Embargoed until 0100am AEST 14 August 2024
MEDIA RELEASE
Latest data shows 2024 NAPLAN national results broadly stable
Findings from the NAPLAN National Results released today by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) show that results at a national level were similar to the results in 2023.
The data shows that while there were small increases and decreases across domains and year levels, overall the results were broadly stable.
“These results are a testament to the hard work and commitment of schools, principals and teachers, as well as students themselves,” said ACARA’s CEO Stephen Gniel.
“Over the last 2 years, schools have adjusted to both the earlier timing of the NAPLAN tests and the changed reporting system with new proficiency standards. The fact that the results of Australian students have remained stable through these changes, with no significant difference in average scores, is an important achievement.
“The 2024 results continue to show strong performance from Australian students in literacy and numeracy. However, they also provide clear information on areas requiring our collective focus and effort for improvement. The challenges remain with supporting those students identified in the ‘Needs additional support’ category and tackling the ongoing educational disparities for students from non-urban areas, First Nations Australian heritage and those with low socio-educational backgrounds.”
Mr Gniel noted that caution must be exercised in trying to interpret any clear trends at this early stage of reporting against the new measurement scale and proficiency levels introduced last year.
“We have 2 years of data and, this year, a new cohort of students took part in the NAPLAN assessments. National data rarely shows any significant change over a single year. The trends in NAPLAN data are likely to take several years to emerge as they start to show differences from both the immediately preceding year and the base year of 2023,” he added.
Nationally, NAPLAN participation rates have held steady, increasing on the 2023 average by 0.1 percentage points across all years and domains to 93.4%.
“The overall increase in participation is a positive, consolidating on last year’s bounce back in NAPLAN participation rates and continuing the reversal of the downward trend evident in recent years. We need to acknowledge the work of parents and carers in supporting our teachers and schools by understanding the importance of the NAPLAN assessments in their children’s educational progress and development,” said Mr Gniel.
The key highlights from this year’s NAPLAN National Results are:
- In reading, the average proportion of students who achieved at “Exceeding” and “Strong” levels in 2024 was 67.0%, increasing from Year 3 (66.3%) to Year 5 (71.4%), then dropping in Year 7 (67.3%) and in Year 9 (63.0%).
- In reading, the average proportion of students who achieved at “Needs additional support” levels in 2024 was 10.3%, decreasing from Year 3 (11.3%) to Year 5 (8.7%), and increasing in Year 7 (10.2%) and Year 9 (11.1%).
- In numeracy, the average proportion of students who achieved at “Exceeding” and “Strong” levels in 2024 was 65.5%, increasing from Year 3 (63.5%) to Year 5 (67.8%), remaining relatively stable in in Year 7 (67.2%) and then dropping in Year 9 (63.4%).
- In numeracy, the average proportion of students who achieved at “Needs additional support” levels in 2024 was 9.5%, decreasing from Year 3 (9.7%) to Year 5 (8.6%), increasing again in Year 7 (9.4%) and Year 9 (10.4%).
- On participation rates:
- For primary years, it remained unchanged at 95.1%. For secondary years, it increased from 91.6% to 91.7%.
- National participation rates ranged from 88.6% (Year 9 numeracy) to 95.9% (Year 5 reading).
Demographic results reflect trends in other national assessments and previous NAPLAN results, with female students outperforming male students in literacy, and higher results tending to align with students from the highest socio-educational backgrounds, in urban areas and from non-Indigenous backgrounds.
- Nationally, a higher proportion of Indigenous students need additional support compared to the overall student population. For example, across all year groups:
- in reading, around one in 3 of Indigenous students (33.7%) are in the “Needs additional support” level while fewer than one in 10 of non-indigenous students (8.6%) fall into that proficiency level
- in numeracy, one in 3 Indigenous students (33.3%) are in the “Needs additional support” level while fewer than one in 10 non-Indigenous students (7.7%) fall into that proficiency level.
- A lower proportion of students in very remote schools are rated as “Strong” or “Exceeding” compared with students in major city schools. For example, across all year groups:
- in reading, 24.0% of students from very remote schools are in this category, compared to 70.7% of students from major city schools
- in numeracy, 22.4% of students from very remote schools are in this category, compared to 69.3% of students from major city schools.
- Female students outperformed male students in writing, achieving average NAPLAN scores above boys in every year group, with higher percentages of female students at “Strong” or “Exceeding” levels, notably 73.1% of female students compared to 58.0% of male students in Year 7 and 69.2% of female students compared to 53.1% of male students in Year 9.
- Male students generally outperformed female students in numeracy. There were 5.9% fewer female students in Year 3 and 6.7% fewer female students in Year 5 achieving in the “Exceeding” level compared to male students.
To access the full 2024 NAPLAN National Results, including information about the socio-educational profile of each jurisdiction, please visit: www.acara.edu.au/naplanresults.
//ENDS
ACARA Media line – phone: 0414 063 872 and email media.contact@acara.edu.au
BACKGROUND
The NAPLAN National Results provide nationally comparable data on the 2024 national and state/territory results for each test domain and year level assessed, and for each level by gender, Indigenous status and language background other than English.
NAPLAN was successfully undertaken in schools across the country in March 2024. A record 4.4 million online tests were submitted by almost 1.3 million students in 9,431 campuses and schools across Australia.
The NAPLAN proficiency levels are:
- Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
- Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
- Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
- Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
Additional information on the proficiency levels and the literacy and numeracy skills at each level is available on the National Assessment Program (NAP) website (www.nap.edu.au). The proficiency levels were validated by the expert judgement of teachers who used student responses to NAPLAN questions linked to the Australian Curriculum to identify what students should be able to answer at the time of testing in each year, to be considered as having met a challenging but reasonable expectation.
NAPLAN tests are one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process. They assess numeracy and literacy only. Parents and carers should speak to their child’s school or teacher to discuss their child’s overall progress.
Interpreting the current year-to-year changes in NAPLAN data
NAPLAN results in 2024 at the national level were very similar to the results in 2023. There were small increases and decreases across domains and year levels, but nationally, in all domains and year levels, the results were broadly stable. Over a one-year period, national statistics rarely show a notable change.
Trends will emerge over a period of several years – NAPLAN results in future years will show not only differences from the immediately previous year, but also from the base year of 2023. These comparisons with the base year will reveal patterns over time, where a series of small changes can accumulate to exceed the reporting thresholds.
The changes at a national level in proportions within proficiency levels are also broadly stable between 2023 and 2024, although there were small increases and decreases across domains and year groups.
While significance testing and effect sizes have not been reported for each proficiency level proportion, ACARA’s analysis has identified that the size of the changes is entirely consistent with the results remaining stable from 2023 to 2024. Accordingly, caution should be exercised when interpreting any changes between proportions in 2024 and 2023.
NAPLAN test incident report 2024
ACARA has also published the NAPLAN test incident report 2024, which sets out that of the approximately 4.4 million NAPLAN tests sat by almost 1.3 million students nationally, there was only one single substantiated incident related to cheating. Other substantiated incidents after aggregation related to security breach (13) and ‘general’ breach (39).
The total of 53 substantiated aggregated incidents, compared with 61 substantiated aggregated incidents in 2023 and 48 in 2022. The number of reported test incidents is extremely small and does not affect overall NAPLAN results.
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