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Schools and students who sat the NAPLAN test in term one will have to wait until term three to receive their results, despite sitting the test two months earlier than they did in previous years.

Principals and education experts said the expected July release of 2023 individual and school-level NAPLAN results was a wasted opportunity to give teachers more time to use the data to help students grow their numeracy and literacy skills.

Scoresby Secondary College principal Gail Major says her school had hoped to see this year’s NAPLAN results earlier in the year.Credit: Joe Armao

The NAPLAN test underwent two important changes this year that were meant to give schools earlier access to their results. The test was held in mid-March instead of May, and all students did the test online for the first time.

NAPLAN was shifted to March “so the results would be available earlier in the year to inform teaching and learning programs”, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority said in the week students sat the test this year.

Victorian principals were told by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority last week that their schools should expect to receive their results in “mid to late July”, during term three. In previous years results have come in late August or early September, also in term three.

Gail Major, the executive principal of Scoresby Secondary College, said the school had hoped the earlier testing would enable authorities to release the results earlier, so it could “put in place targeted improvement opportunities earlier so they would be more impactful”.

“The results coming earlier would actually help teachers, together with other data they have collected, to personalise the learning goals for students,” she said.

Monash University School of Education lecturer Dr Venesser Fernandes said students and parents were doubly disadvantaged by an earlier test and a late release of results.

Fernandes said students who sat the test in term one would not have had time to master concepts for their new year level, while teachers who receive results in term three would have insufficient chance to help students whose results indicate they need extra support.

“By putting the results out in July, it’s still valuable as a systems tool, but to the 1 million children who sit the test, I don’t think it is directly of value,” she said.

St Francis Xavier Primary School principal Philip Cachia says this year’s results will be less useful.Credit: Justin McManus

Fernandes is surveying students’ views on this year’s changes to the NAPLAN test as part of an investigation for the university, including whether they are happy to be tested earlier in the school year.

Students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit NAPLAN, a nationwide assessment of literacy and numeracy skills and progress.

NAPLAN reporting will also be simplified when results are released this year, with the number of proficiency bands students are split into dropping from 10 to four categories: exceeding, strong, developing and needing additional support.

Schools’ performance in the test is also measured and reported against comparable schools.

One of the criticisms of NAPLAN in previous years was that by the time schools received their results in term three, it was too late to use, Victorian Association of State Schools president Colin Axup said.

“The earlier you get that information, the quicker you can respond to it,” he said.

Philip Cachia, principal of St Francis Xavier Primary School in Montmorency, said testing students in March and giving schools the results in July was potentially less useful than the previous NAPLAN schedule.

Teachers at his school will prepare mid-year reports in coming weeks.

“It would have been useful to have those NAPLAN results now when we are writing mid-year reports; they could be used to verify our own assessments,” he said.

Results released in July would have little relevance to a student’s end-of-year reports, he said.

“By the end of the year they are not very useful because a March assessment will have nothing to do with what’s happening in December,” Cachia said.

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority was contacted for comment.

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