The Australian Primary Principals Association is demanding that the scores from the National Assessment Programme - Literacy and Numeracy - which we know as "NAPLAN "- be removed from the "My School "website. It is claimed that giving the public access to this information is actually harming some students.
NAPLAN requires a comprehensive evaluation of the literacy and numeracy skills achieved in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 and runs a comparison of school results across the entire spectrum of the Australian education system. The sticking point for teachers is that it allows parents to judge the standard of education being delivered by each individual school - which is something they would prefer to be kept secret.
It seems that we have two competing factions pulling in opposite directions. From the government point of view, NAPLAN threw the spotlight of transparency and accountability onto the education system. It identified schools that were falling below standard and opened the door for rectification. In theory, more money would be spent to advance the training of under performing teachers and the school would get help to elevate teaching standards.
That was anathema to the powerful teachers unions. They are deeply enmeshed in the principle of seniority being measured only in years served and uniform pay grades. Incentives for brilliance are seen as elevating "stars "above the common herd - and this "herd mentality " is paramount. It is probably one of the reasons that Australia's education system compares badly with that of some of our trading neighbours.
Parents love NAPLAN. It puts a tool in their hands and allows them to place their children where the best results are being achieved, and school gradings have a lot to do with property values. The teaching unions fear that this may be the thin end of the wedge when it comes to rewarding gifted teachers and moving away from the drudgery of "Public Service " pay uniformity. NAPLAN also draws the comparison of the private and public school systems into the public gaze.
One of the drawbacks often mentioned is the tendency for teachers to concentrate their students on the likely content of coming NAPLAN tests rather than the broader issues of a balanced education curriculum. There is also a tendency to rig the result by arranging for weaker performers to go AWOL on test day. Some people claim that publishing what they term a "Leagues table "of school results actually lowers standards as any competent teachers at a weak school seek to move on to a school higher on the gradings.
Improvements will not be gained by dumping NAPLAN scores in the rubbish bin. They are a legitimate comparison - warts and all - and improvement will depend on the government implementing the measures to upgrade the lower ranking schools - and that will cost money and probably involve some heavy fighting with the teaching unions. We certainly need schooling in Australia to be on the basis of a national curriculum, not on the fragmented mess that it is under the state and Territory individual regimes. That will impose a certain loss of autonomy on state education, but few would seriously support still having eight individual education systems in place in modern Australia.
NAPLAN is the first step on a very long road. We need the fortitude to see it through and the resolve to pay the price needed if Australian education is going to place us amongst the leaders in an ever more competitive world !
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