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Should we ‘scrap’ NAPLAN?  

NAPLAN was first introduced in 2008 and replaced the NSW Basic Skills Tests. The idea of a National test was appealing – something standard across Australia to measure reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy and give data to schools, education systems and governments. This was a positive for parents who wanted a measure of how their child was performing at school within their cohort and against National benchmarks. It has also been a positive for school systems and governments.  

What has happened over time and why is a discussion or debate worthy?

In 2010 the MySchool website began ranking schools - this morphed the use of the tests and NAPLAN became a higher stakes test – schools began using it for marketing and a whole industry of NAPLAN practice books began dominating newsagents and bookstores each May. Debates arose about the value of NAPLAN for students with disabilities, exemptions, provisions and extra time. The MySchool rankings changed the conversation away from student learning to ranking. Rob Stokes is correct when he says that NAPLAN is being used as a ranking system and the purpose has been lost.   Had the test results been delivered in a timely way, the tests would have been more useful to schools. The time lag may be solved by moving to online testing but this has not been smooth. Had the tests not been linked to minimum standards for the HSC in 2017 and then stopped in 2018, then perhaps we would not be having the debate about the purpose of NAPLAN.   Naplan’s purpose has changed – from a diagnostic test to see how students and systems were performing in 2008, to a means of ranking schools through MySchool from 2010, to a way to ‘prequalify’ for the HSC in 2017 and finally not a way to ‘prequalify’ for the HSC in 2018. No wonder a debate is occurring.  

What should happen?  

A National testing system that gives a national picture and a child’s place in this is worthy and in a world where we want more data to inform decisions let’s get back to the original purpose. However, let’s also have a look at what we can refine. There are parts of NAPLAN that can be streamlined, a good discussion about writing is one key area. Let’s have a debate about whether Year 3 should do NAPLAN and let’s utilise the adaptive testing model that the online tests deliver- so that each child feels a sense of accomplishment as they progress through the testing.   NAPLAN has only ever been a snapshot of a child’s performance on one day at one time – not the picture of the whole child.  Good schools and teachers have never seen it as more than this. 

The image used: The education minister, Simon Birmingham, says Naplan tests show parents how their children are progressing.

Photograph: Katina Curtis/AAP