Of all government initiatives in the last twenty years or so NAPLAN testing would have to be the one that stands out and Julia Gillard deserves great credit for it

Our entire country is now just a social experiment gone terribly wrong.

All schools that perform well regularly test their students and then focus attention on fixing their weaknesses.

Some schools in the US don't and end up graduating students that can't read.

Which do you want?

Exactly SM. Its been my sad experience to converse with highly rewarded Teachers who just treated the job as a pay packet! Did only a much as they absolutely had to, didn't bother to correct homework? Just trotted out impossible reading assignments etc. And cared not, one way or the other if the kids went on or failed. And at the end of the year or final term everybody got, a can do much better, pass. And because they had no foundational skills to build on or carry them through, just fell further and further behind. And even though comparatively bright simply gave up and walked away as soon as they were able. How many Einsteins might have been produced if they had a good foundation to build on. On notes that Einstein was the product of the old pre calculator, pre computer system! Or that the man with the highest tested IQ in Australia, was employed on the tail of a garbage truck? Some might suggest that's where he wanted to be/his choice? I say he and others like him are evidence of gross incompetency and failing within the, couldn't give a rat's, education system!? And are now fighting a rear guard action to preserve the highly flawed status quo and often highly privileged highly rewarded positions and patently unearned privilege! And now in the death throes of trying to preserve those privileges/entitlements, all while dodging any responsibility for outcomes. A recent study showed that those the system failed often went on to ad to the prison and divorce statistics and worse! Only those equipped with a good foundation go on to be able to build a later successful life, marriage and rewarding career! The study and the collected and very professionally collated statistics don't lie! Even if a few so called Educators do? The odd exceptions being those that invariably prove the rule? Alan B.

This article seems to point out that the concept and benefit of obtaining results from true testing is being overshadowed by attempts to achieve some kind of orthodoxy, conformity. As some posters have observed, the underlying importance of any form of education is the gaining of knowledge for its benefit in allowing students to choose exactly how they will apply that knowledge in their chosen occupations. The issue is about what is derived from test results. It certainly should not be some kind of social engineering.

This article has been a revelation. I've just realised that the reason Australia's primary schools are turning out kids who are falling further and further behind international standards is that there are too many teachers like Phil Cullen.