NAPLAN moves to March
27 February 2023 Planning for NAPLAN is well underway at schools across the country with this year’s test event scheduled to begin on Wednesday 15 March.
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is the only nation-wide assessment of students’ literacy and numeracy skills. It provides parents important insights into their child’s progress at school, and helps governments, education authorities and schools to see whether young Australians are reaching important literacy and numeracy goals.
“This is the first year NAPLAN will be held in March, having traditionally been held in May, following agreement by education ministers,” said ACARA CEO, David de Carvahlo.
“This means valuable data will be available earlier to inform teaching and learning programs, and to identify professional development needs. It also means parents will receive results earlier in the year, helping to inform the conversations they have with teachers.”
The earlier NAPLAN tests follow the transition to NAPLAN online which is a better, more precise assessment that is more engaging for students. All students undertook NAPLAN online in 2022, with the exception of Year 3 writing which remains a paper test.
ACARA is currently working with test administration authorities in each state and territory to ensure schools are ready for the test window, and to ensure the change of time is as easy as possible for teachers and students.
Practice testing is now available for schools, and students and teachers can also visit the public demonstration site, where they can familiarise themselves with question types, onscreen tools, timers and the interactive navigation.
A wide range of accessibility options is also available to help students with a disability access NAPLAN online.
For more information on NAPLAN, visit www.nap.edu.au
My School updated for 2023
22 February 2023 The My School website has been updated for 2023 with new profile information on schools and the latest school-level NAPLAN data
The 2023 My School update includes the following:
· 2022 school profile and population data
· 2022 school attendance data
· 2022 NAPLAN results for schools
· 2021 school financial information, including capital expenditure and funding sources
· 2021 post-school destinations data.
“My School provides data on schooling right across Australia, helping parents, carers, schools and governments to understand the performance of schools,” said ACARA CEO, David de Carvalho.
“It’s an important resource for parents and carers to make informed decisions about their children’s schooling. It also provides principals and teachers with important insights into school performance, supporting and driving improvements across the nation.”
Read our My School media release
Release of the National Report on Schooling in Australia 2021
20 February 2023 Data on schooling for 2021 and from 2011 to 2021 includes:
enrolments, staffing and school funding
key performance measures for student participation, achievement in the National Assessment Program and attainment of Year 12 and post-school qualifications.
The report shows that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, longer-term trends for schooling are positive with long-term gains for attainment and engagement in education, training and work, including:
COVID did impact enrolments in Australian schools which increased by only 0.6% from 2020 – the lowest growth in enrolments since 2008 and less than half the average annual growth rate for the previous decade. This is due to the reduction in numbers of international students and a very low immigration rate, including for school-aged children.
By sector, 65.1 per cent of students were enrolled in government schools, 19.5 per cent in Catholic schools and 15.4 per cent in independent schools.
In 2021, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students made up 6.2 per cent (249,103) of the total school population.
Full time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff across primary and secondary schooling increased by 2.4 per cent from 2020 to 303,539. There was a minor reduction in the average FTE student–teacher ratio from 13.5:1 in 2020 to 13.3:1 in 2021.
The report also details the arrangements made in 2021 to address the pandemic in each jurisdiction, including periods of shutdown and remote learning, noting that “the education sector responded well to the pandemic, with close cooperation between the government, Catholic and independent school sectors”.
New proficiency standards for NAPLAN
10 February 2023 From this year, parents and carers will get earlier, simpler and clearer information about their child’s NAPLAN achievement based on new, more rigorous national standards.
Read the media release (PDF 98 KB).
Consultation opens for the latest revisions to Australian Curriculum: Languages
01 February 2023 The third phase of the Languages curriculum is now underway and ACARA has today released proposed revisions to the next 4 Australian Curriculum: Languages (Arabic, Hindi, Turkish and Vietnamese) for public comment.
Public feedback is sought via the consultation website http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/consultation/languages/ from 1 February to 12 April 2023.
Separately, phase 2 of the Australian Curriculum: Languages – German, Korean, Indonesian, Modern Greek and Spanish have been approved and are now available on the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 website https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/.
Read more