NATIONAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

LITERACY AND NUMERACY (NAPLAN)

The 2012 Year 3 and 5 NAPLAN results for Reservoir West Primary School are set out below.

Theresults were quite good in the Year 5 cohort with all areas apart from Reading being above the State Average. The Year 3 results were not quite as strong, with only Writing and Numeracy at or above the state averages.

The first two tables below set out the State Average, the School Average for 2012 and, for comparison, the School Average from 2011, which shows whether the school improved its absolute scores from last year. The numbers relate to the National Assessment Program Scaled Score. This score does not explicitly relate to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards, upon which the June and December Achievement Report assessments are based. This can be somewhat confusing, but NAPLAN results and teachers assessments against VELS (soon to be AUSVELS as we move towards a National Curriculum) are very different processes.

YEAR 5 AVERAGES

YEAR 3 AVERAGES

One way to judge a school’s performance in NAPLAN is to compare the school’s average score to that of the state as we have done above. Another way is to compare the improvement made by students in Year 5 this year, who sat the assessment at this school in Year 3, 2010.This result can also be compared to the State Average of the improvement of Year 3, 2010 to Year 5, 2012.

The NAPLAN Reporting Guide indicates that one year’s development should equate to approximately 52 points in the National Assessment Program Scaled Score. From Year 3 to Year 5 is two years, so that should equate to an improvement of 104 points. I hope I am making sense.

According to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, which supervises NAPLAN in Victoria, 104 points of improvement would be an excellent result, but the typical amount of improvement from Year 3 to Year 5 in Australia is approximately 78 points. From Year 5 to Year 7 is slightly less and Year 7 to Year 9 even less.

The following table shows the average scores of all of the students in Year 3, 2010 at Reservoir West, the average scores of the same students in Year 5, 2012 and the difference between the two. It also contains the same information from across the state.

From the data above it can be seen that the average difference that the school has provided is above the average for the state, apart from Reading, which is very close. Writing, Spelling and Grammar & Punctuation averages have all improved at a rate that is well over the state average.

A new way of judging a school’s performance has been provided for the first time this year. The Relative Growth Report is a newreport which shows the level of growth for each student relativeto similar ability students and enables a school to make more informed judgements about a student’s progress between testing periods.

Each student’s level of relative growth is determined by comparing their result to results of Victorian students who had the same NAPLAN score two years ago. If, compared to the 2012 Year 5 scores for this group of ‘similar’ students, the student’s current year NAPLAN score is in the:

1. highest 25%, his/her growth is categorised as ‘High’
2. middle 50%, his/her growth is categorised as ‘Medium’
3. lowest 25%, his/her growth is categorised as ‘Low’

Obviously a school would like as many students as possible to be in the ‘High’ growth category and a smaller number in the ‘Low’ category. This table displays Reservoir West’s relative growth from Year 3, 2010 to Year 5, 2012:

*Because of the change in the genre for Writing from a ‘narrative’ to ‘persuasive’ text, it was not possible to compare the results.

However, apart from Reading, where the ‘low’ improvement was sizeable, the other results were extremely positive, especially Spelling and Grammar & Punctuation.