2016 NAPLAN National Report released

The 2016 NAPLAN National Report has been published, confirming the majority of the initial findings of the NAPLAN summary information released in August 2016.

Data in the NAPLAN National Report show that, compared with 2008 (the first year of NAPLAN), there are some better results in all content areas (except in writing), but not for all year groups; however, in recent years NAPLAN results have largely plateaued.

 

NAPLAN achievement plateaus: is this good enough?

• Visit the 'National reports' page of the NAP website to read the PDF (7.6 mb) version of the 2016 NAPLAN National Report
• Visit the 'NAPLAN results' page of the NAP website to see the interactive version of the 2016 NAPLAN National Report  
• See our graphic with the main findings from the report (PDF 730 kb).
• Read ACARA's  NAPLAN National Report media release (PDF 45kb).

 “While the improvements since NAPLAN started in 2008 are welcome, there is room for more improvement,” says ACARA CEO, Robert Randall.

“There have been improvements in many schools across the country and some improvement in some states and territories. However, at a national level NAPLAN results have shown no significant improvement across the domains and year levels in the last few years. We should expect more for our children.

“As we have also seen recently with Australia's performance in international assessments, there is broad scope for improvement in achievement. We need to raise our expectations and strive for improved results across the board,” Mr Randall concludes.

At the national level for NAPLAN:

• Reading results for Years 3 and 5 are better than they were in 2008. Compared with 2015, there has been no significant improvement.
• Spelling results for Year 3 are better than they were in 2008. Compared with 2015, there has been no significant improvement.
• Grammar/punctuation results for Year 3 are better than they were in 2008. Compared with 2015, there has been no significant improvement.
• Numeracy results for Year 5 are better than they were in 2008. Compared with 2015, there has been no significant improvement.
• Writing results for Year 9 saw a significant decrease since 2011 (the year from which results can be compared with for this domain).

There have been some significant gains in some domains in each state and territory, with Western Australia and Queensland standing out more than others. ACT, NSW and Victoria continue to have the highest mean achievement across the NAPLAN domains in Years 3, 5 and 7.

Data in the national report have also shown that since 2008, there have been some significant cumulative gains in some domains and year levels for Indigenous students, including reading (Years 3 and 5), numeracy (Year 5), spelling (Year 3), grammar and punctuation (Years 3, 5 and 7). There has also been a significant increase in the percentage of students performing at or above the national minimum standard in writing at Year 7.