Northern Territory students have been making strong gains in NAPLAN over the past six years from 2011 – 2017, compared to overall NAPLAN performance nationally.
In 2017, the Territory’s remote Aboriginal students saw increased achievement in nineteen of the twenty test measures, compared to 2016.
Chief Executive of Department of Education Vicki Baylis said it is promising to see 2017 NAPLAN results showing some Territory student cohorts comparing favourably to the rest of Australia.
“There is still work to do, however we are heading in the right direction with the Territory’s long term NAPLAN results showing overall improvement,” she said.
“The Northern Territory is a unique jurisdiction with a hugely diverse population compared to the rest of Australia. Nearly 50% of our students are located in remote or very remote locations across the Territory with many speaking English as a second language.
“We acknowledge this can be challenging which is why as part of the enhanced School Resourcing Model, $4 million in ongoing funding will be distributed in school budgets from 2019, to increase support for students who speak English as a Second Language.”
Throughout 2018, the Department of Education has a sharp and narrow focus to improving overall student educational outcomes.
“In the Territory, our focus will continue to be ensuring our students make progress and are engaged and learning every day,” Ms Baylis said.
“Improving educational outcomes of our students is everyone’s business.
“We will continue to work with parents and the community to ensure students attend school every day, so that teachers can engage students with learning and we see that progress and improvement.”
HIGHLIGHTS:
· Six‑year cohort gains for the NT have been strong compared to performance nationally. The Year 3 to Year 9 gains from 2011 to 2017 were stronger in the NT compared to nationally for all domains except writing.
· Four‑year cohort gains for the NT have been strong compared to performance nationally. For the Year 7 student cohort there were stronger achievement gains in the NT than nationally over the four years to 2017 evident for each domain, except numeracy where the NT and national gain were on par.
· The Year 9 student cohort also had stronger gains than nationally over the four years to 2017 for spelling and numeracy and similar gains for the other three test domains.
· The Territory’s remote Aboriginal students saw an increased achievement in 2017 for every test domain and year level (except for Year 3 grammar and punctuation) compared to 2016.
· NT non-Aboriginal results compare favourably with national results by geolocation, with higher achievement results common across test domains and year levels.
· NT wide, full cohort significant increases in achievement in 2017, compared to the base year, were recorded for:
Year 3 in reading and spelling; and
Year 5 in spelling.
· Increased achievement for Aboriginal students in 2017 was significant compared to the base year for:
Year 3 for reading; and
Year 5 for reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy.
· Increased achievement for non-Aboriginal students in 2017 was significant compared to the base year for:
Year 3 for reading, spelling and grammar and punctuation;
Year 5 for reading, spelling and numeracy; and
Year 7 for spelling
· Three significant increases in 2017 were recorded compared to the previous year, for:
Aboriginal Year 5 students for reading;
Aboriginal Year 5 students for spelling; and
Aboriginal Year 9 students for numeracy.
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