The National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests are conducted for all students across Australia in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Each year, over one million students nationally sit the NAPLAN tests. The students are assessed in the domains of reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.
NAPLAN was fully administered online for the first time in 2022. The transition from traditional paper-based testing to online adaptive testing took place from 2018 to 2021. The objective of moving NAPLAN online was to deliver better, more precise and more engaging assessments for schools and students. During transition years, online test results were equated with the paper tests. Results for both the tests were reported on the same NAPLAN assessment scale.
Key findings:
Over the long term since 2008 (2011 for writing), the national results show:
- Writing results in Years 5, 7 and 9 continue to trend upwards, building on the reversal of the downward trend and flattening of the curve first seen in 2018.
- Spelling results for Years 3, 5 and 7 are steadily trending upwards.
- Years 3 and 5 results have seen a steady upward trend in reading.
- Year 5 results have seen an upward trend in numeracy.
- Grammar and punctuation results are stable in all years.
Link to the full Report.