Australian Education: NAPLAN’s Influence and Effect on Indigenous Students

1116 Words3 Pages

NAPLAN testing symposium

A National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), is a program that was instituted in 2008 to asses all Australian students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The abilities that are evaluated during this test are a student’s proficiency to both read and write and also their capabilities in numeracy (Davies, 2012). However, NAPLAN testing is flawed due to its unequal treatment of disabled and indigenous students. Also, through the negative impact it creates on teachers and students through pressure to perform.

NAPLAN’s relationship with students with disabilities and learning difficulties

Naplan tests are done annually in May, these tests are designed to evaluate student’s rudimentary skills in order to gauge where each student can be graded in comparison to their fellow students across Australia. Therefore, enabling the department of education to use data collected to create a national standard. According to (S. Bartle, personal communication, 30, 2014) when NAPLAN testing is approaching it causes stress and anxiety for her students due there fear of failure and the possibility of not being able to measure up to a preconceived idea of standard. In a study into NAPLAN testing done by Davies (2012) in which he explored the relationship between students with disabilities and their opportunities in NAPLAN testing. He also noted a similar occurrence of stress and failure amongst said students. However, he also discovered that teachers discourage disabled and less capable students from participating in NAPLAN testing. One of the reason the decision is made in order to avoid having the students score below average which in turn will be published on-line and its effect may damage the school’s reputati...

... middle of paper ...

...and then be tested on them in NAPLAN if Australia had a national curriculum.

References

Carter, M. (2012). Time limitations in NAPLAN numeracy tests. Australian mathematics teacher, the,68(1), 36-40.
Davies, M. (2012). Accessibility to NAPLAN assessments for students with disabilities: a ‘fair go’,
Australasian Journal of Special Education, 36(1), 62-78. doi: 10. 1017/jse12.7
Ford, M. (2013). Achievement gaps in Australia: What NAPLAN reveals about education inequality in
Australia. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 80-102. doi: 10. 1080/13613324.2011.645570
Thompson, G., & Cook, I. (2013). The logics of good teaching in an audit culture: A Deleuzian analysis. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 45(3), 243-258. doi: 10.1080/00131857.2012.732010

Open Document