ACEL Response to NAPLAN

Here is the link to the article posted by ACEL, in response to NAPLAN.

ACEL Response to NAPLAN.pdf

A very interesting response to NAPLAN by ACEL. I have had a few thoughts whilst reading through this article, so thought I would share them with you.

I agree with much of what was expressed here, especially noting that there is a long delay in providing feedback and results to students and schools. It has been the case that by the time the results have come out, that the students understanding, application and ability can have changed quite significantly.

I think one of the most important issues with the MySchool website is the reporting of Year 7 results. A student’s numeracy and literacy in Year 7 at the time of sitting NAPLAN, is primarily based on their education prior to entering Year 7 and is therefore more of a reflection on the particular primary school a student attended, rather than the secondary school that it is linked with on the MySchool website.

There was a suggestion in the report that “value-added” should be reported instead of (or in addition to) raw marks. Given that I am already aware of some schools focusing on the Year 9 NAPLAN and not the Year 7 NAPLAN, this could pose some problems. If the desire is to get the best value-added scores, then a school is definitely encouraged to neglect Year 7 NAPLAN preparation, and focus on basic literacy and numeracy skills (possibly to the determent of the wider curriculum) in preparation for the Year 9 assessment.

Despite this, I believe that the notion of “value-added”, if it could be fairly and accurately calculated, is a worthwhile one. The big question is – how to calculate it.