The NAPLAN Curriculum 2023

The National Assessment Program: Numeracy and Literacy (NAPLAN) is an exam required for pupils in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. During the second week of May, it is held across three school mornings. 

The test has been increasingly contentious recently, with instructors, parents, and students claiming that it does not accurately represent what the children have learned. Teachers fear that the time spent preparing for NAPLAN would be diverted from other topics. Parents worry that the testing is too long and too intensive for children in elementary school. Students also believe that the assessments are pointless since they do not represent their level of knowledge or aptitude to study. 

Some of these concerns have been addressed by modifying the exam structure and offering additional information about how schools might utilize NAPLAN results to improve their teaching practices. However, the criticism of NAPLAN and its efficacy as a testing system for primary school-aged pupils has not abated. 

NAPLAN Curriculum 

Across language, numeracy, and reading conventions 

The test items are generally based on knowledge, comprehension, and abilities earned the previous year. As with past NAPLAN examinations, there is a small amount of additional information between the testing year and the next year of testing, provided the issues can be answered logically and are not dependent on curriculum inclusion of new topics. This is done to guarantee that the test’s breadth of items allows all pupils to exhibit their aptitude. 

 The phrasing of the item descriptors (which define the abilities and knowledge evaluated in NAPLAN) that schools get alongside their students’ scores is closely tied to the Australian Curriculum: The English and Australian Curriculum: Mathematics.

Language test conventions  

The way material is provided to pupils in the NAPLAN norms of language examinations parallels how it is presented in the Australian Curriculum. This means that questions now contain slightly more metalanguage than before the alignment to the Australian Curriculum. 

For example, when the NAPLAN examination for Years 3 and 5 utilised terms like ‘noun’, ‘verb,’ and ‘adjective,’ there was an explanation in brackets; for example, ‘noun’ was followed by ‘naming word.’ The phrases ‘noun’ ,verb,’ and ‘adjective’ will now appear on the NAPLAN test without any explanation. 

Tests of numeracy 

The number of questions from each strand in the NAPLAN numeracy assessments corresponds to the proportion of strand material in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. There are significantly fewer space questions’ (such as aspects of 2D forms and 3D objects) and slightly more number, statistics, and probability questions than in previous examinations. The space objects are now referred to as ‘geometry items.’  

The number of numeracy items was reduced in 2017 to align with the Australian Curriculum and other NAPLAN areas. The number of questions on the Year 3 test rose from 35 to 36. The number of questions on the Year 5 test rose from 40 to 42.  

The number of elements in the numeracy test was lowered from 64 to 48 for Years 7 and 9. According to ACARA research, this adjustment has no significant impact on the numeracy test’s reliability and validity. Students in Years 7 and 9 take a single numeracy test that is divided into two parts: a calculator-allowed component and a non-calculator section. While the non-calculator component of the test is shorter, the total number of questions requiring mental calculation stays the same.  

Reading assessments 

The NAPLAN reading examinations focus on the Australian Curriculum: English reading curriculum, with text complexity levels comparable to pre-2016 NAPLAN readings. 

Creating tests 

The NAPLAN writing examinations and marking guides have not been changed significantly. Students, like in previous years, will be invited to submit a narrative or persuasive response to a writing challenge. 

There are different writing prompts for each year level; the text style or genre of the writing test will not be revealed prior to the test. The NAPLAN narrative or persuasive marking guides are used to grade students’ replies. 

The Australian National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) is a testing system used in Australian schools. It is intended to assess students’ reading, writing, spelling, and mathematical abilities in grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. It offers pupils a unique NAPLAN preparation year 3 and NAPLAN preparation year 5 test. Students are assessed on these abilities because they are necessary for everyday life. 

While NAPLAN test preparation is intended to examine these skills, the findings aren’t just beneficial for instructors managing student growth in their classrooms. It also gives parents useful information on how their children compare to other children their age in reading, writing, spelling, and math.  

NEWS NAPLAN 

According to NAPLAN news —Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, flu, and flooding, student participation in the 2022 NAPLAN test was “lower than typical.” 

ACARA stated that the preliminary results of the national standardized exam, which are generally issued in August, had been postponed due to “closer study.” 

According to CEO David de Carvalho, he stated a NAPLAN update that: 

“We need to examine closely at jurisdictional level patterns, in particular, to see if any change is attributable to general accomplishment level or to specific groups of kids who were missing due to testing, whether from lower or higher performing cohorts.” 

Recent news NAPLAN 2022 is that:  

“We had 4.3 million exams successfully submitted, a notable achievement given many schools were struggling with staffing and attendance problems exacerbated by COVID-19, influenza, and, in some cases, floods; those particular conditions led to record low participation rates this year.” 

NAPLAN update 2021 indicated by ACARA is that participation rates in elementary schools decreased by 1 to 2 percent and 2 to 3 percent in high schools. 

Participation percentages varied from 85% in Year 9 numeracy to 95% in Year 5 reading. So, we can conclude that NAPLAN today is more popular and one of the most secure tests in terms of examining children’s performance.