Teachers, school principals reject NAPLAN

4 September 2020

Three quarters of teachers say that NAPLAN is ineffective as a method of assessing students according to the latest “State of our Schools” survey.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) 2020 State of our Schools survey, with more than 12,000 responses from public school principals and teachers, has confirmed that NAPLAN is not effective, increases pressure on teachers, student stress and anxiety and too much class time is spent in preparation for the test.

According to the survey results:

  • Teachers
    • 75% of teachers do not believe NAPLAN is effective for school comparison;
    • 74% of teachers do not believe NAPLAN is effective for measuring school performance
    • 85% of teachers do not believe NAPLAN improves student outcomes
    • 56% of teachers do not believe NAPLAN is effective in helping to identify areas to focus to improve student outcomes
    • 94% of teachers believe NAPLAN contributes to student stress and anxiety
    • 74% of teachers say the publication of NAPLAN data has led to increased pressure on teachers
    • 66% of teachers say that NAPLAN increases their workload
  • School principals
    • 73% of school principals do not believe NAPLAN is effective for school comparison
    • 87% of school principals believe NAPLAN contributes to student stress and anxiety
    • 78% of school principals believe NAPLAN increases teacher workload
    • 75% of school principals do not believe NAPLAN improves student outcomes

Australian Education Union Federal President Correna Haythorpe said the survey clearly demonstrated the antipathy felt towards NAPLAN by the overwhelming majority of the teaching profession.

“The results of this survey are unequivocal. The vast majority of teachers and principals have indicated that NAPLAN is not fit for purpose in our schools”,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“Teachers and principals regard NAPLAN as a major source of student stress and anxiety, not benefitting student outcomes, and wasting valuable face-to-face teaching time in the classroom,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“NAPLAN reduces student progress to a number on a spreadsheet - it does not take into account teachers’ informed judgement, or the daily learning that occurs in the classroom,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“There is no doubt that NAPLAN places pressure on students, families and teachers. Assessment must be holistic and connected to the teaching and learning which happens in schools every day.”

Ms Haythorpe said that no amount of restructuring or change would address the concerns that the teaching profession held about NAPLAN.”

“The AEU calls on the Education Council to take the lead by scrapping NAPLAN, and developing a new assessment framework based on sample testing in comprehensive consultation with the teaching profession and its union, the AEU,” Ms Haythorpe said.

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MEDIA CONTACT: NICK BUCHAN, 0418 288 104


APPENDIX

AEU 2020 State of our Schools Survey Findings

The AEU 2020 State of our Schools survey was held in May 2020 with staff from public schools across the country invited to participate. There were 12,307 respondents, including:

    • 9,733 teachers
    • 1,787 support staff
    • 787 principals

NAPLAN results:

Principals

  • 73% do not believe NAPLAN is effective for school comparison, measuring their own school’s performance (68%), or as a diagnostic tool (54%)
  • 78% believe NAPLAN increases teacher workload
  • 87% believe it contributes to student stress and anxiety
  • 65% believe it makes no differences to outcomes and only 25% believe it improves student outcomes
  • 10% of Principals believe NAPLAN actually worsens student outcomes
  • 65% of schools were involved in the NAPLAN online trial including 75% of primary schools, 71% of remote schools, and 75% of very remote schools

Teachers

  • 75% do not believe NAPLAN is effective for school comparison, for measuring their own school’s performance (74%), as a diagnostic tool (63%) or for helping to identify areas to focus to improve student outcomes (56%)
  • 66% believe NAPLAN increases their workload
  • 94% believe it contributes to student stress and anxiety
  • 68% believe it makes no difference to outcomes, 18% say it worsens student outcome and 15% believe it improves student outcomes
  • 74% say the publication of NAPLAN data has led to increased pressure to improve results, 67% say it has increased student stress levels in the lead up to the test and 56% say there is a greater emphasis now on preparation for NAPLAN including pre testing