- How do you make sense of your childs NAPLAN results?

Are
they important to you? Why/why not?
NAPLAN results are just an indicator of where you child maybe at this
point in time. They are important but they should be seen as part of a
set of indicators of your child's progress, including school-based
assessments. They help to rank your child against other children in the
state so they can be useful in identifying strengths and weaknesses.
- What is the purpose(s) of assessment?
The purpose of the assessment is to rank students across a range of
indicators and also to rank schools across the same range of indicators.
Because it does across year levels, it also helps educators see the
development of children.
- How do you plan assessment? Does it involve diverse strategies?
Why/ why not?
Assuming it is planning for assessment of NAPLAN, it is important to do
some pre testing so that students get used to the testing, but there
should be no pressure or anxiety for the student. However, over
teaching it, could be counter productive, and problematic and some
schools over do and then the results are not really true.
- As one of the schools leaders, what is your philosophy about
assessment?
Assessment should be both formative and summative. While NAPLAN
is taken seriously and students should do the best they can, it should
not drive a schools teaching and learning program. However you would
be naive to see the results are not being used for parents looking for a
school for their child.
- Do you promote self or peer assessment? Why & how /why not?
Yes, self-assessment is both an individual and communal issue and
also self-assessment brings greater awareness of how teachers actually
assess. As long as it's not too competitive and it should be part of a
healthy community spirit. Not outdoing others or being nasty.
- What effects do external national and international testing have

on your school community?

The school has a range of psychological testing if there are indicators of
learning difficulties. The school also participates in a range of testing
programs, not only NAPLAN, but other national comparative tests.
Reporting is also part of feedback to parents and students in regard to
their progress. This reporting is based on the new Australian curriculum.