Evaluating NAPLAN as a Performance Measurement System Assignment

Evaluating NAPLAN as a Performance Measurement System - Assignment Example According to the ACARA website, the NAPLAN testing widely reflects the aspects related to numeracy and literacy, which are common to the curricula of all the states and territories (â€Å"My School Fact Sheet†). The test formats as well as questions are chosen in such manner that they remain familiar to the students and teachers all across Australia. It is designed in such manner that it can be taken on the same date in any particular year all across the country (â€Å"National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy 2010†). Problems associated with design or use of NAPLAN Management accounting enhances the decision making by suggesting methods and methodologies. In this part of the project, the problems in the design and framework of NAPLAN would be reflected by taking into consideration the management accounting theory. Three problems associated with NAPLAN are given below: The content coverage of the NAPLAN test: With 40 questions in every test, NAPLAN always assess es fragments of the student achievement. This is not appropriate because testing a portion of the curriculum does not give indication about any student’s learning in all the curriculum areas. The result of the students in this test reflects the percentage of questions that could be answered by them out of all the questions present in the questionnaire. However, the test fails to reflect achievement of the entire numeracy and literacy domain. The bureaucrats have explained it as a test score gap, where they stated that there is an achievement gap between the students and the schools. As the NAPLAN test only assesses limited aspect of the learning of Australian students, the result is not useful for inferring the overall achievement. Moreover, achievement related to any student must not be so narrowly confined to only the grounds of literacy and numeracy. There should be assessment made on other grounds as well, such as critical thinking, creativity, capability of following any inquiry, motivation, compassion etc. But test on these grounds are not assessed by the NAPLAN. In contrast to this, the Australian teachers know about the ability of the students in much broader way apart from numeracy or literacy. Accuracy in the identification of overall level of the students in grounds of numeracy and literacy: The test instrument comprising of a set of only 40 questions cannot judge and separate the students accurately on grounds of literacy and numeracy. The NAPLAN does not provide any additional information, which a teacher does not have with him/her. For identifying the student level much more accurately, there should be long tests conducted. Matching the assessment procedure with the curriculum: In order to assess the achievement of the students on grounds of literacy and numeracy, it is very important that the assessment matches with the curriculum, which is being taught by the teachers. ACARA states that the test item is informed to the teachers by Ã¢â‚¬Ë œNational Standards of learning for English’. But the document based on which the test would be taken remain unknown to the teachers in most of the schools. It is not an appropriate process of planning the NAPLAN test on the basis of new Australian Curriculum because there are still some states, which did not adopt the curriculum yet. Moreover, even after adopting the curriculum, it would require time for these schools to implement them. As the learning of the