NAPLAN 2023: Qld students fall short on key metrics

Students are falling short of basic national standards for writing, grammar and punctuation, the latest NAPLAN results have revealed.

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Almost one in five Queensland Year 9 students are falling short of basic national standards for writing, grammar and punctuation, the latest NAPLAN results have revealed.

The results show our state’s youngest are also struggling to meet basic benchmarks with the proportion of Year 3 students who need extra support 12 per cent or higher in four of the five NAPLAN subjects.

The worst was 16.4 per cent of the cohort falling into the bottom category for grammar and punctuation.

Queensland’s Year 9 cohort also had the worst participation rate in the country, with one in five students skipping the tests by being absent or withdrawn by their parents.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority released the 2023 NAPLAN state-by-state results on Wednesday off the back of three significant changes to this year’s tests – it moved from May to March, a new measurement scale was brought in to gauge student progress against national benchmarks, and the tests going fully online.

The new measurement scale has four proficiency scales – ‘exceeding’ and ‘strong’ mean the student is above the expected national benchmark, while ‘developing’ shows the student is below the standard but getting there, and ‘needs additional support’ is cause for concern.

Overall, the Sunshine State has a higher proportion of students needing extra help in all subjects and all year levels, compared to Victoria and NSW.

In some cases, Queensland has more than double the number of students “needing additional support” than Victoria and NSW.

Writing was the only subject where Queensland Year 3 students came close to interstate counterparts with only 8.7 per cent needing extra help.

The other four subjects saw high numbers of students needing extra attention.

Queensland’s Year 5 cohort performed much stronger and even bettered other states in some instances such in reading and spelling.

Writing was the worst subject for Year 5 with more than 40 per cent of students either “needing additional support” or “developing”.

The Year 5 cohort was close to other states’ results in grammar and punctuation, but were well below in the number of children “exceeding” expectations in numeracy.

For the state’s Year 7s, writing was again the main concern with almost 45 per cent “needing additional support” or still “developing” towards national standards.

Reading was another tough subject with around 35 per cent “needing additional support” or “developing”.

Queensland Year 7 results came close to interstate standards for the other three subjects, and particularly of note, only 8.7 per cent of Queensland Year 7s needed extra help with spelling.

However, the proportion of Year 9 students needing additional support in writing was 17 per cent, with another 30 per cent of the cohort falling into the developing category.

It was a similar story with their grammar and punctuation – 16.2 per cent need extra help and 30 per cent are still developing.

Reading and numeracy were marginally better, with 40 per cent or more needing additional support or development

For spelling only, only 8.9 per cent needed extra attention, while 21 per cent are developing.

Queensland Teachers' Union president Cresta Richardson has labelled the NAPLAN tests as “not fit for purpose”.

Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson, who previously said NAPLAN should be “put out to pasture”, reiterated that the tests were “not fit for purpose”.

“Teachers know it, parents know it and students know it. And this has been reinforced with higher withdrawal rates each year,” she said.

“Teachers and school leaders do not rely on NAPLAN data to determine students’ progress or learning needs.

“The day-to-day teaching and learning of the Australian Curriculum is a far more reliable gauge of student progress.”

The QTU has campaigned for several years for member teachers and principals with children to withdraw them from the NAPLAN test.

Education Minister Grace Grace conceded the QTU campaign has played a part in the state’s high withdrawal and absentee rates.

“While our NAPLAN participation rates have improved this year, they remain some of the lowest of all jurisdictions,” she said.

Education Minister Grace Grace has played down the state’s NAPLAN results, insisting it is only one of many measuring tools for the education system. Photo: Liam Kidston.

Overall, Ms Grace said Queensland’s results are “a mixed bag” and she emphasised NAPLAN is just one tool used to measure student progress.

“Differences with Victoria and New South Wales are historical and largely reflect the different demographics and socio-economic profiles of each state,” she said.

“When socio-economic status as measured by the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) is taken into account, Queensland performance is generally as expected.

“We have nearly two thirds of our students in the top two bands, which shows they are achieving above what is a challenging but reasonable standard.

“Of course I would like to see more students in the top category of results and this makes our new Equity and Excellence education strategy all the more important, and it’s why, earlier this year, I asked my department to develop a new reading commitment for Queensland.

“As we implement the new version of the Australian Curriculum this commitment will be a new system wide consistent approach to teaching reading in every classroom in every school.”