Characteristics of a secondary school with improved NAPLAN results
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Characteristics of a secondary school with improved NAPLAN results Sandra Herbert 1
& Tracey
Muir 2
& Sharyn
Livy 3
Received: 16 April 2019 / Revised: 7 November 2019 / Accepted: 28 November 2019 # Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc. 2019
Abstract According to international studies of achievement in mathematics amongst Australian secondary school students, results have declined over time when compared with other countries. The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an Australian government initiative to measure whether students have the knowledge, understanding, skills and values required for a productive and rewarding life. This paper presents a case study of a school with improved NAPLAN numeracy results to provide insights into factors that influenced student performance. The findings are structured according to themes evident in the data. The discussion explores these themes in relation to Hattie’s areas of influence on success in students’ learning: the school, the student, the home, the curriculum, the teacher, and the approaches to teaching. Through the analysis of data collected from a variety of stakeholders in the school, this case study highlights the importance of school-wide policies towards learning mathematics and adopting effective approaches to teaching it. These insights have implications for teachers, school leaders and systems who are working towards improving numeracy results. Keywords Numeracy . NAPLAN . Effective practices . Case study
Introduction In a significant meta-analyses of 800 studies related to student learning, Hattie (2009) identified six major areas of influence on student learning: the student, the home, the school, the curriculum, the teacher, and the approaches to teaching.
* Sandra Herbert [email protected]
1
Faculty of Arts & Education, Deakin University, Princes Hwy, Warrnambool, VIC 3280, Australia
2
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1307, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia
3
Faculty of Education, Monash University, Moorooduc Hwy, Frankston, VIC 3199, Australia
S. Herbert et al.
Drawing on these areas, the data from this paper explores the extent to which organizational factors, in particular, influenced gains in a secondary school’s performance in numeracy assessment data. Relative to other countries, mathematics achievement and attitudes in Australia have declined (Mullis et al. 2016; Thomson et al. 2016), with studies reporting that rural students’ achievements are much lower than metropolitan students (Mullis et al. 2016; Thomson et al. 2016). In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Australia was one of 10 countries whose performance in mathematics declined between 2012 and 2015. Australian 15-year-old scores on reading mathematics and scientific literacy have recorded statistically significant decline since 2000 whilst other countries have shown improvement (Wilson et al. 2015). Only 55% per cent of Australian students achieved the National Proficient S
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