Getting rid of NAPLAN would remove a distraction from the classroom and allow teachers more time to understand and address the needs of the students.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Getting rid of NAPLAN would allow teachers more time to respond to and address the needs of their students, rather than teaching to the test.
We may need to rethink how NAPLAN is used, but overall it’s an important tool for researchers and policymakers.
Shutterstock
While we may need to rethink how we use NAPLAN, it is an important and useful tool for researchers and policy makers.
Without new scientific work, we can expect another 30 years of reviews and critiques on the role of general capabilities in schooling.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The role of general capabilities in a subject-based curriculum has been a recurring theme in Australian curriculum history.
There are significant political hurdles to be overcome before the report’s recommendations can be translated into action.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The recently released Gonski 2.0 report focuses on overhauling core aspects of curriculum and reporting, and proposes a move away from the industrial model of education towards individualisation.
There are now several new gate-keeping measures to test teacher quality introduced by universities in the last two to three years.
Shutterstock
Australia’s decline in PISA rankings and criticisms of NAPLAN tell us we should also be looking at how we assess teacher quality.
The idea of “Harambee” - self-help - was central to Jomo Kenyatta’s thinking and politics.
bootbearwdc/Flickr
Kenyans believe that fixing education is not someone else’s task or someone else’s failure.
The average year nine Indigenous student in a very remote area scores about the same in NAPLAN reading as the average year three non-Indigenous city student, and significantly lower in writing.
Aap/Tracey Nearmy
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.
NAPLAN results should also be considered in relation to other standardised assessments, which do not always tell the same story.
Shutterstock
The results are in, and student achievement on NAPLAN has plateaued in literacy and numeracy, with some areas of improvement.
After 10 years of minimal breakthroughs, NAPLAN doesn’t seem to be going anywhere but online.
Shutterstock
NAPLAN is great at tracking changes over time and between demographics, but not so great at measuring what factors effect change, engagement or creativity.
It appears that whatever factors are constraining genetic potential among less well-off students in the US do not exert a similar influence in Australia.
Shutterstock
In the US, differences in school results among poorer children depend more on environment than genes. In Australia, the story is different.
About 1.1 million students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat the 2017 NAPLAN tests in May.
Shutterstock
This year’s preliminary NAPLAN results show Australian students are flatlining after ten years of the controversial tests.
On average year 3 girls perform higher than boys in reading, writing, grammar and punctuation, and spelling.
from www.shutterstock.com
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.
‘Kindy bootcamps’ tend to be run by untrained teachers.
from www.shutterstock.com
Parents are sending their children to private pre-school programs as a way to ensure they are ready to start school. But are these effective?
Some of Australia’s Indigenous people even used body parts to help them count.
Shutterstock/Pics by Nick
Australia’s Indigenous people had many methods for counting, and they didn’t use just numbers.
Has education spending gone up while student achievement has stalled?
AAP Image/Dan Peled
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?
The evidence shows counting was beyond more than a handful of numbers for Australia’s Indigenous people.
Shutterstock/Sam DCruz
There is plenty of evidence to show Australia’s Indigenous people had ways of counting big numbers, yet the myth persists they couldn’t count more than a handful of things. Why?
Children taking part in a philosophical discussion at Buranda State School in Brisbane.
Steve Gray/AAP
Teaching philosophy for just one hour a week can improve children’s progress in writing, maths and reading.
Research shows that the test error is too high in NAPLAN.
from www.shutterstock.com
It is not reasonable for politicians to say NAPLAN results have plateaued, because comparisons from year to year are not reliably accurate.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham says the results are extremely encouraging.
Katina Curtis/AAP
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?
AAP/Dan Peled
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.