Victoria’s Greek Independent schools have outperformed the country in the National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) tests.
An overwhelming majority of students from Alphington Grammar, Oakleigh Greek Orthodox College and St John’s Greek Orthodox College exceeded the national benchmark, and achieved higher than the state and national average.
The NAPLAN was held for the second time this year and tested all students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 on punctuation and grammar, numeracy, reading, writing and spelling.
The test results, released to parents over the past few weeks are a means of comparing students’ achievements against national standards, and with student achievements in other schools and states.
“Overall I was extremely pleased with the results; there was certainly a huge improvement since last year,” said principal Steve Charisis of Oakleigh Greek Orthodox College.
“Our Year 3s were above the state average in all areas, and what pleased us was the range of results for the students were at the upper end of the spectrum. Grade 5 results were similar although they stood out more so in spelling and writing. Our Year 7s were on average above the national average, and the Year 9s were at or above,” he added.
Principal Mike Smith of Alphington Grammar noted that students continued to excel as they they reached higher year levels.
“The national results show a decline in number of students reaching higher levels as they get to Year 7 and 9 but this is not the case here,” he said.
Although pleased that Alphington Grammar had achieved its goal of exceeding state averages, Smith acknowledged that there were some question marks over the reliability of the tests as a predictor of student and school achievements.
“These results are only a snapshot of students performances within a relatively limited range of skills within numeracy and literacy,” he said.
“The variation in curriculum across schools in different states means that some subjects are covered in a different order or receive more attention than in other states.”
Charisis was quick to agree.
“We don’t find out things from these tests that we don’t already know as teachers assess and structure programs on an ongoing basis,” he said.
“No one would say one assessment done on one particular day would truly give you an accurate reflection.”
Although pleased with her school’s NAPLAN results, noting that a number of Year 7 students achieved in the top 10 per cent of the nation, acting principal of St John’s Greek Orthodox College, Jane Sulicich indicated there was always room to excel further.
“We have been invited to be a part of the Government’s new National Partnerships Program where our staff will be provided with significant training to further improve student outcomes in the areas of reading and numeracy,” she said.
“We are very excited about this opportunity…and we look forward to the improvement on comparative results in 2010.”