By Lucy Carroll
Thousands of NSW students have failed to meet basic benchmarks in the latest round of NAPLAN testing, with results exposing the sheer scale of the gap between advantaged children and their disadvantaged peers.
One in three students performed below expectations in this year’s literacy and numeracy exams, while 40 per cent of year 9 children failed grammar and punctuation tests, indicating they struggled to recognise verbs or locate commas in sentences.
The results are likely to intensify the battle between federal Education Minister Jason Clare and his state counterparts, who are at loggerheads over how much extra cash will be pumped into the next schools funding deal.
Clare has issued an ultimatum to state ministers, giving them until September to sign on to an agreement that links an extra $16 billion in school funding to a suite of reforms aimed at lifting performance.
“These results show why serious reform is needed, and why we need to tie additional funding to reforms that will help students catch up, keep up and finish school,” he said.
The academic scorecard reveals little change compared with last year. In year 3, one-third of students failed to meet the baseline standard in reading, numeracy and spelling.
In the first year of high school, twice as many boys than girls are unable to read and write at the basic level expected for their age.
About 40 per cent of year 3 and year 9 NSW students failed to meet proficiency in grammar tests.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The alarming results again lay bare the entrenched gap between rich and poor students across the state, and between children in the city and their regional and rural peers.
Primary aged children whose parents hold a university qualification were about 10 times as likely to achieve in the top “exceeding” band than those whose parents did not finish year 12.
About two in three children whose parents did not complete high school failed to meet standards in reading and maths across most grades tested.
Research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies Glenn Fahey said Australian student achievement levels – and the gaps between students – remain disappointing given high levels of taxpayer spending.
Despite more than $600 billion injected into schools over the decade since the Gonksi reforms were initiated, there has been little evidence of major improvement in results.
“The new data is generally consistent with other test results that may point to a halt – though not a reversal – to decades of generally poor or declining outcomes,” he said.
An overall 38,000 students in NSW were identified in the lowest “needs additional support” band for reading across the four grades tested, while another 80,700 were in the “developing” category.
Just over 33,700 were identified as needing additional support in numeracy, and 87,000 in the developing band. For grammar and punctuation, about 50,000 students were marked as needing additional support, and another 97,000 were developing.
More than two-thirds of Indigenous students did not meet baseline standards in year 9 reading and numeracy tests. At least half of teenagers tested in the state’s remote or outer regional schools were in the lowest two bands in maths and reading.
There are some positive signs for writing assessment results in NSW, where 80 per cent of children in year 3 met basic standards.
NAPLAN tests the reading, numeracy, grammar and punctuation, writing and spelling ability of students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. About 400,000 students in NSW took the tests this year, and were measured against four proficiency bands for the second time.
The results come as the states and Commonwealth are locked in a bitter feud over funding as part of the next Better and Fairer Schools Agreement.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car has indicated she will refuse to sign a proposed deal – which ties extra federal cash to education reforms – unless the Commonwealth doubles its current funding offer.
Clare’s proposed reforms include reducing the proportion of students in the lowest NAPLAN band by 10 per cent, increasing those in the top band, and lifting year 12 completion rates, which are on a long-term slide in NSW.
Nick Parkinson, a senior associate at the Grattan Institute, said the results confirm alarming findings from last year.
“It paints a sobering picture and will offer little consolation to many NSW families. The message they send is clear. It’s time to get serious about preventing students from falling through the cracks,” he said.
“These results show big gaps between the educational haves and have-nots.”
The stark gap between students whose parents hold a bachelor’s degree and those whose parents didn’t finish school widens to almost six years of learning by year 9.
“The good news is that the NSW government can turn this around. Without action, we risk countless more report cards echoing the worrying results this year,” Parkinson said.
“Setting long-term targets will help raise the ambition for achievement. Almost all students can achieve proficiency in literacy and numeracy if taught well,” he said.
Car said results show the state’s students “overall are doing well, but there are gaps that need our attention. The Minns Labor government has already begun rebuilding public education, but we recognise that there is still much more to do,” she said.
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