NAPLAN getting in way of teaching:

Children are not learning much beyond passing the NAPLAN test, and some children are stressed out by it, according to a study released today by the University of Melbourne and the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney.

The study of 8,300 teachers and principals from across the country looks at the impact of NAPLAN on testing, pedagogy and curriculum practices as well as the impact of the NAPLAN tests on the students’ health and well-being.

The study found that teachers are unsure of the purpose of NAPLAN, with many believing that it is a method for ranking school performance. Those who do see it as useful to benchmark how children are performing against their peers across the country do not think it is effective as a diagnostic tool as the results are received so late.

Teachers are also concerned about the impact of poor NAPLAN results on their school’s reputation and how it can affect the morale of staff and students. Reports today suggest that some students become so stressed about the test that they are physically ill, experience sleeplessness, crying or are simply unable to complete the test.

Because of the pressure on schools and students from the NAPLAN test, many teachers say that they are more concerned with teaching to ensure students past the NAPLAN test rather than other curriculum areas.

“The curriculum is so crowded now. There are so many things we have to ensure kids know and understand, there is NAPLAN, but there is no room for so many other things we would like to do in the class or which might be good for their development,” a deputy principal from a primary school in inner western Sydney told Motherpedia.

“There is no doubt at my school that the kids come first but we also all know that we have to get them and the school through the NAPLAN results each year without a disaster, or bad press.

“For government and education bureaucrats to say NAPLAN is not ‘high stakes’ is plain wrong. They may be responsible for the policy but they certainly don’t understand the practical effect of it on the ground.”

Teaching for test success was one of the reasons NAPLAN was criticised prior to the introduction of the NAPLAN test and the study’s findings are likely to spark further debate. Rightly or wrong, school communities (including parents) are seeing NAPLAN as ‘high stakes’ testing which, in turn, is having an impact on children.

The results are consistent with international research on the impact of high stakes testing.

“It may be an unintended consequence, but putting the results up on a website for everyone to see, and then to have newspapers making comparisons between schools and making disparaging comments about entire schools, entire suburbs and the children at the school ... that’s big stuff in a school community.

“It’s only one test on one day yet its effect is much bigger than that. On our school, the parents and children,” the deputy principal says.

That doesn’t mean abolition is the answer, but Government and policy makers should take note of the intended and unintended impact of NAPLAN and consider ways in which it can be placed in an appropriate context within schools.

The Federal School Education Minister, Peter Garrett, said that the survey did not reflect the feedback he received.

He told Melbourne media that “There is no reason that the teaching of other subjects should suffer or that students should feel stressed.”