Why NAPLAN is Widening The Education Gap

Earlier this year students in years three, five, seven, and nine were assessed on their reading, writing, language and numeracy as part of the National Assessment program, or NAPLAN. The data obtained from the NAPLAN tests are collated and used to show all schools' average performance against other schools in the country on the Government MySchool website. Just last month students and parents all over the country received their NAPLAN results admits growing national controversy surrounding the comparability of online and pen-and-paper test results and the validity of the assessment. But is it the technology used to implement the exam, or the assessment itself that is widening the education gap? We spoke with Dr Simon Knight, Lecturer in the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation and Lynda Pascoe, Principal of the Ngukurr Community Education Centre in the Katherine Region of the Northern Territory.