Workload: the great sleight of hand
It is universally the case that the profession rightly bemoans the persistent collection of data in schools, its rise now repeatedly substantiated over a number of years as dragging teachers and principals away from their core business and what they signed up for: teaching and learning, progressing their students and public school communities. It’s a well-researched and evidenced phenomenon, known as the datafication of the teaching profession†and its insidious impact is being felt around the globe.
Protect professional status
Over the past six weeks, Federation has intervened in, and responded to, a multitude of impending policy changes directly affecting the work of our teachers and principals in schools and in TAFE.
ACARA is either incapable or uninterested in protecting our students
6 May 2020
Section: News
Federation has written to ACARA seeking “meaningful action” over the publication in newspapers of school league tables, in contravention of the terms of use of My School data.
Students should be at the centre of reporting: submission
Academic growth and individual achievement should be the focus of reporting, Federation’s submission to the review of NAPLAN states.
The pathology of NAPLAN
17 September 2019
Section: Columns
Let’s be clear: no child fails NAPLAN, but NAPLAN fails all children.
ACARA masks truth about NAPLAN data
28 August 2019
Section: News
ACARA’s ‘nothing to see here’ approach to the NAPLAN 2019 data release and its mishandling of the NAPLAN online debacle has reinforced yet again the need for a comprehensive review of the entire NAPLAN testing regime.
All changes to assessment and reporting must be led by the teaching profession, Conference declares
9 July 2019
Section: News
The recent NAPLAN outages revealed the “fiasco” the “flawed and corrupt” national testing tool had become, NSW Teachers Federation Annual Conference was told yesterday.
NAPLAN must go
28 June 2019
Section: News
The announcement by the NSW Minister of Education, Sarah Mitchell, that she will be calling on the Education Council to undertake a full review of NAPLAN, with a view to replacing it, will be welcomed by teachers and principals across Australia.
Thousands of students to resit NAPLAN over online glitches
23 May 2019
Section: News
This year’s botched round of NAPLAN testing proved the examination “really is a dud”, Federation President Maurie Mulheron has declared.
Submission calls for new assessment to replace NAPLAN
29 March 2019
Section: News
The original, stated purpose of NAPLAN and the My School website have been “terminally corrupted”, the Australian Education Union asserted in its submission to the of the Council of Australian Governments’ review of NAPLAN data.
Progress towards NAPLAN reform
22 September 2018
Section: News
The campaign to review and ultimately replace the NAPLAN assessment has achieved further gains in recent weeks, with the Education Council releasing a communique stating that state and territory education ministers had agreed that the 2018 NAPLAN test results will not be published on the MySchool website, with any further decisions to be taken at the council’s December meeting.
NAPLAN 2018 results ‘should be discarded’ according to expert review
27 August 2018
Section: News
Teachers have long held concerns about the use of NAPLAN test data, and an independent review of the 2018 test confirms that the data is of ‘very limited use’ and that posting this year’s data to the MySchool website would be ‘inappropriate and misleading’.
Independent expert review of NAPLAN operations established
15 August 2018
Section: News
Following further controversies surrounding NAPLAN an independent external expert review of NAPLAN has been established.
Australia must learn lessons from UK education system
10 July 2018
Section: News
Parallels between the challenges facing teacher unions in the UK and Australia emphasise the benefits of teacher solidarity across borders, UK National Education Union Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said at Federation’s Annual Conference.
When will the Federal Government learn?
8 July 2018
Section: News
The Federal Government had failed to learn the lessons of the NSW experiment, which introduced learning progressions and an online assessment tool into schools that were blamed for creating excessive teacher workload, President of the Australian Education Union Correna Haythorpe told Federation’s Annual Conference.
Education Council’s weak response to calls for NAPLAN review
23 June 2018
Section: News
Despite strong public support, and calls from numerous state and territory governments, Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham vetoed plans for…
Teaching without teachers: A new business plan
15 June 2018
Section: Columns
I am concerned that teachers are in danger of losing control of who teaches, what is taught and how we teach, as “edu-businesses” move to directly influence politicians, advisers and policy makers.
Good assessment design outlined by world-leader in writing assessment
8 May 2018
Section: News
Among the essential elements to designing an effective new assessment to replace NAPLAN were factors that would not only enhance student learning but also teachers’ professional learning, respected education academic Dr Les Perelman said in a lecture on Friday night.
Voices opposing NAPLAN mount
7 May 2018
Section: News
The call for reform of NAPLAN is growing, as criticism of the tests and reporting of results comes under increasing scrutiny.
It’s time for a new NAPLAN
9 April 2018
Section: News
A major report released today has revealed Australia’s NAPLAN testing regime is failing the nation’s students and is quite possibly contributing to declining performance standards across the nation.
NAPLAN fosters bad writing: expert
9 April 2018
Section: News
World-leading figure in writing assessment Dr Les Perelman is suggesting a new approach for the NAPLAN major writing task.