The 2022 NAPLAN National Report has been released, with mostly stable national results year on year, The New Daily reports.
Despite fears that the pandemic is continuing to make learning difficult for children this year, this year’s NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) results have improved on previous years or remained stable, apart from a decrease in Year 5 numeracy and Year 9 spelling mean scores.
“Overall, for a second year in a row, the national-level results have defied predictions of drastic falls in performance related to COVID,” said David de Carvalho, CEO at the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.
Boys falling behind
This year’s NAPLAN results show female students continue to rank above male students in reading and writing tests across all year levels.
Mr de Carvalho said in particular, the percentage of Year 9 boys achieving the National Minimum Standard (NMS) in reading has fallen to a record low.
Of the Year 9 male cohort, 13.5 per cent did not achieve the NMS this year, compared to less than than 8.5 per cent in 2008.
This pulled down the 2022 national average for the entire Year 9 cohort.
“It is certainly concerning that we have so many students who are not demonstrating the capacity to read at this basic level only a few years before they leave school,” Mr de Carvalho said.
However, male students did better than female students in numeracy tests, continuing a years-long trend.
Non-Indigenous students ranked higher than Indigenous students across all year levels and categories, a consistent issue throughout all test categories and year levels.
The gap between these student groups is continuing, with consistent gaps in results posted since the inception of NAPLAN testing in 2008.
FULL STORY
2022 NAPLAN results ‘defied predictions’ (The New Daily)
