The case for keeping NAPLAN

Editor's note

Across Australia today, students in years three, five, seven and nine will sit paper tests for language conventions and writing. This kicks off three days of NAPLAN testing, and doubtless more bickering over the role of NAPLAN in Australian education.

Peter Goss writes that, while we may need to rethink how NAPLAN is used, we shouldn’t scrap it because without it, we would know less about how states compare to each other, and what changes over time. These kinds of things are vital to help guide education researchers and policymakers.

Sophie Heizer

Commissioning Editor, Education

Top story

We may need to rethink how NAPLAN is used, but overall it’s an important tool for researchers and policy makers. Shutterstock

Five things we wouldn't know without NAPLAN

Peter Goss, Grattan Institute

While we may need to rethink how we use NAPLAN, it is an important and useful tool for researchers and policy makers.

Cities
Homelessness: Australia's shameful story of policy complacency and failure continues Hal Pawson, UNSW; Cameron Parsell, The University of Queensland A decade after the launch of a national campaign against homelessness, the trends are all going the wrong way. A new annual report highlights what's gone wrong and what must be done.

Health + Medicine

There is extra funding for aged care in the budget, but not enough to meet demand

Michael Woods, University of Technology Sydney

The Australian government provides a safety net of subsidies for elderly Australians unable to fully fund their own care. But will the extra 14,000 home care places in the budget meet demand?
Health Check: what should I eat to improve my skin?

Emily Burch, Griffith University

Research shows eating foods with a lower glycaemic load, and more fruits and vegetables, will improve your complexion.

Business + Economy

What it's like to be a 'black economy' worker

Miriam Vandenberg, Flinders University

But the black economy is more common than we think – how many of us have paid tradies, gardeners or cleaners cash without the exchange of relevant paperwork?
Australia's stolen wages: one woman's quest for compensation

Melissa Tyler, University of Essex; Leanne Cutcher, University of Sydney

Bigali needed documents to claim back money she was due. But the same government demanding that proof was denying her access to it.

Politics + Society

Why rural Australia is facing a volunteer crisis

Amanda Davies, Curtin University; Kirsten Holmes, Curtin University; Leonie Lockstone-Binney, William Angliss Institute

Volunteers have long been the lifeblood of rural communities. But as their numbers shrink, remote towns are at a loss for how to replace them.
How information warfare in cyberspace threatens our freedom

Roger Bradbury, Australian National University; Anne-Marie Grisogono, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; Dmitry Brizhinev, Australian National University; John Finnigan, CSIRO; Nicholas Lyall, Australian National University

Simulation models show just how effectively fake news and propaganda can shift opinions.
Competing foreign interests trump Syrian aspirations for political change

Hanlie Booysen, Victoria University of Wellington

To understand how Syria has become the theatre for proxy wars between international forces, one has to return to the Arab uprisings and Syria's role as an outlier.

Environment + Energy

Why Iceland is set to resume whaling despite international opposition

Julia Jabour, University of Tasmania; Rachael Lorna Johnstone, University of Akureyri

Iceland is set to resume commercial whaling in June after a two-year hiatus, arguing that the moratorium put in place by the international community was never intended to be an open-ended ban.
If we can't recycle it, why not turn our waste plastic into fuel?

Muxina Konarova, The University of Queensland

Plastic can only be recycled a few times before it becomes useless. But even non-recyclable plastic can be used to help produce petrol and diesel. Could this process help overcome the recycling crisis?

Arts + Culture

Wlad's worlds: Polish Resistance fighter, 'Slavic space age' modernist, legendary Australian artist

Christine Judith Nicholls, Flinders University

As a young man, Wladyslaw Dutkiewicz joined the Resistance, helping Jews to escape Poland. After settling in Australia as a refugee, he became a pivotal artist, as a new show of his work attests.
Going Down finds hilarious satire in migrant identity

Asher Warren, University of Tasmania

Michele Lee's play is a vibrant and layered comic exploration of stereotypes, from piccolo-quaffing urban Melburnites to migrant memoirists.

Science + Technology

Small sats are vital to Australia's space industry – and they won't be space junk

Michael Smart, The University of Queensland

So long as small satellites are in low Earth orbit – and most likely they will be – the Earth's "vacuum cleaner" will clean them up.
A history of the marsupial lion - with science, colonial politics and bunyips

Pete Minard, La Trobe University

The 19th-century British anatomist Richard Owen downplayed the role of colonial contributors and largely ignored the importance of Aboriginal testimony and knowledge in describing the marsupial lion.
94% of Australians do not read all privacy policies that apply to them – and that’s rational behaviour

Katharine Kemp, UNSW

We need to stop blaming consumers for not reading online privacy policies and fix the system.