industry & reform
The long-term trend data reveals a steady improvement in most literacy and numeracy outcomes .
Solid results
This year ’ s NAPLAN was one of ‘ the most important ’.
By David De Carvalho
Students and teachers are enduring some of the most significant disruptions to schooling in our history . So , it is welcome news that the NAPLAN 2021 summary results reveal the global COVID pandemic has had no significant impact on our children ’ s core literacy and numeracy skills at the national level .
This is the 12th time NAPLAN has been run in its 13-year history and arguably one of the most important .
Last year ministers agreed to cancel NAPLAN due to the COVID-19 pandemic , so this year when more than 1.2 million students sat down in May to complete the literacy and numeracy assessments , parents and carers , educators , schools and governments waited expectantly for the results .
The extensive data set has now given us a valuable insight into the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on learning in literacy and numeracy , and it ’ s reassuring to see that , overall , at the national and state / territory levels , our students ’ literacy and numeracy skills don ’ t appear to have significantly suffered , despite the disruptions of the pandemic .
The long-term trend data reveals a steady improvement in most literacy and numeracy outcomes , with several year levels and domains showing that students have gained learning equivalent to a school term since testing began .
We have seen improvements for Year 3 and 5 reading , and Year 5 , 7 and 9 numeracy and achievement in Year 5 , 7 and 9 have begun to show signs of an upward trend .
One of the advantages of having this rich set of data is that we can take a big picture look at how our students are performing , and this year for the first time , we looked at a new measure called the average annual trend . This measure describes the changes in main achievement across all the NAPLAN years and gives an insight into how achievement has changed over time . Results can jump around from year to year , and that is to be expected , but having over a decade of data means we are now able to really see these trends . For example , on average , the mean achievement in Year 3 reading has improved over the last 13 years by 2.5 NAPLAN score points every calendar year . For comparison , the expected growth in reading for a Year 3 student is just under one NAPLAN score point per week .
The cumulative effect is that a number of year levels and domains have shown a gain in learning equivalent to a school term since testing began .
One of the other things we have been able to detect from seeing these movements overall is that the overall decline in writing has begun to flatten .
If we can continue in this manner , we ’ ll see a flattened curve turn into an upward curve in due course , and hopefully we can maintain these promising green shoots in the area of writing .
It is important to note that these are the summary results ; an opportunity to see the preliminary results of the May tests as early as possible but they are high-level results , with some figures , such as changes in the proportion of students achieving the national minimum standard , yet to be confirmed as statistically significant . The final report to be released later in the year will show whether the learning of different demographic groups in the community , such as children from disadvantaged backgrounds , may have been impacted by COVID .
This NAPLAN national report confirms the preliminary findings and provides more detailed information including comparisons of performance by gender , Indigenous status , language background other than English , parental occupation , parental education and school location , and for 2021 this data will be more important than ever . We expect it will give us a detailed picture of some demographic data which will likely show the impact of COVID on certain communities when it comes to literacy and numeracy , and this information will help further guide teaching and learning in these areas .
But for the moment , the preliminary report NAPLAN Summary findings are good news and the good news many of us need to hear right now particularly .
These results are testament to the resilience of students , teachers , parents and carers during these challenging times and they deserve our praise and gratitude for their response to one of the most significant challenges in our schooling history . ■
David de Carvalho is the CEO of ACARA .
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