The impact of national standardized literacy and numeracy testing on children and teaching staff in remote Australian Indigenous communities (original) (raw)
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Testing That Counts: Contesting National Literacy Assessment Policy in Complex Schooling Settings
Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 2013
This paper explores how the national testing regime in Australia, the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), has influenced how teachers understand their work and learning, particularly as this relates to the literacy practices most valued under these circumstances. Drawing upon an emerging literature on the sociology of numbers and statistics, and literature on the nature of quality and purposeful teaching practices, including in settings with significant proportions of ESL students, the paper describes how teachers' understandings of their practice in one rural/remote school serving a low SES, predominantly Indigenous community in northern Queensland reflect the co-constructed nature of statistics and students' learning, as well as efforts to try to be more responsive to these students as predominantly additional language learners. The paper reveals that this is not a straightforward process, but involves tensions between what Saetnan, Lomell and Hammer (2011) describe as various 'centripetal forces' which trend towards standaridization of learning, and 'centrifugal forces' which challenge this standardization by valuing local context, knowledge and traditions. Furthermore, how these tensions actually play out also reveals a nuanced understanding of the nature, benefits and problems of such testing, English language learning in Indigenous settings more generally, and evidence of student and teacher learning beyond testing per se. Such considered, situated knowledge and understandings are silenced in much of the current discourse around national education provision and testing in Australia, and other countries.
A logic of appropriation: enacting national testing (NAPLAN) in Australia
Journal of Education Policy, 2014
This paper explores how the strong policy push to improve students' results on national literacy and numeracy teststhe National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)in the Australian state of Queensland influenced schooling practices, including teachers' learning. The paper argues the focus upon improved test scores on NAPLAN within schools was the result of sustained policy pressure for increased attention to such foci at national and state levels, and a broader political context in which rapid improvement in test results was considered imperative. However, implementation, (or what this paper describes more accurately as 'enactment') of the policy also revealed NAPLAN as providing evidence of students' learning, as useful for grouping students to help improve their literacy and numeracy capabilities, and as a stimulus for teacher professional development. Drawing upon the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, the paper argues that even as more political concerns about comparing NAPLAN results with other states were recognised by educators, the field of schooling practices was characterised by a logic of active appropriation of political concerns about improved test scores by teachers, for more educative purposes. In this way, policy enactment in schools is characterised by competing interests, and involving not just interpretation, translation and critique but active appropriation of political concerns by teachers.
Learning from assessment: NAPLAN and Indigenous students
Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, 2014
In this paper we report trends over time of performance of non-Indigenous and Indigenous students on the Numeracy component of the NAPLAN tests. Possible links between student performance on the NAPLAN Numeracy test and the four components Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Grammar of the NAPLAN Literacy test were also explored. While the performance of both groups of students at all grade levels have remained fairly consistent over time, there were differences in the aspects of literacy most strongly related to the numeracy performance of the two groups.
Journal of Education Policy, 2015
This paper reveals the array of practices arising from strong policy pressure for improved student results in national literacy and numeracy tests in Australia: the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The paper provides an account of a policy context characterised by significant pressure upon teachers and principals to engage in practices to ensure improved outcomes on standardised literacy and numeracy tests, and of teachers and principals' responses to these policy pressures. Drawing upon Bourdieu's theory of practice, the article argues that what is described as the 'field of schooling practices' has become increasingly dominated by a 'logic of enumeration', and that high test results on standardised literacy and numeracy tests are increasingly valued capitals, evident in a strong focus upon teachers meeting, discussing and informing one another about NAPLAN; engaging in curriculum development practices which foreground NAPLAN, and; actively preparing students to sit the test, including, whether intentionally or unintentionally, teaching to the test. Such a focus has important implications for the sorts of practices most valued in schooling settings, as more educative logics are potentially marginalised under such circumstances.
Naplan language assessments for indigenous children in remote communities
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 2011
The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessments are designed to assess literacy and numeracy of all Australian school children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and to act as diagnostics as to whether children are meeting intended educational outcomes. Tests began in May 2008, and have been run annually since then. Results of the 2008 tests indicated that Indigenous children in remote communities had the lowest test scores, and results were used to make a policy decision that effectively scrapped bilingual education in the Northern Territory. In this paper, we evaluate the literacy component of the NAPLAN test for Year 3, and the language samples for each year level. Literacy components assess reading, writing and language conventions (grammar, spelling and punctuation), and we focus on the reading and language conventions components. We argue that the NAPLAN tests need to be very carefully monitored for appropriateness for the assessment of children living in rem...
2013
Based on the current research of the CRC for Remote Economic Participation, this paper presents analysis of recent (2012) Australian National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy from very remote schools across Australia. The data supports perceptions of apparent failure in remote education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Australia. The author posits that these perceptions are built on philosophical, sociological, economic and psychological assumptions that may not be shared by those who are subjected to tests. It is therefore possible to critique remote education, not as a failure but as a reflection of the values it embodies. The question then is: How can education be configured to reflect the needs and values of those living in remote communities?
This paper explains the process of selecting a standardised reading skills instrument to be used with Indigenous children in various settings in Western Australia. The selection process included the examination of a number of instruments, and consultation with educators and researchers. The instrument chosen contained items that appeared to form a basis to assess the literacy skills of Indigenous children. The test was trialed with a small sample of Indigenous children in two schools. The pilot study results were analysed and the results discussed. Implications for the evaluation of Indigenous children and educational programs are drawn.
The impact of high stakes testing: the Australian story
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 2012
High Stakes testing in Australia was introduced in 2008 by way of the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Currently, every year all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on the same days using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. In 2010 the NAPLAN results were published on the Federal Government MySchool website. The impact of these high stakes tests on jurisdictions, school principals, parents and students is considered in this article. We draw on reported observations from the Australian Primary Principals Association during 2009-10 testing periods across the country and published Australian research on the impact of high stakes literacy and numeracy testing. We also examine alternative approaches that include the use of assessment evidence for learning improvement purposes and for accountability purposes. In considering alternatives to the current large-scale testing approach we draw on key insights from research on teacher judgement, achievement standards and social moderation in the context of national curriculum and assessment reform in support of the suggested directions forward.
A View Beyond Review: Challenging Assumptions in Indigenous Education Development
2015
FOGARTY, B., MELISSA LOVELL & MICK DODSON 2015. The View Beyond Review: Challenging Assumptions in Indigenous Education Development. UNESCO Observatory Multi-disciplinary Journal in the Arts, 4, 1-21. Education for remote Indigenous students in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) has long been characterized by policy failure. In recent years, the ‘solution’ to this vexing policy problem has involved a deliberate, incremental shift towards ‘mainstream’ educational approaches. This includes an increased focus on testing regimes and structured English literacy and numeracy programs, and has led to increased bureaucratic oversight, broad-based ‘benchmarking’ of student achievement, and a problematic emphasis on statistical disparities between Indigenous and nonIndigenous student populations. In this paper we analyse the NT Government’s latest review into Indigenous education - the A share in the future report - to challenge the normative social and cultural assumptions that permeate Indigenous educational discourses and pedagogic approaches. We argue that current notions about ‘the way forward’ can lead to the development of poor policy and actually serve to thwart Indigenous educational aspirations.
High-stakes literacy tests and local effects in a rural school
The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 2013
High-stakes literacy testing is now a ubiquitous educational phenomenon. However, it remains a relatively recent phenomenon in Australia. Hence it is possible to study the ways in which such tests are reorganising educators' work during this period of change. This paper draws upon Dorothy Smith's Institutional Ethnography and critical policy analysis to consider this problem and reports on interview data from teachers and the principal in small rural school in a poor area of South Australia. In this context high-stakes testing and the associated diagnostic school review unleashes a chain of actions within the school which ultimately results in educators doubting their professional judgments, increasing the investment in testing, narrowing their teaching of literacy and purchasing levelled reading schemes. The effects of high-stakes testing in disadvantaged schools are identified and discussed.