NAPLAN

National Assessment Program

Literacy and Numeracy

What is NAPLAN?

Introduced by the Australian

Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authority (ACARA), is
endorsed by the Ministerial Council
for Education, Early Childhood
Development and Youth Affairs
(MCEECDYA). (ACARA 2013)

An annual test given to students in

years 3, 5, 7 & 9 and consists of four
domains:
Reading
Writing
Language conventions Spelling,
grammar &punctuation.
Numeracy. (NAP 2013)

http://
www.literacyeducators.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/NAPLAN-word-c
loud-800x317.jpg

Aims
Provides parents, teachers and schools
with student performance and identifies
whether students have the literacy
and numeracy skills and knowledge for
learning and prepare them for
participation in the community (Polesel,
Dulfer & Turnbull 2012).
Designed to test the skills essential for
children to progress through school and
life, these test skills are developed over
time through school curriculum (NAP
2013).
http://www.nap.edu.au/verve/_resource
s/Acara_NAPLAN_Infographic(V4-2).pdf

What does the test look like?

Questions are multiple choice
or require a short written
response for all tests except the
writing test. Students are
expected to write a continuous
text for the writing task (NAP
2013).

Some sample tests:

Year 3 Reading
Sample Test

Year 5 Language
Conventions Sample Test

Year 7 Numeracy
Sample Test

Year 9 Reading
Sample Test

http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/the-tests.html

https://
www.google.com.au/search?q=NAPLAN&espv=2&biw=1242&bih=615&site=webhp&sourc
e=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi12avYs_TLAhUnJqYKHROUBVIQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=q
JVslx7KmBlD0M%3A

Media Perspectives
The media has become a
large source for providing
the public with information
regarding NAPLAN testing.

These perspectives contain various

messages, concerns, opinions, bias and
influences from different companies,
parents and political representatives.

http://
www.theage.com.au/victori
a/schools-embrace-tailore
d-tests-to-suit-studentstalents-20150529-ghcvz3.h
tml
(Cook 2015)

NAPLAN: Parents and teachers urged to calm

students down May 2015 (Bragshaw 2015)
http://
www.smh.com.au/national/naplan-parents-and-teach
ers-urged-to-calm-students-down-20150505-ggueta.
html

http://
theconversation.com/naplantesting-does-more-harm-than
-good-26923
(Wyn 2014)

The NAPLAN question: good or bad?

(Hunter 2011)
http://www.mamamia.com.au/the-naplan-question
-good-or-bad
/

Teacher
Perspectives
NAPLAN, MySchool and
Accountability: Teacher
perceptions of the effects of
testing (Thompson 2013).

NAPLAN a teachers Perspective

Dec 2013

2012 survey of 941 WA & SA teachers found:

Improvements in whole school

coordination of literacy and numeracy

Increased opportunities for

collaboration and sharing of resources

Supports teacher and school

assessment

Negative impact on learning

Lack of relevance to students

Increases stress/pressure or reduces

student confidence

https://youtu.be/KtFozdTKTNU

Positives
Helps drive improvement in student outcomes and provided
accountability for the community (NAP 2013).

Provides information about

success of policies aimed at
improving achievement of
students.
Schools identify where they are
performing, their strengths and
weaknesses.
The public gain an understanding
on how students and schools are
performing.
(NAP 2013)

http://
cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/external?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcontent6.video.
news.com.au%2FZvOXhvdjoDyFIHvYq9DbXS7eREVSFpbh%2Fpromo263030919&width
=650&api_key=kq7wnrk4eun47vz9c5xuj3mc

Negatives
No statistically significant improvement in the number of students
achieving at the minimum standard across Australia. (Thompson 2013,
p.64).

Teaching to the test

Narrow curriculum focus.
Teacher-centred instruction.
Stress, pressure and anxiety
for students, teachers,
principals and parents.
Decrease in student
motivation.
(Thompson 2013)

http://
www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/z/r/a/n/4/image.relat
ed.articleLeadwide.620x349.zs54n.png/1408356044875.jpg

Conclusion
NAPLAN is only one form of data
collection for student and school
performance. It does serve its
purpose of identifying the
achievements of students, and
strengths and weaknesses of
schools, however, there needs to
be more done to improve results.
There are also many concerns due
to the way data is represented,
and the misconception of this data
by parents, media and political
agents.

http://
www.thecurrentmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/rr
8hx756-1347593223.jpg