Is NAPLAN a fair assessment instrument to assess all Australian students?
The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an assessment tool developed to evaluate literacy and numeracy levels of all Australian students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The aim of NAPLAN, since its inception in 2008, is to act as a diagnostic test to ensure all Australian students are meeting intended educational outcome (Wigglesworth, Simpson & Loakes, 2011). They are administered by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA; ACARA 2010). The ACARA (2010) website states that the NAPLAN tests "broadly reflect aspects of literacy and numeracy common to curricula in all States and Territories" and that the test questions and formats are "chosen so that they are familiar to teachers and students across Australia".
The Issue
The Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment (SSCEE, 2014) handed down its findings on the effectiveness of the National Assessment Program (NAP) in March 2014. While supporting the Australian governments’ ‘efforts to improve educational outcomes for all students’, they concluded that NAPLAN tests were not an appropriate measure for students where English is not their first language and students whose background was culturally diverse from mainstream Australia (SSCEE,2014 ).
The “one- size- fits- all” (Counihan, 2013) mentality of NAPLAN does not cater for the diverse social and cultural differences students bring to the classroom. It ignores different learning styles, and most importantly has been criticised as having an “Anglo Australian bias that privileges white, middle class world views” (Counihan, 2013). Tests are standardised on groups of English language speaking students (...
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...ustralian Indigenous Students: Addressing Equity Issues In Assessment. Teaching Education, 20(1), 77-93.
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The lack of appropriate assessment strategies unfairly puts cultural and language diverse students at a disadvantage. These types of tests are geared towards assessing the majority of the population, not the minority. This poses a serious problem when trying to correctly identify students who may have learning or behavioral problems (Ralabate, & Klotz, 2007).
Even with material being taught incessantly, standardized tests can not accurately measure a student’s ability. The tests are “single-target—meaning that every student, no matter what level of achievement or ability, course selection, or cu...
One of the most controversial topics in education today is the use of Provincial Achievement Testing, also know as PAT. PATs’ are used to assess and assist in improving programs, maintain standards and improve student achievement. These tests are standard tests that are at the same academic level for all students and focus on the same curriculum topics. All students write these tests at roughly the same time during the school in the same grade. In most provinces, students write PATs’ in grades three and six in elementary school. These tests feature sections from the core subject areas; math, literacy, science and social studies. Schools with french immersion have tests written in french with a french language sections as well. These tests are used to provide additional information regarding the students’ and school’s achievement. However, some organizations use this to compare schools and districts. Some teachers lack an understanding of these assessments and change their teaching practices to fit this perception. Teachers are focus to much on the basic information being covered by the test, and both all the curriculum that is listed. Teachers need to look at the difference between the assessment of learning over the assessment for learning. The view of assessing of learning has given external testing a lower view by teachers. External testing is used for checking the quality of education. There are three issues regarding assessing student learning with achievement testing, they are: the weak understanding of fair assessment, the perception of external accountability initiatives and the inappropriate assessment of at-risk students.
As discussed earlier, mainstream education is misaligned with Aboriginal ways therefore, standardized testing creates a “pressure cooker atmosphere” many feel the stress which causes them to drop
The development of a national curriculum for Australia is not a new endeavour (Marsh, 2010). The ideal is that national curriculum across Australia would mean that students are provided with a quality education that helps to shape the lives of the nations citizens and continue developing the productivity and quality of life within Australia. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] have the task of developing and implementing a nationwide curriculum. ACARA (n.d.-c) claims have addressed needs of young Australians while considering that changing ways in learning and challenges will continue to shape students education in the future. A look at what the Australian Curriculum is, its purpose, structure and scope, learning theories and teaching processes and whether the curriculum has the capacity to meet the needs of 21st century learners will show that the initial construction of a national curriculum appears to be successful. However, the effectiveness of the Australian Curriculum will only be able to be evaluated in the future after implementation across the country.
The fifth claim is Australia should seek permission to use the UK Government’s Phonics Screening Check structure and item generation database (Buckingham, 2016). Evidence to support this claim is the report of The UK Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. The author provided so various kinds of details about the implementation of UK Phonics Screening Check, why it should be implemented, what the method of the application is, how the validity and the reliability of the test is. Also who should be included and excluded from the analysis, and how the method can improve student’s literacy level in the country. She assumes that this approach can be implemented in Australia, and Australia does not need to create its assessment independently. She assumes that even though Australia and United Kingdom has different policy context, the rationale is the same and by conducting a pilot study before implementing the Phonics Screening Check nationally, it will allow any technical
Assessment has been the greatest challenge in my development as a professional. My coursework as supported my growth in this area, especially in understanding the broad range of assessments used to support students’ growth and development. My courses have also supported my understanding of how ongoing observational assessment and standards-based measures can be used to inform instruction and support the cycle of observation, reflection and planning. Coursework
Popham, W. James. “Standardized Achievement Tests: Misnamed and Misleading.” Education Week. September 2001. Web. 28 June 2015.
Solley, B. A. (2012). On Standardized Testing: An ACEI Position Paper. Childhood Education, 84(1), 31-37. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2007.10522967
In the 1980’s a report called “A Nation At Risk” stated that American children had fallen behind in such subjects as math and science. Thus came the advent of education’s increased focus on literacy and numeracy, accountability and academic standards. These high standards, according to Dumas (2000), are the most significant trend in schools today.
To investigate the notion of numeracy, I approach seven people to give their view of numeracy and how it relates to mathematics. The following is a discussion of two responses I receive from this short survey. I shall briefly discuss their views of numeracy and how it relates to mathematics in the light of the Australian Curriculum as well as the 21st Century Numeracy Model (Goos 2007). Note: see appendix 1 for their responses.
The data gained from standardised test can be used as evidence to compare mathematical achievement at a state, school or class level but could also be used to diagnose students’ strengths and weakness to refine teaching programs (Reys et al., 2012). Saubern (2010) maintains standardised tests provides teachers with relevant and useable feedback on student achievement and learning, but the timing of the tests and reporting schedule don’t always meet the classroom teacher’s need for timely and current knowledge. One of the main criticisms of standardised tests is they emphasise recalling facts and teachers encourage rote and superficial learning instead of thinking and problem solving skills (Black & Wiliam, 2010;Woolfolk & Margetts, 2010). Standardised tests do not require students to demonstrate their thinking, the grading function are overemphasized, while the giving of useful advice and the learning function are underemphasized (Black & Wiliam, 2010; Booker et a., 2010). Perso (2009) argues many Australian students may struggle to read and interpret questions on the NAPLAN numeracy test because they are not taught the literacy skills in their mathematics learning
The development of the brain of a bilingual individual is better than a monolingual individual. Few years ago, researchers from the University of Washington (as cited in Klass, 2011, para 4.) found that the brains of bilingual infants (from families where two languages were spoken) are able to discriminate the different of the phonetic sound of the languages they usually heard when they grew up than monolingual infants in where their brains were adapted to only identify their mother tongue only. Dr. Patricia Kuhl, one of the members of this research team thus believe that bilingual education can shape infants’ brains and keep them ready for future challenges. Concurrently, a renowned psychologist, Dr. Ellen...
Overtime, the quality of education for Aboriginal and Torres trait islanders has seen much improvement, though there is yet a stagnant gap evident within the English language and literacy performances of students coming the Indigenous culture when compared to Australian students. This is supported by Dr Wendy Hanlen who asks “why do Indigenous students born in this country, many of whom speak English, generally, do not have successful literacy outcomes?” (Hanlen, 2002).
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a