Year 9 not up to national standard

The body that oversees NAPLAN testing – the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority – is urging Tasmanian parents to reconsider withdrawing their children from the national tests.

Some Tasmanian parents have threatened to withdraw their children from tests next year as a form of protest against government education cuts.

The call to parents by ACARA comes as a report detailing last year’s results is released to the public.

The National Report revealed that Tasmania’s years 5 and 7 students were close to national mean scores in all the five categories.

Year 9 students, however, were well below national mean standards in spelling and numeracy, while year 3 pupils were well below in grammar and punctuation.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority general manager Stanley Rabinowitz said the organisation was concerned about the potential for Tasmanian NAPLAN withdrawal rates to rise.

‘‘Participation in NAPLAN remains high and sufficient to provide reliable and robust achievement data,’’ Dr Rabinowitz said.

‘‘However, parents who withdraw their children from the NAPLAN tests are choosing to not benefit from a second set of eyes on how well their children are doing, relative to other students their age across the country.

‘‘Every student should know how well he or she is going, against the standards and in comparison with his or her peers.’’