Analysis Of NAPLAN

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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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