Schools across the country are set to receive individual student and school NAPLAN results for reading, numeracy, spelling, and grammar and punctuation earlier in the school year than ever before.
The announcement from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) comes as 1.3 million students across more than 9,400 schools throughout the country are due to start NAPLAN tests on 13 March 2024.
Under the changes, schools and education authorities will receive preliminary school and student results from the assessments early in Term 2, around four weeks after the test period ends on 25 March 2024.
This is eight weeks earlier than in 2023, a full school term earlier than 2022 and the earliest in the history of NAPLAN.
This means teachers will have more time to consider the results alongside their own assessments, and then use them to inform their teaching and learning programs in the current school year.
The earlier results and these benefits to schools and students are being delivered following national agreement from all Education Ministers to move the NAPLAN tests to Term 1 from 2023.
ACARA Acting CEO Mr Stephen Gniel said that providing earlier results to schools supports teachers to help every student reach their potential.
“NAPLAN is invaluable as a national assessment that allows us to see whether young Australians are developing critical literacy and numeracy skills for learning, using a national, objective scale.
“Getting the results to schools sooner is a key benefit of having moved the assessment from May to March last year, as well as delivering the tests fully online,” Mr Gniel said.
He continued: “It will help support schools in understanding where their students have performed well and areas for improvement, as well shape teaching and learning programs.”
“Delivering on this commitment to provide earlier results is being realised thanks to the work of teachers and school leaders, as well as collaboration between all states and territories and the Commonwealth.”
NAPLAN assessments help governments, education authorities and schools see whether Australian children are reaching important literacy and numeracy goals. NAPLAN also allows parents and carers to see how their child is progressing against national literacy and numeracy standards. Students can also get an insight into where they are placed on their own individual learning journey.
Mr Gniel added that with more than 4.4 million tests expected to be sat this year, NAPLAN is an important measure, but it must be kept in perspective.
“NAPLAN is one assessment tool that we have in addition to a school’s own assessments and, most importantly, the teacher’s knowledge of their students.
“So, there’s no need for students to undertake extra practice for NAPLAN and they should not feel apprehensive about the assessment.
“Given the scale of the operation, getting the results to schools earlier will be no easy feat to deliver, but ACARA is committed to working with states and territories in making sure our schools have this information so it can have a positive impact in the classroom.”
NAPLAN tests literacy and numeracy skills that are being developed in the classroom every day, with questions based mostly on what students have been taught from previous years of schooling.
More than 2,500 different test questions have been set, tested and checked for this year’s assessments, which will assess how Australian students are performing in reading, writing, grammar and punctuation, spelling and numeracy.
Preliminary results will be provided to schools in all domains except writing, which takes longer to mark. Schools will receive their full results, including writing, from June 2024, after which parents and carers receive their child’s Individual Student Report at the start of Term 3. ACARA is then expecting to publish the National Results in August 2024.
For more information about NAPLAN, visit www.nap.edu.au/naplan.
