Australian Parent's Council

The Chair of the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs, the Hon. Dr. Elizabeth Constable MLA, has released the full set of results from the 2011 sitting of National Assessment Program Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests by students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 across Australia.

"Across all domains and year levels, the majority of students across Australia are achieving at or above minimum standards", said Minister Constable.

"Overall participation rates in the tests have remained high since they were introduced across Australia in 2008, a fact which points to the tests' robustness as an accurate measure of how students are performing in key foundation areas of literacy and numeracy."

"NAPLAN results complement teachers' class and school?based assessments to provide a comprehensive picture of student achievement and help determine areas of priority to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes", Minister Constable said.

The report includes results categorised by state and territory, as well as other factors including indigenous status, language background, and by whether students attend school in metropolitan, country, or remote areas.

Also included is information about the comparative performance of boys and girls as well as details about the performance of students categorised by parental occupation.

The key findings of the 2011 NAPLAN National Report include:

• In the majority of states and territories, the percentage of students working at or above National Minimum Standards (NMS) is 90% or higher.
• At each year level, girls achieved higher average scores than boys in literacy-related domains, while boys outpaced girls in numeracy tests.
• Students with a language background other than English generally achieved the same average results as those students who come from an at-home English-speaking background.
• Participation in NAPLAN tests continues to be high, with little change in NAPLAN Participation since the tests were introduced in 2008.

The report is available at the National Assessment Program's website, www.nap.edu.au, with results also searchable online.

School Education Minister Peter Garrett welcomed the results which he said revealed that more than 93 per cent of Australian school students are achieving at or above the national minimum standard in reading, writing and numeracy.

He added that the report shows that while overall results have remained steady since the first NAPLAN tests were held in 2008, there have been encouraging signs of student improvement in many year groups.

However, he said it also confirms that there is still work ahead for governments, schools and the community to improve the results of regional and remote, low SES, and indigenous students, as well as to lift overall national performance.

"Literacy and numeracy are the fundamental skills which every student needs in order to get the best education possible, reach their full potential and secure a job when they leave school," Mr Garrett said.

"While Australia has one of the best education systems in the world, international testing shows that our results have been in decline ... In particular, our neighbours in the Asian region have raced ahead of us.

"Our best performing students are not doing as well as they were 10 years ago, while the gap between the top and bottom students has increased. This is not acceptable in a country as wealthy and well-resourced as Australia."