You know that NAPLAN is just around the corner each year when the media start trotting out the same old stories about kids being stressed by the tests, teachers teaching to the tests or worse – teachers and students colluding to cheat the tests!

 

This year it will be different ACARA says.

 

Schools won’t be getting a heads up regarding the writing genre, and principals will received a “strong message” to ensure students aren’t being ‘hot housed,’ coached or told to stay off school based on their chances of doing well on the test.

 

In addition, teachers will be banned from posting pictures to social media of their students sitting tests (really they do that??), giving facial cues as to the correct answer or providing notes that will assist the students’ performance.

 

All this comes the year after the OECD PISA tables consigned Australia’s education system to the scrap heap. (Or so you might believe if you read the mainstream media or a politician’s press release – I have different ideas on what PISA actually told us.)

 

NAPLAN is seen by many in power to be the true barometer of our education system, yet according to a Senate report handed down late last week, the tests are failing disadvantaged students (deja vu), encouraging teachers to coach in class time (but not this year apparently), and pitting schools against each other in so-called league tables – better known as MySchool.

 

So despite the fact that it’s clear that politicians are worked up over it, principals and teachers are anxious about it and parents just want what’s best for their kids, perhaps we should listen to a spokesperson from ACARA – y’know the ones who actually devise the test:

 

“NAPLAN was not a “pass/fail test” and there was no need for children to be stressed or anxious about it.”

 

Good luck out there!

 

Author: Dan Haesler is a teacher, consultant and speaker at the Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People seminars. His website is: http://danhaesler.com/ and he tweets at @danhaesler