The Wire

New linguistics research from the University of Melbourne suggests that the National literacy and numeracy test discriminates against indigenous children. NAPLAN testing is conducted in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 and assesses children nationally in Reading, Writing, Language and Numeracy. The national test has consistently come under fire from various groups, but the recent research says that the test sets cultural contexts that exclude indigenous kids. Concerns have been raised that as Indigenous children perform poorly on the test, they are highlighted as falling behind, a stigma the research suggests may be unfair.