The number of schools where students had to resit NAPLAN tests has grown to six after the Herald revealed that some students had completed exams with predictive text and spellcheck enabled.
Cheating experts say the annual literacy and numeracy exam is increasingly under threat amid growing security concerns, but exam authorities insist technical updates and teacher supervision mean the results are valid.
Students at six schools this year have been told they must resit the tests.
After some schools reported that students used predictive text on a Mac computer, the NSW Education Standards Authority, which runs NAPLAN in the state, has said it will review how it communicates technical requirements to schools.
Schools were sent an “urgent update” on February 19 which alerted them to changes to computers with a Windows operating system that were being used to sit the test. It said no changes were required to Mac.
Days before NAPLAN testing began on March 12, Education Services Australia – a state-owned company which, among other things, supports the delivery of NAPLAN tests – updated its website to include new Mac requirements.
The update on March 7 instructed schools to “disable inline predictive text” on Mac computers. NSW schools were never alerted to the update.
A NSW Education Standards Authority spokeswoman said many schools operate with a “bring your own device” policy to allow students to use their own laptops at school.
“As a result there is a vast range of different devices and operating systems that students use to sit the tests. Every effort is made to ensure schools have the latest advice on the use of different devices and operating systems,” the spokeswoman said.
In recent years, users in online hacker forums have claimed they were able to bypass the restrictions of a lockdown browser.
Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt said it was difficult to create a truly secure lockdown browser with software alone.
“When it is literally bring your own device, and you can do whatever you want with that device, it would be pretty impossible to create a secure locked-down browser,” he said.
Students use a locked-down browser which is aimed at preventing cheating.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Australian Tutoring Association chief executive Mohan Dhall said NAPLAN results were presented to private schools in enrolment applications and were considered high stakes.
“There are people in coaching colleges who have the time to experiment with these things, and will find a way to train kids to use tools in a way that maximises an outcome that gives students a benefit,” he said.
Western Sydney University academic integrity expert Professor Cath Ellis said high-stakes testing was increasingly under threat in terms of the validity of student performance they contend to be measuring.
“We have to ask the question: can we trust the judgment of these tests now we know the vulnerabilities of how they work?” she said.
“Where this predictive text problem starts to emerge is if the words are not the best ones the students have come up with but rather are what a large-scale language model suggests – then what are we really testing?”
An ACARA spokesman said the assessment platform was updated each year in response to any technical developments to ensure the assessment’s integrity.
“This, together with other controls such as classroom invigilation, ensures robust measures are in place,” he said.
A NSW Education Standards review of communications will seek to improve how schools get the most up-to-date advice, a spokeswoman said.
“We are working with the small number of schools that have reported the issue so that their students can resit a similar test so students are not unfairly advantaged,” a spokeswoman for the authority said.
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