HelenTD

After the weeks of endless NAPLAN preparation, then comes the many weeks of waiting for results. Last Friday we finally got them. Can any primary school teacher on here help with a couple of questions I have? I'd like your interpretation of a child's individual result from the previous NAPLAN compared to the next test.

I realise that the bands overlap, but what's your view of a child's result in band 5 for example, and pretty much the same result for the same learning area 2 years on?

carolinephillips

How old is the child? Band 5 in year 5 would be better than the same in y7.
You would expect the child to make some progress, but remember that the questions also get harder.
I'm not a teacher out here, (but was in the UK), so can't really help with specifics.

Look at the averages also, and compare them. If your child was higher up in the test 2 years ago compared to the cohort and has slipped then maybe some questions have to be raised.

HelenTD

Hi Caroline, thanks for replying. He was way above school and national averages in all 5 tests in Year 3; Year 5 he's well above the 2 averages in spelling and grammar & punctuation, just above in reading ( as he has been tested to have high reading age), and below both averages in writing and numeracy. The school knew that something had gone wrong, told me 3 months ago that he would be getting back scores, but has done nothing. Yes, I have questions to ask, but not sure if the NAPLAN results are the best way to tackle it.

northernbird

http://www.edmeasurement.com.au/_doc...rLayPerson.pdf

Take a look at this document. Personally I find this kind of testing pointless. My eldest daughter was an A/B student in her semester report at Year 7. Her NAPLAN was dreadful. Our Principal says that we pay too much attention to NAPLAN when it is a snapshot of performance on one day and isn't always indicative of the knowledge of that child.

Ask your school Principal how the cohort are doing across the board. If there is a cluster of children in the below average category then it could indicate something a little more sinister as far as teaching quality is concerned.

jad n rich

My sons did these tests in 3 5 7 9 and got in the same band almost every test.

The questions are for their year level, so year 5 is harder than year 3, so if hes in the same band in the 2 tests hes keeping up with the work. If he had gone up a band or two he would have got brainier There should be a shaded area that shows the 'average' result.

Son 3 loved those tests, his little black dots were always hanging off the side of the page Looked really impressive.

But he did them when they didnt prep them up for it, results were probably more 'honest'.

HelenTD

He had a bad Term 1 interim report and a bad Semester 1 report. I had to alert them to the bad Term 1 report and about 3 weeks later they contacted me to go to a meeting to warn me about the Semester 1 report and poor NAPLAN results. They literally rehearsed NAPLAN answers all of Term 1 and right up to the tests themselves in Term 2. It seems to me as if the NAPLAN scores are valued by the teachers because it looks like they are doing a good job, if the results are good.

I have heard a whisper or two that the school's results are not that good and quite a few parents are not happy about their children's results.

His NAPLAN results seems to show that he has made no progress in reading or spelling, has improved on grammar & punctuation, and has fallen behind in writing and numeracy. This is all compared to the school and national averages, not looking at the band level, ie he has made no progress and others have.

hoveactually

You could ask for a copy of The Additional Student Report. The additional report lists all the questions in the test, along with a brief description of each question and shows you which questions your child answered correctly. This information is provided to parents in NSW as a matter of course but not to us in WA.

Amazulu

NAPLAN is a crock of shit.

Ignore.

Kim67

+1

Turban Explorer

Can you get the statistical results for the school to compare against the national average? If there's no real difference it might be that he needs a bit of extra tuition. I don't have much experience with NAPLAN but I've seen schools teach to the test for weeks in advance as there is a connection with funding and the results. They are assumed to be generally representative of a literacy and numeracy level of a student.

HelenTD

Thanks for that, I've never heard of it. Do I ask the school for a copy?

HelenTD

Are these different to the stats that appear on the My School website?

He doesn't need tuition because he is struggling, but because he is bored and basically hasn't learnt much for 7 terms. He is now underachieving for his potential, a "student at educational risk". The question is how to get the school to acknowledge that.

Turban Explorer

Not sure regarding My School - like most Australian websites it doesn't seem to work (on my mac anyway)

Does he have other assessments you can look at in other areas to see whether he is performing well elsewhere? If he is then may be it's a problem with the English teacher or the Maths teacher. Is there an argument that he is 'gifted' so needs extra stimulation?

Just an aside and probably without any relevance here but the 'little johnny's bored/not engaged so doesn't do any work' argument is quite common with parents.

DadAgain

If you're confident about that then spend $500 with an appropriate psychologist and get him tested. There are a number of different standard for testing depending on age and the situation different tests might be used (WISC4/WIAT/SB5).

We had our duaghter tested with WISC/WIAT to determine a) What her mental strengths and inherent capabilities were (IQ) and b) How her learnt skills are relative to her peers. We were quite surprised by the findings and more than the simple quantified 'results' of the testing it was the comments and recommendations of the psychologist that wer of most interest.

Her school, after reading the report and a few discussions agreed to push her up a year and allow her access to pretty much all of the extension 'break-out' classes to try and help keep her busy.

As far as I can tell by talking to lots of parents of 'gifted' kids school vary alot in how they are prepared to handle things - but good schools WILL make provisions provided you give them quantified evidence to satisfy the bureacracy.

northernbird

Must be your Mac because MySchool works perfectly well on mine.