Release of NAPLAN 2018 summary information

I am not convinced that the improvement over base year is real.  Having "experts" say it is, is a laugh.  What about a proper validation test?

The NAPLAN summary results issued today include combined data for online and paper student cohorts.

“Overall, the NAPLAN results for 2018 show that since 2008 there have been statistically significant gains in a number of domains and year levels, particularly at the primary level,” ACARA CEO, Robert Randall, said.

The national summary preliminary NAPLAN results for 2018 show:

Compared with the base year:

The performance of Australian students in Years 5 and 9 numeracy, Years 3 and 5 reading,Years 3 and 5 spelling, and Years 3 and 7 grammar was significantly above the NAPLAN 2008 average.
The writing test results in Years 5, 7 and 9 were below those observed in the base year (2011).

Compared with 2017:

Results were stable, with no statistically significant changes compared with last year in any of the NAPLAN domains. “This was the first year in which some students took NAPLAN online and the transition was smooth, with feedback from schools at the time of testing stating that students found the online assessment engaging,” said Mr Randall.

“The NAPLAN Online platform performed well and 99.8 per cent of students were able to complete the assessment online.”

Prior to release, NAPLAN results are reviewed and endorsed by independent measurement advisory experts.

These measurement experts have confirmed that the results for online and paper NAPLAN have assessed the same content and can be placed on the same NAPLAN assessment scale. While NAPLAN results can be compared between assessment modes and years, individual student experiences for any single test may differ due to a range of factors, including the mode of delivery or a student’s performance on the day.

For example, this year’s results for Year 9 students who completed writing test online were, on average, higher than the results of students who completed writing test on paper. The independent experts have confirmed the results are comparable; however, this difference appears to be a result of the test mode. The difference may be due to students at this year level having greater confidence writing online than on paper, as well as students’ ability to readily review and edit their work online in a way that is not possible with a paper test. This reinforces the benefit of moving to NAPLAN Online, which will give teachers, students and parents more information about what students know and can do, and where additional support is needed.

NAPLAN assesses the fundamental skills of literacy and numeracy, with the data provided used by families, schools and education systems to ensure Australian students are supported in their learning. As always, NAPLAN provides a snapshot of a child’s assessment at a point in time and individual student results should be considered together with school-based assessments.

Via email: media.contact@acara.edu.au






‘It’s victim-blaming’: Lauren Southern tour organiser refuses to pay $68,000 bill from Victoria Police

The police are already paid by the taxpayer to protect people from attack.  They are trying to have a second bite of the apple if they want to charge people for the protection they give.  It is in fact a protection racket.  Al Capone would be proud of them

THE company behind right-wing Canadian commentator Lauren Southern’s Australian tour has refused to pay a $68,000 security bill, accusing Victoria Police of “enabling the thugs’ veto”.

Axiomatic Events was sent an invoice for police services after violent left-wing protesters targeted the Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux Live event in Melbourne on July 20, closing roads and assaulting officers.

A similar bill was sent to Penthouse magazine after violent scenes outside a Milo Yiannopoulos event in December last year. That bill has also not been paid.

In a statement on Monday, Axiomatic Events director Dave Pellowe said he was concerned paying the “crippling” bill would create a dangerous precedent. “The Andrews Government has the gall to call this ‘user pays’ policing, but the reality is that it’s victim-blaming,” Mr Pellowe said.

“Our event was a normal-sized crowd in a venue that routinely hosts such crowds. We broke no laws and went above and beyond to co-operate with police, and greatly appreciate the work they do.

“But if Police Minister Lisa Neville is looking for creative ways to fundraise for Victoria Police she can keep looking.

“The fair and just way to go about it would be to issue a $1000 fine to every thug who blocked the highway, who abused and intimidated the mums, dads and kids who came along, who damaged private property and turned Melbourne into a Berkeley war zone.

“Sending us the bill for their lawlessness appears to be simply enabling the thugs’ veto.”

Axiomatic Events said members of Antifa-associated groups “spat, screamed and uttered abuse at the men and women boarding and alighting from the buses” and that “a number of male members of the … groups displayed their genitals to people boarding and alighting the buses”.

In a letter to Victoria Police on Monday, Axiomatic Events’ solicitor said any attempt to recover the fee “will be vigorously resisted”.

“The imposition of fees for the performance of essential police purposes is unlawful,” the letter said. “The role of Victoria Police is to serve the Victorian community and uphold the law so as to promote a safe, secure and orderly society.”

Victoria Police had previously argued it was acceptable to charge organisers of a commercial event for security, but the letter argues it is “the ordinary discharge of a core police responsibility”.

“That such events have commercial aspect in no way deprives citizens attending them of an entitlement to have recourse to police protection if they are threatened,” it said.

“The victims of politically motivated violence and intimidatory conduct at public events are no less entitled to proper police protection merely because they purchased a ticket to participate in an event.”

It said “extremist groups” such as Antifa “follow the same the strategy each time political conservatives gather to listen to speeches by other conservatives”.

According to the letter, that three-part strategy is first “to announce an intention to organise violent street opposition to the holding of a particular public event and enlist support for that opposition from the media”.

Two, “to elicit a fear on the part of those arranging the public event that the safety of participants and attendees may be at risk and cannot be guaranteed without police protection”.

Three, “to rely upon the police to impose massive financial penalties upon those arranging such events so that those events that have been scheduled are cancelled and those that are in planning are abandoned”.

“If Victoria Police is obliged to be complicit in this strategy that is a matter of serious concern,” it said. “It is subversive of public confidence in the rule of law.”

Mr Pellowe said he was aware of other political groups changing their plans to specifically avoid a “$68,000 police bill”.

“The effect this has on important public debates is devastating,” he said.

“We cannot let this stand. I implore Premier Daniel Andrews and Police Minister Lisa Neville to commit to upholding the peace at future political events without blaming the victims and to reconsider the comfort they’re inadvertently lending to the thugs’ veto.”

It comes after fellow Canadian right-wing commentator Gavin McInnes predicted similar protests when he tours Australia in November, warning “people will show up and if they want to fight, I’m happy to fight”.

In a statement sent to news.com.au, a spokesman for Victoria Police said it had the right to charge any event organiser for the use of public resources.

“The invoice has been forwarded to the Victorian Government Solicitor for advice. From here any unpaid invoice will be forwarded to Corporate Finance for a decision to be made regarding the civil recovery for the outstanding debt,” the statement said.

SOURCE 





'Send them to Nauru': Minister calls for the 20 'asylum seekers' on the run in crocodile country to be rounded up and deported straight away

Defence Industry Minister Steven Ciobo said asylum seekers on the run in crocodile country should be sent to offshore immigration detention on Nauru.

Fifteen foreign nationals have been detained and authorities are searching for at least five more who abandoned an illegal fishing vessel that ran aground in the Daintree in Far North Queensland.

'Those people if we can find them, they should be taken into custody, so to speak, and they should be sent to Nauru,' Mr Ciobo told Sky News on Monday.

More than 20 illegal immigrants are on the run after the fishing boat they were on ran aground in Far North Queensland

Mr Ciobo said that if Labour were in power that the potential illegal immigrants would be put into the community.

There are more people who were on the boat but have not been found by investigators.

A spokesperson for The Department of Home Affairs told Daily Mail Australia that the investigation of what they believe to be an illegal fishing vessel is ongoing.

The Australian Border Force is on the scene and is being assisted by the Queensland Police Service.

The spokesperson said: 'We can confirm that a number of potential unlawful non-citizens have been located.

'The ABF and Department of Home Affairs will undertake the necessary border processes to establish circumstances around the arrival.' As investigations continue the department declined to comment further. 

Footage emerged of two of the suspected illegal immigrants being detained earlier today. One of the men can be seen sitting in a car while officers stand around the vehicle. The men were walking across the waterway towards a ferry with a third man, according to the Cairns Post.

A third man was later arrested at 9.20am, according to The Courier-Mail.

If those in custody are confirmed as asylum seekers, the boat arrival would mark the first suspected illegal entry vessel on Australian land since 2014.

Some politicians, including MP George Christensen, used the vessel as an opportunity to call out the government's border patrol practices. 

'Qld borders need to be made more secure esp (especially) given proximity of PNG & Indonesia, considering level of radical Islamism in Indonesia, Malaysia & Philippines,' Mr Christensen tweeted.

'With Peter Dutton back as Home Affairs Minister, I suspect this incursion will be dealt with swiftly and that there will be more focus on border security in North Queensland,' he later posted to Facebook.

SOURCE 






Green groups want to send water out to sea rather than give it to drought-hit farmers

Environmentalists have lashed Barnaby Joyce's call to divert water to drought-stricken farmers, labelling the special drought envoy's "kneejerk" plan as ill-informed.

The former Nationals leader made a splash as he kicked off his new job, calling for environmental water from the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to be used to grow fodder for stock.

"You either accept this is a national emergency and you're going to do something distinct to deal with it or you just say 'no, no, we really like the pictures of starving cattle'," he told ABC radio on Tuesday. "The water that is going to the environment is going past the irrigation properties that grow the fodder to keep cattle alive."

But the Australian Conservation Foundation's Paul Sinclair said the Murray-Darling river system was also suffering through the drought.

"Mr Joyce's kneejerk and ill-informed reaction risks the health of flood plains, wetlands and wildlife, not to mention the communities downstream that rely on a living river for their livelihoods," Dr Sinclair said.

He said water clawed back from irrigators cost the government billions, and needed to be used to make sure everyone could benefit from a healthy river.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young slammed Mr Joyce's plan, saying he should ask his "corporate irrigator mates" to help drought-affected farmers. "Barnaby Joyce has used his first day on the job to go back to his old tricks - trying to rip water off of the environment," Senator Hanson-Young said.

Nationals cabinet minister Matt Canavan said the former agriculture and water minister's plan should be considered. "It's almost like he was born for this role to be the drought envoy," Senator Canavan told reporters in Sydney.

Mr Joyce insists he's not eyeing off a return to the front bench after being handed extra responsibility. "I really want to get stuck into this, not because of some ulterior plan, because the drought is there," Mr Joyce said. "I'm going to do my bit to help them with that and if that's where it stops that's where it stops."

Mr Joyce was deputy prime minister until February when he was forced to quit amid a storm of controversy surrounding his affair with a staffer.

New Prime Minister Scott Morrison made him drought envoy on Sunday as he announced his ministerial team.

SOURCE 

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here