Is NAPLAN better than no plan? The importance of getting standardised testing right

Chelsea Channing

By Chelsea Channing
Published March 1, 2017

TESTS such as PISA, NAPLAN and TIMSS unite teachers, principals, students and parents in a common aim – to achieve a good result which will reflect well upon themselves, their school and their country.

But at the same time, standardised testing is a concept which often divides the education community in Australia.

An EducationHQ ...

This story appeared in the February 2017 edition of Australian Teacher Magazine.

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By Chelsea Channing

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Chelsea is a staff member of Australian Teacher Magazine, Student Guide, EducationHQ Australia and EducationHQ New Zealand.

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So for me, I feel we need more resources [rather] than more testing.

— Gemma Mirtschin, a Charles Sturt University paediatric speech pathologist.

We’ve seen more testing through NAPLAN, but we haven’t yet seen any impacts in terms of achievement.

— Glenn Savage, senior lecturer in education policy at the University of Melbourne.

I believe we need to be building the capacity of teachers to be competent and confident in identifying learning needs.

— Dennis Yarrington, president of the Australian Primary Principals’ Association (APPA)

I think that we, across the country, systems, schools, teachers, could use NAPLAN more effectively in order to track where individual students are, and also cohorts of students, and then plan interventions or responses in order to raise achievement.

— Glenn Savage, senior lecturer in education policy at the University of Melbourne.

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