Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 138

Designing the Classroom Curriculum
Chapter 11: NAPLAN and Classroom
Data Analysis
To this point in the book we have examined the concepts of assessment and reporting, highlighting key
underlying principles and the inherent processes. The Learning Management Design Process was introduced in
Part One as the over-arching procedure that enables the teacher to design their classroom curriculum and
thus embed an appropriate assessment and reporting regime. At the heart of such an approach is the notion
of student performance evidence and the analysis of it to inform teacher judgments, which in turn, informs
the classroom curriculum. In the previous chapter we introduced the idea of ‘teachers as researchers’. The
key message was that there is a set of higher order professional skills that enable the teacher to identify
solutions and to answer questions in relation to learning and classroom based problems. These fundamental
understandings deal with the centrality of assessment in teacher decision-making and how assessment based
data can be interrogated through research-based methods. The chief goal in the ‘teacher as researcher’ agenda
then is for the teacher to both improve their teaching performance and enhance the learning outcomes of all
students.
In this chapter we outline, from a procedural standpoint, how to interrogate classroom data for teaching
purposes. You will come to appreciate the direct link to the information installed at LMQ1 and the process
of data analysis in this chapter. The chapter begins with an overview of NAPLAN and the inherent processes
followed by classroom data analysis. Before beginning we need to first outline the types of data available to
teachers.
The first data type is known generically as ‘systemic data’ and this data is compiled by various systems (i.e.
by government departments and agencies. See: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
[ACARA], located at www.acara.edu.au) and is based on standardised tests, such as NAPLAN, conducted
in schools from across the nation. The ‘My School’ website is used to make public the performance of
individual schools (see www.myschool.edu.au). See Figure 11.1 for a sample My School report (in Reading).
The second is ‘school-based data’ and this is data collected by the school for school-wide diagnostic and
investigative purposes. In most cases this data collection regime occurs in the context of school-wide reviews
and revisions of school programs. Stud ent work samples are the mainstay of such an approach although
other data sets, such as ‘satisfaction surveys’, ‘attendance trends’ and compiled ‘parental and student
feedback’ are often also used. Given the increased emphasis being placed on systemic data and the school
having to respond to it, school-based data is increasing being used to further investigate systemic findings.
The third is ‘teacher generated data’. This is by far the largest collection of data in a school and as the name
suggests is collected by the classroom teacher, for their specific teaching, assessment and reporting needs.
We now return to body of the chapter to explore NAPLAN.
NAPLAN
The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) came into being as a result of
each state and territory in Australia signing on, in 1999, to the ‘Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling
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