Phil Cullen is one of the most outspoken critics of Australia’s system of standards and testing, called NAPLAN. That stands for National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy. Cullen thinks this regime spells the death of childhood and education.
If you want to get on Phil’s Email list, you can reach him at cphilcullen@bigpond.com.
Is Australian Schooling a joke?
If it isn’t why do we do what we do?
That’s NAPLAN for you.
It has its own peculiarities.
We are told how to handle kids.
Do as you are told.
Be tough.
Stick to the rules.
That’s IT
TEST. TEST. TEST
A data-driven testucation system always gets results.
What happened to Australia’s?
The International test scores tell the story. What’s wrong?
Of course………………..
YES! That big thing in the classroom IS an elephant.
Some think they have it under control….
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A sense of humor is needed
and a song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzM2y8Oze1I Sarah Silverman signs her love, but see the whole thing, because it moves in an interesting direction in the middle.
RUSSIA TIES: A Randy Rainbow Song Parody (from GREASE!)🎶 – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYgi5MyMqCs
and THIS has nothing to do with politics, but it is great!
Le Petit Chef great fun! A 90 second video from a small country restaurant in France, which keeps its customers entertained while they are waiting for the main course. https://www.youtube.com/embed/yBJEP4lsRFY
LikeLike
It is unfortunate that Australia is going down the same pernicious privatization path as America and England. At least the Aussies still have a sense of humor about it. The free market fanatics use testing as a means to dismantle public education which is rightly a civic responsibility, not a private enterprise. Instead of calling their national wrecking ball the NAPLAN, it should be called the NAPALM, the National Assessment Program, Assasinating Literacy, Maths. The is a fitting name for a weapon of mass destruction.
LikeLike
NAPLAN is reminiscent of NAPALM.
But the person who drew the first cartoon of “What the cleaning lady sees” clearly never saw “Good Will Hunting”
LikeLike
Can’t say I like that cartoon. I relate to the one of the teacher being bullied. Note that the paddle says, “Support”. That’s about right.
LikeLike
“NAPLAN is reminiscent of NAPALM.”
Yes, plenty of us refer to it as that.
LikeLike
So good!
LikeLike
Thanks for casting your gaze in our direction but our schooling system is “Australian” rather than “Austrialian” – that’s two countries in one word.
Yes, NAPLAN is pernicious and the bane of my existence each May – when we have a test for which the results aren’t available until August. Originally “intended” as a diagnostic tool, it has morphed (surprise, surprise) into a nasty competition between schools, complete with league tables published in the press. I know of at least one family from the school I teach at, who withdrew her children, in the middle of their schooling, from what (in my opinion) is a pretty good school, to enrol them at another one with “better” NAPLAN results. And I know this because THE PARENT TOLD US.
Our music education guru (who has also achieved some fame overseas), Richard Gill, makes no secret of his disdain for NAPLAN:
“NAPLAN is a gift to the lazy teacher and a deep frustration to the creative teacher.”
You now can see why I am so attentive to what is happening in schooling in the US and the UK: as Dr Jean Ely (another Diane fan, incidentally) from the Australian Defence of Government Schools puts it, “When the US or UK sneezes, Australia catches a cold.” And the best evidence is that NAPLAN was put in place because our former Education Minister (later our first female Prime Minister), Julia Gillard, got Joel Klein, of all people, to come over and tell us how we should fix our education system. Sadly, she took his advice.
LikeLike
David,
Forgive the spelling error. Now corrected. My large staff fell down on the job.
We have the same crazy and useless testing system. Children take the tests in March, and the results are available in August or September, when the student has a different teacher. No one, including the teacher, is allowed to know which questions the students got right or wrong, so there is no diagnostic value. The tests serve only to rank and stigmatize students, teachers, and schools.
Your system came about because Julia Gillard was given advice by Joel Klein. Klein went on to fail in a major ed-tech Venture, losing $500 Million for Murdoch. He now works for an online health company owned by the brother of Jared Kushner’s brother. People still complain about the NYC Schools. The dramatic gains Klein boasted of disappeared. There was no miracle.
Does that mean that Australia is now free to get rid of NAPLAN?
LikeLike
“Does that mean that Australia is now free to get rid of NAPLAN?”
Oh God, I wish! There is no shortage of teachers here that would be glad to see the back of it. Unfortunately, our current Federal government wants to ratchet it up further, by introducing a test for Year 1 students. 6 year olds! It’s modelled on the UK Phonics test, which is itself a failed initiative:
https://www.oneeducation.co.uk/one-editorial/literacy/failing-phonics-screening/
See what I mean about us catching a cold? Why we don’t hitch our wagon to Canada and NZ instead of the other two Anglophone countries, I’ll never know (not that their systems are perfect).
Interesting news there about Joel Klein: first Gillard, then Murdoch. Does Klein have a thing about letting down Australians? Oh, that’s right: Murdoch isn’t Australian any more. He gave up his Aust citizenship and decided to take up a career as the new Mick Jagger.
LikeLike
I’m also glad to see you including a cartoon from Matt Golding. He regularly draws for The Age here in Melbourne and his pictures are funny and very astute. Here’s another one about NAPLAN:
and another one from today’s paper, which I’m sure needs no explanation to US readers:
(Please feel free to delete if these two pictures don’t embed properly!)
LikeLike
It sounds a lot like American education.
LikeLike