average.

He has a lot to celebrate, but the information sent home to parents is so deceptive and the results providing such a narrow focus, this student now feels that despite his dedication and hard work for two years, he still isn’t good enough.

Finally, assuming your child did indeed have a good night’s sleep, they ate a healthy breakfast, they don’t get anxiety in test conditions, they don’t fear the word NAPLAN (yes, it’s a real fear), it is still only one piece of evidence of their overall skills and understanding in literacy and numeracy.

There is no test for a student’s kindness, resilience, empathy or teamwork — skills and values that are equally important in shaping a person’s future.

We should be placing less pressure on students to excel in NAPLAN and stop questioning teachers based on the results, but instead ask teachers some other questions about our kids:

What other evidence does your child’s teacher have of their understanding in literacy and numeracy?

Is your child improving based on their individual starting point? What kind of person is your child? How does your child overcome challenges? What can you do to help your child?

After all, teachers and parents are a team in helping children achieve success and happiness.

One test on one day doesn’t change or impact this.

This piece was written by a current Victorian primary school teacher.