Testing 3, 2, 1. Michael Lawrence

      In a move that hopefully signals the start of a shift in attitude to the GERM in Australia, the ACT Government established the inquiry into standardised testing to ‘examine its effectiveness and how it affects the mental health of students as well as the morale of teachers, as part of a push to change how data from those tests is reported’.

      Mr Gorman said the student walked out halfway through the test—leaving a note—and then went to take his own life.

      ‘He was going to end it,’ Mr Gorman said.

      Mr Gorman appeared alongside the ACT’s education union secretary Glenn Fowler, who told the inquiry public reporting of NAPLAN data caused stress for students.

      ‘If doctors said, in near unanimity, that a practice did more harm than good for their patients, would they be ignored for nine years?’ Mr Fowler said.

      ‘NAPLAN data should be removed from the My School website now and in perpetuity.’ (Evans, 2018)

      Without being overly dramatic here, it is worth remembering that the Australian Capital Territory is the smallest (in size and second smallest in population) state or territory in Australia and the only reason this case was brought to public attention is that the ACT held an inquiry into standardised testing.

      The conclusions of this and other inquiries into NAPLAN and standardised testing will need to find a way around the Australian Council for Educational Research which administers, monitors and creates the materials for NAPLAN. For reasons many find obvious, it cannot be expected to oppose a system of which it is such an integral part.

      I contacted ACER to ask about its NAPLAN review methods. There was no response. Their website makes it clear that their focus is on educational measurement: ‘Our mission is to create and promote research-based knowledge, products and services that can be used to improve learning across the lifespan.’

      It is a mystery that an educationalist of the standing of Pasi Sahlberg should be resident in Australia working at the University of New South Wales and as an adviser to the Gonski Institute yet not have any role to do with ACER.

      It (NAPLAN) just wouldn’t work in our (Finnish) system. Stressed kids are not learning and stressed teachers are not teaching. I wish and hope [Australia] provides more room for teachers to do more of the stuff that teachers do best and remove a lot of the rote and mechanical assessments and grading papers.

      — Linda Liukas, Finnish education author

      1 The National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. All students in these year levels are expected to participate in tests in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

      2 Educational neuroscientist Dr Jared Cooney Horvath explains how long periods of stress (as a third or fifth grader might see the NAPLAN tests) impact learning. Cortisol, the stress hormone that kills neurons in the hippocampus, has free rein to damage our gateway to memory. This withers away our ability to access previously formed long-term memories, and makes it difficult to learn new information. Cooney gives the example of being trapped somewhere with no possibility for escape (a possible scenario for us in primitive times); in this situation it makes a lot more sense to block out as much of the negativity as possible and simply survive until the ordeal is over. This is what the long-term stress response does: it helps prevent memories from forming during helpless situations. (Horvath, 2019)

      3 Despite this, I am aware of at least one school (and I’ve no doubt there are many others) which has developed rubrics based on the very same NAPLAN language analysis test Prof. Perelman was referring to in a case of not only allowing NAPLAN to dictate the curriculum (which it was never designed to do and it has never been suggested was an appropriate approach to take with it) but actually taking the worst elements of NAPLAN and introducing them into the mainstream curriculum.

      4 Interestingly, it is unlikely that someone like Charles Darwin would have achieved an impressive score in today’s test formats: ‘So poor in one sense is my memory that I have never been able to remember for more than a few days a single date or line of poetry.’ He continues, ‘What is far more important, my love of natural science has been steady and ardent.’ (Duckworth, 2017)