Our position has been clear. We have asked for a review of NAPLAN and support our Minister at Education Council in this position. Recently the NSW stakeholders of parent, union and professional principal associations from all 3 sectors met and issued this statement:

“We believe that new directions in national assessment and reporting need to be urgently established in the interests of all school children.

To this end, we strongly suggest that a full, independent, external inquiry into current national assessment and reporting processes be conducted to examine all aspects of the existing NAPLAN operations & related processes.

This inquiry should be immediately established. Apart from independent academic & professional leadership, the Inquiry should also have a Steering Committee with teacher and parent organisation representation to oversee all aspects of its work.”

Last week’s angst over the SSSR [Student School Summary Report] for schools who were involved in the online Writing assessment was shocking. Schools were given a summary of their student performances, but writing wasn’t included. Principals at State Council were alarmed when all 79 of their year 5 student results showed they were below the minimal standard….another school all 35 were. It wasn’t clear why, and Deputy Secretary Murat Dizdar & ED Jennie Donovan came to the rescue and explained that this Writing task was marked differently and wasn’t included in these results.