NAPLAN is being used by some schools as an entrance exam. This isn’t what it’s designed to do

School students around Australia have begun their NAPLAN tests this week.

Amid technical glitches during the writing component of the exam on Wednesday, there has also been confusion about the purpose of the test.

Earlier this week, NAPLAN boss Stephen Gneil told the Sydney Morning Herald he was worried about how the test results are being used.

He said some private and select-entry government schools were using the NAPLAN results as part of enrolment applications.

I think it is horrendous, and it’s a complete misuse of the assessment. It’s not one of the purposes and therefore the test is not designed as an entrance exam and shouldn’t be used as such.

So, what is NAPLAN designed to do?

What is NAPLAN?

NAPLAN is held every year for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It measures how Australian students are performing in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation), and numeracy.

There are four proficiency levels for each area: exceeding, strong, developing and needs additional support.

Students at “exceeding” and “strong” are at or above performance expectations for their year level. Those who are deemed “developing” and “needs additional support” are below expectations.

Students receive an individual report, schools get a school-wide report, and data is published at national and state levels, including via the My School website.

What’s going on?

NAPLAN was introduced in 2008 and originally designed as a “low-stakes” measure to diagnose system-level performance. This means individual students’ NAPLAN scores were intended to be aggregated.

Since it is a “census test” that all students complete, the results can be used to track national progress, compare states and territories, and compare student populations.

This can help policymakers and education departments identify areas of need in certain locations (for example, rural and regional areas versus cities) and student groups (for example, those from high versus low socio-economic groups).

But the purpose of NAPLAN has since been expanded. Since 2010, it also provides school-level data to publicly rate schools’ performance and compare them.

This was not part of the original plan for NAPLAN. As a 2019 review noted, this reflects a move towards more “high-stakes” uses and interpretations of NAPLAN data.

How is it being used today?

Because all students complete NAPLAN and receive individualised reports, it has become a common – if highly imperfect – yardstick for student and school performance.

We now have a situation in which individual NAPLAN results have become, among other things, a proxy “entrance exam”.

Extensive research suggests an over-reliance on NAPLAN has also led to many unforeseen “perverse effects”. These include teachers “teaching to the test”, excessive student and teacher stress, a narrowing of the curriculum, and the gaming of school and state performance targets. For example, some states have tried to set “lower” targets they can easily meet.

Why is this a problem?

Test designers refer to validity to describe whether an exam tests what it claims to measure and whether it is being used for its intended purposes. So, it is problem if NAPLAN results are being used by schools to determine entrance into Year 7, given it was designed to test population-level progress.

This is not just a theoretical issue.

Using NAPLAN scores for school entrance runs counter to students, parents and teachers being told the test is “low-stakes” (or does not matter to individual kids). This is both disingenuous and risks students experiencing yet more test anxiety, since the purpose of NAPLAN is not being consistently and transparently communicated.

NAPLAN is also specifically limited to literacy and numeracy skills. This is only a small proportion of what a student might reasonably be expected to learn during their time at school. At best, it is a partial snapshot of student performance.

Meanwhile, using NAPLAN scores to determine high school entrance is likely to see more parents seek out private tutoring or exam preparation for their child. This risks unfairly disadvantaging students whose parents cannot afford or arrange expensive and time-consuming tutoring.

What other measures of school performance are there?

NAPLAN’s administrator has been at pains to remind people NAPLAN is only one test. It does not and should not “replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance”.

Student report cards, school-based assessments and teacher judgements can provide a far more nuanced, balanced and individualised measure of student learning.

This is why any reliance on NAPLAN scores to decide school entry is flawed and unfair.