NAPLAN 2015 results: overall stable student achievement

The 2015 NAPLAN National Report has been published on the NAP website, confirming the initial findings of the summary information released in August. The report shows stable student achievement – relative to 2008 and 2014, with some improvements nationally and in each state and territory (for some year levels and some domains).

The NAPLAN National Report provides nationally comparable data on the 2015 national and state/territory results for each test domain. It provides comparisons of performance by gender, Indigenous status, language background other than English status, parental occupation, parental education and school location.

The report shows:

• Stable student achievement: whilst the results show some improvements nationally and in each state and territory (for some year levels and some domains), the overall findings point to stable student achievement, relative to 2008 (base year) and 2014 (prior year).
• Moderate statistically significant increases in Year 3 reading achievement: relative to 2008, there has been an increase in Year 3 reading performance, maintaining the upward trend in Year 3 reading results observed since 2009.
• Moderate statistically significant increases in Year 3 grammar and punctuation achievement: relative to 2008, there has been an increase in Year 3 grammar and punctuation performance, maintaining the upward trend observed since 2009.
• Moderate statistically significant increases in Year 5 spelling achievement: relative to 2008, there has been an increase in Year 5 spelling performance (gradual improvement over the past several years).
• Moderate statistically significant increases in Year 5 numeracy achievement: relative to 2008, there has been an increase in Year 5 numeracy performance, maintaining the upward trend observed since 2009.
• Moderate statistically significant increases in Year 3 persuasive writing relative to 2014: there has been a moderate increase in persuasive writing mean achievement relative to 2014 for Year 3 students.
• Moderate statistically significant decreases in Years 7 and 9 persuasive writing relative to 2011: there has been a moderate decrease in persuasive writing achievement relative to 2011 for Years 7 and 9 students.

ACARA’s CEO, Robert Randall, says: “The high-performing jurisdictions (ACT, NSW and Victoria) have maintained their relatively higher achievement levels in most domains.

“Additionally, it is encouraging to note that Western Australia shows a moderate increase in reading achievement in all year levels and Queensland shows a substantial increase in 2015 reading achievement in Year 3, and a moderate increase in Years 5 and 7 reading achievement.

“There have also been statistically significant increases in Indigenous student reading performance in Years 5 and 7 – an increase in Indigenous student performance relative to 2008 has been maintained.”

The trend in increases in the withdrawal and absent rates appears to have been arrested as percentages of withdrawn and absent students in 2015 are very similar to those observed in 2014.

2015 NAPLAN Test Incidents Report

The NAPLAN 2015 Test Incidents Report (PDF 90 kb) has been released with the national report. Test incidents can include cheating, security breaches and other general breaches.

There were 42 test incidents substantiated in 2015, a decrease in substantiated incidents from last year (51). Six incidents were cheating, nine were a security breach and 27 were a ‘general breach’.

Achievement of Year 9 Students in Numeracy, by State and Territory, 2015