SUBMISSION TO SENATE EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS COMMITTEE

Inquiry into the effectiveness of the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy

AUSTRALIAN PARENTS COUNCIL INC. PO Box 5011, Launceston, TAS 7250 Phone: (03) 6334 8886

7 June 2013

Submission to the Senate Education Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy Introduction The Australian Parents Council (APC) is the national organisation representing the parents of students attending Catholic and independent schools. We take this opportunity to make a brief submission to the Senate inquiry on the effectiveness of NAPLAN. APC’s mission is to promote choice and quality in schooling, the equitable distribution of government funds for schooling, and effective partnerships to maximise schooling outcomes for all students. There is a growing body of Australian and international research produced over several decades that shows that effective partnerships between schools, parents and families, properly resourced and led, can contribute to the lifting of student outcomes. We acknowledge and support the current government focus on improving the educational outcomes for all students and support the alleviation of various forms of educational disadvantage. It seems clear, however, that structures, testing, governance and curriculum will not of themselves achieve these goals. Lifting the profile of the teaching profession and acknowledging the complexity and fundamental importance of their work are the key (in-school) factors that will deliver quality outcomes for students. Thus APC welcomes the growing emphasis on more effective teaching and learning. We note the adoption of national professional standards for teachers and principals, a national system of accreditation of initial teacher education programs and a national approach to the certification of highly accomplished and lead teachers. NAPLAN Testing We understand that NAPLAN provides whole cohort national tests of basic literacy and numeracy skills in years 3, 5, 7, and 9. States and territories have had their own regimes of basic skills testing for the past twenty years or so and it is only since 2008 that these have been national. The Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA) says NAPLAN tests the sorts of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life, such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy. Despite a range of opinions critical of NAPLAN, there seems to be no valid reason for doing away with the test in the current pursuit of improved equity, outcomes and accountability. The evidence seems to be that NAPLAN test results, properly used, are a valuable diagnostic tool for individual students’ improvement. However, they provide only a snapshot of limited information on the day of the test and in no way replace the many other tools and strategies used by teachers to assess and report on their students. 2 Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy

As ACARA says, “It is important to remember that NAPLAN tests are not pass/fail tests. NAPLAN tests provide very valuable information, but there are no consequences for individual students for poor or good performance. At the classroom level it is one of a number of important tools used by teachers to measure student progress.” NAPLAN as ‘high stakes’ testing The problem seems to have arisen when the school results for NAPLAN appeared on the MySchool website and began to be perceived as a measure of the success or failure of the school. The Prime Minister has been adamant that parents are entitled to as much information as possible about the school education of their children and to be able to assess their progress in the context of a national snapshot of the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy. The apparent development of a ‘high stakes’ culture associated with NAPLAN testing has been an unintended consequence. Perhaps the media with its passion for league tables has added fuel to that fire. Similarly, stories of schools setting aside inordinate amounts of class time for NAPLAN practice, with such practice in some instances starting months before the actual test, do nothing for the public standing of the program. But such a situation is also not helped by events such as those recently seen in Tasmania when the Department of Education ‘recognised top performers in the national literacy and numeracy testing in 2012’ (see http://www.examiner.com.au/story/1492657/top-naplan-achieversrecognised/ ). Surely such gratuitous use of NAPLAN scores adds nothing to improve the efficiency of the NAPLAN testing regime and instills in the general public a very unhelpful notion that NAPLAN testing is somewhat on a par with formal testing of student knowledge and learning. This situation is exacerbated if NAPLAN scores are to be used as a basis for determining levels of public recurrent funding for schooling. While there is validity in using the scores to identify areas of student need to in turn guide the targeting of additional resources, the effectiveness of NAPLAN will be significantly diminished if schools perceive NAPLAN scores being used as a means of financial reward or punishment. The positive side of NAPLAN That being said, a figure of 30% of Australian students not reaching minimum standards in basic literacy and numeracy is certainly a situation that needed to be identified and has to be addressed. Whether intended or not the national approach has had the virtue of drawing forth much debate about diagnostic testing and its consequences and comparisons with what is happening in other countries – while shining a spotlight on the need for quality teaching and learning. The recent report of the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace References Committee, Teaching and learning - Maximising our investment in Australian schools, canvasses various criticisms and expressions of support for NAPLAN and other testing which makes up Australia’s relatively new accountability regime. The report says: 3.13 International and national testing have their limits. Critics are quite correct to point out that there is more to successful schooling than just literacy and mathematics, and that Australians 3 Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy

may not wish to emulate the different lifestyle that some students may have in other higher performing countries. However success in these core subjects often sets students up for success in other subjects such as history, sports science and art. 3.14 The concerns raised by Ms Wilson, Mr Cullen, and others, demonstrate the importance of ensuring that parents, teachers and students understand the purpose of NAPLAN. Students should not be stressing about NAPLAN exams, or feeling judged by the results and schools should not be advertising their NAPLAN scores to attract more students. The Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority has a special role to perform in this regard. 3.15 Testing results provide useful data on student performance, however teachers need to be given training to understand and interpret evaluative data. 3.16 In the following pages Australian's performance in NAPLAN, OECD PISA and to a lesser extent, TIMMS and PIRLS, is discussed. The key conclusion from the data is that while the majority of students are benefiting from the education system, Australian education policies are failing the most disadvantaged students: those students from low socio-economic backgrounds, Indigenous backgrounds, and students living in rural, remote and regional areas. We commend that report for its balanced approach to the issues confronting Australian education and the recognition it gave to the many other factors, apart from testing, which influence student achievement - such as parental engagement, parent and teacher expectations, effective behavior management, teacher quality, ongoing professional learning, appropriate support for students with special needs and school autonomy. Every effort should be made to foster the ACARA view of NAPLAN testing, namely that: Students should continue developing their literacy and numeracy skills through their school curriculum because the tests contain questions similar to those that are undertaken in regular classroom learning and assessment. NAPLAN is not separate from the curriculum, it is checking whether the student(s) have developed the essential underlying skills that are required by everybody for the future. Parents and NAPLAN Parents need to be provided with as much information as possible on their children’s progress at school and to be equipped with the necessary information to understand and support their education. We recommend to the members of the Committee:  APC’s web-brochure How to get the best out of the My School website, available at http://austparents.edu.au/how-to-get-the-best-out-of-the-my-school-website1 (now in the process of being updated); and  A web-brochure produced by the Federation of Catholic School Parent Communities SA, Putting NAPLAN in Perspective, which is available at http://cesa.webtemplate.com.au/sites/2751/__files/f/2052/Putting%20NAPLAN%20in%20pe rspective%20-%20Fed%20paper%20apr2013.pdf as examples of the type of information that parents require to assist them to help their children and their children’s school communities to participate in NAPLAN in ways that contribute to the program’s effectiveness. 4 Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy

We respectfully suggest that the Committee acknowledges the critical importance of parent and family understanding of NAPLAN and their own role in the school education of their children and stress the need for parents to be provided with sufficient information to assist them to understand and support their children to participate appropriately in the NAPLAN testing processes. In conclusion Improvements to NAPLAN currently under development by ACARA, such as moving to on-line testing, may improve the perceptions and functioning of NAPLAN. APC believes that in and of itself NAPLAN plays an important and effective role in Australian schooling, but there needs to be significant effort expended in promoting improved community understanding about its nature and purpose to ensure that the negative ‘high stakes’ factor that currently accompanies it is eliminated. Yours faithfully

IAN DALTON Executive Director

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