This year’s NAPLAN results show students are falling behind in Maths and English.
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has held NAPLAN tests since 2008.
Last year, it began grading results on a new scale:
Needs additional support: Students who need help to progress
Developing: Students on track to meet expectations
Strong: Students who are meeting challenging but reasonable expectations
Exceeding: Students who are surpassing expectations
ACARA said two years of data from this grading system was not enough to show significant trends.
NAPLAN results in Maths and English
The highest literacy and numeracy results were recorded in year 5, and the lowest in year 9.
The results revealed several discrepancies between different groups of students. For example, gender.
Girls outperformed boys in writing, with higher average literacy scores in every year group.
However, boys generally performed higher in numeracy, with fewer female students achieving results in the “Exceeding” level.
First Nations students were nearly three times more likely to score in the ‘needs additional support’ category (around 33% compared to 9% of non-Indigenous students).
Education Minister Jason Clare called the gap “concerning”.
“I don’t want us to live in a country where your chances in life depend on… where you live or the colour of your skin,” he said.
Socioeconomic background: Across all grades and test areas, students with university-educated parents scored, on average, “substantially above” students whose parents did not finish high school.
School agreement
The Government has prepared its revised National School Reform Agreement. The current one is due to expire at the end of this year.
The agreement outlines planned funding and education reforms for Australian schools over the next decade.
Education Minister Jason Clare said the Government worked closely with the states and territories on the agreement.
However, every jurisdiction except the NT and WA has refused to sign the Government’s new deal, and called for more support.
Teachers
The Australian Education Union (AEU) represents public school teachers. It called the NAPLAN results a “damning indictment” on funding for the education system.
AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said teachers “work very hard” but need more funding support.
“The current funding system is leaving the students with the highest levels of need without the support they need to thrive… It is public schools that educate the most vulnerable students,” Haythorpe said.
Opposition
The Opposition called the NAPLAN results “disastrous” and said they highlight a “national crisis” in Australian schools.
Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson said the Government had failed to reform education to improve outcomes.
“Delivering a back-to-basics education sharply focused on literacy and numeracy, underpinned by explicit teaching and a knowledge-rich, common sense curriculum, is critical to raising school standards,” she said.
