Naplan tests

[melhoneybee]

I am a high school teacher. It isn't a level playing field which is why the results for Naplan are scewed towards some schools, some socioeconomic areas.
I have no objection to running Naplan but i have strong misgivings about using the data to produce league tables. For one thing it is a snapshot and the results vary from year to year depending on how bright that group of kids in your school is. Thus trying to use it to measure the quality of the education is ridiculous-if a school ranking rises 50 spots over last year then drops again with the same teachers then the data is meaningless.

Secondly, it doesn't measure true ability. In this day there are kids who get coached for selective schools tests, kids who do tutoring every day to try to extend their ability so they can outcompete others. In class some schools teach to the test-some don't. Being familiar with the test format alone will improve results but it doesn't mean those children are any brighter than those that weren't coached-just that they were better prepared for that particular test.

Finally, the published results are standardised. They don't measure the numbers of children who perform "off the chart"-eg we had a number of students whose results were way way above where they should have been but because it was averaged out it didn't show just how well some students were doing at that school.

[Josh]

according to the,

www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/13/2871853.htm?section=justin

independant schools are not following the boycott,does anyone know if public school kids can sit the test at one of these schools, I may need to investigate a little further.

[Travdan]

Well said Melhoneybee.

Amongst other things, my main issue is with the reporting. I think the data is unreliable. There are too many variables that affect the results for there to be fair comparisons to be drawn.

[Oblena]

according to the,

www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/13/2871853.htm?section=justin

independant schools are not following the boycott,does anyone know if public school kids can sit the test at one of these schools, I may need to investigate a little further.

I am sure they will let you if you enrol and pay the term fees

You seem to be placing an imbalanced level of importance to these tests, however, I do understand your desire to be informed of your child's progress.

I highly doubt that your child's teacher wishes to hide this information from you, and in all likelihood, will have completed other, non-biased, tests that would give an indication of your child's level of achievement. Most Government school are adhering to requirements to complete online diagnostic testing through the associated assessment boards, and NAPLAN then becomes one more information tool.

We must remember that the NAPLAN tests and the My School Website are politically driven. Parents want information, and the government happliy makes use of the westernised opinion of the teaching profession; one of a profession filled with disillusioned and incompetent, bumbling fools. Firstly the My school website actually gives data that is, in essence, totally useless. What is important to keep in mind is not what data has been made available, but ask yourselves what data has not. Is the performance of cohorts compared to funding (Funding is disproportionate across schools)? Does the data track the performance of particular groups of students to explain improvement (or not) - NO.

So if there was a particularly poor (academically) group of students, with the poor NAPLAN results to go with, the school will underperform. The next year, a new of children, possibly brighter, quicker overall, will perform better and suddenly the school has improved. However the original group have not improved. Alternatively, a high performing group has a school ranked as above average one year and the next year a different group of kids are assessed, who perform much worse. Neither school has made any changes and both are actually underperforming BOTH years, as they have no policies or practices in place to make improvements in learning, however, in differing years the schools would be seen as performing well.

Another example. A school rates poorly two years in a row. Therefore they are a 'bad' school. However the data has not been compared properly, The data does not adequately track the performance of the original group of students, and the school's level of improvement is not made on that school and / or that group of teachers to improve the literacy and numeracy standards of the original group.

If a group are in the lowest percentile, and two years later have improved by 40%, technically the school can still be 'underperforming' as the students are not where they should be. However, a 40% improvement is extremely significant and to be honest this school, while having the worst data on a more consistent basis is actually the BETTER school.

The fact that My School does not also rank levels of improvement over an extended period of time, as well as cohorts and link this to government funding and facilities is a concern. The My School Website also fails to take into account VCE (or equivalent) data, pass rates, employment rates of students in the years after secondary college, nor does it have room to compare NAPLAN results to VCE results and see if the schools display similar patterns (for example poor results that never improve) or improved patterns of results ( such as relatively poor yr 9 Naplan, but VCE ENTER scores that are on par or higher with like schools or school in the area)

The above is less than a tenth of the issues with the use of NAPLAN data.

Consider too, the actual tests really should be used as a diagnostic tool to give a snapshot of the progress of a student. Having said that, the tests are significantly flawed.

For example, some questions assessing a child's ability to spell, ask a student to find the misspelled word in a sentence and then write the correct spelling in a box. This is assessing two skills, the first one being the most important, that is a PROOFREADING skill. After proofreading and then finding the error, the child is then 'tested' on his / her ability to spell. The question is not an assessment of spelling but many things.

Alternatively, a maths problem question relies on literacy. If a child can not read, or can not read in English (but can read another language), they will not be able to do the maths question, and will be 'assessed' as poor in maths problem solving etc.

Many questions have also been independently assessed to be a poor indicator of that particular level of skill or ability, or the nature of determining the results may actually be flawed.

These are but a few of the issues surrounding NAPLAN, and while a valuable tool, it is not the be all and end all, and it is certainly a terrible way to determine the performance of a school and it's teaching staff.

Teachers are highly trained individuals, who make informed decisions about their actions. It is a pity that our governing bodies allow the negative stereotypes to be used to cast aspersions on a whole group of professionals and their ability to use their knowledge and skills in a professional and diligent manner.

I would advise parents to avoid the hyped up misinformation, and allow the profession to work towards much better outcomes for your child, and our society in the long term.

http://www.aeufederal.org.au/LT/index2.html

http://www.aeuvic.asn.au/campaigns/stop_league_tables/

[veve]

I believe this thread has run its course.

thank you to those who posted constructively.

Thanks
Jenny