General News
22 August, 2024
Innovation drives college’s NAPLAN success
ADAPTATION to evidence-based practices has seen Terang College record significantly improved NAPLAN results.
When NAPLAN results were handed down earlier this month, Terang College principal Kath Tanner said she was excited to see the sharp increase the school had experienced in results compared to similar schools, and even schools state-wide.
As part of NAPLAN testing students in Years Three, Five, Seven and Nine are tested across five measures - reading, writing, spelling, numeracy and grammar and punctuation.
Mrs Tanner said the most recent round of testing had revealed the strongest results in her time at the school, which included a sharp increase on the school’s prior performance.
“In 16 of those 20 measures, our students were strong or proficient against similar schools,” she said.
“I was really excited this year because in 16 of those 20 measures, the percentage of students who are strong or exceeding is above similar schools.
“What I think is even more exciting is 11 out of 20 were above the state average, which is not a result we’ve had in my time here so I’m really excited about that.
“We get measures to see how we’re tracking and how the programs we’re implementing are having an impact on student outcomes, so we use this data to look at what is working and if we can see changes as a school.”
Some of the results returned comprehensively above the state average including Year Seven reading (21 per cent), numeracy (19 per cent), grammar and punctuation (12 per cent), and Year Nine reading (11 per cent) and numeracy (12 per cent).
The school also performed well in relative growth – how students performed relative to students with the same NAPLAN score two years prior.
In relative growth five of six elements were above similar schools, while two were above the state average.
Mrs Tanner credited the improved results to the hard work of students and the ongoing development of the school’s Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) teaching model.
The evidence-based cognitive practice involves carefully planning the sequence of learning with clear, detailed instructions through manageable steps while providing ongoing monitoring into how students are progressing.
Mrs Tanner said the school staff had done “an extraordinary amount” of work to assess not only what is being taught, but how it’s being taught.
“Some people would say teachers and schools can create instructional models, the way that we deliver the content, so as staff we’ve been doing a lot of research and seeing what the science is saying,” she said.
“There’s quite a bit of research in cognitive science and cognitive psychology which states students need explicit teaching of what you want them to learn.
“We’ve built in to all our subjects that teachers are expected to explicitly teach every student what they need to know at their year levels, and we seek opportunities to practice that.
“You may get taught something in Year Three which you’re expected to remember in Year Five – but we look for opportunities spaced out for students to practice that information and remember it, because every time they remember the information it’s strengthened as a memory and retained.”
Mrs Tanner said it was “really exciting” to see the dedicated efforts of staff and students paying off while embracing a new and innovating approach to education.
“I guess for me leading the work here, when you first share the information you can feel like there’s pushback from the system that explicit and direct instruction was looked upon unfavourably,” she said.
“I feel like the more I read through case studies and research, the more I’m convinced it can have an impact – particularly in more disadvantage cohorts such as rural schools.
“We’re always looking at ways we can improve, we know we’re not perfect, so we’ll reflect on the data and share our best practice within the government system.
“We’ve even offered for other schools to come and have a look at our teaching, and English in particular, to show our new and innovative approach.”