Freeman, Leonard (2024) 2023 Penny McKay Memorial Award: Evaluating the fairness and validity of interpretations and uses of remote Aboriginal students’ national reading test performances. In: The Applied Linguistics ALAA/ALANZ/ALTAANZ Conference 2024: Abstract Book. p. 6. From: The Applied Linguistics ALAA/ALANZ/ALTAANZ Conference 2024: Applied Linguistics for a just society: Advancing equity, access, and opportunity, 25-27 November 2024, Launceston, TAS.

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Abstract

For the last decade, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLaN) has been the primary measure used to make judgements about the literacy and numeracy outcomes of Australian students, and more broadly the performance of Australian schools. While NAPLaN may be working for monolingual English speaking students attending mainstream schools, there are concerns about whether Australia’s education system is delivering equitable outcomes for all students, particularly Indigenous students living in remote communities where Standard Australian English is not widely spoken.

Kane’s (2013) interpretation/use argument is used to frame this project's evaluation of the appropriateness of both interpretations and uses of Year 3 Aboriginal students’ NAPLaN reading test scores. First, I reviewed education reports and interviewed school educators to identify claims based on NAPLaN reading test scores. Then we measured the English language and word recognition (decoding) skills of seventy Aboriginal Year 3 students (age 8) who had completed NAPLaN the same year. Statistical analyses investigated the degree to which students’ English grammar, vocabulary, word recognition skills, school attendance rate and remoteness explained their NAPLaN reading comprehension test scores. These analyses indicate that many Aboriginal students have not yet mastered the foundational English language and literacy skills required to engage with standardised reading comprehension tests. For these students, NAPLaN does not identify which English language and word-reading skills the child needs to develop, suggesting that NAPLaN is not a useful assessment tool of or for their learning.

Item ID:	89595
Item Type:	Conference Item (Abstract / Summary)
Date Deposited:	15 Jan 2026 02:17
FoR Codes:	39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390108 LOTE, ESL and TESOL curriculum and pedagogy @ 50% 47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4704 Linguistics > 470401 Applied linguistics and educational linguistics @ 50%
SEO Codes:	16 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 1699 Other education and training > 169999 Other education and training not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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