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Articles on standardised testing

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By making funding dependent on school outcomes, the government is intensifying an audit culture that marginalises vulnerable students. from shutterstock.com

NSW budget: giving schools extra money only if they meet ‘outcomes’ can hamper teaching standards

Governments usually measure outcomes by standardised tests, such as NAPLAN. If schools are scrambling to improve their outcomes to gain funding, this can have a detrimental effect on teaching quality.
4.5 million young Australians between the ages of nine and 24 have taken NAPLAN tests at some point during their schooling. Shutterstock

We need to reform NAPLAN to make it more useful

NAPLAN has now been in place for a decade and needs ongoing review and refinement to make it more useful to classroom teaching and learning.
Standardised assessments can inform what teachers teach, based on evidence of student learning. Shutterstock

Evidence-based education needs standardised assessment

Standardised tests are a powerful tool for building an evidence base of what works to guide education policy.
For a student who is blind, the obvious test adjustment is providing a braille test if they are proficient in braille. Shutterstock

Standardised tests limit students with disability

Standardised tests restrict how well students with disability can do, which reinforces the idea that there are things they can’t do that children without disability can.
Results from the 2017 NAPLAN results showed very little improvement since the test was introduced 10 years ago. Richard Wainwright/AAP

NAPLAN has done little to improve student outcomes

NAPLAN is good at measuring some aspects of education, including knowledge difference between demographics, but has not produced a positive effect on student learning outcomes.
To make sure we get the most out of education, we may need to both broaden our narrative about standardised testing and try to minimise its negative influences. Shutterstock

Support for standardised tests boils down to beliefs about who benefits from it

The use of standardised testing is a divisive topic, and most of the disagreement comes down to beliefs about whether using it to control education is a good or bad thing.

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