ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => VIC Year 9 Discussion => Topic started by: Joseph41 on June 18, 2018, 02:31:51 pm

Title: What do you think about NAPLAN testing?
Post by: Joseph41 on June 18, 2018, 02:31:51 pm
In the last few months (correct me if I'm wrong), you would have sat NAPLAN tests.

National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing has been administered since 2008 for Grade 3, Grade 5, Year 7 and Year 9 students. So, you won't have any more NAPLAN after this year! 🎉

But what I'm interested in is what you think about and feel toward the testing. I know that some schools are really hectic, and students basically study for their NAPLAN exams; others, on the other hand, just rock up on the day and essentially wing it.

Do you get nervous or anxious thinking about NAPLAN testing? Does your performance really matter to you? Vote in the poll and let us know below! ;D
Title: Re: What do you think about NAPLAN testing?
Post by: Pary_N on June 18, 2018, 04:21:33 pm
In the last few months (correct me if I'm wrong), you would have sat NAPLAN tests.

National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing has been administered since 2008 for Grade 3, Grade 5, Year 7 and Year 9 students. So, you won't have any more NAPLAN after this year! 🎉

But what I'm interested in is what you think about and feel toward the testing. I know that some schools are really hectic, and students basically study for their NAPLAN exams; others, on the other hand, just rock up on the day and essentially wing it.

Do you get nervous or anxious thinking about NAPLAN testing? Does your performance really matter to you? Vote in the poll and let us know below! ;D

Honestly I'm the biggest nerd you can possibly find. I spend HOURS and HOURS studying and revising, and I love it. My grades really really matter to me. Naplan, on the other hand, I genuienly cannot care less about. It's just how you do on one particular day, doesn't hold any true value except for government statistics, and it's generally quite easy...
Personally I think they don't matter at all but hey, everyone's got different opinions
Title: Re: What do you think about NAPLAN testing?
Post by: Aaron on June 18, 2018, 04:23:24 pm
I'm sure this is a common view among many of my teacher colleagues, standardised testing sucks.

NAPLAN has become more about glorifying the academically enriched schools and punishing the schools in low SES areas or those that have different focus areas (e.g. sports via an academy). The results published on the My School website are used to discriminate and judge, without taking into account other factors of a student such as interests, circumstances, etc.

Parents send kids to schools based on these results (again, discriminatory) and if we consider equity in terms of funding and allocation of resources.. of course a school that doesn't have said resources will perform lower.

Students are withdrawn from the NAPLAN by parents which therefore affects the results (this is a starting point). Secondly, it assumes that all students achieve the same and can access the content in the same way.

Schools have even started dedicating sessions to NAPLAN mastery which in my opinion is a massive waste of time and resources, when students could actually be learning.

The emphasis on differentiated learning and targeting students at their point of need, rather than the "year level" which they are at. I just think, the way teaching is moving from chalk and talk/robot instruction to targeted learning conflicts with the idea of standardised testing and should be abolished altogether.

As you can probably tell, I feel very strongly about this and think it's a massive waste of time.

I guess if I had to support the idea of NAPLAN in any way... and believe me it was tough to find... it is somewhat useful as a supporting tool. Teachers get access to student NAPLAN data and areas of achievement/weakness. This, used in combination with other methods/data could be beneficial in some way. Obviously the public doesn't get access to individual student-by-student data so it is ineffective for them.
Title: Re: What do you think about NAPLAN testing?
Post by: Bri MT on June 19, 2018, 08:59:52 am
Fun fact: my cohort (2017) was the first one to complete all of NAPLAN from start to finish. 

I think naplan sucks. Students get kept home from school so they "don't bring down the average" which not only deprives them of their school day but also isn't great for moral.

I completely agree with Aaron about it entrenching disadvantage as well.

Imo many students with a family less engaged in their education won't try nearly as hard and therefore look "worse" than they are, which could lead to lower self efficacy & putting less effort into school in general - obviously something to be avoided

I don't understand why the results are publicly available for parents to look at. The data can be very misleading & I don't know of any positives it provides to parents or students. 

The most interesting use of the data which I've seen was at a school council meeting,  where the (average) year 7 result of a student enrolled in my school was compared to their achievement in grade 5 & the magnitude of this change was compared across all schools and across similar schools.    This was one of the ways that the school looked at how they were tracking, what resources they need to increase in etc.