University of Sydney experts take NAPLAN to task
Rhetoric and reality
, Senior Lecturer Research Methods / Assessment & Evaluation at the聽, say the tests do not accurately reflect student ability.
鈥淭here was a lot of rhetoric that suggested that NAPLAN could be diagnostic and used to inform teaching,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n practice the test is not sensitive enough and the timing does not help teachers apply what they can learn from the test.鈥�
MySchool website
Due to NAPLAN results being published on the MySchool website,聽聽from the聽聽says their meaning is often distorted.
鈥淲hen NAPLAN was built, its purpose was to give feedback on one occasion, in the context of all other information,鈥� the Director of Educational Measurement and Assessment Hub said.聽
鈥淣ow, schools are advertising themselves and selecting students based on NAPLAN results.
鈥淏ecause of this, NAPLAN has lost credibility.鈥�
Dr Wilson agrees with Professor Tognilini. 鈥淸MySchool] has reduced the possibilities for assessment for learning and created downward pressure and stress on schools, teachers and students,鈥� she said.
She explained that such are the negative outcomes of large-scale, high-stakes tests that they have been dropped by countries like Singapore and Scotland. Sample testing, for instance, is an alternate, preferable assessment method.聽
Professor Tognilini says it鈥檚 up to teachers to set the record straight: 鈥淣APLAN itself is useful for what it鈥檚 measuring.鈥�
Screen versus paper
The online version of NAPLAN, rolled out in some schools, automatically adapts to a student鈥檚 performance, whereas the paper version does not.聽
Fears that this means the tests are incomparable are misplaced, Professor Tognilini says: 鈥淚 have gone on record before in saying that the results from the paper-and-pencil tests and the online tests are comparable, even if they are not the same.鈥�
Student stress
, from the University鈥檚聽, says the anxiety NAPLAN provokes in students can be deleterious.聽
鈥淭here is a lot of evidence from cognitive psychology and neuroscience that stress and anxiety reduces working memory capacity,鈥� the expert in the nature, acquisition, and use of knowledge said.
鈥淏eyond how exam stress can affect everyone in this way, there is a lot of work showing that a large proportion of students suffer from 鈥榤aths anxiety鈥�. Brain imaging data shows that presenting a maths problem to solve to someone with math anxiety activates same brain networks as feeling physical pain.
鈥淧utting all of this together, and again with the high stakes nature of these exams, suggests that a lot of kids are going to do much worse on these exams than they would under different conditions.鈥�
More broadly, Dr Wilson says the culture around NAPLAN needs to change: 鈥淸It] sends the wrong messages to students - that it鈥檚 all about performance and competition - and frustrates our teachers.鈥�