Spelling out better literacy skills for kids
JUST three Australian states and territories make the grade when it comes to producing spelling high-flyers.
Analysis of the most recent NAPLAN data shows only Victoria, the ACT and NSW beat national percentages of students with aboveaverage spelling skills.
Nationwide scores show more than 85 per cent of Year 3 students, 84.7 per cent of Year 5s and 83.6 per cent of Year 7 students rank above standard in spelling.
But Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory missed the national standard at all three of those year levels, while Year 7 students in Western Australia only slightly exceeded the national benchmark.
The review of Australia’s spelling results comes as Kids News prepares to launch the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee, a free online competition that aims to boost spelling skills in students in Years 3-8.
Despite just three states trumping national standards and a slight dip in writing skills, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) chief executive David de Carvalho said overall results had significantly improved over the years.
“When you compare last year’s results with the base year (2008), Year 3 and Year 5 reading and spelling have significantly improved,” he said. “When you take all assessment years into account, there is a steady upward trend in spelling across all years and Year 3 and 5 results in reading have also steadily increased.
“The overall decline in writing has begun to flatten but the writing results are still below where they were when writing was first tested, with the exception of Year 3.”
Monash University senior educational assessment and ethics lecturer
Dr Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh said a range of factors influence a child’s NAPLAN performance, but acknowledged the contested assessment had limitations.
“There are a number of key factors outside of the school system which play a crucial part in students’ achievement, including their socio-economic background or household income and location, parental education and employment, English proficiency, Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander status, internet access and disability,” she said. “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, particularly those who live in very remote areas, are more likely to score below national standard, and research also shows that 33 per cent of students with a disability perform poorly on the writing domain.”
Spelling expert Dr Tessa Daffern, from the University of Canberra, said students’ spelling skills tended to slip as they got older. Dr Daffern’s study of NAPLAN spelling performance followed six groups of students as they moved through NAPLAN testing from Year 3 to Year 9.
“Fewer students were achieving at or above the minimum national benchmark as they got older,” Dr Daffern said. “More students were slipping back, they were not keeping up with where they were before.”
Dr Daffern said the decline was sharpest from Year 7 to Year 9.
“The fact that this data set shows a consistent trend of decline … suggests that the teaching of spelling needs to continue in the high school years for many students,” she said.
THE PRIME MINISTER’S SPELLING BEE IS A FREE ONLINE COMPETITION AIMED AT BOOSTING LITERACY AND A LOVE OF LEARNING IN STUDENTS IN YEARS 3-8. REGISTRATIONS OPEN ON JULY 25. VISIT KIDSNEWS.COM.AU