Evaluating NAPLAN as a Performance Measurement System - Assignment Example

?NAPLAN Table of Contents Introduction 3 Problems associated with design or use of NAPLAN 3 Recommendations 5 Conclusion 6 Works cited 8 of the Student: Name of the Professor: Name of the Course: Date: Introduction National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy is a performance measurement strategy for testing the performances of the Australian students (“Naplan”). The testing help in finding out the performances of the students in terms of their reading, numeracy knowledge, writing, language etc that whether they are in accordance to the ‘Australian Curriculum, Assessment and reporting Authority’ (“The Tests”). According to the ACARA website, the NAPLAN testing widely reflects the aspects related to numeracy and literacy, which are common to the curricula of all the states and territories (“My School Fact Sheet”). The test formats as well as questions are chosen in such manner that they remain familiar to the students and teachers all across Australia. It is designed in such manner that it can be taken on the same date in any particular year all across the country (“National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy 2010”). Problems associated with design or use of NAPLAN Management accounting enhances the decision making by suggesting methods and methodologies. In this part of the project, the problems in the design and framework of NAPLAN would be reflected by taking into consideration the management accounting theory. Three problems associated with NAPLAN are given below: The content coverage of the NAPLAN test: With 40 questions in every test, NAPLAN always assesses fragments of the student achievement. This is not appropriate because testing a portion of the curriculum does not give indication about any student’s learning in all the curriculum areas. The result of the students in this test reflects the percentage of questions that could be answered by them out of all the questions present in the questionnaire. However, the test fails to reflect achievement of the entire numeracy and literacy domain. The bureaucrats have explained it as a test score gap, where they stated that there is an achievement gap between the students and the schools. As the NAPLAN test only assesses limited aspect of the learning of Australian students, the result is not useful for inferring the overall achievement. Moreover, achievement related to any student must not be so narrowly confined to only the grounds of literacy and numeracy. There should be assessment made on other grounds as well, such as critical thinking, creativity, capability of following any inquiry, motivation, compassion etc. But test on these grounds are not assessed by the NAPLAN. In contrast to this, the Australian teachers know about the ability of the students in much broader way apart from numeracy or literacy. Accuracy in the identification of overall level of the students in grounds of numeracy and literacy: The test instrument comprising of a set of only 40 questions cannot judge and separate the students accurately on grounds of literacy and numeracy. The NAPLAN does not provide any additional information, which a teacher does not have with him/her. For identifying the student level much more accurately, there should be long tests conducted. Matching the assessment procedure with the curriculum: In order to assess the achievement of the students on grounds of literacy and numeracy, it is very important that the assessment matches with the curriculum, which is being taught by the teachers. ACARA states that the test item is informed to the teachers by ‘National Standards of learning for English’. But the document based on which the test would be taken remain unknown to the teachers in most of the schools. It is not an appropriate process of planning the NAPLAN test on the basis of new Australian Curriculum because there are still some states, which did not adopt the curriculum yet. Moreover, even after adopting the curriculum, it would require time for these schools to implement them. As the learning of the students is cumulative, the students would need time to get accustomed with the new learning completely. Thus, as a whole it would be a time taking process for matching NAPLAN accurately with what is being taught in the schools. Recommendations In order to assist the Australian schools in improving the students, NAPLAN should adopt the following strategies: The test should be well developed against the explicit links to Australian Curriculum. The curriculum communicates the necessity of teaching the students words, which contain proper orthographic pattern. As the NAPLAN only tests for proofreading of these students, the data in the result does not contain information that is required by the teachers (Willett and Gardiner, “Testing Spelling—Exploring NAPLAN”). The test should be planned in such manner that it also provides information related to the student knowledge about different developmental features in the orthographic system. 1. The test must provide such information, which matches with the formative and diagnostic assessment information or data that is collected by the teachers (Timperley 22-23). The teachers analyze the misspellings of the students in order to determine the developmental stage of learning followed by planning growth programs in order to move this learning throughout. They make utilization of important tools for assessing the knowledge related to spelling development type, strategies for spelling as well as learning new words, the capability of monitoring and articulating the spelling knowledge, which is currently being used etc. These knowledge gaining is very important in order to fulfill the instructional goal of making the students self monitoring, independent and good spellers (Hattie and Timperley 86). 2. The NAPLAN should plan its text content based on the fact that the Australian teachers are not taught only words, instead they are taught about the orthographic system and how it represents both sound and meaning (Henderson and Beers 76). It is high time that ACARA plans for developing and publishing such scientific framework, which would underpin the testing program. Such framework should include testing of the important elements like syllable, etymology and derivation. Conclusion There are concerning factors related to both the validity of the spelling data of NAPLAN and its utilization in the improvement of the student achievement. NAPLAN test developers should plan for addressing these issues by planning and designing such framework, which would be clearly linked with the Australian curriculum. This should be done by means of planning dictation items as the proofreading cannot act as proxy in all cases. Moreover, the framework should have the ability of refining the overall design of proofreading items in order to address to the construction issues and the validity content. Works cited Hattie, John and Helen Timperley. “The Power of Feedback.” Review of Educational Research 77.1 (2007): 81-112. Print. Henderson, Emund H. and J. W. Beers. Cognitive and Developmental Aspects of Learning to Spell. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. “My School Fact Sheet.” My School. ACARA, 2010. Web. 4 October 2013. “Naplan.” National Assessment Program. ACARA, 2013. Web. 4 October 2013. “National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy 2010.” Naplan. ACARA, 2010. Web. 4 October 2013. Timperley, Helen. “Using assessment data for improving teaching practice.” Assessment and Student Learning: Collecting, interpreting and using data to inform teaching 2009: 21-24. Print. “The Tests.” National Assessment Program. ACARA, 2013. Web. 4 October 2013. Willett, Lee and Allan Gardiner. “Testing Spelling—Exploring NAPLAN.” Queensland Studies Authority. Read More