Contradictions and Confusions

NAPLAN is a national formal test which is administered to Year 3, 5, 7 & 9 students to ensure that they meet national minimum standards. As yet we do not have a National Curriculum in place. Each state currently has their own curriculum documents and guidelines and the tests are based on ‘Statements of minimum standards in literacy and numeracy’ therefore students across Australia are in differing places in their learning journey.

Queensland Study Authority (QSA) documents state that NAPLAN contains essential skills, knowledge, understanding and capabilities that students should have the opportunity to learn by the end of Year 3,5,7 & 9 however the tests are administered relatively early in the school year, annually in May. If the tests are designed to identify students that are not meeting national minimum standards then the timeframe to support them in their learning is also dramatically reduced as the data is not returned to the schools until the last week of Term 3. In independent schools this could give as little as eight weeks remaining in the school year.  NAPLAN is a single point in time test of limited test length that (set time constraints) which does not ensure success for students who take longer to process the information and formulate their answers.

NAPLAN has a largely multiple choice content, the Assessment Reform Group (ARG) suggests their research indicates low achievers, especially the older pupils, are more likely to minimise their effort and respond randomly or by guessing the answers.  Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) in a briefing document, ‘Standardised Testing: Getting it right for Educational Improvement’, indicated that a multiple choice format favours boys and those of European back ground (Sacks 1999).  The NAPLAN test documents start off at an average standard and fairly quickly increase in complexity, leading to frustration and disillusionment in the average to low achievers. With this in mind students are placed in a testing situation where it is unlikely that they will experience success.  


The impact of practising for the test, in itself places stress and undue pressure on learners to achieve. While directly focussing on test preparation, the curriculum is inadvertently being narrowed and learning experiences across all curriculum areas is diminished.  It encourages them to adopt test-taking strategies designed to avoid effort and responsibility. Repeated practice tests are, therefore, detrimental to higher order thinking (Paris, Lawnton, Turner & Roth 1991).


The NAPLAN test documents have a linguistic focus and in some cases the readability of the questions rates higher than the age of the students participating in the test (ISQ 2010). Providing assessment tasks that cater for all learning styles are more likely to impact positively on student success and motivation.


With the introduction of the My School website the NAPLAN results seem to have become an assessment for accountability of schools and teachers and less an assessment for student learning. Publishing results in a league ladder style has been scrapped in many countries around the world due to the negative impact they have on student self esteem and they do not work to improve education standards (ISQ 2010).