Who pays for standardised testing? A cost-benefit study of mandated testing in three Queensland secondary schools

This paper reports on an Australian study that explored the costs and benefits of the National Assessment Programme, Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing, both tangible and intangible, of Year 9 students in three Queensland schools. The study commenced with a review of pertinent studies and other related material about standardised testing in Australia, the USA and UK. Information about NAPLAN testing and reporting, and the pedagogical impacts of standardised testing were identified, however little about administrative costs to schools was found. A social constructivist perspective and a multiple case study approach were used to explore the actions of school managers and teachers in three Brisbane secondary schools. The study found that the costs of NAPLAN testing to schools fell into two categories: preparation of students for the testing; and administration of the tests. Whilst many of the costs could not be quantified, they were substantial and varied according to the education sector in which the school operated. The benefits to schools of NAPLAN testing were found to be limited. The findings have implications for governments, curriculum authorities and schools, leading to the conclusion that, from a school perspective, the benefits of NAPLAN testing do not justify the costs.     

Parent and teacher perceptions of NAPLAN in a sample of Independent schools in Western Australia

Stories appear frequently in the Australian media regarding parent and teacher perceptions and attitudes towards the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy. However, thorough empirical investigations of parent perceptions are sparse. This study presents a survey of 345 parents across Years 3 and 5 from a sample of Independent schools in Western Australia. A representative sample of teachers from these schools were also surveyed in order to compare and contrast parent and teacher perspectives about the transparency and accountability associated with testing, the usefulness of results for helping individual students, and the perceived clarity of communication of results. Findings reveal mixed positive and negative views that reside within an overall prevailing low opinion of the testing. Some ways for improving the perception of the testing with the general public are discussed.     

A logic of enumeration: the nature and effects of national literacy and numeracy testing in Australia

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 Programme in 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.     

Investigating the use of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test results

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a nationwide testing program for literacy and numeracy in Australia. Several studies explored and used NAPLAN numeracy test results as a source of valuable data and a potential means to improve education. This paper presents a systematic literature review to investigate the use of NAPLAN numeracy test results in those peer-reviewed articles in relation to the purposes of NAPLAN results mentioned by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). Findings showed a variety of uses of the NAPLAN numeracy test results in these studies. Most of the studies used the test results to map student progress and identify strengths and weaknesses in teaching. A significant number of studies used the NAPLAN numeracy test results that differ from the purposes mentioned by ACARA. The review concluded that there is currently insufficient use which reflects the purpose of NAPLAN test results.     

School leaders’ identification of school level and teacher practices that influence school improvement in national numeracy testing outcomes

Since 2008, all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 have been assessed in literacy and numeracy through an annual National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test. In 2015, a team of mathematics education researchers across Australia conducted a nationwide research project to identify school practices and policies that were consistent between schools that showed growth and/or improvement in their NAPLAN numeracy results. This paper reports findings from three case study schools, using a school improvement framework to interpret evidence gathered from the schools’ principals and school leaders. The study has particular implications for policy makers and school leaders who may be seeking ways to improve mathematical practices in their own jurisdictions and schools.     

The Logics of Good Teaching in an Audit Culture: A Deleuzian analysis

This article examines the attempted reform of education within an emerging audit culture in Australia that has led to the implementation of a high-stakes testing regime known as NAPLAN. NAPLAN represents a machine of auditing, which creates and accounts for data that are used to measure, amongst other things, good teaching. In particular, we address the logics of a policy intervention that aims to improve the quality of education through returning ‘good teaching’. Using Deleuze’s concepts of series, events, copies and simulacra, we suggest that an attempt to return past commonsense logics of ‘good teaching’ as a result of NAPLAN is not possible. In an audit culture as exemplified by NAPLAN, ‘good teaching’ is being reconceptualized through those practices and becomes unrecognizable. Whilst policy claims to improved equity and quality are admirable, this article suggests that the simulacral change to logics of good teaching may actualize something very different.     

Parental perspectives of home-schooling of children with special educational needs and disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review

The purpose of this paper is to review recent literature on parental perspectives of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the home-schooling of children with special educational needs and disabilities, as well as to consider implications for their education and well-being. Eleven papers were reviewed, published between 2020 and 2021, selected according to a systematic protocol from three widely used online databases. Analysis of the reviewed papers found that transitioning to home-schooling during the pandemic had negative consequences for most of the children, as well as for their parents, though a small but significant number reported positive consequences. Three key areas of concern were identified in the analysis: balancing home-schooling with parent work activities; parent relationships with schools and support services and agencies and home-schooling effects on the well-being and mental health of parents and children.     

Pre-service primary teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education

Research has demonstrated that an important factor in the success of inclusive education is dependent upon teachers’ attitudes. Based on this evidence, the present study investigated the impact of a range of teacher variables in association with training on primary pre-service teachers’ attitudes by examining total inclusion scores, positive affect, training and perceived competence, and negative affect. Three-hundred and forty-two participants from a metropolitan Australian University studying primary school education completed the Teacher Attitudes to Inclusion Scale (adapted). Comparisons were made between participants who had received training on special education, compared with those who had not. The analyses revealed that overall, studying an elective unit on inclusive education had a positive influence over pre-service teachers’ attitudes. It was found that teaching experience had a significantly negative impact on pre-service teachers’ attitudes. The present study demonstrates the vital role that training institutions play in developing appropriate attitudes to inclusive education with significant issues around teacher training being examined. The research has important implications for training institutions, with future research being discussed.     

INTERNET USE AMONG YOUNG AND OLDER ADULTS: RELATION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Past research found a negative impact of Internet use on psychological well-being of young adults. This finding conflicted with the emerging literature on Internet use among older adults, which usually suggested positive effects. The goals of the current research were a) to examine age differences in psychological well-being, b) to study the impact of Internet use on psychological well-being of young and older adults, and c) to explore group differences between older Internet users and nonusers of psychological well-being and personal characteristics. Three hundred and ninety-six young and older adults completed a survey on internet use and psychological well-being. Young and older adults were found to differ on dimensions of psychological well-being. In addition, older Internet users were more positive than non-users concerning psychological well-being and personal characteristics.     

GERONTOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS OF RELIGION

Stereotypes about aging and the old, both negative and positive, have significant influence upon older people themselves. Often unknowingly, older people incorporate these stereotypes into their own thinking and self-perceptions. A literature search revealed four primary hypotheses about the manner in which these self-stereotypes impact older people: stereotype threat, comparison, externalization, and internalization. Anecdotal examples of the four hypotheses are drawn from an unrelated research study that the authors are currently undertaking. Among these hypotheses, four basic characteristics of self-stereotypes are identified: (a) stereotypes can be negative or positive; (b) stereotypes have significant power, particularly if they are self-relevant; (c) stereotypes can be operative without awareness and influence physical and cognitive outcomes; and (d) negative stereotypes can be countered by positive priming. Due to their ability to significantly influence the cognitive and functional well-being of older people, further research is essential to better understand how these self-stereotypes function.     

The impact of high-stakes testing on curriculum and pedagogy: a teacher perspective from Australia

Debates continue about how high-stakes testing regimes influence schools at all levels: their impact on teaching practices, distribution of resources and curriculum provision, and whether they achieve the intended increases in student achievement in targeted areas. In 2008, the Australian government introduced a national testing scheme, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), in which all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are required to participate, and a national website, MySchool, was established in 2010 to publish the results of all schools. This paper reports on the first national study of educators’ views on the impact of NAPLAN on Australian schools and students. Over 8000 educators from all states and territories participated in the study, and the findings indicate that the testing regime is leading to a reduction in time spent on other curriculum areas and adjustment of pedagogical practice and curriculum content to mirror the tests. The findings suggest that the modification of teaching and curricular practices is in response to concerns regarding the use and reporting of NAPLAN data and the potential impact on schools. This confirms findings of researchers in other countries on the capacity of high-stakes regimes to distort teaching practices, constrain the curriculum and narrow students’ educational experiences.     

Predictors of children’s achievement: analysis of the Australian National Numeracy Assessment Program

In this study, we examine children’s National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) achievement predictors, which may enable or limit their numeracy performance and assess the relative importance of the predictor variables. Our data source was the NAPLAN numeracy results of Queensland schools from 2014 to 2017. Years 3 and 5 children’s NAPLAN numeracy scores were analysed using a hierarchical multiple regression model. We examined eight variables grouped into four themes to determine their predictive value for children’s numeracy performance in NAPLAN. Findings from this study indicate that parent’s educational level, parent’s occupation and indigenous status variables accounted for 10–11% of the total variance, while geolocation and sector type contributed an additional 0.2–0.4% of the variance. Gender and language background other than English (LBOTE) contributed 0.1–0.4% of the variance. These results were consistent across levels (Years 3 and 5) and test years (2014–2017). When these predictors were controlled, the influence of parent’s post-school education and LBOTE status were less and non-significant. Previous NAPLAN numeracy results for Year 5 children were found to be very large in its predictive value (R²?=?0.50). The implications of these results for teachers, parents and researchers are described.

     

A logic of appropriation: enacting national testing (NAPLAN) in Australia

This paper explores how the strong policy push to improve students’ results on national literacy and numeracy tests – the 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.     

‘Because then you could never ever get a job!’: children’s constructions of NAPLAN as high-stakes

In the midst of the debate surrounding the question of whether Australia’s National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test is high-stakes, it is evident that children’s own accounts of their experiences remain sparse. This paper describes the findings of a case study which documented the experiences of 105 children across two Catholic primary schools in Queensland serving different socio-economic status (SES) communities. Analysis of the data revealed that these teachers and principals did not experience NAPLAN as high-stakes. However, the data suggested that the children experienced the tests within a confusing context of contradictions and dissonances emanating from multiple sources; receiving little, if any, clear and consistent information regarding the purpose and significance of NAPLAN. While the children’s responses were varied, many reported NAPLAN as a negative experience, with some constructing the test as high-stakes. These constructions ranged from personal judgement or sense of letting their families down, to failure, and less commonly, grade retention and school exclusion. Some Year 3 children had also constructed good results as vital to future prosperity. These constructions bring into question the assumption that because NAPLAN is designed to be a low-stakes test, that children will necessarily experience it in this way.     

‘It’s not the test,it’s how it’s used!’ Critical analysis of public response to NAPLAN and MySchool Senate Inquiry

Public education is commonly perceived as a social good endowed with the capacity to equalise western citizens’ chance of ‘success’. In 2008 Australia introduced standardised testing and reporting procedures to improve educational quality and equity through two policy tools (NAPLAN/MySchool). Ensuing public debate culminated in two Senate Inquiries. Qualitative critical analysis of all (N = 268) submissions to Inquiry One evidenced two major themes: marketisation and data (mis)use; and competition, commodification and practice. Marketisation’s hegemony shaped discourse and recommendations, with institutions and individuals promoting/engaging in self-aggrandising performance-driven activities seeking market advantage, often whilst simultaneously objecting. Submissions largely opposed MySchool and supported NAPLAN despite detailing maladaptive impacts and recommending changes. Drawing upon Latour, we suggest actors’ interactions with these tools (re)produced and re-enacted marketisation principles. Where marketisation, commodification or political rhetoric drives educational change, one ought to be cautious authentic approaches are not truncated by stakeholders lacking legitimate means to compete for resources or social status.     

The (hidden) injuries of NAPLAN: two standardised test events and the making of ‘at risk’ student subjects

Standardised testing regimes, including the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) in Australia, have impacted on relationships between and within schools, and on teachers’ work and on pedagogies. Previous analyses of the effects of NAPLAN have been generated outside of the test situation: frequently through attitudinal surveys and qualitative interviews. This article takes as its point of departure two intensely affective events associated with the NAPLAN test day itself. These events erupted in two qualitative studies of students’ schooling experiences: a study of students’ experiences of NAPLAN and a study of students’ experiences of student voice at school. We ask, after Deleuze and Guattari, What can a NAPLAN test do? Exploring the entangled corporeal (physical and embodied) and incorporeal (psychic and subjectivating) wounds effected in and through these events, we analyse the dynamic constitution and re-constitutions of ‘at risk’ categorisations. While the NAPLAN test is not claimed to cause physical and psychical injury, we argue that standardised test conditions, in these singular events, are inextricably entwined with the formation of particular students’ schooled subjectivities.     

Secondary school students’ attitudes towards numeracy: an Australian investigation based on the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

International and national testing of numerical and language skills has become a regular part of educational systems in many countries. In Australia, the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) has been used since 2008 to carry out regular tests of literacy and numeracy amongst school students nationally. Since the numeracy components of this program are based on work carried out in school mathematics classes, it seems reasonable that tests represent an evaluation of mathematical ability, albeit at the simpler and introductory levels. However, there has been little investigation of students’ ideas about numeracy, and the role that their attitudes towards numeracy may have on their results on the numeracy components of NAPLAN tests. This study carries out an empirical investigation of ideas about and attitudes towards numeracy, and their relation to NAPLAN scores for a sample of 735 lower secondary students from two schools in New South Wales, Australia. Attitudes are measured using a modified form of the Students’ Attitudes Towards Statistics, (SATS-36) test (Schau in Survey of attitudes towards statistics, http://www.evaluationandstatistics.com, 2003), and conceptions of numeracy are obtained from phenomenographic analysis of an open-ended response item. The overall conclusion, that students’ understanding of the concept of numeracy and their attitudes towards numeracy are related to their performance in numeracy tests, represents a potentially important result both for students and their teachers.     

Mediating and moderating role of attributional style in the association between victimisation and wellbeing

This study examined whether attributional style for negative events plays a mediating or moderating role in the association between victimisation by bullying and psychological distress in young adults. A total of 127 undergraduate students completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire, a newly developed Victimisation and Bullying Inventory and the Psychological Distress subscale from the Mental Health Inventory. As expected, the tendency to attribute negative events to internal, stable and global causes predicted higher psychological distress. There was also a positive association between extent of victimisation and psychological distress. Although attributional style did not mediate in this relationship, there was evidence of moderation. Individuals with more negative attributional styles showed a clear association between victimisation and psychological distress, while those with less negative styles showed no association. These results suggest that a tendency towards a negative attributional style may increase the risk of psychological distress in victims of bullying.     

School Climate,School Improvement and Site-based Management

This article examines the relationship between school organisational climate and the school's preparedness to undertake restructuring and improvement. Over the last two decades, much research into school improvement and effectiveness has indicated the importance of school climate for a school's efforts to change. For school-level personnel, an understanding of the nature of the prevailing climate would seem valuable in determining the school's willingness and capacity to embark on school improvement initiatives and to evaluate the impact that such initiatives have on the nature of the school's climate. The research reported here was conducted in three phases. The first phase involved the assessment of the prevailing organisational climate in 30 secondary schools drawn from three State education systems in Australia. The second phase involved analysing and documenting the principles and school-level process associated with the establishment of site-based management in the three State education systems. The third phase sought teachers' perceptions about the impact of site-based management on school improvement planning, collaboration and curriculum leadership, and classroom practices. The research indicated the existence of an important relationship between organisational climate and the school's capacity to implement and sustain authentic site-based management. Where the prevailing organisational climate is negative, tailored ‘front-end’ strategies designed to improve the climate might be undertaken prior to the school embarking on substantial school improvement initiatives. Finally, assessing organisational climate can provide information about a school's preparedness to undertake change, and a re-assessment of climate following a change initiative can provide evaluative data about the extent of change within the school. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Maternal Emotions During Mother-Toddler Interaction: Parenting in Affective Context

Objective. This study explored the emotional experiences of mothers in interacting with their 2-year-old children and examined interrelations among maternal emotion, family distress, and observations of parenting sensitivity. Design. Sixty mothers and their 2-year-old children were observed interacting during both enjoyable (free play) and challenging (waiting) interaction tasks, and mothers provided self-report information about their emotional experiences during each task. Mothers also completed self-report measures to assess family distress. Results. Mothers experienced and expressed a range of positive and negative emotions during interactions with their toddlers, however, mothers' expressed (observed) and experienced (self-reported) emotions were generally uncorrelated. Mothers reported experiencing more positive emotion during interactions characterized by less child negativity and less negative emotion during interactions characterized by child expressions of positive emotion. Mothers' self-reported emotional experiences during interactions with their children moderated the associations between family distress (as reported by mothers) and sensitive parenting behaviors (as observed during parent-child interaction). Conclusions. Findings support a conceptualization of parenting as multiply determined by child, parent, and family contextual factors, with emotion serving an integral role. Results are also discussed with regard to parenting emotion as a potential target for intervention in distressed families.