The number of students not participating in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests has reached an all-time high, as more parents decide to withdraw their children from testing.
The 2014 NAPLAN report found that the withdrawal rate among Year 3 students was up almost 1 per cent since 2010. More than 2 per cent of Year 5 students were withdrawn from testing.
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) chief executive Dr Stanley Rabinowitz said he’s concerned that students are being withdrawn from the tests.
“That parent, that caregiver, that school and the student… are not getting information about how well he or she is doing relative to material we want them to know, and frankly how well they’re doing compared to similar children around the country,” he said.
“It’s very important that they have this information.”
The results coincide with the graduation of the so-called NAPLAN generation - the first cohort to sit the tests in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
The report also found the upward trend in reading skills among indigenous students had stalled.
Average scores for Indigenous students across the board are “substantially lower” than those of non-Indigenous students.
Among Year 3 indigenous students, 74.7 per cent met the national minimum standards for reading in 2014, compared with 81.5 per cent last year.
The report shows particularly poor results for iindigenous Year 3 students in the Northern Territory.
“In the Northern Territory, 57 per cent of indigenous students achieved below the national minimum standard in numeracy," the report reads,
More than 65 per cent of indigenous students achieved below the national standard in literacy.
Reading results were more stable among indigenous high school students, with Year 9 students falling about two percentage points from last year.
Share
