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.
Today, The ABC has reported that Australian education standards are on the improve because schools’ NAPLAN test scores have increased:
The latest data on the academic performance of Australian schools has revealed “signs of improvement across the country”, the national curriculum authority says…
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has identified 79 schools that posted above-average improvements in NAPLAN scores for a second year in a row…
ACARA chief executive Robert Randall said the data showed widespread gains.
“There are signs of improvement across the country,” he said.
“The important thing is that there are schools across the country who are achieving this.
“It’s across the school sectors.”
A few years back, lecturers Arathi Sriprakash and Tony Loughland from the University of Sydney penned a harsh 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:
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.
Just like in The Wire, I wonder what the point of NAPLAN is if all it is doing is “juking the stats” – teaching the kids the test so that the school looks better. Is this really what our education system should be about?
