The current debate about comparability would be more concerning if 2018 results showed radically different trends compared to previous years, but they don’t.
Early shared reading is linked to a number of benefits for children, including better performance in NAPLAN, reading, writing, spelling, grammar and mathematics.
To assess problem-solving, creative and critical thinking skills on NAPLAN would fit with broader movements in education internationally, but there are some questions to address first.
Literacy and numeracy can be assessed through creative tasks, like creating a drama performance or an electrical circuit, without hindering creativity.
Students from the Philippines, China and India consistently achieve better results at school than their Australian-born counterparts. This is due to a number of factors, including parents’ values.
Using equivalent year levels provides us with a clearer picture of the gap for Indigenous students, who can be up to an equivalent of 7.7 years behind their non-Indigenous counterparts in writing.
The results of an international study into reading skills offer reason for optimism for Australian students. But tragically, too many children are still being left behind.
Jen Jackson, Australian Council for Educational Research; Raymond J Adams, Australian Council for Educational Research, dan Ross Turner, Australian Council for Educational Research
Standardised tests are a powerful tool for building an evidence base of what works to guide education policy.
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.
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.
NAPLAN is great at tracking changes over time and between demographics, but not so great at measuring what factors effect change, engagement or creativity.
High grades might be awarded to papers that show the structural features of highly persuasive writing – papers that follow the “persuasion script”, so to speak.