The preliminary results of NAPLAN 2017 are out, and the news isn’t good. The annual test of our students’ literacy and numeracy skills shows that not much has changed since 2011, coincidentally – or not…
The ability to write quickly and effortlessly allows children to focus on translating ideas into writing.
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Writing is a fundamental outcome indicator of learning across subjects and grades. The latest NAPLAN results tell us we need to do more to empower children with these skills.
About 1.1 million students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat the 2017 NAPLAN tests in May.
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The latest round of NAPLAN results show Australia’s school systems are not good at reducing the influence of a student’s background on their academic achievement.
Australia has slipped further down the international rankings in maths, science and reading.
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Rather than leaping to conclusions about a failing education system, we need to look at what the data tells us about student performance at a state level to help us make more informed decisions.
Should we base education reforms solely on Australia’s international ranking?
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Being able to sound out letters in words doesn’t mean you can understand them. There is no clear evidence that a new phonics screening test for children in Year 1 will help improve reading levels.
Has education spending gone up while student achievement has stalled?
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Sue Thomson, Australian Council for Educational Research and Peter Goss, Grattan Institute
The Productivity Commission has said that education spending has substantially increased over the last decade but student achievement has shown little or no improvement. Is that true?
Children taking part in a philosophical discussion at Buranda State School in Brisbane.
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Claims made by politicians and the media about what does and does not improve education outcomes are repeated on a regular basis. But is there much truth in them?
Research shows that the test error is too high in NAPLAN.
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Teaching graduates are expected to meet new test standard from July 1 this year.
Given how much money, time and effort has been invested in schooling reforms, why aren’t we seeing substantial improvement across Australia?
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Average NAPLAN results don’t tell the full story. Diving into the details is essential if we are to understand what is going on in Australian education.
Education policy should focus on making sure that every student makes great progress, rather than accountability for test scores or teacher performance pay.
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Responsibility for the operation of public schools needs to be separated from the policymaking and regulatory functions and put into a separate authority.
Government wants to create a national test for reading, phonics and numeracy in Year 1.
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Research shows linking teachers’ pay to performance has little impact on student achievement. Similar tests to the ones the government proposes for young children now face a backlash in the UK and US.
Classrooms should be full of discussion.
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