The National Assessment Program of Numeracy and Literacy (NAPLAN) is a form of ‘high-stakes’ testing which takes place all over Australia for children in grades 3,5 and 7. It first commenced in 2008 to test the full cohort of years 3,5 and 7 ("NAPLAN | NAP," n.d.). It 's purpose is to test students on their literacy and numeracy abilities to see if they are performing above or below the curriculum standards (Omara 2014). However, there has been much debate as to whether NAPLAN testing has as much benefit as it is claimed. Research has stated that high-stakes testing have made teachers change their approach to their own teaching in order to cater for NAPLAN testing (Thompson & Cook 2014). There is a lengthy turnaround of 5 months before receiving
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International studies have shown that high-stakes testing such as NAPLAN has negative impacts on teachers and students and brings about negative changes in their teaching, creating pressure for both students and teachers (Thompson & Cook 2014). High stakes testing brings teachers to such extremes such as bribing, manipulation and narrowing the curriculum. Students are been bribed with lollies in order to motivate them to perform well in the testing, this is a negative sign that students aren’t motivated enough to do the testing without been given lollies or a ‘treat’ by their teachers. This shows that we cannot be sure students are putting their all in to the testing. Manipulation of students NAPLAN results through teaching to the test does occur. Some teachers teach NAPLAN materials to students as long as 10 weeks (one schooling term), which defeats the purpose of NAPLAN testing because it was not meant to be taught to the students prior to undertaking it, students are meant to undertake the test which will test their literacy and numeracy abilities without being taught any of the materials which will be covered in the testing (Wu & Hornsby 2012). Nowadays, you can even find NAPLAN testing practice booklets at your local book shop, its almost as if everyone knows its been taught to students even when its …show more content…
2012. The experience of Education: The impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families) asserts that schools whom are under pressure to perform encourage students who will drag the schools results down to sit out the testing so that results look better than what they are. This implies that schools are more concerned with how their NAPLAN results are perceived by parents of students and the government rather than the students wellbeing. Students aren’t given a fair go and every student should be allowed to participate in the testing. Students with special needs, are the students more often not the students which are exempt from the testing. 5% of students with disabilities are exempt or withdrawn from testing every year (Davies 2012). Exempting these students would send a negative message to them and their confidence would be low as they don 't feel like they’re ‘normal’ or good enough to do the testing which most ‘normal’ children do. If, special needs students are such a problem there should be a test developed for them specifically, special needs students should not be judged on the same scale as students who do not have a
International studies have shown that high-stakes testing such as NAPLAN has negative impacts on teachers and students and brings about negative changes in their teaching, creating pressure for both students and teachers (Thompson & Cook 2014). High stakes testing brings teachers to such extremes such as bribing, manipulation and narrowing the curriculum. Students are been bribed with lollies in order to motivate them to perform well in the testing, this is a negative sign that students aren’t motivated enough to do the testing without been given lollies or a ‘treat’ by their teachers. This shows that we cannot be sure students are putting their all in to the testing. Manipulation of students NAPLAN results through teaching to the test does occur. Some teachers teach NAPLAN materials to students as long as 10 weeks (one schooling term), which defeats the purpose of NAPLAN testing because it was not meant to be taught to the students prior to undertaking it, students are meant to undertake the test which will test their literacy and numeracy abilities without being taught any of the materials which will be covered in the testing (Wu & Hornsby 2012). Nowadays, you can even find NAPLAN testing practice booklets at your local book shop, its almost as if everyone knows its been taught to students even when its …show more content…
2012. The experience of Education: The impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families) asserts that schools whom are under pressure to perform encourage students who will drag the schools results down to sit out the testing so that results look better than what they are. This implies that schools are more concerned with how their NAPLAN results are perceived by parents of students and the government rather than the students wellbeing. Students aren’t given a fair go and every student should be allowed to participate in the testing. Students with special needs, are the students more often not the students which are exempt from the testing. 5% of students with disabilities are exempt or withdrawn from testing every year (Davies 2012). Exempting these students would send a negative message to them and their confidence would be low as they don 't feel like they’re ‘normal’ or good enough to do the testing which most ‘normal’ children do. If, special needs students are such a problem there should be a test developed for them specifically, special needs students should not be judged on the same scale as students who do not have a