NAPLAN
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessments happen every year.
Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are tested on the fundamental literacy and numeracy skills that every child needs to become successful learners in school and beyond. NAPLAN is a national, consistent measure to determine whether or not students are meeting important educational outcomes.
The best preparation for NAPLAN is teaching and learning the curriculum. Children can be reassured that NAPLAN tests are just one part of their school program and they should simply do the best they can on the day.
Visit the NAPLAN public demonstration site to see and try the types of questions in a NAPLAN test.
You can also view past NAPLAN test papers and answers:
A student’s raw score on a test (the number of questions answered correctly) is placed on a measurement scale so the results of different students can be compared. Score equivalence tables are used to convert these raw scores to NAPLAN scale scores.
We do not provide access to NAPLAN tests after 2016 as these are used for other projects related to the continued improvement of the National Assessment Program. ACARA notes the decision of the Acting Information Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, in the Marty Ross decision in support of its position. See below for copyright information.
Changes to NAPLAN reporting from 2023
Education ministers agreed that NAPLAN results would be reported using proficiency standards from 2023. Together with the move to an earlier NAPLAN in March, these changes meet an initiative of the 2019 National School Reform Agreement.
The proficiency standards are reported on a reset NAPLAN measurement scale that makes better use of the online adaptive tests.
A new NAPLAN time series begins from 2023. Results from 2023 on cannot be directly compared to results from 2008 to 2022. Visit the NAP site’s Results and reports page for more information.
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Online assessment
NAPLAN has moved to an online assessment.
- Visit the NAP website for more information, resources, FAQs and parent information. You can also find information on our research and development for NAPLAN online assessment.
- The My School website has information on all schools in Australia, including school-level NAPLAN data that is updated each year. My School provides information that supports national transparency and accountability of Australia’s school education system through publication of nationally consistent school-level data. It complements other reporting measures aimed at ensuring schools and school systems are accountable to parents/carers and to the broader community.
Principles of national online assessment
In July 2013, all Australian education ministers agreed to guiding principles for national online assessment. The principles provide strategic direction to ACARA for online delivery of NAPLAN.
The principles require online assessment to:
- support quality teaching and learning
- deliver better national and assessment information
- broaden the curriculum coverage of assessments.
This followed education ministers’ previous commitment to trial an online platform for National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship (NAP–CC) in 2013.
For more information on why NAPLAN has moved online, visit the NAP website.
See the NAPLAN online data extract dictionary page of this website.
Online assessment research
Since 2012, ACARA has conducted a broad research and development program to inform the transition from paper-based to computer-based assessments. The purpose of these studies has been to build a new assessment model and provide evidence-based information to education ministers and the broader education community about delivering NAPLAN in an online environment.
Freedom of information
All NAPLAN tests published on ACARA websites have previously been released under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act). The FOI Act provides access to documents but it does not provide any copyright rights in relation to the documents that have been released (see section 91 of the FOI Act). For example, the FOI Act does not give you the right to publish or communicate (such as uploading to an electronic platform) these tests.
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Copyright information
In relation to all NAPLAN tests and NAPLAN answers published on the ACARA website, ACARA owns:
- all the NAPLAN test questions
- some of the images (photographs and illustrations) in the NAPLAN tests
- some of the text in the reading magazines
- all the NAPLAN answers.
Some images (photographs and illustrations) and some text included in the NAPLAN tests are owned by third parties, are in copyright and are licensed to ACARA.
Please also note:
- You may download, print and copy all the test materials that ACARA owns only for your personal use. For the avoidance of doubt, this means, for example, that you do not have permission to email these test materials to friends or upload them to a website or other electronic platform.
- You download, print and copy these materials at your own risk in relation to all third-party copyright materials included in the NAPLAN tests, unless a defence or other exception to copyright infringement applies. A relevant exception to copyright infringement is the fair dealing exception for the purposes of research or study. For more information, see Australian Copyright Council: Research or Study.
This means, for example, that you are not permitted to:
- publish the NAPLAN test materials
- use these test materials in coaching clinics
- upload these test materials to a website or other electronic platform, such as an app, regardless of whether or not the site is publicly accessible or password protected, for any commercial or non-commercial use.
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Information for media
Under s.42 of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), there is an exception to copyright infringement for fair dealing for the purpose of reporting the news. For more information, see section 42 of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (PDF 521 KB).
This exception would enable the media to create and publish excerpts of these tests for reporting the news, providing that this use falls within the fair dealing exception. What is fair dealing is determined on a case-by-case basis. However, the dealing must ultimately be ‘fair’ and this will depend in part on how much of the tests are published. As this involves a legal assessment, ACARA assumes that the media will obtain their own legal advice prior to publishing any part of these tests.
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