ACT Education Minister Shane Rattenbury says the Government will examine areas in which Territory students’ latest NAPLAN results are weaker than expected to help it direct efforts in schools towards helpings students reach their full potential.
The just-released NAPLAN 2016 summary information report provides preliminary data across five areas (reading, numeracy, spelling, grammar and punctuation and writing) for the nearly 19,000 students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who participated in NAPLAN testing in May 2016.
The more detailed National Report, which will include results broken down by categories, is scheduled for release in December 2016.
The NAPLAN summary information ranked Canberra’s Year 9 students highest or equal highest in the country in all areas.
Students in Year 3 were ranked third behind Victoria and NSW in spelling and second behind Victoria for writing.
Year 5 students were ranked equal second behind Victoria on numeracy and writing, and third behind NSW and Victoria for spelling.
Year 7 writing ranked equal second behind Victoria.
Mr Rattenbury said that Canberra school students had maintained their overall strong performance.
“Canberra school students again performed well, and remain at the top or equal top for 14 out of the 20 domains,” he said.
“92% of all Canberra school students performed at or above the national minimum standard across all year groups and assessment domains with the exception of year 9 writing where 86% of students were at or above the national minimum standard.
“The data does show a few areas where we have not performed as strongly as we could have and this data will be useful to inform further work that can be done in schools to ensure the Canberra students continue to achieve their full potential.”
The Education Minister said NAPLAN was about driving improvement in schools.
“The data enables us to celebrate the success but to also identify areas for improvement,” he said.
“We will take this data and analyse it to identify areas that require further follow-up.”
He commended students on their efforts and thanked teachers for their dedication.
“I also acknowledge that NAPLAN is only one measure of performance and that ACT schools have many other indictors of student development and success,” he said.
Mr Rattenbury said the ACT was well advanced in preparations for the August 2016 NAPLAN online trial which would pave the way for implementation of NAPLAN online from 2017.
“Undertaking the NAPLAN test online is designed to provide better assessment, with more precise results and faster turnaround of information, and better meet the needs of all students, including those with a disability,” he said.
Schools will begin distributing student reports to families from Wednesday 17 August as well as providing access to their student results online.
File photo of Shane Rattenbury by Charlotte Harper, file photo of students taking a test from iStock
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