West Australian students are continuing to perform well in national literacy and numeracy assessments, with NAPLAN participation rates leading the nation.

Education Minister Peter Collier said WA students showed significant mean increases for 12 of the 20 NAPLAN assessments between 2008 and 2015, and have the largest number of improved mean scores, together with Queensland.

“For the first time, Year 9 means and percentages of students achieving at or above the national minimum standard in all assessments are higher than the Australian means and percentages,” Mr Collier said.

The Minister’s comments followed today’s release of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2015 summary information.

Areas of improvement are Year 3 reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation; Year 5 reading, spelling and numeracy; Year 7 reading and grammar and punctuation; and Year 9 reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation and numeracy.

“For all 20 tests, the Western Australian participation rate is higher than the Australian average.  In 2015, WA had the highest participation rate across all tests in Year 9, second highest in Year 7 and third highest in years 3 and 5,” Mr Collier said.

NAPLAN test results provide a snapshot of student achievement in comparison to all students of the same year level across the country.  They assist teachers to better identify students who require additional support.

Student reports will be distributed by schools in mid-August. The full national report will be released on December 2, 2015.

Fact File

• NAPLAN is a national assessment of all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9
• Students were assessed in language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation), writing, reading and numeracy
• NAPLAN tests are designed to complement regular assessments made by teachers throughout the year