Moving NAPLAN to the centre of teaching and learning

The author analyses a series of phenomena that potentially can combine to make the time right for a radical reengineering of the Australian National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). He envisages it becoming an amalgamation of a sample-based benchmark test and a dynamic, national formative assessment system for schools. In the paper he explores the intended purposes for NAPLAN; what it has contributed to Australian education; its strengths and weaknesses; and why the NAPLAN enterprise has all the necessary component elements that make the time right for its transformation.