Phonics factor kicking in for improved South Australian students' NAPLAN scores in 2023; teenage boys a concern

South Australian 2023 NAPLAN results showed boys continued to perform best in numeracywhile girls outperformed boys in all other topics.

South Australia improved its ranking against the other Australian mainland states in six out of 20 categories in the national schools literacy and numeracy testing – with credit to the phonics screening tests for Year 1 students from 2018.

South Australian state government education minister Blair Boyer that phonics screening tests had brought “significant improvement” in the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.  The biggest jump in 2023 for South Australia was in Year 5 reading, where the state rose from fifth among New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, to third. The reading rank also improved in Year 3 (from fourth spot to third) and Year 7 (fifth to fourth). In spelling, South Australia’s rank increased one place in Year 3 (fourth to third) and Year 7 (fifth to fourth). Writing results also rose one spot in Year 5 to fourth. 

Year 9 – especially with teenage boys – was the only level that saw a drop in rankings. Spelling and grammar and punctuation both saw the state’s ranking decrease from fourth to fifth. Almost half of Year 3 students did not meet expectations for their age in grammar, such as being able to properly use capital letters or commas. The proportion of students who fell short of new benchmarks was just as high in Year 9 and skyrocketed past 70% among indigenous students.

For the first time, the national literacy and numeracy tests identified how many children in each year level “need additional support” to meet expectations in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation or numeracy. NAPLAN results in 2023 changed to place students in one of four categories, rather than the previous 10 bands. Authorities said expectations of students were “set at a higher level than in previous years”, and the test was brought forward from May to March. This meant it was no longer possible to directly compare results from the previous 14 14 years with the 2023 outcome.

But the new category of “needs additional support” gave a more realistic picture of children struggling with key skills, compared to the smaller proportion of children shown in previous years to be falling below the “national minimum standard” which was found in a 2020 review not to be “challenging enough”. South Australian minister Boyer said he and his counterparts around the nation agreed to “change NAPLAN to lift the minimum standards and provide a simpler measure of progress so that families have better, easier to understand information about how their child is tracking”.

South Australian education department chief executive Martin Westwell said NAPLAN results “provide some important insights into how students are tracking but they also show the continued need of our state with higher levels of disadvantage (than other jurisdictions)”.

Data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority showed  an average of one in 10 Australian students who took NAPLAN tests in 2023 were identified as “needing additional support”. Worryingly, 19.7% of Year 9 teenage boys fell into this category when tested on writing (compared to 16.1% nationally) and 19.2% on grammar and punctuation (16.6% nationally).

The lowest proportion of boys needing extra tuition to reach expected standards for their age was 8.3% for Year 3 writing. The most girls identified as needing extra help in any category was 12.6% for numeracy in Year 3 (10.8% nationally). The lowest proportion of girls was also for Year 3 writing at 4.1%.

Overall, boys continued to perform best in numeracy, while girls outperformed boys in all other topics.