Cramped fingers, ink smudges and crinkled paper will be a thing of the past when nationally-run literacy and numeracy testing goes online.
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The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests students in years 3, 5, 7, and 9 to gain information on school performance levels.
However, last week principals and teachers from schools across Orange gathered at Orange Public School in preparation for a School’s Readiness Test, to help them prepare for the move to NAPLAN Online.
A spokesman from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) said the School Readiness Test will be conducted from August 14 to September 25.
“Only schools that have demonstrated they meet the minimum technical requirements to undertake NAPLAN Online in 2018 will take part,” the spokesman said.
“The school readiness test is not focused on testing the NAPLAN online platform but is a test of school readiness.
“It aims to ensure schools are ready to undertake NAPLAN Online by testing their [information communication technology] capacity, including bandwidth and wireless connectivity, as well as the administration processes and logistics for NAPLAN online.
“The school readiness test is not a test of students literacy and numeracy skills – only school readiness.”
The spokesman said NAPLAN Online will provide better assessment, more precise results, faster turnaround of information and will feature “tailored testing”, which gives students questions that are more suited to their ability, resulting in an improved standard of assessment.
When NAPLAN moves online all assessments will be completed at a keyboard, aside from year 3 writing, which is still to be undertaken with pencil and paper.
Orange Public School principal Brad Tom said the school took part in a pilot for the online test last year and will take part in readiness trial along with other Orange public and private schools.
“Our participation of the pilot went really well. It was interesting to see how the students handled the test delivered on a screen rather than a piece of paper,” Mr Tom said.
“Students are quite adept at using screens and technology.”
He said one of the issues covered in last week’s training were managing computing resources.