Tasmanian students close the gap on nation in latest NAPLAN tests

Preliminary results from the 2016 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy showed the writing scores of Year 7 and Year 9 students showed a “significant” decline nationally since 2011 and literacy and numeracy results plateaued from 2015 to 2016.

Parents: How well would you perform? Take the practise test at the end of the story

However, AEU Tasmanian president Helen Richardson said there were some early encouraging signs for Tasmanian schools.

“The fact that our students have ‘closed the gap’ in the majority of areas tested is a testament to the dedication of our teachers, support staff and principals and the importance of providing resources to meet need,” she said.

She said full Gonski funding would be essential to further improvements.

“Only a fraction of the Gonski needs-based funding has been delivered so far and now is not the time to pull the rug out from underneath our students – imagine what they, and their schools, could achieve with secure, long-term needs-based funding,” she said.

Tasmania’s preliminary NAPLAN results are closer to the Australian mean scores on 15 of the 20 assessments, when compared to the 2015 results, Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff said today.

“Overall, Tasmania’s strongest performance is in reading and writing at all year levels,” he said.

“We also exceed the Australian results for at or above national minimum standard in both Year 3 and Year 9 numeracy.”

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority chief executive Robert Randall said the authority would need to look at what was causing the decline in writing in Years 7 and 9 nationally.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the results were not good enough.

The results show a 1.26 per cent increase in numeracy scores and barely any change in reading or writing across all year levels.

“Today’s results once again show that, despite significant funding growth, we are not getting sufficient improvements in student outcomes,” Senator Birmingham said.

“We have excellent schools and teachers in Australia that successfully set the vast majority of our students up for life but we need to move the conversation on from just how much is being spent in schools to focus on how record funding can best be used for the benefit of students.”

He wants the focus to turn to evidence-based measures.

Teachers say while there have been significant gains in how well students are doing, the country needs to do much better.

But, unlike the minister, the Australian Education Union says delivering the full Gonski funding to schools will be a big help.

“No one in their right mind thinks that denying schools the resources needed to meet the needs of all students is a strategy that will lead to better results,” federal president Correna Haythope said.

[Source:- MERCURY]