Students who completed Naplan online received noticeably better scores in some parts of the test than those who completed traditional pencil and paper tests as happened in the NT.

The push to move online creates even bigger problems for the Northern Territory, branch president of the Australian Education Union NT Jarvis Ryan said. 

With major education gaps and inequalities across Australian schools, Mr Jarvis is worried Naplan online will only exacerbate the divide. 

“A number of students taking the online test have received an artificial boost and that is problematic.

“In the NT a big issue is internet bandwidth, we have so many remote schools, it really presents a challenge,” Mr Jarvis said.  

Students in the NT did not take Naplan online this year but their results will be compared across the nation. 

“Students who took the online test in Victoria scored 15 points higher than students who did traditional pencil and paper tests,” Mr Jarvis said. 

“The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and the Federal Government are trying to say the results are comparable, but the Australian Education Union commissioned experts to examine this claim and in a report found they were not. 

“In our view this corrupted the results of the entire data set,” he said. 

Read More: Naplan tests need review in the NT, schools

Mr Jarvis said of the one million students who took Naplan this year, only 200,000 students sat the online version. 

The test assesses school students in years three, five, seven and nine across five areas: reading, writing, spelling, numeracy, grammar and punctuation.

The report, Problems in the Design and Administration of the 2018 Naplan, conducted by academic Les Perelman, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Professor Walt Haney, from Boston College, found the data was incomparable. 

The report recommended the 2018 Naplan results should be discarded.

AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said that Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan should agree to a comprehensive review of Naplan.

“The independent report is in on Naplan online, and it shows that the data from this year’s disastrous test is worthless,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“The AEU has repeatedly called on the Federal Government to show leadership and take responsibility for the Naplan online fiasco.

“This report, by independent world-leading experts in online assessment, said that the ‘comparison of 2018 results with those of prior years is, for the most part, a futile exercise’. This unequivocal condemnation of Naplan by respected academics highlights the urgent need for a full independent inquiry into all aspects of Naplan and My School,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“We are still waiting for ACARA to explain how and why the Naplan online trial resembles a smoking ruin, or what it plans to do to salvage this debacle.

“Our members raised significant concerns about Naplan online, but unfortunately they were ignored by the previous Minister, Simon Birmingham. Now we learn that the 2018 Naplan online trial has a ‘fatal design error’ and cannot be compared with previous data held on My School,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“Naplan 2018 data must be set aside while the education community develops a new and student-centred approach to assessment.

“Min. Tehan has the opportunity now to listen to the teaching profession and announce a comprehensive review of naplan and My School. It was the AEU which first called for a Naplan review, and this call has been taken up by principal associations, state-based parent groups and some education ministers,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“A child’s education cannot simply be encapsulated as a number in a spreadsheet – we need a much more holistic assessment process which is connected to the daily learning that occurs in our schools.

“The best form of assessment is the informed judgment of a teacher. Teachers make sure that the full range of factors influencing a child’s learning are considered when conducting learning assessments,” Ms Haythorpe said.