Naplan... More like NoPlan

Seeing this amusing yet worrying comic got me thinking about NAPLAN. I've had previously strong views on NAPLAN before this course, however I found that some of the views presented in this course really challenged me to think about my views, especially with NAPLAN, differently to what I had previously.

Firstly I thought about NAPLAN and its objectives and aims, this national test assesses all students from years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in a broad variation of questions targeting literacy, numeracy, grammar and reading. As the NAPLAN website, (2013) states specifically about their writing task that addresses a literacy aspect, “The Writing task targets the full range of student capabilities expected of students from Years 3 to 9. The same stimulus is used for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9…. The same marking guide is used to assess all students' writing, allowing for a national comparison”. The element of having all students across the board doing the same test, regardless of age, the results gained from NAPLAN being graded not by what different levels of knowledge students should have reached at different points of their schooling, but in general, assessing what they can remember and how they perform on one specific day infuriates me. How can one test with the exact same content and questions be the appropriate measure for students ranging from these wide assortment of ages. I feel that this element puts so much pressure on teachers to not only have to teach to the stupidity of this tests' structure, but then what happens if a teacher let’s say teaches a year 3 class this year and next year she is put on to a year 5 class. Does she teach the exact same content the exact same way in which she did the year before with students that were 2 years younger?

Ford, (2013) also states her opinion on the issue, with her focus more specifically on the cultural gap and its effect on students with reference to the NAPLAN test, which is another element of this test that I believe is a monumental negative, "Since the introduction of National Australian Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) in 2008, results continue to show very poor educational outcomes for indigenous students, especially in the NT" (pp. 81). 

Not only is there a clear disadvantage for students as a whole, but the cultural gap she speaks about is becoming an even bigger hole with tests such as this one. Ladson-Billings, (2004) pin points the issue that I am concerned with the most, the role of the teacher in this process, "a poor quality curriculum coupled with poor quality instruction, a poorly prepared teacher, and limited resources add up to poor performance on so-called objective tests" (pp. 84). Now obviously if a teacher is ill-prepared they will not succeed in any situation, however I believe that in this situation and in relation to NAPLAN even a well prepared teacher is and will very much suffer. The importance of remembering content and not actually comprehending what they are learning is the main issue here for me, clearly presented in the comic that lead me to this debate in the first place.

Ford, M. (2013). Achievement gaps in Australia: what NAPLAN reveals about education inequality in Australia. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 80-102.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2004). New directions in multicultural education: Complexities, boundaries, and critical race theory. In Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, 2nd ed., ed. J.A. Banks and C.A.M. Banks, 50–65. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

NAPLAN Website. (2013), ‘NAPLAN’, Available from: http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/naplan.html          

[Accessed on 10th August, 2013]