It’s time to change the anti-teacher NAPLAN narrative

09 December 2024

The media coverage of the August NAPLAN results was deeply disheartening at a time of concern about teacher retention.

Despite phrases in headlines such as “shameful NAPLAN results”, “students failing”, “epic fail”, and “students sink to new lows”, the results show that these attention-grabbing headlines are misguided and unhelpful, and there is, in fact, no long-term NAPLAN results decline.

This reporting is also damaging to our teaching workforce, and it distracts attention from more important matters in our schools.

It is a simplistic rhetoric centred on teaching approaches, and implies that our hard-working teachers and schools aren’t doing enough, or not doing the “right” things. It gives little attention to the deep inequity in Australian schooling, or the challenging post-COVID conditions, including dire teaching shortages.

School systems are failing

NAPLAN results are a limited (and arguably damaging) view of the success of our students and our schools. In the words of recently retired principal at Lyndhurst Primary School in Tyabb on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Greg Lacey, they are “not a genuine measure of a truly life-fulfilling education... [but rather] a score the politicians and others can hang their hat on without delving into what truly lies beneath”.

However, it’s clear our school systems are failing students and teachers. Concerning numbers of students are disenfranchised by their education.

Dr Christopher Hudson looked at recent data from the Victorian Department of Education and noted a 35–45 per cent increase in absence days for secondary school students from 2018–2022, and 50 per cent of students reporting that their schools don’t provide a stimulating learning environment.

A recent survey of more than 8000 Victorian teachers by the Monash Education Workforce for the Future Impact Lab in conjunction with AEU Victoria, confirmed other studies consistently show that only 30 per cent plan to stay in the profession until retirement, and that most are overwhelmed by intense and excessive workloads.

There’s no time to waste blaming teachers and arguing that narrow, standardised ways of teaching will solve the complex issues in our schools.

And before I get attacked for not being for “explicit teaching”, I absolutely think it is an important part of what schools should do. My issue is with blaming teachers and schools for not doing “it” (although most actually do), and with the implication that it will solve all problems.

As former principal Lacey explained in a LinkedIn post: “Teachers are not to blame. School leaders are not to blame. In some of the most challenging years in education… teachers, schools, leaders and communities have been nothing but courageous and amazing, but they’re hamstrung by an inequitable system and a culture of blame.”

Negative consequences

The public slamming of teachers’ work, via NAPLAN reporting, has consequences. Teachers report that they feel disrespected by politicians and the media, and hearing messages that they’re not doing enough, or not doing the right things, matters.

This is even more likely to be the case for mid-career teachers, who the What the Profession Needs Now for the Future study has shown are less satisfied with their jobs and more likely to intend to leave their careers because they’re worn down and burnt out.

The NAPLAN messages contribute to the moral trauma they experience. Teachers are giving their all for a job they care deeply about, but feel like they’re failing. Failing to provide the support and resources the children and young people in their care need, because there aren’t enough resources and there’s never enough time.

What’s needed is for politicians, policymakers, educators, and the community to have honest conversations about complex issues, and think deeply about what we want for our young people.

If it’s better NAPLAN scores, then progress is going to be difficult, and there’ll be many more teacher and student casualties on the way. If we want hopeful, caring, healthy, future generations, we need to have the courage to think and talk differently.

By Fiona Longmuir

This article was ally published in the Australian Educator, Summer 2024