Shadow Minister for Education, Sarah Henderson, has wished Australian students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 all the best with their NAPLAN tests, an important part of their education journey.
“These standardised reading, writing and arithmetic tests, which begin today, allow teachers to track the progress of their students and importantly pick up areas requiring improvement across school communities and over time,” Senator Henderson said.
This year has brought major changes to NAPLAN with testing being held earlier in the year, and the previous ten reporting bands replaced by four ‘proficiency’ categories.
Senator Henderson said she was concerned this would lead to less information being available to teachers, parents, students and the education sector.
“At a time when education standards are falling while spending more money per student than ever before, it is critical that we have access to more information, not less.”
“I share the concerns of many that the four NAPLAN assessment tiers – ‘exceeding’, ‘strong’, ‘developing’ and ‘needs additional support’ – don’t provide enough information and arguably fail to adequately identify non-performing students,” Senator Henderson said.