Happy NAPLAN day!

Today, Australia’s national standardised testing results in literacy and numeracy (known colloquially as NAPLAN) were released. Expect plenty of commentary to follow in the days ahead, and more scholarly articles in the months and years to follow. The data will be analysed in excruciating detail, conclusions will be reached about the state of Australian education overall, especially given that governments collectively spend around $60 billion dollars each year on education; in addition, families in Catholic schools add a further $4 billion and families in independent schools a further $8 billion.

Blame for poor performance will mostly end up at the desk of teachers, further exacerbating the frustration that is widespread, while good achievements will be credited to accumulated built in systemic advantage for others.

For many years, policy makers have shifted the blame for poor performance on to teachers, critiques have decried any number of policy settings that contribute to concentrations of advantage (the so-called “postcode effect”), and sections of the media pile on too easily to whichever narrative gets sales or clickbait.

Oh, that it were not so…

How liberating, then, it is to reflect on what can be seen just about any (and every) day at schools all around the country, not merely the results of one set of assessments taken as a snapshot in time.

A few days back I was wandering near my local public primary school (as the photo attests). Groups of girls and boys whizzed past on bikes, energetic and buzzing with conversation. They were happy, laughing, enjoying the freedom of being together as friends heading off to whatever they were about to do at school.

A mother was doubling her daughter on the back of an electric bike, carefree and laidback as is often the case for some families in coastal communities. Three minutes later she rode back, having dropped her daughter off for another day’s learning.

There were already many students frolicking in the yard, with dutiful teachers keeping a watchful eye.

And it was just a normal day. And that’s its richness.

No media coverage is made about this, yet all the evidence points to a community of enthusiastic students fronting up for another day of learning. Laughter, happiness, joy…or na?ve idealism? Perhaps, or signs that whatever it is that is happening at that school suggests it is chugging along pretty well.

What would we make of NAPLAN results for this school if they are less than ideal? Could we interpret that teachers aren’t working the kids hard enough or using the right type of approaches or teaching strategies? Maybe they’re all too focused on feeling good, and not on improving student learning? I guess we could.

Or what if the results are outstanding? Might we conclude that’s because the students are in a positive and supportive environment with teachers who care about them? That they are engaged with their learning because they are in a safe and encouraging learning culture? Possibly.

That seems part of the point of how we understand NAPLAN results. They might tell something about students, and a school, but they don’t tell us enough about other aspects of education which are also important. They’re not unimportant, but they also should not be given an importance that is blunt, reductionist, and too often used for purposes unrelated to its actual educational design.

There will be some communities that are rightly identified as having low results. The easy, and often simplistic target, is that the teachers are not doing enough, or they don’t use the best strategies, or they don’t have the right resources. Rather than criticise and condemn, it would be far better if we as the wider community ask “what do you need to support you to help your students reach their best?”

Sadly, much of the harsh commentary is likely to be made by those who have not actually taught, have not actually shouldered the responsibility for 30 young lives entrusted into their care for over 1200 hours each year, and have not had the type of public scrutiny teachers receive about their work.

There was a media piece recently that noted many of us couch potatoes are also quick to criticise our Olympians, who coincidently returned today, despite the reality that we are unlikely ever to achieve qualification, let alone contest for a medal. Maybe it’s part of the human condition, or Australian proclivity to criticise those who are having a go at what we cannot, or will not, do. The media pile on of breakdancer Rachel Gunn is emblematic, too, of a rapidity of ridicule by those who haven’t the courage to compete.

Wherever you teach, and whatever the results, thank you – you continue to give so much to young lives across our nation, for which we are grateful. We’ll leave the important analysis, and response to the findings, to those who know their students and will continue to do important and ongoing work with them in response to that data – those who actually do the teaching.