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May 15th, 2013 
An inquiry will look into the pressure placed on school children by Naplan tests.
Source: The Courier-Mail
AN urgent inquiry will be held into the impact high-stakes Naplan testing is having on kids, amid growing concern over the pressure applied by schools and parents to students.
The booming industry in Naplan support products will be also be examined, after the Greens won bipartisan support for the inquiry, which starts today and will report before the end of June.
This follows a recent flood of products marketed to parents focused on improving their children’s results in the tests, which are currently being sat by more than a million students in Year 3, 5, 7, and 9.
Vitamin company Nature’s Way recently sparked outrage when its television advertisements for Kids Smart Omega-3 Fish Oil tablets finished with the line “NAPLAN testing starts May 14”.
The ads were withdrawn after just two days on May 1.Naplan test booklets have also filled supermarket shelves for the past month and last week cracked the top ten bestseller list at book retailer Dymocks.
Another company is marketing special Naplan teddy bears. Senator Penny Wright said the inquiry would look at whether teachers were ignoring the curriculum in favour of the tests and how many students were taking part in out of school tutoring to prepare.
“A child’s NAPLAN performance should not be dependent on their parents’ ability to pay for private tutoring or practice booklets,” Senator Wright told News Ltd.
The inquiry would also examine how children reacted to pressure from their schools and parents to do well.
Schools and parents are placing an increasing emphasis on the national numeracy and literacy tests, which began six years ago as a measure of general student achievement.
However since the test results started being published on the MySchool website in 2008, there has been an increasing focus on results.
Parents are withdrawing their kids from low-performing institutions and some private schools are considering Naplan results in the application process, leading to accusations they are picking and choosing the brightest children in order to boost their reputations.”
Competition about NAPLAN results encourages teaching to the test but ignores the real situation and pressure many kids from disadvantaged backgrounds are under,” she said.
“There is increasing concern from parents and teachers that misuse of the test results is causing unhealthy pressure and distracting from effective student learning.
“The inquiry is calling for submissions from teachers, principals, parents, academics and government departments.
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