{"id":429545,"date":"2025-12-06T20:43:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T20:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429545\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T20:43:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T20:43:43","slug":"how-to-interpret-naplan-results-and-what-the-data-actually-tells-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429545\/","title":{"rendered":"How to interpret NAPLAN results and what the data actually tells you"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian parents had the opportunity to pour over NAPLAN results for their children’s school this week, but interpreting the data may not have been clear at first glance.<\/p>\n

The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) released the latest annual test data for nearly 10,000 schools <\/a>across the country.<\/p>\n

Parents, principals and education enthusiasts can now search for a school on the My School <\/a>website and see how it progressed in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy.<\/p>\n

But if making school comparisons, <\/strong>ACARA says it is important to <\/strong>understand the story behind the data.<\/p>\n

Here’s how to decipher the results and what the data does \u2014 and does not \u2014 tell you about a school’s performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why the school profile matters<\/p>\n

NAPLAN \u2014 National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy \u2014 is an annual test of students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.<\/p>\n

News Corp attacked by school leaders over NAPLAN<\/a><\/p>\n

Forty-one signatories to an open letter say they are “dismayed” and that school rankings cause “harm to our communities”.<\/p>\n

Administered by ACARA, it was designed to give parents individual data on students and school performance, as well as give policymakers a snapshot of the health of the education system.<\/p>\n

ACARA CEO Stephen Gniel talked through the My School portal process to help people understand how to interpret a school’s results in context.<\/p>\n

He said it was particularly important that the information was not used to create misleading league tables ranking schools<\/a> in best and worst categories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Landing<\/p>\n

The portal allows you to search for the nearly 10,000 schools in Australia that sat the NAPLAN tests.\u00a0 (My School\u00a0)<\/p>\n

When searching for a school \u2014 by postcode or on a map \u2014 first you will be taken to its profile page.<\/p>\n

Mr Gniel said the profile page was helpful to paint a picture of why a school’s results looked like they do.<\/p>\n

“It sets the context of the school that you’re looking at,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.\"Stephen<\/p>\n

Stephen Gniel says the wider context is important when interpreting NAPLAN results. \u00a0 (ABC News: Billy Draper)<\/p>\n

The page shows basic information such as student numbers, but also provides their language backgrounds and a school’s ranking on the Community Socio-Educational Advantage Index \u2014 or ICSEA.<\/p>\n

ICSEA indicates the average educational advantage of each school’s students.<\/p>\n

It is calculated using information about parents’ or carers’ occupations and education, school geographical location and the proportion of First Nations Australian students.<\/p>\n

ACARA says it is provided to “encourage taking socio-educational advantage into account when comparing school achievement”.<\/p>\n

\"Graphs<\/p>\n

ICSEA is a statistical measure developed by ACARA to allow for fairer comparisons of NAPLAN results.\u00a0 (My School)<\/p>\n

Mr Gniel discussed the results of a school chosen at random.<\/p>\n

The school had a higher than average ICSEA rating and was in a region Mr Gniel described as “more affluent”.<\/p>\n

“You can see that this school has more students from the top quarter of socio educational advantage,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So that gives you a sense of what community they’re serving.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

The profile page provides some information on students’ backgrounds.\u00a0 (My School\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Separate tabs provide details about a school’s finances \u2014 including how much funding it receives \u2014 and attendance rates.<\/p>\n

At the top of a profile page, there is also more information provided by schools about their values and learning programs.<\/p>\n

\"Page<\/p>\n

The finances add another layer of context when looking at a school’s results. (My School\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Analysing ‘student progress’<\/p>\n

NAPLAN only tests students in basic literacy and numeracy.<\/p>\n

Although it was “important information”, Mr Gniel stressed that the results were “not the be all and end all”.<\/p>\n

“It’s not everything about a school. And we always sort of say that,” he said.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, navigating to the ‘student progress’ section of the portal was an intentional next step.<\/p>\n

“This is about the growth of students from within that school as opposed to the results which are their raw scores essentially against other students,” Mr Gniel said.<\/p>\n

\"Landing<\/p>\n

The student progress page provides results based on the growth of students from within a particular school.\u00a0 (My School)<\/p>\n

Monash University education senior lecturer Dr Fiona Longmuir said analysing progress could be important, but it was still “filtered through very narrow measures”.<\/p>\n

“A single test on one day,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.\"Dr<\/p>\n

Fiona Longmuir warned the data could provide a simplified picture of what is going on in schools.\u00a0 (ABC News: Billy Draper)<\/p>\n

What do the graphs mean?<\/p>\n

There are two ways of looking at the graphs.<\/p>\n

The school you are analysing is represented in the blue line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The starting point is set based on the school’s previous test results.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The yellow line shows ‘similar students’ who had the same starting score and level of socio-educational advantage.<\/p>\n

\"Reading<\/p>\n

The graph shows the school’s progress in reading against similar schools. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The above graph shows how the school progressed in its reading scores, indicating it was ‘above’ the average of similar students.<\/p>\n

\"legend<\/p>\n

The diamond at the end of the blue line is colour-coded to indicate performance level.\u00a0 (My School)<\/p>\n

The colour-coding of the diamond at the end of the blue line is what you want to look at.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is important to note that no colour \u2014 or a blank diamond \u2014 means the result was ‘close to’ the average.<\/p>\n

The second way to analyse the data is by ticking the box along the bottom of the graph to see results compared to ‘All Australian students’.<\/p>\n

This reveals a grey line, which in this instance shows a lower starting point than the ‘selected school’.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

Clicking on “All Australian students” displays a grey line showing the national average for all schools.\u00a0 (My School)<\/p>\n

“You can see the similar schools keep the students at about the same level of growth,” Mr Gniel said.<\/p>\n

“What we want to see, of course, is that all these kids catch up.”<\/p>\n

The results were different when choosing ‘numeracy’ from the drop-down tab at the top of the graph.<\/p>\n

\"line<\/p>\n

The school remained “close to” the average of similar schools in numeracy scores. \u00a0 (My School)<\/p>\n

“It’s actually an interesting school to look at, because it’s not the same results for writing and numeracy,” Mr Gniel said.<\/p>\n

He said the information was more useful for the school to understand where they could focus more attention.<\/p>\n

For parents, it indicated students were “growing at the rate we would expect”.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

The school’s results differed for numeracy against all Australian schools.\u00a0 (My School)<\/p>\n

The same data is displayed further down the page in the percentage of students at the school who achieved above average progress, rather than a graph.<\/p>\n

The below image is the percentage compared to students with the\u00a0same starting score\u00a0and similar background.<\/p>\n

\"Table<\/p>\n

The percentage of students at the school who achieved above average progress, compared to students with the same starting score and similar background.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 (My School)<\/p>\n

Then the ‘progress over time’ section provides a bar graph view of the last two years of testing.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

How students at this year level improved their reading results between two consecutive NAPLAN tests. (My School)<\/p>\n

This can also be filtered by category: Reading, writing and numeracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

How students at this year level improved their numeracy results between two consecutive NAPLAN tests. (My School)<\/p>\n

NAPLAN data is shown from 2023 onwards because the measurement scales were reset that year due to changes in the testing format.<\/p>\n

Historical data can be found by clicking the ‘2012 – 2021 Progress’ button on the right-hand side of the page.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taking ‘results’ with grain of salt<\/p>\n

The ‘results’ drop-down takes you to a page that displays the raw results scores.<\/p>\n

“Just looking at results, it can be bordering on misleading,” Mr Gniel said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not misleading in terms of it not being accurate, but it’s whether it’s telling the full picture and giving parents the full information that they need.”<\/p>\n

\"Table<\/p>\n

This table shows the average student results by year compared to students with a similar background. (My School)<\/p>\n

The numbers are colour-coded against a scale, rather than an overall score. So it is best to focus on the colours rather than\u00a0the numbers.<\/p>\n

The scale is similar to how individual student results are categorised.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

NAPLAN results are reported using a scale of 4 proficiency levels rather than on the number scores. (My School)<\/p>\n

“I think some of this is quite technical … that’s why they did end up going to colours,” Mr Gniel said.<\/p>\n

“It was trying to simplify it. Now the risk of course is that we oversimplify it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He advised parents to “go straight to the progress scores” rather than focusing on the results page.<\/p>\n

\"Table<\/p>\n

The average student results by year compared to all Australian students. (My School)<\/p>\n

By switching between ‘similar schools’ and ‘all schools’ the results are very different.<\/p>\n

“The takeaway here is they’re doing a good job \u2014 they’re doing a really good job in reading,” Mr Gniel said.<\/p>\n

“When you look at other areas though, you can see in maths they’re still doing a good job and they’re keeping up and those things, it’s just not over and above the other similar schools.”<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

Student results over time are also shown in line graphs, comparing students to those with a similar background.\u00a0 (My School)<\/p>\n

Dr Longmuir warned that parents should not make judgements about a school based simply on colours.<\/p>\n

“The way the My School site presents the data is fairly easy to digest because they use bright colours … \u00a0But also it presents a pretty straightforward picture of what’s going on in a school,” she told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“My advice to parents is to be really thoughtful about how those results are coming together and what they actually mean \u2014 what they they can say and what they can’t say.<\/p>\n

“What they can’t say is a thousand times bigger than what they can say.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Pasi Sahlberg\u00a0is critical of the use of standardised tests such as NAPLAN. (Supplied: Pasi Sahlberg)<\/p>\n

Pasi Sahlberg, professor in educational leadership at the University of Melbourne, noted that research showed standardised tests such as NAPLAN were poor indicators of school quality.<\/p>\n

“Most variation in student scores is explained by factors outside the school, especially socio-economic background, family resources, and broader community conditions,” he said.<\/p>\n

No alarm in seeing red\u00a0<\/p>\n

If a school has below average indicators, Mr Gniel said there was no cause for alarm.<\/p>\n

“I always encourage people to go in and then help and see what you can do to support the school,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“What’s happening there that we can do to help? That’s both at a system level, if they’re a government school, and as a whole of community.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

NAPLAN is designed to give parents individual data on students and school performance. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n

Rather than looking at NAPLAN data, Dr Longmuir suggested visiting schools to hear about their programs, and speaking to other parents in the community.<\/p>\n

“Every public school has hardworking teachers and leaders there trying to do the best for the students that they’re working with,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If families and parents want their kids to go to a great school, I would advise them to get in and partner with their school and develop great trusting, respectful, productive relationships with the teachers and staff.<\/p>\n

“If we can push aside some of the kinds of divisions and conflicts that we see and realise that if we work together as community in schools, that’s the most powerful way to have great schools.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian parents had the opportunity to pour over NAPLAN results for their children’s school this week, but interpreting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":429546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,3432,407,26251,66704,50,199673,3063,6215,11645,3064,5558],"class_list":{"0":"post-429545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-data","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-high-school","12":"tag-naplan","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-numeracy","15":"tag-primary","16":"tag-reading","17":"tag-school","18":"tag-secondary","19":"tag-writing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115674577685672319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}