Is NAPLAN a fair assessment tool for assessing all Australian students? The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an assessment tool developed to assess the literacy and numeracy levels of all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The purpose of NAPLAN, since its inception in 2008 , is to serve as a diagnostic test to ensure that all Australian students achieve expected educational outcomes (Wigglesworth, Simpson & Loakes, 2011). They are managed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA; ACARA 2010). The ACARA (2010) website states that NAPLAN tests “broadly reflect aspects of literacy and numeracy common to curricula across states and territories” and that test questions and formats are “chosen so that they are familiar to teachers and students across Australia". The issue The Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment (SSCEE, 2014) presented its findings on the effectiveness of the National Evaluation Program (NAP) in March 2014. While supporting Australian governments' efforts to improve educational outcomes for all students concluded that NAPLAN tests were not an appropriate measure for students where English is not their first language and for students whose background was culturally different from mainstream Australia (SSCEE,2014). ) The NAPLAN mentality does not take into account the various social and cultural differences that students bring to the classroom. It ignores different learning styles and, more importantly, has been criticized for having an “Anglo-Australian bias that privileges white, middle-class worldviews” (Counihan, 2013). The tests are standardized on groups of English language learners (...... middle of paper ......ustralian Indigenous Students: Addressing Equity Issues In Assessment. Teaching Education, 20(1), 77-93.Lines , S. (2014). Effectiveness of the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy: Final Report. Canberra: Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House.New London Group - New Literacies. new-literacies?/138/.Rowe, K. (2000 Assessment, rankings and school effectiveness: considering the issues and “Let's get real”!). Educational Inquiry, 1(1), 73-98.Valdes, G., & Figueroa, R.A. (1994 Bilingualism and testing: a special case of prejudice: Ablex.Wigglesworth, G., Simpson, J., Loakes, D. (2011). NAPLAN language assessments for Indigenous children in remote communities: issues and problems Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 34(3), 320-343.