NAPLAN data

The next round of NAPLAN data is being released and the issues with summarised statistics arise.  In low socio-economic schools this data is damaging and will close schools - not because of poor teaching but because of cohort changes.

Let's take a sample school.

General assumption:
NAPLAN scores have dropped over four years.  Obviously something wrong with the teaching staff.

Examining raw data:
Increase in students with little or no schooling (refugee intake)
Opening of new school nearby attracting higher performing students
Half cohort was generally a weak group due to many students (and siblings) moving to private schools in yr 7 (entry to secondary schooling early was a significant factor in parents choosing schools in yr 7 coupled with aggressive marketing by private schools to maintain student numbers)
High turnover in experienced staff
Decrease in general school attendance (and students not attending at all) - increase in overseas holidays in yr 8, truancy, mental health issues
Issues with changing curriculum and yr 7 content not being taught to the level required by NAPLAN in public primary schools
Inability to move on students with little or no interest in schooling
Strong increase in performance of high school ready students (what high school teachers are trained to do) and low levels of improvement of students that are at primary levels during yr 7/8 (area of improvement for the school).

The issues make it hard to compete with local private schools.

None of these factors are taken into account by a one number summary, nor does it take into account the lead-in required to cater to a new circumstance that the school is experiencing (in this case a much higher number of low ability students).  Even if the school diagnosed the problem, reacted and implemented cohort specific solutions (including structural changes to better cater to low ability students), it takes lead time and strong leadership to identify and implement actions that have significant impact on NAPLAN statistics and student learning.  Yet in many cases a lower NAPLAN score will be seen as a teacher issue, comments driven by the misuse of statistics.

Furthermore, little analysis is done to see where systems are working and where changes in the pipeline have caused a significant positive change in student results.

Lastly, by releasing this data to parents (rather than aggressively seeking the problems and rectifying it within schools) a downward spiral commences.  A school with a low NAPLAN score does not attract good students, thus the score continues to drop each year and student numbers fall.  Senior school offerings reduce as student numbers are not sufficient to sustain courses.

Milestones

For the first time we reached 500 hits for the month and already have over 500 unique visitors this quarter - well up on last quarter and we still have a month to go. I attribute all this success to the rabbit banner and his joke.

Most popular topics this month were:
CAS Calculators (by far)
EBA4
Performance pay

Yay!