NAPLAN

NAPLAN results released today show nationally student achievement has stalled since 2008 when the tests were first introduced.

The head of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Robert Randall says while stability is good, the community will expect more improvement over time.

"The 2015 results show that at a national level we are seeing little change in student achievement in these important areas of learning.

 

“Improvement in NAPLAN results comes about when student learning improves. Literacy and numeracy are the foundations of learning at and beyond school. If student knowledge, skills and understanding are not improving in these areas, it is a cause for reflection,” Randall said.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne says for results to lift the focus needs to turn to the coalition's four pillars of education: curriculum, teacher quality, parental engagement and school autonomy.( I thought the 4 pillars of education were something else entirely!)

"It's not about money, it's actually about the basics of school education," he toldABC radio .( No or course not! Who does he think he's fooling. His government has dropped the ball on state school education funding, in fact he'd prefer to 'get out of school education altogether' 

An ABC interviewer on the radio asked this morning whether NAPLAN data was an opportunity to 'attack teachers' Mr Randall said no and then gave an incoherent answer. Of course status quo results will be used to attack teachers. I'm sure the 'class sizes don't matter', 'your child is better off in private schools', 'militant teacher unions making it too hard to get rid of teachers' bandwagon will be rolled out by the usual ill informed far right political commentators.

Australia's chief scientist Ian Chubb said this year's results should be a wake-up call, noting the broad direction of maths results, both in national testing and on international scales, was not good for Australia.

"Given that maths is so central to so much of what we do and so much of what we will need to do then there's a wake-up call for us," he told ABC radio .

"And we've got to do something about it soon."( I hope he's not going to peddle his compulsory maths and science up to year 12 twaddle again.)

Overall, NAPLAN results have remained stable with some national improvements.

• Reading at Year 3 saw a statistically significant increase from 2008 – a continuation of the long-term trend. Year 5, 7 and 9 results have remained stable from 2008 and 2014.

• Numeracy at Year 5 saw a statistically significant increase from 2008. All year levels have remained stable from 2014.

• Spelling at Year 5 saw a statistically significant increase from 2008. All year levels have remained stable from 2014.

• Grammar/punctuation at Year 3 saw a statistically significant increase from 2008. All year levels have remained stable from 2014.

• Writing at Year 3 saw a statistically significant increase from 2014. Year 7 and Year 9 had a statistically significant decrease from 2011.

Randall says the release of the 2015 NAPLAN results provides another opportunity for all those involved in education to analyse the results and to celebrate success.

"But more importantly, it is an opportunity to reflect on how gains achieved by some can be experienced by many more students in many more places," he added.

What nobody seems to recognise is that year 7 and certainly year 9 students don't take NAPLAN seriously. A better measurement needs to be taken to get reliable data about secondary school students.

“While the ACT, NSW and Victoria continue to achieve high results, the 2015 results show that Queensland and Western Australia have made significant gains in several domains, and their efforts should be applauded. The fact that these gains span year and domain levels is particularly encouraging.”

The NAPLAN 2015 summary information also shows that withdrawal rates have remained stable from 2014. The vast majority (over 97 per cent) of parents and carers across Australia continue to believe the value of NAPLAN as an important measure of achievement for their child.No data is available about the pressure put on some students in some schools or the stress placed on students by some parents and students themselves. A simple post test survey of students would find out that information easily! But I don't think they want to know.

On average, over 92.5 per cent of students met the national minimum standard across year levels and domains.( That is an excellent result)

NAPLAN, the annual literacy and numeracy assessments for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, were held between 12 and 14 May this year.

These results are being released two weeks earlier than last year, and six weeks earlier than previous years, building on the Australian Government’s commitment for a faster turnaround of NAPLAN results.

During August 2015, state and territory test administration authorities will be releasing individual student reports to schools for distribution to parents.Apparently for a time we will also get access to student writing online which should be interesting.

from AAP

The Opposition's take on NAPLAN 

Shadow minister for education Kate Ellis says the 2015 NAPLAN results show Australia needs to do better if we are going to keep up with the rest of the world.

At a time when our schools should be a national priority – and other countries in our region are recording significant improvements – Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ripped $30 billion from our classrooms, Ellis said in a media release today.

“The government has walked away from the accountability and improvement measures put in place under Labor’s Gonski reforms – changes designed to lift student results,” she said.

“Tony Abbott’s massive cuts will rob teachers and principals of the tools they need to lift results.”

Ellis said pushing back School Improvement Plans, handing money to the states with ‘no strings attached’, and refusing to enforce the Gonski agreements designed to meet the needs of students.

“School improvement is more urgent than ever. In the global race for skills and jobs, we need to be among the world’s best, not just standing still,” she said.

Ellis emphasised NAPLAN was only one measure of an individual student’s progress, it gave parents, governments and the community an important overall indication of how our schools were faring.

At school today

Today the grade 1-2s finished their comics and are starting on their Avengers dioramas.

the grade 5s will be back tomorrow hopefully with lots of tales about Sovereign Hill.