Written exclusively for EducationDaily by: Professor Saskia Kohnen, Director, Australian Literacy Clinic, ACU; Dr Erin Banales, National Manager, Australian Literacy Clinic, ACU; Professor Rauno Parrila, Director, Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy, ACU.
In March this year, Australian students completed the National Assessment Program of Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Over 90 per cent of Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 typically partake. Students completed tasks in the areas of numeracy, reading, spelling, writing, grammar and punctuation.
What is NAPLAN?
NAPLAN is a nation-wide test that is used to understand performance and learning progress of Australian students. Data from this test are used in many ways. Governments make funding decisions based on these data. Educational organisations and think-tanks use the data to document potential issues that require government attention and change. Schools evaluate whether, for example, school-wide changes are resulting in desired improvements. The data can help us understand how different educational approaches work, how different school sectors perform, or which schools need additional support.
NAPLAN data are not just used by governments, school sectors and schools. The results also go back to individual families, documenting their children’s results in the different learning areas.
What do the scores mean?
For each of the different areas of learning that were assessed, children’s results will be shown as belonging to one of four categories: Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support.
According to the ACARA website, these four levels mean the following:
- Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing
- Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing
- Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing
- Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
In other words, students who are not scoring in the “strong” or “exceeding” categories have not reached expectations. Unfortunately, the wording might suggest that only the lowest category requires additional support, but in fact anyone who is working below expectations may need more support to catch up.
For each area of learning, students’ test scores are displayed on a graph, so that families know which level their child scored within. The results also display the national average (as a black filled triangle), the school’s average (as a black unfilled triangle if enough students in a school sat the test), and the range of scores that encompass 60 per cent of Australian students.
It’s important to note that NAPLAN is not meant to diagnose a specific learning disorder or even pinpoint why, for example, reading skills might be in the lower two categories. There can be many different reasons that lead to low reading scores on tests. However, students who do not score at grade expectations are likely to require further support to improve their low literacy. If your child is one of the students who has scored in the lower categories, you are probably wondering how to best support your child.
What can we do about low literacy?
The good news is that scientific research shows that students who score low on any learning areas tested in NAPLAN can improve their skills. Targeted instruction can improve performance in reading, spelling, writing, punctuation and grammar. While early intervention is particularly effective, we know from scientific studies that students in high school can still improve their literacy skills.
This targeted literacy intervention is provided in different settings and by different professionals. Schools receive government funding to support all students’ learning, including those who have low scores on NAPLAN. Many Australian students receive out-of-school literacy support in clinics and tutoring centres. It’s important to check that professionals employed in these places have appropriate training. Most commonly, staff in good centres include teachers, speech-language therapists, and psychologists.
What next?
A good first step would be for families to talk to their child’s teacher. Here are some questions that might be useful to ask:
- What particular difficulties does my child have in [insert literacy area that is in lowest two categories]?
- What literacy support is currently being provided at school to support my child in this area?
- If no support is currently provided, when can my child access literacy support?
- Does the school have adequate resources to support my child’s literacy at this time?
- What additional support can be provided at home?
Not all schools are currently well equipped to provide the intensive and targeted literacy intervention that students in the two lower categories need. Hence, out-of-school support may be required. Unfortunately, this kind of service attracts fees with little financial support for families to recover these costs. When seeking professional help, it’s important to find out if the professional has the relevant expertise in the area of your child’s need. Here are some questions that might be useful to ask:
- Do you provide structured literacy instruction in [insert area that is in lowest two categories]?
- How do you measure progress?
- What literacy programs or teaching approaches do you use and what research exists to indicate this can be effective to address my child’s needs?
Some families wonder if they may need a dyslexia diagnosis to understand how to best support their child’s literacy needs. This is not the case. The best way to begin an intervention is often an assessment that details exactly which literacy skills need to be targeted. Often, this can be provided by the school or the literacy professional who undertakes the intervention.
This additional assessment is needed because NAPLAN is not designed to provide enough information to target an intervention. NAPLAN gives an overview of a child’s overall skills, but it can’t explain what particular difficulties a child has. For example, a low score on NAPLAN Reading might come from reading inaccurately, reading slowly, having reduced spoken-language skills (vocabulary and grammar), differences in cultural knowledge, etc. Further assessment can help locate your child’s areas of strength and need, so that any intervention can be targeted, effective, and efficient.
While low scores in NAPLAN can be confronting, these results can play an important role in flagging students with low literacy. The next step is to provide evidence-based support to grow these students’ reading and spelling skills.
