Leave Year 1 testing to the teachers

Testing students isn’t always the answer for improvement according to Griffith University education lecturer Dr Georgina Barton.
Commenting on the Federal Government’s call for Year 1’s to be tested on their literacy skills, Dr Barton says teachers know what makes a good reader and “we should trust their professional judgement”.
“Firstly, there’s a huge body of evidence that highlights the benefits of play-based and imaginative approaches to learning for young students,’’ she said.
“Students of this age will be at quite diverse stages of development. For example, six months difference in age can result in children being at extreme levels of readiness and/or reading levels. It’s sometimes like comparing apples with oranges.”
She said children are already being over-tested in schools purely for accountability purposes so a lot of data is already being collected.
“But it’s not always the right data and sometimes it’s just the same type of test over and over.”
Reading development 
“Reading involves

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