From 2008, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) replaces the state based Literacy and Numeracy (LaN) tests which involved all students in Years 3, 5 and 7.

In May all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will undertake the NAPLAN tests over three successive days.

The Literacy tests will be conducted over two days and will cover aspects such as reading, writing and language conventions. The reading tests will be in multiple choice and short answer format and assess a student’s ability to comprehend a range of different text types of varying difficulty. For the writing tests, students write a text on a particular topic and use a coloured stimulus as a source of ideas. The language conventions tests assess spelling, and aspects of grammar and punctuation.

The Numeracy tests will occur on the day after the Literacy tests have been completed. As for the reading tests, the Numeracy questions will be in multiple choice and short answer format. Aspects of Numeracy that will be assessed include: number, algebra, function and pattern, space and measurement, chance and data.

Years 3 and 5 undertake only one Numeracy test while Years 7 and 9 do two Numeracy tests, one of which will permit the use of a calculator and one which will not have students using a calculator.

Parents will receive a report on their child’s achievement in the tests. This report will describe the child’s achievements on the aspects of Literacy and Numeracy assessed in relation to National Benchmarks which have been approved of by all Ministers of Education across Australia.

Schools will receive similar reports to those previously provided by the LaN tests.

The NAPLAN website, which includes samples of test questions for each year level, can be found at www.naplan.edu.au

The 2008 Writing Marking Guide, with annotated examples of student responses, is available here.

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