Love it or hate it, it’s a wrap for NAPLAN 2024. A record 4.48 million online tests were successfully completed by more than 1.2 million students in 9,411 campuses and schools across Australia.
This is the second year NAPLAN has taken place in March and the third year of full online testing.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) CEO Stephen Gniel thanked students, teachers, schools and jurisdictions for their combined efforts in ensuring this year’s NAPLAN tests ran as smoothly and seamlessly as possible.
“NAPLAN is a massive operation to undertake each year and we have been working closely with our partners right around the country in preparing for these assessments,” said Mr Gniel.
“I’d like to give a big thank you to our fantastic teachers, principals and school staff for their hard work in getting their individual schools and students ready for these important assessments.
“I’d also like to thank our state and territory colleagues for their close collaboration and support in making NAPLAN 2024 such a successful test event.”
In addition to the 4.48 million online tests, thousands of Year three writing tests also took place on paper throughout the test period. Marking is now underway.
Preliminary results will be provided to schools in all domains except writing, which takes longer to mark. Schools will receive their full results, including writing, from June 2024, after which parents and carers receive their child’s Individual Student Report at the start of Term three. ACARA is then expecting to publish the National Results in August 2024.
Nationwide assessment tool
NAPLAN is the only national assessment that students in all schools across Australia participate in, with ACARA describing it as “one assessment tool that we have in addition to a school’s own assessments and, most importantly, the teacher’s knowledge of their students”.
“Not only does NAPLAN show us whether young Australians are developing the literacy and numeracy skills that provide the critical foundation for learning and for their adult life, but it also helps government and education authorities know how education approaches are working and where changes and support might be needed,” Mr Gniel added.
“That’s why it is so beneficial for Australian schools to be getting their preliminary results at the beginning of Term two, which is earlier than ever before in the history of the NAPLAN assessments – eight weeks earlier than in 2023 and a full school term earlier than 2022.
“It means teachers will have even more time to consider the results alongside their own assessments, and then use them to inform their teaching and learning programs in the current school year.”
