WA school involved in nation’s only reported NAPLAN cheating incident

A WA school has been “counselled” after being reported for the nation’s only case of cheating in this year’s NAPLAN tests. The results from 19 children in Year 3 had to be withheld from the national data set after a teacher was found to have provided “inappropriate assistance” to the students during their test. “This involved a planning sheet — which helps students prepare prior to NAPLAN testing — being handed out on the day of the test, when students are only permitted to have a blank piece of paper for the test,” a spokesperson for WA’s School Curriculum and Standards Authority said. “The school has been counselled and is undertaking measures to improve procedures for future years. The compromised data has been withheld.” SCSA would not reveal whether the teacher involved was from a public or private school. “The identity of the parties involved in the test incident remains confidential and the matter has been referred to the relevant school system/sector for further investigation,” they said. More than 1.3 million students from 9431 schools across Australia took part in the online NAPLAN assessments held in March. As well as the one documented case of cheating, there were 13 security breaches and 39 general breaches of test protocols. There were a total of 53 incidents this year compared with 61 last year.