NAPLAN study finds testing causes students anxiety, program not achieving original goals

Updated

A new study on the effects of the National Assessment Program - Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) has found the nationwide school testing is not achieving what it set out to do, and is having unintended negative consequences.

Eric Sidoti, project leader of the study, says since NAPLAN's inception in 2008 it has changed from being used as a diagnostic tool to a comparative measure.

"NAPLAN has taken on a life of its own. I guess what has happened is the testing tail is wagging the educational dog," Mr Sidoti told ABC's 7.30.

"It is symptomatic of the high stakes of NAPLAN as it has come to be, rather than what it was intended to be."

The teachers told me that if you don't do well in NAPLAN you won't get a good education ... and then if you don't get a good education you can't get a good job. Hamish, year 5

The study was undertaken by the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney and conducted by the University of Melbourne.

It found the tests were causing high levels of anxiety among some students.

"For a significant minority you are finding levels of stress that are beyond the norm, so not just a question of being nervous but vomiting, sleeplessness, migraines," Mr Sidoti said.

It is a view borne out by the experience of Lily Taylor and her nine-year-old son, Hamish.

Hamish is one of millions of children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who sat the test last week and he is aware of just how important NAPLAN is.

"The teachers told me that if you don't do well in NAPLAN you won't get a good education to get into a good school, and then if you don't get a good education you can't get a good job," he said.

His mother is worried about the pressure on him to perform well.

"He did say to me that he wasn't sleeping, that he was waking up in the night and he is usually a very good sleeper. So that was of concern," Ms Taylor said.

NAPLAN results factor into high school applications, says parent

The emphasis on NAPLAN is also proving stressful to parents as they search for the right secondary school.

"Every high school we have applied for has asked for the NAPLAN results as part of the application, so we can only assume that they're going to be looking at those NAPLAN results and using them to compare children," Ms Taylor said.

"To me that is not what NAPLAN was originally about - and it shouldn't be about [that]."

The pressure to perform and compete for high school places has led to a boom in the use of coaching services.

"The reality is that the sale of NAPLAN products... doubled in the year 2012 to 2013 and a whole industry has grown up around it: coaching, tools, sample testing," Mr Sidoti said.

Dr Michael Bezzina, director of teaching and learning at Sydney's Catholic Education Office, agrees that the tests are not being used in the way they were intended, but says the idea is fine as long as its limitations are recognised.

"The study does say it's a failed reform. The way that I would prefer to look at it is that the test has been turned to purposes that it was never intended for and that has caused the point of failure in that it is distorting the educational experiences of young people," he said.

Tests 'complement' work going into classrooms: ACARA

NAPLAN exams are overseen by the Australian Curriculum Assessment And Reporting Authority (ACARA).

ACARA chief executive Rob Randall defends the tests, saying they provide valuable information.

"We reject the conclusions in the report. Our concern about the report is there is a range of headline-seeking conclusions which fail to take into account a range of views contributed to this report," he told 7.30.

"NAPLAN complements the work going on in class rooms, but it gives teachers this external reference point so they can judge how well they are going in school against others in the state, [and] others in the country.

"That's what NAPLAN was set up to do."

We have to open our minds to looking at ways of getting the information we want without having the impacts NAPLAN is having. Eric Sidoti

But Ms Taylor says the testing has taken on far too much significance.

"Our concern is very much to do with deciding a child's future on this one test. That is really just one day in a very young child's life, a fifth grader's life," she said.

Mr Sidoti suggests it is now time to start a discussion about developing an alternative testing system.

"What it has become is a burden on teachers, an impost on school organisations and, unfortunately, a vehicle which has created way too much stress in a significant number of students," he said.

"We think the evidence is strong; we have to open our minds to looking at ways of getting the information we want without having the impacts NAPLAN is having.

"I would have to say that NAPLAN is well beyond redemption."

Topics: education, schools, primary-schools, secondary-schools, education-associations, academic-research, stress, children, family-and-children, community-and-society, australia

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