8/8/2019 Education- National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

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13 September 2010

Gary Looney (Menindee, NSW. 2879)

Education: National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

Language Conventions incorporate spelling, grammar and punctuation.Numeracy incorporates Number, Algebra, function and pattern, Space, Measurement, chance and data.Schools use results to identify strengths and weaknesses in teaching programs and to set goals inliteracy and numeracy. School systems use results to review programs and support offered to schools.Australian government spending is around $11,407 for each secondary student.

In Washington DC with only 12% of 8 th graders reading proficiently, it was claimed money could not bethe problem with a per-pupil spending of $13,000. A new program called Impact evaluates Teachers 5times per year, 3 times by an administrator and twice by a master educator. Master Educators writedown what the teacher says and does. These evaluations combined with student test scores result infinal ratings.

In the 1 st year 15 percent of central office staff and one quarter of the cities Principals where replaced,23 under enrolled schools were shut down for good. Final evaluation scores were released in July, 75 DCTeachers were fired for poor performance and 671 more were deemed minimally effective and givenone year to improve or lose their jobs.

In new contracts, Washington DC Teachers voted in a guaranteed 20 percent rise in salary retroactivewith 3 years of back pay, teachers rated highly effective would be eligible for bonuses of up to $20,000.For this, Teachers gave up traditional job security based on tenure and seniority, now if school budgetswere cut the teachers hired last would not necessarily be the first to lose their jobs.

Unqualified value given to NAPLAN tests in Australia generates well founded angst and fear in schools.The average education level of student’s parents has a positive relation to school performance, in NewYork City the gap found between white students and Afro American or Hispanic student performance,highlights result variations for different race or group of people with similar socio-economic status. I

know of few, if any geniuses coming from my school in an outback farming area, which is a reflection of isolation and socio-economic status, as would be similar for many schools across outback Australia.

10% of Australian teachers stand to receive a one-off 10% salary bonus based on vaguely relevantNAPLAN results and the best performing schools receive a possible $75,000 to $100,000. The generallack of wealth in many outback areas, costs, available and reliable services, living expenses, transportingor transit time and isolation discourages settlement for many financially ambitious professionals.

NAPLAN encourages selective enrolments and discourages people moving to some areas or sendingchildren to some local schools. Academic results from higher ranking schools will be more valued byemployers. It’s unavoidable given the choice of reward or shaming, that Schools ’ will devote valuableresources and teaching time, to specifically pass NAPLAN themes and test subjects.

Deciding and disclosing long term goals in cooperation with Teachers, Unions and Government will givemaximum adjustment time in relation to considerations around employee performance, reducingnegative impact. Equality in resources and keeping quality teachers in outback lower socio-economicschools is still the underlying problem, that NAPLAN public test results stand to make increasingly moredifficult for some schools. Government should further understand and consider the variations in factorseffecting outcomes in NAPLAN tests across Australia, this test is a blunt instrument with very noisyresults. Creating Discrimination against some communities and not good evidence based policy.