Tasmania schools: It’s tie to put NAPLAN tests on trial

JOSH WILLIE: After years of evidence that testing is hurting our students and schools, Tasmania must join the review

IT is patently clear that a decade after the introduction of the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy schools testing system, known as NAPLAN, that it is not working because it is broken.

It’s just as clear that this national assessment tool needs an urgent rethink.

What is frustratingly unclear is why Tasmania will not join other states in an extremely timely breakaway review of NAPLAN after a decade of contention in schools and the wider community about whether the tests are suitable and what the results are actually used for.

The Victorian, NSW and Queensland governments have agreed to band together and conduct their own review of the test after a meeting of education ministers last month. Tasmanian Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff refused to sign up.

Teachers, principals, students and parents familiar with the NAPLAN process are confronted with a myriad of differing views, but there is one presiding view that cannot be avoided — NAPLAN has become unnecessarily, distractingly controversial.

This year Right-wing think tank, the Centre for Independent Studies, released a report that said, in part: “NAPLAN provides valuable data to show which students are falling behind … it also identifies problems in the school system which we can improve. It provides transparency for school results and it also provides accountability for the more than $50 billion of taxpayer money going into schools every year.”

At the same time, one of the world’s foremost education experts, Les Perelman, conducted a review of NAPLAN, particularly the writing test, and described it as “the most absurd and least valid of any test that I’ve seen.”

Educators and schools have no problem with being accountable, but surely the question should be what is best for our students?

Anyone who has ever been in a school in the lead-up to NAPLAN testing each May understands the high-stakes culture that has developed around the testing system.

This is despite the best efforts of principals, teachers and parents to reduce stress on students and keep it low key.

Students across Australia in years three, five, seven and nine sit the tests, which are supposedly designed to identify whether they have the literacy and numeracy skills that provide the critical foundation for their learning and for their productive and rewarding participation in the community.

The fact that this year’s NAPLAN testing evolved into a debacle — with students hampered by technological issues in Tasmania and across the country — is just the tip of the iceberg.

For a decade there have been concerns about NAPLAN, including that it imposes unnecessary stress on students and leads to health issues, including anxiety and sleeplessness.

NAPLAN has also been criticised for encouraging teaching to the tests, narrowing the curriculum and there have even been accusations of manipulation and cheating by some schools.

The nature of the tests as one-size-fits-all means that the diverse social and cultural differences of students are ignored, while different learning styles and ways of knowing and understanding are also ignored.

This year’s Education Excellence Review, commissioned by the Federal Government and led by businessman-turned-education expert David Gonski, warned of NAPLAN’s “limitations at the classroom level” because it reports “achievement rather than growth”, the results are six months old by the time they are released and the test is administered only in years three, five, seven and nine.

Mr Gonski’s analysis led to calls for smaller, more regular and low-key tests that can dynamically respond to children’s ability and highlight areas for improvement.

Other states are leading the discussion saying that the tests are flawed and should be revised or replaced.

Why isn’t Tasmania in this national conversation?

Other states are welcome to join the breakaway review, which would bring its recommendations back to the Education Council.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said her state strongly supported diagnostic testing, but she would be willing to consider whether on-demand, in-class tests (so-called formative tests) could be an alternative to standardised tests. Although two reviews of NAPLAN are under way, they are too narrow, focusing only on the way data is reported and NAPLAN online.

NAPLAN data published on the MySchool website is being used as a school rating tool rather than a measurement of student progress.

The creation of school league tables is causing further inequities in our education system.

For example, in my own electorate, I know of financially comfortable families who use league tables to assess the local school and subsequently enrol their child in an out of area inner-city school or the private system. It’s understandable that parents would want to choose good schools for their children, but the unintended consequence is that schools and their cohorts are increasingly being divided into rich and poor. The evidence is clear — it is beyond time for a comprehensive NAPLAN review.

There has been a decade of unhealthy debate on standardised testing with little improvement as a result.

In its current form, NAPLAN is a high-stakes test that is causing considerable stress and anxiety to young people, but offering little in terms of educational improvement.

It’s not too late to join the review and I would be happy to join with Mr Rockliff on a bipartisan basis to see how we can improve it and add our voice to the national conversation.

Elwick MLC Josh Willie is Labor’s education spokesman. He is a former school teacher.