As a teacher of students sitting the Naplan tests, I feel under pressure!

Since the beginning of the year I have done Naplan related schoolwork with my students. I suppose you could say I have been ‘teaching to the test’ – to a minor degree. I’ve made it part of our daily routine. We’ve done practice Literacy questions in Literacy time, and the same for Numeracy. We’ve done practice tests and we’ve done many practice persuasive writing tasks.

Sigh.

There’s only so much a class teacher can do on the few months before Naplan in May. And by the time I see the results of my little darlings (which won’t come as a surprise because I know their skills already), the year will begin drawing to a close.

I’ll have to field questions from parents. I’m ok with that. I’m good with parents… Honest but kind. Informative but not jargon-stuffed rant-raving. I can give suggestions for improvement but I never want parents to think they should be trying to teach their kids at home as well… Parents need to spend time with their kids, without the pressure of spelling and Maths. But that’s another story.

I think too much stress revolves around Naplan. I’m aware that the Naplan test isn’t the most reliable because it is easy for teachers to help their students doing the test. It’s not really carried out in a very controlled way. Teachers could (although we’re not supposed to) help students in a variety of ways: encouraging, spelling, describing, explaining, helping. Teachers can also give extra time. I know I gave students extra time if they needed. Kids are entitled to an extra 5 minutes, plus an extra 15 minutes per 30 minutes. That’s not in the descriptives on the front page!

I think the information I get from Naplan will be interesting. I do not think, however, that it should carry too much weight. It is, afterall, just one test on one day (or, rather, 4 tests over 3 days). To make real decisions based on tests, the tests need to be more reliable – carried out in the same environments – and they should be validated by making reference to other tests that the student has done.

Should teachers be judged cording to their students’ results? It seems unfair to judge a teacher based on Naplan. If we are going to assess teachers based on the test, we are putting the reliability of the test at even more risk because teachers will thwart the system by helping their students so they get better results so the teacher looks better. Another reason why teachers shouldn’t be assessed according to Naplan is that it takes more than one teacher to educate a child. Are we only going to assess teachers of grade 3, 5, 7 and 9? What about all the wonderful teachers who put work into students in the other years?

Should schools be judged from Naplan results? Well, to me it seems unfair because students move schools a lot. Schools are situated in different socio-economic areas, which will impact performance and results. Schools have different budgets, which will impact the resources that go into Naplan preparation.

The Naplan probably should just be an unrehearsed test of basic skill (when i started teaching it was called the Basic Skills Test). It is not though, because we are teaching to the test and parents are buying Naplan kits for their kindergarten offspring.

It’s going too far, I tell you.

Let kids be kids. Let education be inspiring and fun. Let the students of different backgrounds and financial statuses be different. We are all different. We need to be different. We don’t need tests to show that kids are all different, with different gifts and skills and talents.

Another sigh. I’m thinking about how I will prepare for Naplan for my grade 4s now. Their test is next year. Better get onto it.