How do secondary school English teachers score NAPLAN? A snapshot of English teachers’ views

Abstract

and measurable educational 'outcomes'" (Biesta, 2014, p. 354). Yet, as Biesta argues, education cannot be reduced to a 'technology' with "totally predictable outcomes" and "totally guaranteed" successes because the relationship between teaching and learning is not "physical", but "hermeneutic" (p. 354). The almost exclusive reliance on single measures of student achievement prompts the question: "are we measuring what we value, or … are we just measuring what we can easily measure and thus end up valuing what we (can) measure" such that "targets and indicators of quality become mistaken for quality itself" (Biesta, 2009a, p. 35).The dedication to standardised testing by successive Australian governments reflects similar priorities in other developed Western nations including the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Singapore and China where a "strengthening commitment to … standardised testing", reveals an "insatiable appetite for data" (Wyatt-Smith & Jackson, 2016, p. 233). In an era characterised by educational accountability (Biesta, 2017;Lindgard, Thompson & Sellar, 2016;PrØitz, Mausethagen & Skedsmo, 2017;Werler & Klepstad Faerevaag, 2017), standardised testing is now the dominant mechanism for "educational reform" (Au, 2011, p. 29). In many countries, including Australia, standardised testing opens the classroom to external scrutiny and judgement, making teachers "accountable to and for student performance data" (Lindgard, Thompson & Sellar, 2016, p. 1). This commitment to standardised testing exemplifies a "modern reverence for quantitative evidence" (Porter, 2012, p. 594) whereby the data interpreted from tests are often thought to be "efficient, standardized, uniform and intuitive measures that are productive for use in a range

Review of selected research in applied linguistics published in Australia (2015–2022)

“…In a similar study, Carter et al (2018) corroborate the negative test implications in their survey of 211 secondary school English teachers in New South Wales (NSWa populous state located on the east coast of Australia, whose capital city is Sydney). They contend that the negative consequences perceived by teachers undermine the validity of NAPLAN in informing and enhancing learning and quality teaching sought by ACARA.…”

“…The Australian NAPLAN mass testing regime has been scrutinised and contested in public discourses and the research literature (e.g., Freebody & Chan, 2018;Smith & Wrigley, 2017). Research undertaken in the review period has interrogated the relevance, validity and consequential impact of these tests for school education (e.g., Caldwell & White, 2017;Carter et al, 2018;Portelli & O'Sullivan, 2016;Reeves et al, 2018).…”