NAPLAN and the maintenance of mediocrity

In their sequacious pursuit of fear-based kleinism and zombic functionalism, there is a quixotic determination amongst Australian politicians, measurers and testucators to establish and maintain a test-based school culture at any cost. It’s so true. These discrete, identifiable groups seem to believe that the more you test children and frighten them with the consequences of failure, the more that school children will want to learn .... better and harder.

These control freaks spend millions of dollars to make sure that the stakeholders in learning – teachers, pupils and parents in particular - will do as they are told. They take advantage of the present era of a fading democracy, of the support and controlled silence of the brotherhood of media interests and of the ease with which good people can be ‘milgramed’ to perform deeds that are quite contrary to their basic beliefs and ethics. At this point in time, these ‘buz baz’ showmen are confident that they have manufactured sufficient consent for their mission to succeed, so they are prepared to spend more enormous amounts of tax-payers’ dollars to stream-line the process on-line.

The ultimate mission is to make sure that measurers, on behalf of the test publishing industry, eventually flood schools with test-coping equipment, ipads and high-tech test-preparation programs as well as test-oriented curriculum programs. There is no sincere learning base to the mission. There is no compassion for the feelings of children nor any effort to encourage and extend the basic love of learning.

These Australian schadenfreudes gathered in early December, 2012 to ignore serious research, to flee from the advice from international authorities where achievement is enjoyed, celebrated and applauded, as they continue their cruel assault on the enjoyment of learning. They support the maintenance of mediocrity because they don’t know any better; and they prefer not to deal with issues of LEARNING. Measurement pundits’ backgrounds are so limited that they even advocate that fundamentals of literacy and numeracy have to be parroted and practised before any form of learnacy can be undertaken.

They know, all too well, that most school children suffer from some forms of High-stakes Naplan Testing Disorder [HSNTD]. Manifest in every home of a Year 3,5,7,9 pupil and in every school during the April-May period each year, the condition is widely known and is deliberately ignored by these test-freaks. They just don’t care. One has to wonder about them.

Let’s take a few examples of how public ignorance is maintained and how they control proffered cognitive, expert teacher advice in their pursuit of mediocrity's one-size-fits-all credo.....

1. The impact of NAPLAN on the well-being of students and their families was researched by the University of Melbourne and published by the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney http://www.whitlam.org/the_program/high_stakes_testing in November, 2012.

8353 teacher stake-holders who operate at the sharp end of the testing program reveal that NAPLAN testing has resulted in [1] a narrowing of teaching strategies; [2] a narrowing of the curriculum; [3] damage to children’s health and well-being; [4] negative impact on staff morale and school reputations. In an open democracy, that’s sufficient evidence for a halt to be called. But...

On 30-11-12, a debate was conducted on Melbourne Radio about the limits of NAPLAN testing, during which the CEO of ACARA [Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority], expert measurer, Robert Randall was asked: “This study finds that children are sick, stressed and sleepless because of the tests. How concerned are you by that finding.”

Mr. Randall responded : “One answer I’m going to say, you know, we’re concerned about it. We welcome this report and others for us to have a look at, to get information so we take that information on in order to improve our program.

But equally we will challenge, if you like, the methodology and some of the information. [We know more than they do] ....it’s some students and in some circumstances and we need to work those things through, but we need to be careful that this is not a claim about the whole populous, the participation.”

MoM:- The floggings will continue until teacher morale improves. We testucators don’t like the way that teachers volunteer their observations.

2. Following an intensive survey of international research into high-stakes testing, Greg Thompson of Murdoch University obtained responses from 961 teachers from WA and SA. about their expert opinion of the effects of NAPLAN. It was published in October, 2012. http://effectsofnaplan.edu.au/wp-contents/uploads . The findings were “consistent with international research about the effects of high-stakes testing.”

The overwhelming concerns were obvious: [1] “High-stakes testing creates incentives for teachers to narrow the curriculum, adopt teacher-centred pedagogies and teach to the test. These strategies are detrimental to literacy and numeracy learning.” [2] “The majority of teachers do not see NAPLAN as improving literacy and numeracy." [3] “Stress makes learning more difficuIt, not more likely. Trying to improve education outcomes through NAPLAN at the same time as it increases the stress of those involved, would appear to be a self-defeating strategy.” [4] “Only a minority of teachers perceive NAPLAN has had some positives.”

MoM:- Make sure that the word does not get out. Constituents might become alarmed about these effects. Make sure the press does not mention it. It didn’t say a word. The tactic worked.

3 There has been a “Big Increase in Students Withdrawn from NAPLAN Tests” according to Trevor Cobbold. His Research Paper of November, 2012 http://saveourschools.com.au demonstrates that “there has been a four-to-five-fold increase across Australia since 2008 in the percentage of children withdrawn from the numeracy tests.” “Certainly more and more parents are becoming aware that NAPLAN is not compulsory despite the efforts of education authorities to suggest they are mandatory.” and “...the rapid growth poses a threat to the reliability of NAPLAN results for inter-school comparisons, inter-jurisdictional comparison and trends of student achievement.”

MoM:- Again, the press managed to protect its readership from information of this kind as it has done on other important issues during the year.

Especially important educator visitors to Australia like Jounni Vakijarvi and Pasi Sahlberg of Finland education; Professor Robin Alexander, chairman of most comprehensive report on primary education [6 years of collective integrated study] ever compiled – The Cambridge Report; Yong Zhao ex-China now U. of Oregon; Andy Hargreaves of Boston; Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore and important others visited Australia during 2012. You wouldn’t know about it. Each had something to say about high-stakes testing. None rated a mention. Not a single solitary word in even the more prestigious media outlets.

Nor did the deliberations of the APPA-NZPF Conference on ‘Leading Learning’ get a mention. Nor did the announcement on 11 September that there would be a Senate Inquiry. Nor did....who knows?

The maintenance of high-stakes testing is plainly deceitful. Until our undemocratic, testucating leaders concentrate on child learning – the loving [YES – LOVING] development of each child and its learning talents, no matter what they are - we are stuck forever on mediocrity. Present processes guarantee it.

There is little doubt that NAPLANISM just gets stupider and stupider. ACARA measurers, their political buddies and all those testucators who are victims of the Milgram hypothesis, just have to ‘think children’, admit to a billion dollar mistake, and find ways to lead learning the proper way. ‘THINKING CHILDREN’ [not testing] is critical.