Results to be released 'earlier than ever' in new-look NAPLAN

On March 13, 1.3 million students across more than 9400 schools across the country will be required to test their reading, numeracy, spelling, grammar and punctuation skills.

Approximately 40,000 students are expected to take part in NAPLAN in the Newcastle, Hunter Valley and Lake Macquarie region.

Following a national agreement from all education ministers and the Australian Curriculum Assessment Authority (ACARA), the acceleration comes in a move for teachers to consider results and use them to improve teaching and learning programs for their students.

"Under the changes, schools and education authorities will receive preliminary school and student results from the assessments early in term two," ACARA released in a statement.

"This is eight weeks earlier than in 2023, a full school term earlier than 2022 and the earliest in the history of NAPLAN."

Last year the new-look NAPLAN saw participation levels bounce back in 2023, up from 91.4 per cent in 2022 to 93.3 per cent.

It was undertaken in March for the first time, compared to in May and a record 4.4 million tests were submitted online across 9390 campuses nationally.

The Hunter's selective, grammar, Catholic and Christian schools recorded higher results than the standard public system at high school level.

St Kevin's Primary School principal Kim Hogan said NAPLAN was used heavily at the Cardiff school to reveal strong areas and gaps.

"It gives us information we can use to plan and it's always good to get a standardised test. We capture data every day and we want to use it," she said.

She said early results would be beneficial like "target-testing" to implement better strategies earlier on.

At the primary school level last year, some public schools in the region match or better the other education sectors.

Dudley Public School principal Chris Tsakissiris said the early time frame helped staff to gather a snapshot of learning needs for individual students.

"We were able to get a good pinpoint of where the students were at the start of the year," he said.

"So we're welcoming the early results because if it's left too long the results aren't relevant to that student at that point in time because kids grow and develop so quickly."

ACARA acting CEO Stephen Gniel said providing earlier results to schools was a key benefit in improving education but students should not feel "apprehensive about the assessment".

"NAPLAN is one assessment tool that we have in addition to a school's own assessments and, most importantly, the teacher's knowledge of their students," he said.

NAPLAN tests literacy and numeracy skills that are being developed in the classroom every day, with questions based mostly on what students have been taught from previous years of schooling.

"So, there's no need for students to undertake extra practice for NAPLAN and they should not feel apprehensive about the assessment," he said.

ACARA stated 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 3," they said.

ACARA is expecting to publish the national results in August 2024.