Parents eager to ensure their child receives the best possible education can access the performance of individual schools after the My School website was updated with new information on schools and the latest NAPLAN data.

The My School website provides detailed information on schools across Australia, including data on student and teacher numbers, attendance rates, income and expenditure and, most importantly, NAPLAN results.

“It’s an important resource for parents to make informed decisions about their children’s schooling,” Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) CEO David de Carvalho said.

“It also provides teachers with important insights into school performance, supporting and driving improvements across the nation.”

NAPLAN tests are conducted annually. Photo: Getty

Unpacking NAPLAN

NAPLAN stands for ‘National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy’ and is a series of standardised tests taken by students in years 3, 5, 7, and 9 across Australia.

It’s the only nationwide assessment that Australian children take.

The tests are designed to assess students’ literacy and numeracy skills, and the results are used to provide information to schools and teachers about student performance in these areas.

Dr Sally Larsen, lecturer and researcher at the School of Education at the University of New England, said one of NAPLAN’s strengths was that it enabled experts to track development patterns over time.

“The way the tests are designed means that you can actually track student progress and we see their main scores reported,” Dr Larsen said.

“You don’t get this type of data in many other places in the world.

“Other countries do some of these types of assessments, but they vary state by state.”

She said that it’s important for people to be cautious when interpreting NAPLAN results to understand the factors contributing to students’ reading and numeracy skills.

“There’s so many factors that influence student attainment in basic skills,” Dr Larsen said.

“I think you’ve got to be really careful interpreting individual results for individual students. Because it really is just one piece of information, and not very informative about schooling process.”

She warned parents to be cautious about overly relying on school-based NAPLAN averages to make decisions because “average pieces of information hide huge amounts of variability”.

On its website, the advice states: “[My School] should not replace visiting schools and speaking to teachers and principals to get an understanding of what each school offers its students. A child’s teacher will have the best insight into educational progress.”

Which school is best?

Choosing between schools can be a really tough decision for parents.

Some people believe private schools are better than public ones because they have a reputation for turning out students with a higher academic capability.

But other people think that public schools are just as good, if not better, and that private schools might not be worth the extra money.

Recently TND looked into whether private schools are actually worth the extra cost and whether children who go to private schools really do better than those who go to public schools.