Five Things We Wouldn ’ t Know Without NAPLAN ( continued )
ARTICLES
Five Things We Wouldn ’ t Know Without NAPLAN ( continued )
Looking at the next level of detail makes it clear no state or territory can afford to be complacent .
For example , New South Wales has the highest levels of achievement of any state for students whose parents have a university degree , but its disadvantaged students make less progress than the national average . By contrast , Victoria has the highest achievement levels for students whose parents didn ’ t finish school , but is not stretching its most advantaged students in the same way .
4 . Changes over time
New analysis , taking socioeconomic factors into account , shows that about 8 % of schools have “ beaten their odds ” for all five cohorts for which we have reliable NAPLAN progress data . Given this would only occur 3 % of the time for a coin toss , we can confidently say that at least 5 % of Australia ’ s schools are
routinely out-performing . economic differences
8 % of schools out-performed in all 5 cohorts , while only 3 % should do so by chance Coin toss 3-5 Numeracy 7-9 numeracy 3-5 reading 7-9 reading
30.0 %
20.0 %
NAPLAN has now been running for long enough to identify trends over time . Too often the story is one of stagnation , but there are
bright spots , including in the early years in Queensland . differences
10.0 %
0 1 2 3
Numeracy
Reading
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
|
|
2013 |
About 5 % of schools are routinely doing better than we would expect given their student population mix . |
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Relative to the rest of Australia , Queensland has increased its year three numeracy and reading scores by three to four months since 2010 .
It ’ s interesting to note 2010 was the first NAPLAN cohort where Queensland students started school with a Prep year . This probably accounts for some of the improvement , but it ’ s also notable that the relative levels of achievement have improved over time , not just in a single step , suggesting Queensland ’ s education system is getting some other things right .
The richness of NAPLAN data allows us to identify much more subtle patterns as well . For example , while very remote Indigenous students are doing very poorly in writing , there are signs of improvement in this cohort in NSW . This level of granular analysis would not be possible without the NAPLAN tests being done every year , by all schools .
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5 . Identifying high-growth schools
The “ holy grail ” for many advocates of NAPLAN is to use it to identify the schools that are most effective in maximising student learning growth , and to apply lessons from those schools to others not adding as much value .
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Of course , NAPLAN can ’ t tell us why these schools are different . Maybe it ’ s what the schools and their teachers are doing . Maybe it ’ s the nature of their incoming cohort . Whatever it is , we need to know .
Where to from here ?
NAPLAN is an imperfect navigation tool . It certainly doesn ’ t have GPS-like levels of precision , but giving up on NAPLAN would be like 19th-century sailors dumping sextants and chronometers in favour of returning to using the stars , wind and currents to navigate .
Maybe we need to rethink how NAPLAN is used , but overall , it should be kept .
Peter Goss is School Education Program Director , Grattan Institute .
This article was first published in ‘ The Conversation ’ on 15th May , 2018 . SEN and the Science Teachers ’ Association of NSW are most grateful to ‘ The Conversation ’ for its generous policy of encouraging the republishing of its many fine articles . We also thank the author , Peter Goss , for supplying this article , thereby agreeing to this policy .
This is easier said than done , not least because the socioeconomic mix in each school affects the rate of learning growth as well as the students ’ achievement .
37 SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 2