Researchers find private schools more likely to exempt students with low grades from NAPLAN

Top private schools are “gaming” the system and exempting poorly performing students from NAPLAN tests to protect their brand, a report has found.

Elite private schools are granting poorly performing students an exemption from NAPLAN. Picture: Getty Images

Elite private schools are exempting poorly performing students from national NAPLAN tests in a bid to improve their overall scores, a scathing academic report has revealed.

A new research paper from the University of Melbourne says pupils who received low grades in NAPLAN were “much more likely” to be pulled out of the tests in subsequent years, mainly at the request of their parents.

This is twice as likely to happen in private schools than state schools and researchers say it’s consistent with them attempting to “game” the system and protect their brands.

It comes as more than 1.2 million students sat NAPLAN tests this year, with schools receiving their overall grades later this month, followed by parents getting individual scores next term and national results in August.

The report says students who were withdrawn from NAPLAN were the worst-performing among their cohort.

The University of Melbourne research team analysed non-participation rates of 6981 Australian schools (grades 3, 5, 7 and 9), between 2008 and 2015 and found students who were withdrawn from NAPLAN were the worst-performing among their cohort.

Co-author Associate Professor Michael Coelli said the evidence was consistent with a number of relatively poorly-performing public and independent private schools gaming the system to strategically adjust their NAPLAN testing pool.

“Manipulating the system like this artificially boosts their average scores, arguably to protect their academic reputation,” he said.

“Pressure from parents (at private schools) to rationalise their performance is because they’re paying fees and they want a lot out of their schools.

Schools are gaming the system to strategically adjust their NAPLAN testing pool. Picture: Getty

“Skewing NAPLAN results threatens the efficacy of the public accountability mechanism in Australia and raises doubt over the accuracy of the My School data, which can influence parents’ enrolment decisions.”

The My School website went live in 2010, providing full transparency around NAPLAN results.

The findings show the overall rate of student withdrawal due to a formal parental request rose from just 0.33 per cent in 2008, compared to 2.29 per cent in 2015, reflecting the impact of the website’s operation.

Researchers have put forward a raft of suggestions to combat the manipulation of the system.

In other recent findings, researchers from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) also questioned NAPLAN’s stated goal of ensuring “equity and inclusion” by allowing the exemption of students with a disability.

As the Herald Sun reported this month, one in four students is now classified as having a disability through federal reports made by teachers.

ACER researchers Kathryn Richardson and Greta Rollo said students with a disability were an “invisible cohort” because many were exempted from sitting the test and thus did not have their progress tracked or reported.

The test’s rules state that students with a “significant intellectual disability” or those with a comorbidity limiting their ability to participate in the tests may be exempt from NAPLAN.

“Since 2008, every NAPLAN National Report has referenced the term ‘students with disability’ only in the context of exemption from assessment. There is no mention of their achievement nor information to track the educational progress of this at-risk group,” the researchers said.