This week my daughter, like a million other students across Australia, will be sitting her NAPLAN exams. These tests are designed for students in years three, five, seven and nine in order to monitor their progress in literacy and numeracy.
Most schools have told students not to worry about sitting for NAPLAN. My daughter for example said her teachers have told her: “Don’t worry about it. Don’t stress. This is not a test.” But despite them saying this, she and many of her friends are in fact a bit stressed about it.
She even told me that as she’s in year seven, everything is new and most kids in her year are getting used to being in high school. Having to sit for NAPLAN in the midst of it all is stressful, no matter what the teachers say.
And while the enduring message seems to be that NAPLAN is not a measure of a child’s ability, rather a way for the government and our educators to take stock of how well students across Australia are doing in literacy and maths, many seem to believe that NAPLAN is a test from which their child will be judged.
A whole NAPLAN industry has sprung up around the exam with practice tests, student workbooks, online programs, tutoring, and more, catering to students and their eager parents. Some schools have used NAPLAN results to assess whether a child can gain entry into the selective stream at their school.
Later in the year, parents will receive their child’s NAPLAN result and while you don’t get the exact mark your child received in the exam, you will get a chart that shows how they ranked compared to the other kids in the school and across the State.
I remember the first time my daughter sat NAPLAN in Year three, I was a little bewildered by it all.
I remember the first time my daughter sat NAPLAN in Year three, I was a little bewildered by it all. I couldn’t understand why we were subjecting eight-year-olds to exam conditions and causing unnecessary stress. These were little children who seemed more interested in hanging from the monkey bars than doing long division in a test.
Then last year it was my son’s turn to sit NAPLAN, but due to COVID-19 he was spared the test. He still talks about not having to do NAPLAN with relief.
As a parent, seeing my children becoming stressed by an exam that ultimately should not have bearing on how they do at school is not something I agree with. Many teachers feel the same, with the Queensland Teachers' Union encouraging teachers and principals to opt-out of NAPLAN.
But the fact that NAPLAN continues to exist and almost all Australian school students will have to sit it at some point must mean there are some benefits to the test.
Last year for example, students across the country were impacted by COVID-19 one way or another. The school closures and homeschooling all would have affected their studies. So for many educators, this year’s NAPLAN is doubly important to see what impact COVID-19 had on learning.
As the spokesperson from The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the authority that administers the tests said, "With the cancellation of NAPLAN last year and the interruption of schooling because of COVID, the community is eager for information about the impact on learning.”
For the Education Minister, Alan Tudge, NAPLAN is of utmost importance not just because it helps "provide the information that schools, teachers, parents and policymakers need to lift school standards" but because "it's an annual assessment of student progress."
Could there be a better way of performing these tests?
But while I understand the need to assess how well students across Australia are performing in literacy and numeracy, could there be a better way of performing these tests?
In 2019, the Gonski Institute suggested that instead of NAPLAN we should randomly sample different groups of students, rather than subjecting every child in years three, five, seven and nine to sit the test. Under their proposal there would be no school-by-school comparisons, so there would be no performance data to publish and students will be assessed individually in class.
But even if changes are made to the system, it will be a long time before they are implemented. NAPLAN has existed in one way or another since 2009 and aside from minimal changes - for example this year most students will be doing the test online, with all students doing it online from next year - it is unlikely the system will be drastically changing in the foreseeable future.
In the meantime you can take heed from these words that my daughter's year three teacher passed on to the class parents a few years ago. While the original author of these words is unknown I took heart from the sentiment.
"This week you will complete your first NAPLAN tests. Before you take the test there is something very important that you must know.
This test will assess what you know and can do on the day. It does not assess all the things that make you exceptional and unique.
The people who mark these tests don’t know that you might be spectacular singers, amazing artists, divine dancers or superb sports players. They have not seen the way you speak confidently in a large group or that maybe you are softly spoken but never fail to speak respectfully to others. They do not know that you are caring and thoughtful and that your friends can always count on you to be there for them if they are sad. These are important life attributes that cannot be tested on NAPLAN."
