NAPLAN kicks off tomorrow for students across the region and once again its purpose has been put to the test.
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Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students will undertake both numeracy and literacy standardised testing across two weeks to determine the school's performance as well as students' overall positioning among their peers.
Wagga Christian College principal Phillip Wilson said NAPLAN data is a useful teaching tool to determine where students are struggling.
"We are one of the few schools that have received outstanding improvements and it's great to be recognised for it," Mr Wilson said.
"Some schools gained this by continually practicing, whereas we didn't and instead just realised where kids needed more teaching in certain areas.
"I like NAPLAN, because it gives a chance for standardised testing, where different kids can have a go and there's no biased shown across the country."
Mr Wilson said the reporting of the NAPLAN data can create problems.
"Once they start analysing the results, some schools start seeing it as competition and then put pressure on the kids, but for me, it's the ability to see where our students are generally at compared with others," he said.
"I think it's the reporting on it, which is also causing problems, and the feeding into how important it is rather than looking at what needs improving.
"The results page shows growth over two years among the cohort and you want to see strong arrows across all the kids.
"If I see that all lines on the bottom end of students have smaller arrows and then some of the top students have greater arrows, it means that we're not helping the students that are struggling," he said.
Mr Wilson said the data is useful, but it was important for schools to be honest with the data.
The college's middle school teacher Heather Mansley said teachers use the data to determine how individual students are going with their development and whether they have made the gains that they were expecting.
"I think kids are anxious, because a lot of what they hear about NAPLAN isn't necessarily coming from the school setting, but from the outside setting," she said.
"As teachers, we just show them that this is one way of seeing how they're going rather than create that hype for their little brains and get them worried.
"Some parents contact us and say they're worried about their child and we try and monitor those particular students."
Year 7 student Rebekah Hector, 13, said she is not too worried about the standardised test.
"I've been doing it for a few years now and it's just one of those tests we have to do," Rebekah said.
"Year 3 was the paper one and that was just colouring in the boxes, but I have a feeling year 7 will be a bit harder than that.
"I'm fine with computers, but I saw that some were having glitches with the NAPLAN so I'm just wondering whether that will affect anything when we will taking our tests."
Michelle McKelvie, president of the Wagga Teachers Association, said NAPLAN was one of many assessment tools available to teachers.
"NAPLAN results can be used to assist teachers in planning to meet the educational needs of their students, but it should not be used to compare students or rate teacher performance," she said.
However, John Pratt said the NAPLAN is just a distraction from the election and plans by the ALP and the Greens to reinstate billions of dollars to state schools.
"NAPLAN is a completely false paradigm that is not related to the syllabus taught in class and it narrows the curriculum," Mr Pratt said.
"We need to return the classroom to the classroom teacher as teachers and parents are a team, who know the children the best.
"They know the child's interests, capabilities and where they're up to, but for an American company to de determining the education outcomes of students as diverse as Australia and in the world, is educationally and morally wrong."