The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) has welcomed some sensible suggestions in the combined state governments’ NAPLAN Review final report released today.
‘The report makes a number of recommendations that can make national testing more fit-for-purpose into the future’, said Jim Miles, CECV Executive Director.
‘The primary aim of a standardised testing program is to provide information for teachers, schools and parents to allow them to better understand the learning progress and needs of students, which is helpful.
‘The steps to strengthen the focus on this objective announced today are welcome.
‘However, we have long held concerns that NAPLAN has become too high-stakes for a range of reasons, including the way that school NAPLAN data are reported.
‘We are pleased that the NAPLAN Review criticised comparisons between schools of NAPLAN data on student achievement. The methodology for doing this is flawed and fails to produce valid comparisons.
‘The high-stakes nature of the testing also risks doing long-term harm by driving a narrowing of the curriculum toward only achieving test outcomes.
‘The CECV made a submission to the review process and we now look forward to considering the report in more detail and working with governments to help ensure NAPLAN is more fit-for-purpose into the future.
‘We thank the review panel of Emeritus Professor Barry McGaw, Emeritus Professor William Louden and Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith for completing this important work’, Mr Miles said.
More than 20% of Victorian students are educated in a Catholic school.
Media contact: Gerard Delaney on 0413 274 176 or gdelaney@cem.edu.au
Download PDF