THEY are the highly publicised results that our teachers look to in order to adjust their teaching methods, but are they really a true measure of our children’s skills and performance?
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The results of the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) have been available to schools for some time, but it was only on Wednesday that the public were able to gain a true glimpse into how well their local schools performed.
Through the MySchool website, the updated yearly figures showed some significant improvements for schools in the Tamworth area in NAPLAN testing results.
One of those was Hillvue Public school which, in terms of numbers, had significant improvements for Year 3 and Year 5 students across the board. The school had also performed better than other schools of statistically similar backgrounds.
Not only was this a great result but the reading and writing scores of the 2016 results were categorised as “above average” improvement.
Over at Werris Creek Public School, the school community is celebrating the news that 80 per cent of their Year 5 students exceeded expected growth from their Year 3 test results.
It’s a great feat for the small school, whose principal Leonie Byrne has put it down to initiatives in place to ensure students who could be slipping behind are put back on the right track early.
She said professional development was also the key, and while the school would be celebrating the win, they would do so “quietly” because learning development is a full-time task and a full-time job at that to ensure students remain on task.
St Nicholas’ Primary School showed signs of above average improvement across the spectrum. While these test results are a great indication of where students are heading and what they might next extra help with, the question must be asked – is the one test each year an accurate measure of how our children are developing as learners?
Can children or a whole school be measured on how they perform through the one test? Or should the determination of student progress be based on how a school community or individual student performs for the entire year? After a shake-up of the HSC syllabus announced late last month, it will be interesting to see what the future of NAPLAN holds and if it remains a traffic light system for change in schools.