States have been urged to focus on improving educational outcomes for students, rather than scrutinising the NAPLAN test, following the launch of a $1m review of the testing regimen, The Australian reports.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan, who rejected a call for a national review of the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy back in June, has urged NSW, Victoria and Queensland to “stop obsessing about the NAPLAN test and start obsessing about the NAPLAN results”.
“Which would mean focusing on improving literacy and numeracy,” Mr Tehan said.
The states released terms of reference for the review this month — it will be the sixth review of NAPLAN in just five years.
While the Australian Education Union welcomed the review, describing it as “long overdue”, it was criticised by Australian Catholic University research fellow Kevin Donnelly as a “Trojan horse” for a push to undermine independent objective testing of Australian students.
Dr Donnelly, co-author of the most recent major review of the national curriculum, expressed concerns that the states behind the review were being used by forces wanting to move away from standardised testing towards a system where students were assessed on improvement, not overall academic achievement.
“The review of NAPLAN … is a Trojan horse that will further destroy standards and outcomes and ensure the continued underperformance of Australian students,” Dr Donnelly said.
“It’s like watching a slow-moving train wreck.”
Centre for Independent Studies research fellow Blaise Joseph said there was nothing wrong with the states having a review, so long as it didn’t duplicate the work of previous reviews.
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Obsess on results, not NAPLAN, states told (The Australian)
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Back to the drawing board: NAPLAN overhaul on the cards in three-state review (The Australian)
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