FOR students participating in NAPLAN, the testing can be the source of some anxiety, however getting the results can help teachers to tailor programs to better meet student needs.

Improvements to NAPLAN were announced last week, including moving the test to Term 1 and returning results much earlier, and will be implemented from 2023 following a review led by NSW.

Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone us – (02) 4981 8882.
Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au

Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said she was pleased that changes were happening in line with the review initiated by NSW in 2019 to make NAPLAN a more effective diagnostic tool.

“These are necessary changes I have been pushing for over the past two years, particularly following the success of the NSW Check-In Assessments, which give teachers results within 48 hours,” Ms Mitchell said.

“Currently the timing of NAPLAN means it is not diagnostic, as students sit the tests quite late and results are delivered months later, minimising their value in the classroom.”

The 2019 Review recommended the test be brought forward from May to as early as possible in the year, so that results can be used more productively by schools and teachers.

From 2023, NAPLAN tests will move to Term 1, with all results except for writing delivered earlier.

“Delivering results earlier in the year means teachers have a better understanding of where their students are at and can develop classroom programs accordingly,” Ms Mitchell said.

“This is a win for teachers, students and their families.

“It ensures the assessment can be used more effectively, and provides greater opportunity to improve learning outcomes.”

In addition to these changes, from Term 2 2024 schools will also be able to opt-in to additional assessments for Year 6 and 10 students, starting with Science in 2024, Civics and Citizenship in 2025, and Digital Literacy in 2026.

With NAPLAN successfully undertaken across the country in 2021, the My School website has now been updated with school-level NAPLAN data.

“My School is an excellent resource to help parents, schools and governments understand the performance of schools,” said Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) CEO David de Carvalho.

Over the last three years, My School has had an average of 2.3 million visitors.

The ‘Student progress’ information on the My School website includes tables showing the percentage of students at the school whose progress was better than expected, given the school’s average score two years ago and the level of community socio-educational advantage.

In the 2022 update, more than 500 Australian schools showed well above the average progress of students with the same starting score and similar backgrounds for at least one domain and more than 30 percent of these schools were in regional or remote areas.

My School includes an Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) that indicates the average educational advantage of the school’s students and is calculated using information about a parent’s occupation and education, school geographical location and the proportion of Indigenous students.

A school’s ICSEA value is provided to encourage taking socio-educational advantage into account when comparing school achievement.

“Too often, media organisations try to construct crude ‘league tables’ based on overall achievement without considering the schools’ level of socio-educational advantage or the amount of progress the students have made in the previous two years.

“Such comparisons are meaningless.”

“The schools that are punching above their weight are those that are achieving above expectation in terms of progress on where their students were two years ago, taking into account their level of socio-educational advantage. “Let’s find out what those schools are doing and think about how good practice can be replicated,” he said.

By Marian SAMPSON