Teachers predict no benefit from 2023 NAPLAN changes
The Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) has said changes to this year’s NAPLAN testing, including moving the test earlier in the year and online, would do nothing to improve the testing regime.
NAPLAN has been moved from May to March (15-27 March), ostensibly to give teachers more time in the school year to use the data.
However, QTU President Cresta Richardson said teachers and school leaders did not rely on NAPLAN data to determine students’ progress or learning needs, and the earlier time could add to the already high levels of anxiety experienced by students that had been reported by QTU members since NAPLAN testing began in 2008.
“Students will be tested with six weeks’ less learning compared with previous years, putting even more pressure on teachers at the already busy start of the school year and heightening students’ anxiety, particularly those in years 3 and 5,” Ms Richardson said.
“Parents and carers are reminded that NAPLAN testing is voluntary, and they can withdraw their children from testing via their school.”
Ms Richardson said the changed timing, combined with moving the test online and the break in testing in 2020 due to COVID-19, made NAPLAN even less useful in identifying trends because the data cycle had been broken.
Prompted by concerns raised during the lead-up to this year’s NAPLAN tests, the QTU’s 124-member State Council – most of whom are practising teachers and school leaders from state schools across Queensland – called for additional school ICT resources, including devices and support staff, to address the impact of NAPLAN online testing.
Ms Richardson said the Queensland Department of Education should fully fund the equipment, upgrades and support needed to conduct NAPLAN online, above schools’ existing budgets.
“This includes providing enough ICT resources to ensure that other year levels’ online learning is not compromised during the NAPLAN testing window for years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and ensuring sufficient bandwidth, particularly in rural and remote areas,” Ms Richardson said.
“NAPLAN remains a point-in-time test with little relevance to the broad curriculum taught in schools and is of little value compared with the deeper assessments conducted throughout the year across all year levels.
“At the very least, the negative consequences of the test should be partially addressed by changing NAPLAN to a sample, not census test.”
Media contact: Cresta Richardson, President, Queensland Teachers’ Union
Phone (07) 3512 9000 | media@qtu.asn.au | www.qtu.asn.au/media