Education ministers vote for NAPLAN data review

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Education ministers vote for NAPLAN data review

By Daile Cross

Australia’s education ministers have ordered a review into the presentation of controversial National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) data.

At a meeting of the Education Council of COAG in Adelaide on Friday, ministers agreed to look into the way NAPLAN data was published on the My School website and how teachers and school leaders used results and My School data to inform teaching practices.

Ministers do not agree on the merits of NAPLAN.

Ministers do not agree on the merits of NAPLAN.

The review will also report on the extent to which the current presentation of data to schools and communities supported their understanding of student progress and achievement.

Western Australian Council of State School Organisations president Kylie Catto said parents would be very interested to know how NAPLAN data is and would be used to inform teaching practice.

She said the review was a step in the right direction, but the important thing for parents was making sure any changes to the system would be focused on improving student outcomes.

The review states that reporting of NAPLAN results should be in the broad public interest.

"We would be needing to see a definition of what 'broad public interest' was, if it's talking about My School, because of the way that it's currently being misused in terms of comparison and denigrating individual schools," Ms Catto said.

ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said the voices urging change around this test had become louder and she was glad ministers had responded, although this was not the broad review many had hoped for.

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"I’ve long held concerns about the reporting and culture around NAPLAN and the league tables enabled by My School – most of all the unfair impact they can have on teachers, students and school communities, particularly in lower income communities," she said.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the the council was still in favour of the system of testing students, labelling criticism of NAPLAN a "scare campaign".

"This is addressing an area that is often raised with me by teachers," he said.

"Some states wanted to engage in a review of NAPLAN that was essentially going to simply do what the unions have demanded and lead to the dismantling of basic literacy and numeracy assessments across the country.

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"The Turnbull government won't tolerate that. We want to make sure that Australian students are learning basic literacy and numeracy skills and that parents in the community have transparent consistent information about literacy and numeracy skills."

Mr Birmingham called it a "narrow review", as it related to the publishing of data and information from NAPLAN, rather the merit of the entire testing regime.

The Education Council reinforced the importance of consistent national benchmarking and assessment of students, he said.

He claimed some states were beholden to the unions who were against NAPLAN and running scare campaigns, and said Federal Labor and unions should stop scaring parents and teachers about the system.

"I don't understand why anyone would want to undermine what is a fundamental in terms of the way in which students achieve and build their knowledge and skills," he said.

"NAPLAN is certainly a good check that those skills are being developed."

Nearly 200,000 students sat NAPLAN via the new online portal this year, with Mr Birmingham labelling it a "roaring success".

An independent reviewer will report back to the national council by December.

The Education Council said a number of state and territory ministers had advocated for a broader review of NAPLAN, and Queensland was conducting its own review.

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NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes wanted it replaced with formative testing, in line with the recommendations of the Gonski 2.0 report.

Mr Stokes told Fairfax Media prior to the meeting that NAPLAN testing had resulted in an industry where education businesses "extort money out of desperate students and their family".

NAPLAN has been attracting increasing critisism from parents, teachers and education experts who say it led to more formal and rote learning in schools and puts younger children under pressure.

Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe labelled the outcome "disappointing".

She said the union was the first to call for a comprehensive review of NAPLAN, but had been joined by principal associations, state-based parent groups and some ministers.

“After a decade of this failed testing regime, we need to critically analyse the impact of standardised testing and we need to implement assessment processes which are intricately linked with teaching and learning in our schools, not just used for system data collection purposes,” she said.

“The best form of assessment is the informed judgment of a teacher.

“Teachers make sure the full range of factors influencing a child’s learning are considered, and conduct a variety of learning assessments.

“Schools need proper funding and resources, not one-size-fits-all NAPLAN tests, to lift results and achievement levels.”

WA Education Minister Sue Ellery said the broader issue of NAPLAN was regularly discussed at Education Council meetings.

“The feedback I receive in WA is that parents want to see published data about how their students, and how their schools, are achieving literacy and numeracy, and they want the information presented in a way that is easy to understand,” she said.

-with Michael Koziol

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