Results and reports
NAPLAN results are reported in a number of ways, including national results, individual student reports and school-level reporting on the My School website.
NAPLAN tests are not pass/fail assessments.
From 2023, NAPLAN results are reported against proficiency standards, with student achievement shown against 4 levels of proficiency. There is a standard for each assessment area at each year level. This replaces the previous numerical NAPLAN bands and national minimum standards. The NAPLAN measurement scale and time series have also been reset.
NAPLAN national results
NAPLAN national results are provided in an interactive online report that includes results at each year level and domain by state/territory and nationally, by gender, Indigeneity, language background other than English status, parental occupation, parental education, and remoteness.
ACARA works with states and territories to analyse this unique data set – allowing us to see how students have progressed in the important areas of literacy and numeracy across the years of schooling.
Prior to 2023, NAPLAN national results were released as a national report in PDF format. The NAPLAN technical report continues to be provided as a PDF. Technical reports and past national reports are available at the bottom of this page.
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NAPLAN results for schools
Results for schools and students who completed NAPLAN are provided to schools in the student and school summary report (SSSR), or other reporting provided by the state/territory test administration authority. See How to interpret the SSSR (PDF 5.3 MB) for more information.
See the NAPLAN scales and proficiency standards section of this page for more information on the new NAPLAN proficiency standards or read NAPLAN 2023 results – information for principals and teachers (PDF 160 KB).
NAPLAN results for students, parents and carers (individual student reports)
All students who participate in NAPLAN receive an individual report of their results. Individual student reports are not provided for the NAP sample assessments.
NAPLAN individual student reports (ISRs) will be provided to schools from Term 3, with timing determined by the state or territory test administration authority.
From 2023, NAPLAN individual student results are reported against proficiency standards to provide parents and carers clear information on student achievement.
The proficiency standards are set to a challenging but reasonable level expected for students at the time of NAPLAN testing. What NAPLAN assesses has not changed.
Reading a NAPLAN individual student report
The front page of the student report provides general information about the tests and an explanation of how to read the report.
The second and third pages show the student’s result in each assessment area. The results are classified into one of 4 proficiency levels: Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support.
The report shows the student’s achievement against the national average for their year (shown as a black triangle) and the range of achievement for the middle 60% of students in their year level (shown as a light shaded rectangle). Reports in some states and territories also show the school average.
The final page of the report provides a brief summary of the skills typically demonstrated by students at each proficiency level. Longer descriptions of the skills typically demonstrated by a student at each proficiency level can be found at proficiency level descriptions.
Watch our video on reading NAPLAN ISRs (3:15) | transcript (PDF 130 KB):
See the Individual student report – brochure for parents/carers (PDF 165 KB). The brochure is also available in the following languages:
Translations copyright the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and reproduced with thanks.
Other resources for ISRs:
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Education ministers agreed that NAPLAN test results would be reported using proficiency standards from 2023. Together with the move to an earlier NAPLAN in March, these changes meet an initiative of the 2019 National School Reform Agreement.
The proficiency standards are reported on reset NAPLAN measurement scales that make better use of the online adaptive tests.
A new NAPLAN time series begins from 2023. Results from 2023 on cannot be directly compared to results from 2008 to 2022.
Scales
NAPLAN results are reported using measurement scales for each of the assessment areas of numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, and grammar and punctuation (these last 2 together called conventions of language). There are 5 scales in all.
Proficiency standards
The NAPLAN proficiency standards include 4 proficiency levels for each assessment area at each year level:
- Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
- Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
- Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
- Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
Each of the standards represents increasingly challenging skills and understandings as students move through the years of schooling.
The number and percentage of questions a student needs to answer correctly to achieve a result in a given level varies depending on the test domain, year level and, for non-writing tests, the student’s pathway through the tailored test.
A student’s score point on each scale is determined by the student’s total test score rather than the most difficult item correctly answered. Typically, students will be able to correctly answer most of the items that are below their score point and may correctly answer some of the items above their score point.
The diagram below illustrates the progression of proficiency levels from Year 3 to Year 9. It shows an average of the five assessment areas. There are slight variations between assessment areas – the precise location of each proficiency level on the NAPLAN scale will be published in the NAPLAN 2023 Technical Report. (Click image to enlarge.)
Other resources:
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How were the proficiency standards and levels set?
The proficiency standards were set by expert panels of subject area specialist teachers from states and territories. The panels classified NAPLAN questions into proficiency levels based on their judgement of what students in each year level and test domain could achieve, and the knowledge and skills expected of students at the time of testing. These judgements were mapped onto the NAPLAN measurement scales to set numerical cut points between the levels.
These cut points were then validated by the panels in the process of developing the proficiency level descriptions. These descriptions provide information about what students in each proficiency level can typically demonstrate. The descriptions have been written using the Australian Curriculum as a reference.
The cut points for each year level and proficiency level have been established in 2023 and will not change in future years. This will allow the monitoring of school-level performance over time.
How do the changes more clearly report student achievement?
The proficiency levels allow teachers and parents to see a measure of each student’s achievement and show more clearly whether a student is meeting expectations for their current stage of schooling.
The names of the 4 proficiency levels are descriptive and provide a summary of students’ performances. For example, the Exceeding level indicates a student has exceeded the expectations for their current stage of schooling. Similarly, the terms selected for the other 3 levels in each year convey a summary of performance: Strong, Developing and Needs additional support.
What other ways will there be to gauge student performance?
A new results time series begins from 2023, which means results from 2023 onwards cannot be directly compared with results from 2008 to 2022. This is because the measurement scales have been reset to take advantage of all students now taking the tests online (except Year 3 writing), the enhanced assessment properties of the NAPLAN tests, particularly the tailored test design, and because students are now assessed earlier in the year (March not May).
On the individual student report, a student's performance relative to that of other students in the same year group can be observed by comparing the student’s result to the national average and to where the student’s result is relative to the range of achievement for the middle 60% of students.
On ACARA’s My School website, parents, carers and teachers can continue to see the average performance of students in each year level at their school through the NAPLAN Results and Student Progress pages.
School reports provided to principals and teachers by the test administration authorities in each state and territory have more detailed information.
Is Needs additional support the new national minimum standard?
The previous national minimum standard provided an approximate measure of which students needed additional support but identified too few of these students. It could also give the impression that a student had met learning expectations if they were above the national minimum standard. The new Needs additional support level is a better representation of students who need additional support.
Is it only students in the Needs additional support level who need specific support?
The Needs additional support proficiency level is intended to identify students who are at risk of not progressing satisfactorily at school. Students with results in other levels may also need support in particular areas. Those in the Developing level are likely to need more support than those in the Exceeding and Strong levels.
Teachers can use the information in these assessments together with their own knowledge of a student to identify if support is required for students in levels other than Needs additional support.