Despite some improvements, in 2018 about one in four Indigenous students in Years 5,7 and 9, and one in five in Year 3 remained below national minimum standards in reading. (Closing the Gap Report 2020)


Year 3

“In all achievement domains and for most jurisdictions, the mean scale scores for non-Indigenous students are higher than the mean scale scores for Indigenous students. Differences for Australia overall range from 66 score points writing to 94 score points in grammar and punctuation” (NAPLAN report 2019, p 63).

“For Australia, in all domains, at least 75% of Indigenous students achieved at or above the national minimum standard, compared to more than 94% of non-Indigenous students” (NAPLAN report 2019, p 63).

Year 5

“The percentage of Indigenous students who achieved at or above the national minimum standard is lower than the percentage of non-Indigenous students by 17 percentage points in spelling and numeracy, and 24 percentage points in grammar and punctuation for Australia overall” (NAPLAN report, 2019, p 127)

Year 7

“For Australia overall 78% of Indigenous students achieved at or above the national minimum standard in reading, 77% in spelling and 76% in numeracy”.

“In all achievement domains and for all jurisdictions, the mean scale scores for Indigenous students are below the mean scale score for non-Indigenous students. Differences for Australia overall range from 60 score points in spelling to 82 score points in grammar and punctuation.” (NAPLAN report, 2019, p 191).

Year 9

By Year 9 the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students ranges from 58 score points in spelling to 77 score points in writing
(NAPLAN report, 2019, p225).