However,results tumbled in grammar and punctuation,where between 30 and 40 per cent of NSW pupils scored in the bottom two bands.
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Australian Curriculum,Assessment and Reporting Authority chief executive David de Carvalho said the results show strong performance among Australian students,but indicated clear areas that need improvement.
“The results also continue to highlight the educational disparities of students from non-urban areas,Indigenous Australian heritage and those with low socio-educational backgrounds,” he said.
In NSW,results across literacy and numeracy showed 60 per cent of Indigenous students were assessed as in the developing or needs additional support levels. That figure rises to about 70 per cent for Indigenous students in year 7 and 9.
Grattan Institute education program director Jordana Hunter said the new benchmarks painted a clearer picture of standards,delivering the “wake-up call” Australia needed,particularly for Indigenous students,where almost two-thirds fell below proficiency.
“Governments need to do much more to encourage teachers to adopt explicit approaches to teaching key aspects of literacy and numeracy in primary school in particular,because we know it gets harder and harder to catch students up over time,” she said.
NSW has mandated the teaching of phonics in primary years,and there is now a compulsory phonics check for year 1 students. “But there’s clearly more work to do,” Hunter said. “Around 27,000 year 3 students (about a third) fell short of expectations in reading. We need to develop a clearer picture of what is holding these students back and target interventions to reach them.”
For NSW students in remote schools,two-thirds of students were in the lower two bands in literacy and numeracy,and in outer regional schools almost half of pupils scored in those two bands.
Centre for Independent Studies director of education Glenn Fahey said previously low national minimum standards had masked “a long tail of underperforming students”.
“In the past,this may have been partially masked because NAPLAN’s previous achievement levels largely reflected performance against the low benchmark of the national minimum standard,” he said.
“The challenge now for education systems is to systematically define and provide the additional support that the new NAPLAN reporting tells us that many students need. Consistent,high-quality teaching is the solution to education’s woes,but there can be inconsistency within and across schools in delivering impactful teaching.”
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the next step was assisting students who needed more support. “The evidence shows if you fall behind at school it’s really hard to catch up. Only one in five students who are behind the minimum standard in literacy and numeracy in year 3 are above it in year 9.” he said.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car said the data provides greater insight into which students need more support,flagging that the government had taken steps to “combat the extreme pressure on schools” by offering temporary teachers permanent positions,and by adding more support staff.
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Jennifer Buckingham,director of strategy at literacy company MultiLit,said the changes to reporting means the results are now more aligned with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA),in which around two-thirds of students meet the proficiency benchmark.
“It’s good to have a higher benchmark standard,but it is disappointing we can’t find a way to compare to previous years results,” she said.
This year’s NAPLAN tests were taken in March instead of May,allowing teachers to access data earlier as part of the testing overhaul. A record 4.4 million online tests were submitted by more than 1.3 million students at 9390 campuses and schools across Australia.
The average NAPLAN scores for students from the highest socio-educational background were substantially above those from the lowest in all year levels and subject domains.
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