SA makes gains in NAPLAN scores for 2021 but still lags national benchmark

SA students are gaining ground against other states in their school results but there’s still work to do to catch up to the national average. See the latest data.

Glen Osmond Primary School deputy principal Daniela Lawlor with students Jacob, Valar, Jadson and Cameron. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

South Australian students are getting a better grasp of literacy and numeracy, the results of the 2021 NAPLAN tests show.

While still behind national averages in all but one category, SA students have gained ground in comparison to other states, the test results published on Wednesday show.

And in a “surprising” result, disruptions from Covid-19 had not caused any noticeable decline nationwide, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority chief executive David de Carvalho said.

“It’s the good news many of us need to hear right now,” he said.

“It’s reassuring to see that overall, our students’ literacy and numeracy standards have not significantly suffered.”

However, he cautioned that only macro-level data had been analysed so far and there could be declines at a local school level or among particular demographic groups.

The authority runs the annual National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy tests taken by years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

SA Education Minister John Gardner said it was “really encouraging to see the confidence of our year 3s, particularly in reading and spelling”.

“They have dramatically jumped ahead,” he said.

“The results are a strong endorsement of our evidence-backed approach to improving literacy.

“Our decision to focus on foundational literacy skills in the early years of primary school through the introduction of the phonics check, literacy coaches and a range of training and support measures for schools is paying off.”

Literacy and numeracy were critical to all fields of education and NAPLAN was a useful tool among several means of assessment, Mr Gardner said.

Opposition education spokesman Blair Boyer said it was concerning that SA was behind the national average in the proportion of SA students who met national minimum standards in every test.

Mr Boyer noted SA fell in nine of the 20 categories compared to 2019, particularly year 9 reading.

“We are going backwards across key subjects,” he said.

There was no NAPLAN in 2020 because of Covid-19, but a comparison with 2019 shows SA students improved compared to interstate counterparts in 12 of the 20 categories.

Among the eight states and territories, SA had been 6th or 7th on 16 measures in 2019 and 4th or 5th in only four.

This year, SA was 6th or 7th on eight measures and 4th or 5th in 12.

While a considerable improvement, SA was only ahead of the national average in year 9 writing.

Glen Osmond Primary School deputy principal Daniela Lawlor said teaching literacy using phonics with systematic and explicit instruction was proving beneficial.

“NAPLAN has helped us look at the strengths and needs of students,” she said.

ACARA has introduced a trend analysis of data traced back to 2008, when NAPLAN began, in addition to year by year results.

“Generally, the average trend is positive with improvements for year 3 and 5 reading and year 5, 7 and 9 numeracy,” Mr De Carvalho said.

The gain was equivalent to today’s students being one term ahead of students in those year levels 13 years ago.

More than 1.2 million students took part in NAPLAN, with 70 per cent of tests conducted online.

In SA, all but a handful of schools used the online platform.

It is dynamic – pitching tougher questions at students answering the first batch correctly and broader questions at others to get a deeper picture of their capability.

Once all schools are online, Mr De Carvalho said results would be processed faster and ACARA would consider moving the test to term 1 rather than term 2.

ACARA also is considering broadening tests to include IT and scientific capability and understanding of civics.