New Research: NAPLAN testing regime failing students with speech and language difficulties

Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) is releasing ground-breaking research (conducted by RIPPLE researchers Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor Linda Harrison and Dr Cen Wang) based on thousands of Australian children from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children that shows NAPLAN is failing children with speech and language disorders.
The research shows that students with speech and language problems achieve significantly lower scores on every NAPLAN test (reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy) for school years (grades) 3, 5 and 7, than students without these problems.
The research also exposes for the first time that students with speech and language problems are more likely to be excluded from NAPLAN testing than those without these problems. 

Sharynne McLeod has been advocating for changes at the policy level to support children with speech language and literacy needs. Today she presented the above research to a public hearing of the Senate Education and Employment Committee.

Sharynne was interviewed for articles in today’s Sydney Morning Herald http://bit.ly/1MLXyYs

The Age

http://m.theage.com.au/nsw/education-naplan-testing-regime-failing-students-with-speech-language-disorders-20150923-gjsy39.html

The Courier Mail  

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/naplan-bias-schools-exclude-children-with-communication-impairments/story-fnihsrf2-1227542706620

and a number of other media outlets.
Well done on this great  advocacy work for children with speech, language and literacy needs.

Gaenor Dixon (SPA President) and Sharynne McLeod presenting at the Senate Inquiry