54: NAPLAN Shows Alarming Achievement Gaps. Grattan Institute's Dr Peter Goss Explains.

NAPLAN often conjures up awful thoughts about standardised testing in schools that become the subject of controversy and debate. But regardless of what you might think of NAPLAN, recent research by The Grattan Institute indicates that there is a widening gap of achievement in our schools. Whilst rising gain scores, and charts that generally appear to show upward trends in results look convincing, Grattan Institute's new model of interpreting data called 'years of progress' tells a different story. In some cases, the spread of achievement between students in year 9 can be as much as 7 years. The findings have been described as alarming. I visited the Grattan Institute to speak with Dr Peter Goss, one of the authors of the report, about the findings, and the implications for Australian education.

Given the nature of the topic, this interview will stretch over two episodes. Be sure to catch part two, episode 57, where we discuss the effects of disadvantage on NAPLAN results.

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