From the Principal
Just a spoonful of sugar
A recent news item heralding the annual NAPLAN season had a novel twist to it.
A Victorian school reported that they had improved their Year 9 results in past years by handing out Chupa Chups to those students who wrote at least a page. “The NAPLAN score went up."
'Last year they forgot the Chupa Chups. Students logged out after 20 minutes. The school’s average writing score dropped by 20 points. “We were devastated.” '
Really?
We are all aware that some schools spend an inordinate amount of time limiting their teaching to drilling students on the narrow, specific content covered year after year by NAPLAN. Some schools run extra classes, set homework and enlist families to assist with preparing for these tests. Getting good NAPLAN results are set by schools as performance indicators for teachers, and principals are held accountable for the success or failure of their school by their boards or sectors.
Other schools ensure that children who might lower the school scores are quietly absented from the tests.
But I have to say I was surprised to hear a school publicly sharing this approach to motivating students and wonder what they and their parents think about the educational values and priorities of their school leaders. I wonder how many other schools use this or other forms of inducements and rewards? Big cash prizes?
Whatever else this incident shows us, it has nothing whatsoever to do with literacy levels.
The Education Minister acknowledges that Year 9 students are the most difficult to engage in the NAPLAN event, but continues to treat the results as legitimate indicators of literacy acquisition.
Rather than consider why these veterans of the NAPLAN testing cycle are so disengaged, he proposes to raise the stakes of this discredited test even higher by using it to provide prospective employers with information about a student’s level of proficiency. Students who fail, or fail to take this test seriously, could be prevented from proceeding to the senior years’ certificate. That will teach them!
Chupa chup sales will be booming…
Marilyn Smith
Principal