A new review has called for an overhaul of the decades-old National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) to ensure it meets the contemporary needs of students, parents and teachers.
The review was commissioned by the Queensland, Victorian, NSW and ACT Governments and conducted by education experts, Barry McGaw, William Louden and Claire Wyatt-Smith.
The experts recommended the NAPLAN be replaced with a new test, The Australian National Standardised Assessment (ANSA).
The review said that if adopted, the ANSA would bring about sweeping changes to the writing assessment and see a greater focus on critical thinking and science.
“The ANSA would be undertaken earlier on in the year to reduce stress placed on teachers and students by the practice of ‘teaching to the test’ and would see results returned within one week, to better inform teaching and learning for the year ahead,” the review said.
It also proposed shifting the Year 9 test to Year 10 so it could better inform teachers, parents and students when making critical decisions regarding subject selection for Years 11 and 12.
Minister for Education, Grace Grace said that while the review acknowledged that standardised testing should remain, it needed to be improved on its current form.
“It is clear that the current NAPLAN testing is not world’s best practice,” Ms Grace said.
“Our classrooms have changed drastically in the past 12 years, but our standardised testing has not.”
She said that by modernising the tests, educators would be able to find a model that best suited parents, teachers and students.
Ms Grace said the review was put to all State and Federal Education Ministers at a special meeting.
“We all want the same thing — better outcomes for students across the country — but in order to make the changes outlined in the review, we need the consensus of States and Territories as well as the Federal Government,” she said.
“I am hopeful all Ministers will consider the recommendations very carefully.”
