The Need for NAPLAN?

The Basic Skills Test was first administered in New South Wales in 2008. The original design was to test the basic skills that students were expected to demonstrate to progress through school and life. The design of this test evolved and was applied across educational jurisdictions through the LANNA test (Language, Literacy and Numeracy Assessment, rest of Australia) and is now NAPLAN.

The original purpose of the Basic Skills Test was to assess student learning in Year 3 and Year 5 in numeracy, language, reading and writing. The data from the BST was then applied to inform teaching and learning programs. It was all too soon realised that the scope of using the data at a school level was to become the metric used to measure teacher and school achievement.

The buzz words and language used to describe the data included the term ‘value added’ and this highlighted the impacts being felt by school leadership, teachers, and sensational media reporting.

Education is currently facing significant challenges. The Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) is back in political discussions and policy announcements, perhaps every school will soon receive 100% of the SRS. Assessment data frames school performance measures and school improvement programs. The Best Start test is administered to students in the first weeks of Kinder/Prep and is used to measure the literacy and numeracy skills of students as they start formal schooling.

The journey along the data trail begins in Kinder/Prep and expands across all learning areas and into Year 12.

It is easy to argue that NAPLAN is an effective data capture tool, and each year accelerates the stakes of testing. It is apparent that NAPLAN is an example of high stakes testing and is not useful, in fact has no place in guiding curriculum development needed to ensure students are equipped with the skills needed for success in our rapidly changing world.

The OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 project (OECD, 2019) described the race between technology and education. The OECD Learning Compass 2030 expresses the “knowledge, skills, attitudes and values students need not just to weather the changes in our environment and in our daily lives, but to help shape the future we want”.

The Key Skills for the 21st Century: an evidence-based review (2017) was prepared for the NSW Department of Education and identified some key skills that students will need for 21st century learning. The report highlighted the general agreement that schools need to be more than ‘ATAR factories’ and that community expectations are that schools should not focus on academic texts and improving text scores. The consultation between policy makers, practitioners and researchers identified 9 key skills: critical thinking, creativity, metacognition, problem solving, collaboration, motivation, self-efficacy, conscientious, and perseverance.

Education plays a central role in our communities and more broadly, our society. It is evident high stakes testing including NAPLAN are crude tools of assessment, and do not have a significant role in planning the curricula for 21st century learning.