Report on NAPLAN 2014

ACARA has just released the following report on NAPLAN 2014

2014 NAPLAN National Report shows stable student achievement
across most areas
The 2014 NAPLAN National Report has been published, confirming the initial findings of the summary information released in August that overall student achievement has remained stable for each year level and most domains.

The 2014 NAPLAN National Report provides nationally comparable data on the 2014 national and state/territory results for each test domain: numeracy, reading, writing and language conventions (spelling, and grammar and punctuation). School-by-school results will be available on the next version of the My School website, to be published in March 2015.

The 2014 NAPLAN National Report’s key findings include:

Stable student achievement – relative to 2008 and 2013, student achievement has remained stable for each year level and most domains.

Moderate increases in reading achievement – relative to 2008, there has again been an increase in Year 3 and Year 5 reading performance.

Moderate decrease in persuasive writing performance – the 2014 writing achievement was not substantially different from that of 2013 for each year level; however, there has been a moderate decrease in persuasive writing achievement relative to 2011 for Years 3, 5 and 7 at the national level.

Participation rates remain relatively stable – there is very little change in the percentage of exempt or absent students from previous years. There is, though, a slight increase in the percentage of withdrawn students nationally.

ACARA’s Chief Executive Officer Robert Randall is on the whole pleased with how students are progressing: “Overall, we have again seen student achievement to be steady in comparison to previous years. We do know, however, that there are some great examples of sustained effort and improvement in school level results, which will be evident when we update My School in 2015.

“This year’s snapshot shows that there have been some moderate increases in some areas, particularly in reading for Year 3 and Year 5 students. However, the results for persuasive writing have shown a moderate decrease from 2011, but they are not substantially different from 2013.

“NAPLAN online will be implemented from 2017 and will provide better assessment, more precise results and faster turnaround of information,” said Mr Randall.

Participation rates in NAPLAN remain high, although ACARA is concerned about any increase in the number of student withdrawals from NAPLAN.

“NAPLAN provides valuable information for parents, teachers and schools to see how their children are progressing in the key areas of literacy and numeracy,” added Mr Randall.

“Parents who withdraw their children from NAPLAN tests are choosing to not benefit from a second set of eyes on how well their children are doing, relative to other students of their age across the country. Every student should know how well he or she is doing – against national standards and in comparison with his or her peers,” Mr Randall said.

Report of 2014 NAPLAN test incidents

ACARA has today also released the NAPLAN Test Incidents Report 2014 (PDF 91 kb). Test incidents can include cheating, security and other general breaches. There were 51 test incidents substantiated in 2014 across 9,500 schools, of which seven were cheating, 10 were a security breach and 34 were a general breach.

“The number of reported test incidents is extremely small and does not affect overall NAPLAN results,” Mr Randall concluded. “There were substantiated breaches in less than 0.5 per cent of all schools conducting the assessments”.

Read the full 2014 NAPLAN National Report                                    

Read ACARA’s media statement (PDF 52 kb)                                    

Read the NAPLAN 2014 Test Incidents Report (PDF 91 kb)

More detail here