An ACT parliamentary committee has called for a public inquiry into the underperformance of Canberra schools in NAPLAN testing, after more than four independent reports found students were lagging behind their interstate counterparts from similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
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The committee's reccomendations, tabled in the assembly on Tuesday, come amid growing calls for the controversial national test to be scrapped due to concerns about the high stakes comparison of school data online.
Canberra Liberal Elizabeth Lee said that, despite attempts by some in the sector to "sugar coat everything", research pointed to problems beneath the surface in ACT school results. While Canberra students perform well at first glance, when compared to those of similar backgrounds they fall behind in most areas tested.
During public hearings held by the committee last year, researchers went to war with the education directorate over the numbers, as the government attempted to hose down findings of underperformance from both the Grattan Institute and the Australian National University.
Chair Michael Pettersson said 18 of the committee's 20 recommendations were unanimously backed by members. But, while they had heard about the value of standardised testing, members also agreed there needed to be ongoing consideration of how such data was published, he said.
Principals and the Australian Education Union had shared stories of NAPLAN's toll on students and teachers, as parents shopped around based on school results.
The majority of teachers surveyed by the union also backed growing calls to scrap the test, reporting results arrived too late to be of practical help in classrooms.
While Ms Lee agreed NAPLAN should only be used as a point-in-time diagnostic tool, she questioned whether the test should be scrapped because the government did not like expert analysis of its results.
She said the committee had decided to launch its own inquiry into standardised testing following "a long, concerted campaign by the union and some could argue even the minister" to discredit NAPLAN.
ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said she was still looking through the report's recommendations on Tuesday but said ACT schools performed well in NAPLAN, which she described as "a good data resource that could be improved".
Her main concern was that the way the data was used was harming schools, she said.
Last year, Ms Berry spearheaded a federal review into the publication of NAPLAN results on the My School website. The review, led by expert Bill Louden, will hand down its findings to ministers in June but the Education Council has already approved the reporting of NAPLAN results in line with previous years for 2019.
Last year, delivering the test across the territory cost $1.4 million or approximately $65 per student, a slight decrease from 2011 and one the committee found comparable to other standardised tests.
But it recommended the government push for a comprehensive national review of the NAPLAN test and even explore the possibility of introducing PISA-style sample testing.
Ms Berry noted any change in the format of NAPLAN would require negotiation with the federal government.
ANU policy analyst Andrew Macintosh, who called for a public inquiry into ACT school performance during his evidence to the committee, said a review was long overdue.
"We formally raised problems with the directorate in 2014 and things have only gotten worse since then," Professor Macintosh said.
"There appears to be similar trends [of underperformance] in ATAR results too...but there's an unwillingness to admit there's a problem."
Ms Lee said that if the numbers could be explained by other states playing catch up with the ACT's good results or problems with the data, then a formal investigation would test the theory.
The committee also urged the minister to push for national research on why some states achieve higher gains than others "with a focus on the fact the ACT is consistently making progress below the national average at both primary and secondary levels on a like-for-like basis".
