by Fay Prideaux     National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results for 2010 have recently been made available to parents. The My School website will publish results so that parents who are shopping for schools for 2011 can have complete ‘transparency’ when making their choice. 

Before you pack up and move to a suburb where the NAPLAN results are above average have a look at why statistics can be misleading.  Ranking test results and judging schools accordingly is on par with judging your parenting skills based on the behaviour and achievements of your children. Good parenting equals good children and bad children come from underperforming parents - don’t they?

Take a hypothetical family of three. First born is a dream child. No problems at school, socially adept, helpful at home, a great all rounder. Congratulations mum and dad, you must be doing everything right. If you were a school, you’d score above the national average.

Middle child has learning difficulties, is moody and unco-operative, attracts attention at school by being the ‘class clown’ and is gaining a reputation you’d prefer him not to have. His results indicate you need to look at your parenting skills. Major adjustments are required. This result sees you considerably below the national average.

Youngest child is average academically, happy at school, has a few close friends, likes her own company and is popular with teachers. Well done Mr and Mrs Average.

Same family,  same environment, same parenting, different result for each child.  It works the same in schools.

Some years you have a fantastic class. Students are like sponges; eager to learn, curious, self motivated and well behaved. Family support is high from parents who value education; learning difficulties are minimal as are behaviour problems. Quality learning is maximized. As expected, NAPLAN results will be above the state average.

Other classes are a different story.

The next year you may have a broader range of abilities with some children well below average in reading and numeracy. They’ll have support teachers working with them, bolstering their self esteem, providing them with success at their level. Despite this their academic performance will still be below expectations for their age and stage. The class may have several children with behavioural difficulties. A larger part of the day will be spent disciplining children, monitoring and recording their behaviour in line with the individual behaviour modification programs. The concentration span of children with learning difficulties is short. They will have trouble concentrating on one NAPLAN task for 40 minutes.

You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out the NAPLAN results for this class will be considerably lower than for the first class.  Same school, same teacher, same lessons, totally different result.

The My School website would have you believe that all of a sudden this school is underperforming when the only difference is the mix of children.

A heavy concentration on NAPLAN results has some serious implications for teaching practices and a school’s culture. Some schools are already changing their teaching practices in order to improve their performance by teaching to tests and narrowing the curriculum. 

Consider these scenarios.

Holistic Road School believes in a broad based curriculum that gives all children the opportunity to develop their respective talents. The primary focus is on numeracy and literacy but sport, drama, music and dance programs are included in weekly timetables and future planning. NAPLAN results have consistently ranked Holistic Road as being average. This year they have slipped below average in numeracy for the first time. Teachers at the school say they had a band of children in Years 3 and 5 with a larger number of learning difficulties than in previous years and the result is not unexpected. No changes to teaching practices are planned.

Straight A School believes that parents will use the My School website to vote with their feet. Enrolments mean money, resources and public image. Classroom focus has shifted to improving performances in numeracy and literacy tests. Resources and time have been moved away from sport, art, dance and drama in favour of the basics. Children are confused and disappointed that art classes, school performances and music lessons are a smaller part of their week. Homework tasks that included fun design and make projects have been replaced with reproduced sheets from previous NAPLAN tests. Teachers report a level of boredom creeping in to their teaching with daily drilling of multiple choice answer tasks. NAPLAN tests results indicate the strategies are working as the school is above average in all measurable areas.

Which school would you choose?

About the author:

Fay Prideaux is a teacher and freelance writer with a degree in Education and over 3 decades of experience in education in both Victoria and NSW.   She currently teaches part time in a primary school in Sydney's south and teaches English as a second language in tertiary institutions across Sydney.  Fay has trialled, developed, published and marketed a reading tutor program, Reading Rules.  She has also had articles published regularly on parenting websites as well as in Australian Parents magazine.

For more information on NAPLAN tests and the MySchool website, click here. 

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