NAPLAN results show Qld trailing in both performance and participation

Alarming new NAPLAN data reveals Queensland school students are trailing the nation both in performance and participation. SEE THE DATA

Queensland children were withdrawn from this year’s NAPLAN tests at more than five times the rate of other jurisdictions, as the state remained firmly at the back of the pack in national literacy and numeracy results.

A push from the Queensland Teachers’ Union to encourage teachers to withdraw their own children from the controversial testing led to sky-high withdrawal rates, with almost one in five Year 9 students not sitting the national tests.

This year’s NAPLAN assessment results are the first to be revealed since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, after last year’s tests were scrapped.

About 274,000 Queensland students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat this year’s tests, with about 180,000 taking them online.

Across the nation students largely weathered the storm of major schooling disruptions, with this year’s results showing no major change from 2019 – a result Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority chief executive David de Carvalho described as a relief.

St Paul’s School Year 3 students (from left) Christian McArthur, Grace Murphy, Jayden Lu and Raina Mahajan. Picture: Tara Croser

While in Queensland results also remained steady, the percentage of students meeting the national minimum standard remained lower than the Australian average in every year level, in every subject.

But the state did record some bright spots, with star gains in Year 3 reading and writing; Year 5 reading, writing and spelling; Year 7 writing and spelling; and Year 9 writing.

Earlier this year the Queensland Teachers’ Union caused a stir when it urged its 47,000 members to withdraw their own children from sitting the tests.

In Year 9 numeracy, 9.2 per cent of Queensland kids were officially withdrawn with a further 9.9 per cent of students absent, meaning close to 20 per cent of students didn’t sit NAPLAN.

By comparison, NSW and Tasmania saw just 1.5 per cent of kids withdrawn, while 2.7 per cent of Victorian kids were withdrawn.

Across all subjects, Year 9 participation rates sat in the low 80s, with Year 7 at about 89 per cent.

Even at the other end of the spectrum, the Year 3 overall participation rate in Queensland was about 92 per cent, compared with about 97 per cent in NSW and about 95 per cent in Victoria.

QTU president Cresta Richardson said the state historically had a high withdrawal rate from NAPLAN.

“Since only parents can withdraw their children, this shows Queenslanders have long had, and continue to have, doubts about the usefulness of NAPLAN,” she said.

“We will continue to communicate that NAPLAN is not mandatory and that it should be abolished in its current form.

“It narrows the curriculum; results are unreliable and being more than a decade old, has had its time.”

ACARA’s Mr de Carvalho said maximum NAPLAN participation was encouraged given “the objective of NAPLAN is to support positive educational outcomes for all Australian children”.

“As students progress through their school years it’s important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics – skills that will set them upon the path to success as adults,” he said.

While Queensland’s mean scale score slipped backwards in 12 out of the 20 categories, none were by a statistically significant amount, according to ACARA.

Despite concerns the major schooling disruptions would have catastrophic outcomes on children’s schooling, Mr de Carvalho said instead the data showed a steady improvement in most areas.

“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 … despite the disruption from Covid-19 and the remote learning experience.

“Some might find this surprising but it’s important to note this is big picture data and there are likely to be some students who have been affected.”

He also said the results were “testament to the resilience of students, teachers, parents and carers, and school and system leaders during these challenging times.’’

Independent Schools Queensland chief executive Christopher Mountford said parents should feel reassured that this year’s NAPLAN data showed student learning remained “largely on track” despite the mass disruptions and challenges.

Mr Mountford said schools would review their student, class, year group and school level results to identify who and what areas of classroom teaching and learning are doing well and where improvements could be made.