The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), which is implemented by the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA), is a system-wide, standardised assessment program that measures high-stakes achievement for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 across Australia. Rather than being focused on content, NAPLAN is a basic skills assessment program which tests the essential skills in reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy. Although many resources are available to teachers about the nature of NAPLAN, the ways in which NAPLAN improves literacy and numeracy skills for Australian students and what stake-holders should do with the data from the system-wide program, excessive debate continues to circulate within the education sector about the impact and usefulness of NAPLAN in Australian schools as a measure of student and teacher achievement.
Research in recent times implies that NAPLAN heavily influences the way teaching and learning is planned and executed in schools. Hughes (2003) refers to this type of accountability testing as backwash, explaining that teachers can too easily fall into the trap of simply “teaching to the test” in order for their students to achieve good results. Borlagdan (2014) claims that this phenomenon of teaching to the test can actually “distort” and “narrow” the content within the curriculum, by more time being spent in preparation for the test than actually moving through the content in the curriculum meticulously. Despite this research, ACARA’s info-graphic brochure clearly states that familiarisation is important, but drilling and excessive practice is unnecessary (ACARA, n.d). In addition, Barry McGaw, the chairman of ACARA defends that “NAPLAN takes o...
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... classroom issues that students are experiencing. They key to getting the most of out the NAPLAN results is to use the NAPLAN data in conjunction with other methods of assessment. If areas of concern were identified in the NAPLAN results of my students, I feel that I could use the data, along with their other assessment results to identify trends, compare their results, talk to colleagues to see if the same issue is common amongst their students and develop strategies and teaching plans in order to overcome the problems. Furthermore, the data could help me identify learning difficulties among the students and prompt me to seek the right strategies to help the students, whether it may be to add or change my current teaching strategies or whether it is to seek advice and resources from curriculum advisors, special educations consultants or other supporting agencies.
The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an assessment tool developed to evaluate literacy and numeracy levels of all Australian students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The aim of NAPLAN, since its inception in 2008, is to act as a diagnostic test to ensure all Australian students are meeting intended educational outcome (Wigglesworth, Simpson & Loakes, 2011). They are administered by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA; ACARA 2010). The ACARA (2010) website states that the NAPLAN tests "broadly reflect aspects of literacy and numeracy common to curricula in all States and Territories" and that the test questions and formats are "chosen so that they are familiar to teachers and students across Australia".
The overall purpose of schooling is to advance one’s knowledge and skill base and through standardized testing the belief is that one’s knowledge and skill base can be assessed and analyzed, but what occurs many a times is a teacher's difficulty to expand upon the learning process due to the confinements that testing has on his/hers ability to teach. In a qualitative study performed by the Morehead State University it was determined that in a particular rural school standardized testing had implemented a limit on the amount of time that teachers were able to instruct, as well as limitations on the “instructional resources and the types of assessments teachers employed” (Thomas, 2005). Even if a teacher was content with teaching the state
One of the most controversial topics in education today is the use of Provincial Achievement Testing, also know as PAT. PATs’ are used to assess and assist in improving programs, maintain standards and improve student achievement. These tests are standard tests that are at the same academic level for all students and focus on the same curriculum topics. All students write these tests at roughly the same time during the school in the same grade. In most provinces, students write PATs’ in grades three and six in elementary school. These tests feature sections from the core subject areas; math, literacy, science and social studies. Schools with french immersion have tests written in french with a french language sections as well. These tests are used to provide additional information regarding the students’ and school’s achievement. However, some organizations use this to compare schools and districts. Some teachers lack an understanding of these assessments and change their teaching practices to fit this perception. Teachers are focus to much on the basic information being covered by the test, and both all the curriculum that is listed. Teachers need to look at the difference between the assessment of learning over the assessment for learning. The view of assessing of learning has given external testing a lower view by teachers. External testing is used for checking the quality of education. There are three issues regarding assessing student learning with achievement testing, they are: the weak understanding of fair assessment, the perception of external accountability initiatives and the inappropriate assessment of at-risk students.
The development of a national curriculum for Australia is not a new endeavour (Marsh, 2010). The ideal is that national curriculum across Australia would mean that students are provided with a quality education that helps to shape the lives of the nations citizens and continue developing the productivity and quality of life within Australia. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] have the task of developing and implementing a nationwide curriculum. ACARA (n.d.-c) claims have addressed needs of young Australians while considering that changing ways in learning and challenges will continue to shape students education in the future. A look at what the Australian Curriculum is, its purpose, structure and scope, learning theories and teaching processes and whether the curriculum has the capacity to meet the needs of 21st century learners will show that the initial construction of a national curriculum appears to be successful. However, the effectiveness of the Australian Curriculum will only be able to be evaluated in the future after implementation across the country.
The fifth claim is Australia should seek permission to use the UK Government’s Phonics Screening Check structure and item generation database (Buckingham, 2016). Evidence to support this claim is the report of The UK Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. The author provided so various kinds of details about the implementation of UK Phonics Screening Check, why it should be implemented, what the method of the application is, how the validity and the reliability of the test is. Also who should be included and excluded from the analysis, and how the method can improve student’s literacy level in the country. She assumes that this approach can be implemented in Australia, and Australia does not need to create its assessment independently. She assumes that even though Australia and United Kingdom has different policy context, the rationale is the same and by conducting a pilot study before implementing the Phonics Screening Check nationally, it will allow any technical
Assessment has been the greatest challenge in my development as a professional. My coursework as supported my growth in this area, especially in understanding the broad range of assessments used to support students’ growth and development. My courses have also supported my understanding of how ongoing observational assessment and standards-based measures can be used to inform instruction and support the cycle of observation, reflection and planning. Coursework
“Standardized tests are defined by W. James Popham, former president of the American Educational Research Association, as ‘any test that’s administered, scored, and interpreted in a standard , predetermined manner.” (ProCon.org, 2011, p. 6) The debate over these tests has become a very hot topic especially since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. The debate over these tests covers all academic areas and therefore is relevant to the area of children’s literacy. At the core of this debate is the main stance of both sides:
This paper explores a few of the many alternatives to standardized testing within the education system. Also, this research helps the reader understand what standardized exams are, why they are used, and how educators can use other ways of assessing to “test” the children’s/students’ abilities throughout the year. Some of these substitutions may include personal portfolios, developmental benchmarks, and a variety of analyses on comprehension by recording different sessions. Furthermore, this exposition uses research from many different resources to support the importance, credibility, and objectivity of other assessment tools besides standardized test. By reading this composition, one will learn the pros and cons of uniform evaluation implementations and why it is important for everyone’s individual learning and development that standardized testing are no longer required.
make it work? In C.A. Dwyer (Ed.), The future of assessment: Shaping teaching and learning
Cole, H., Hulley, K., & Quarles, P. (2009). Does assessment have to drive the curriculum?
To investigate the notion of numeracy, I approach seven people to give their view of numeracy and how it relates to mathematics. The following is a discussion of two responses I receive from this short survey. I shall briefly discuss their views of numeracy and how it relates to mathematics in the light of the Australian Curriculum as well as the 21st Century Numeracy Model (Goos 2007). Note: see appendix 1 for their responses.
Unlike end of term tests, standardised tests such as NAPLAN are designed to compare proficiency with other students and include prescribed procedures for administering, scoring and interpreting results (Booker et al., 2010). The data gained from standardised tests can be used as evidence to compare mathematical achievement at a state, school or class level but could also be used to diagnose students’ strengths and weaknesses to refine teaching programs (Reys et al., 2012).
Using literacy strategies in the mathematics classroom leads to successful students. “The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1989) define mathematical literacy as an “individual's ability to explore, to conjecture, and to reason logically, as well as to use a variety of mathematical methods effectively to solve problems." Exploring, making conjectures, and being able to reason logically, all stem from the early roots of literacy. Authors Matthews and Rainer (2001) discusses how teachers have questioned the system of incorporating literacy with mathematics in the last couple of years. It started from the need to develop a specific framework, which combines both literacy and mathematics together. Research was conducted through
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a
The final assessment piece for term 1 is a personal reflection that is centered around our previous quiz results. These past few weeks each student was asked to complete a quiz based on numeracy and literacy concepts that are important to our development as a 21st century teacher. These skills are an important concept to all teachers as they are used on a daily basis, sometimes even subconsciously. Numeracy practises are a skill that teachers are required to be competent in. this component i find myself confident of as i have previous experience as a stage manager for theatre productions, working at markets and as a waitress in a local cafe. This confidence is backed up by my scoring on the final quiz, that was based on numeracy practices, achieving a 10/10. These skills will be more than adequate in teaching Biology and Geography in the eventual completion of this course. Continue use of these practises will constantly improve my ability.