ICYMI: Schools test readiness for NAPLAN Online

Article published by ACARA 28 July 2017

“In August and September, schools around the country will have an opportunity to assess their readiness to move to NAPLAN Online in 2018. The school readiness test aims to ensure each school is prepared to undertake NAPLAN Online and has sufficient bandwidth and wireless connectivity. The test will give state and territory education authorities valuable feedback about the extent of school readiness to undertake NAPLAN Online from 2018.

Teachers will practise managing the classroom logistics for an online assessment as well as the processes for administering the test.

Schools across Australia will start to go online from 2018 on an opt-in basis. State and territory education authorities are responsible for determining when their state/territory moves to NAPLAN Online. These education authorities are preparing schools for the move from the current paper-based NAPLAN tests to online-based assessments, supporting schools with a variety of readiness tools, activities and training, including this readiness test exercise for selected schools.

“States and territories have previously undertaken trialling in preparation for the move to NAPLAN Online,” ACARA CEO Robert Randall said. “During August 2016, students from more than 1,000 selected schools across the country took part in a trial of the assessment platform for NAPLAN Online. Feedback received from the 2016 trial was generally positive and will be used together with this year’s readiness testing to ensure schools have a smooth transition.”

NAPLAN Online will allow for a wider range of question types and a broader range of skills to be assessed. It will also feature tailored testing, where the test automatically responds to student performance, providing more, or less, demanding questions based on how a student has gone in previous sections. This means that NAPLAN Online will provide more precise results and a more engaging test experience for students.

When NAPLAN moves online, test results will also be available within weeks instead of several months under current arrangements. This will assist teachers to identify learning priorities and meet individual student needs earlier than with the current NAPLAN paper tests.

As technology develops, ACARA aims to further refine the delivery of the tests to best use the available technology as well as to provide increasingly sophisticated assessments and valuable feedback to teachers, parents and education authorities.

Significant planning, development, research and trialling have been ongoing since 2012 to support the move to NAPLAN Online. ACARA has established a demonstration site to help students and teachers familiarise themselves with NAPLAN Online, as well as the types of items to be included in the online tests. The public demonstration site is available at www.nap.edu.au

ACARA and Education Services Australia are working with the Australian Government and all states and territories on the move to NAPLAN Online. States and territories are responsible for preparing schools for NAPLAN Online and selecting schools for readiness testing. ”