Is NAPLAN testing just ‘juking the stats’?

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ScreenHunter_3892 Aug. 22 10.33

By Leith van Onselen

Roland ‘Prezbo’ Pryzbylewski: I don’t get it. All this so we score higher on the state tests? If we’re teaching the kids the test questions, what is it assessing in them?

Grace Sampson: Nothing. It assesses us. The test scores go up, they can say the schools are improving. The scores stay down, they can’t.

Roland ‘Prezbo’ Pryzbylewski: Juking the stats.

Grace Sampson: Excuse me?

Roland ‘Prezbo’ Pryzbylewski: Making robberies into larcenies. Making rapes disappear. You juke the stats, and majors become colonels. I’ve been here before.

Grace Sampson: Wherever you go, there you are.

The above quote comes from my all time favourite show, The Wire, which in season four tackled the efficacy of national testing, which has crept into schools right across the developed world. For readers unfamiliar with The Wire, I recommend that you watch this short clip.

During the week, controversy erupted on social media over Australia’s own NAPLAN testing, which contained the below question that was provided to years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students:

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Rules & laws tell us what we can and cannot do. Choose a rule or law that you think needs to change. This could be a home or school rule. It could be a rule of a game or sport. It could be a law that everyone has to follow. A change should make the rule or law better.

Write to convince a reader why this rule or law should be changed.

Seriously, what planet are the NAPLAN testers on? While the above question may be appropriate for years 7 and 9 students, why on earth would you give such a question to younger students who are probably still learning to read and write, rather than engaging in critical thinking and reasoning?

Not surprisingly, results dropped across the board with year 3 students having the most difficulty:

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Charlie, who is in a year 3 gifted and talented class in Port Macquarie… told his parents: “When I thought about all the rules I know I thought that they are really good ones. So I didn’t have anything to say about it”…

An English teacher from an independent school on the mid-north coast said there were at least six year 3 students at her school who were “in tears” when they saw the writing question and did not attempt the task, while several year 5 students also found the question too challenging.

“When I saw the question, my heart fell out of my mouth, not just for my year 5 students but also my own kids doing NAPLAN,” the teacher said.

All of which raises the question about whether NAPLAN-type testing is worth doing at all?

Certainly, lecturers Arathi Sriprakash and Tony Loughland from the University of Sydney have their doubts, penning the below rebuke of NAPLAN in The Conversation, claiming that the test “severely narrows the school curriculum, compounds disadvantage and creates undue anxieties for young students”, as well as a pre-occuption with scoring well in the test above all else:

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When schooling is focused so heavily on preparing for high-stakes tests, it is not surprising that teachers have to resort to “defensive pedagogies” – teaching strategies that ensure good examination results. This is made worse by relentless preoccupations with “teacher effectiveness”, where performance is measured by student outcomes. Teachers do more than teach to the test, but the scope for this is diminished under high-stakes scrutiny.

Seriously, what’s the point? Is this really what our education system should be about?

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.