The 2018 NAPLAN National Report, published by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), has revealed significant cumulative gains in various domains since the testing was introduced in 2008.
This confirms the initial findings of the preliminary information released in August 2018.
“The report confirms that since 2008 there have been statistically significant gains in several domains and year levels, particularly at the primary school level,” said ACARA CEO, David de Carvalho.
This national report provides further information to the August 2018 summary release including comparisons of performance by gender, Indigenous status, language background other than English, parental occupation, parental education, and school location:
• Indigeneity: Since 2008, there have been some significant cumulative gains in some domains and year levels for Indigenous students, including reading (Years 3 and 5), spelling (Years 3 and 5), grammar and punctuation (Years 3, 5, 7 and 9) and numeracy (Years 3, 5 and 9).
• LBOTE: Compared with 2008, there have been some significant cumulative gains in some domains and year levels for students with language background other than English (LBOTE), including reading (Years 3 and 5), grammar and punctuation (Years 3 and 7), spelling (Years 3 and 5) and numeracy (Year 5).
• Gender: Compared with 2008, there have been some significant cumulative gains in some domains and year levels for female students, including reading (Years 3 and 5), spelling (Year 5), grammar and punctuation (Year 3) and numeracy (Years 5 and 9). Similarly, there have been some significant cumulative gains in some domains and year levels for male students, including reading (Years 3 and 5), spelling (Years 3 and 5), grammar and punctuation (Year 3 and 7) and numeracy (Year 5 and 9).
In confirming the preliminary results released in August, at the national level, compared with 2008:
• 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, there were no statistically significant changes in any of the NAPLAN test domains.
Following the release of these results, Federal Minister for Education, the Hon Dan Tehan MP, welcomed the news that the performance of Australian students has improved since 2008.
Though he added, “The decline in writing skills in years 5, 7 and 9 since 2011 is concerning. In this year’s Budget we provided a further $9.5 million to deliver new online courses and resources for the teaching of mathematics and phonics because literacy and numeracy are the foundational skills of an education.”
“There has been fantastic improvement in the results of Indigenous students but more needs to be done to close the gap, that is why the Morrison Government is making Indigenous education a focus of its efforts,” said Minister Tehan.
The My School website has also been updated with the data from the latest round of NAPLAN tests, along with other information, including school profile information.
With 2018 being the first year of the transition to NAPLAN Online, the My School website has been updated with NAPLAN data as in previous years, with additional information indicating whether the school did the NAPLAN test on paper or online.