June 2018
NAPLAN Online roll-out proceeds smoothly
In May this year, over one million students took NAPLAN, and of those, almost 20 per cent of students across six states and territories sat NAPLAN in the new online format.
ACARA CEO, Robert Randall, said: “This first year of the move to NAPLAN Online overall went smoothly. The participation of schools, students, teachers and education authorities in readiness and preparation activities over the last few years has been key to this smooth transition and we appreciate that effort. I would like to thank all those involved in this achievement”.
By the end of the NAPLAN Online testing window, just over 190,000 students in 1,285 schools completed almost 670,000 online assessments.
Preparation activities undertaken to support the readiness of schools, students and teachers included extensive testing of the assessment platform. Schools that undertook NAPLAN Online this year also completed a successful coordinated practice test in March and April. In addition, there were detailed procedures in place and help desk support to ensure that any incidents that arose could be managed so impacts on students would be minimal.
Education ministers agreed that NAPLAN should move online from 2018 to provide a more engaging assessment, more precise results through tailored testing and faster turnaround of information, with the goal for all students to be online by 2020. The move online will enable NAPLAN to further evolve and improve, to ensure that it continues to provide valuable information about student learning in the important areas of literacy and numeracy.
Parents will receive their child’s individual report in August – around the same time it was issued in previous years. Because a student report shows how a child is doing compared to the national average, the results of all students – including those who did the pencil and paper assessment – need to be returned, collated and analysed. From 2020, when all students sit NAPLAN online, the turnaround time for individual student reports to be returned to parents will greatly reduce, from months to weeks.
Australian Schools List website refreshed and updated
The Australian Schools List website has been refreshed and updated. ACARA maintains this website for online education services that rely on a current and accurate list of schools in Australia.
The list of schools is compiled from all school registration authorities in each state and territory, providing details of all schools and campuses in Australia. It also includes school location, school type and school sector attributes.
The refreshed website features an updated look and feel, improved search functionality and a search by map facility.
Charles Leadbeater leads ACARA forum
On Thursday 9 May, author Charles Leadbeater presented a forum for ACARA’s stakeholders, exploring how student agency may contribute to considerations of what a curriculum is and what students should learn. Mr Leadbeater also reflected on his work with the OECD Education 2030 project.
