Fair vs. useful: evaluating the fairness and validity of interpretations and uses of remote Aboriginal students' national reading test performances
Freeman, Leonard A. (2022) Fair vs. useful: evaluating the fairness and validity of interpretations and uses of remote Aboriginal students' national reading test performances. PhD thesis, University of Melbourne.
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Background: The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLaN) has been administered to students across Australia since 2008. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) maintains that NAPLaN testing provides a reliable and rich measure of the foundational literacy skills of all Australian school students. Furthermore, ACARA posits that a student’s test score is useful for making decisions about their level of English reading achievement in relation to year-level standards, compared to other students across Australia, and for guiding decisions about future English reading instruction.
ACARA asserts that 'extensive processes' have been put in place to ensure that NAPLaN test scores provide parents and classroom teachers with a 'valid and reliable measure' of literacy and numeracy for all Australian students. Despite ACARA's assurances, concerns regarding the fairness and usefulness of using NAPLaN data to make decisions about the literacy achievements of remote Aboriginal students, particularly those students who are English language learners (ELLs), continue to grow in both the academic literature and the wider public discourse.
| Item ID: | 89596 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
| Copyright Information: | © 2022 Leonard Albert Freeman |
| Additional Information: | This thesis is available open access from The University of Melbourne. |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Mar 2026 05:20 |
| FoR Codes: | 47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4704 Linguistics > 470401 Applied linguistics and educational linguistics @ 50% 39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390108 LOTE, ESL and TESOL curriculum and pedagogy @ 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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