Literacy and numeracy results show improvement
17 September 2009
Encouraging start ... the 2009 NAPLAN results showed an increase in the number of Queensland students meeting national standards from the previous year.
Efforts to improve Queensland's literacy and numeracy results appear to be working, with the number of Queensland students meeting national benchmarks on the rise.
The summary results of the 2009 National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests were released on September 11.
The results showed the number of Queensland students at or above the national standards increased in 17 out of 20 areas tested, with about nine out of 10 Queensland students meeting or exceeding the benchmarks - up on last year.
Education and Training Minister Geoff Wilson praised the work of teachers and students and said Queensland was catching up with the other states.
'We've improved on our results more than the two leading states have, and reduced the gap between us and them,' Mr Wilson said.
'This is an encouraging start. We've still got along way to go, but we have a plan to get there.'
Department of Education and Training Director-General Julie Grantham said the results were an encouraging sign and urged teachers to continue the good work.
'Queensland has shown improvements across the overwhelming majority of NAPLAN test result areas in both mean (average) scores and the proportion of students achieving the national minimum standards,' Ms Grantham said.
'I have been so impressed by the commitment and tremendous efforts of staff towards helping our students achieve these improved results.
'We must continue to focus on lifting the performance of every student in our schools.
'To do this we must lift our expectations of them, continue to improve the quality of our teaching and learning programs and deliver quality curriculum.'
Assistant Director-General, Corporate Strategy and Performance, Jeff Hunt said the department would continue to work with schools to lift results.
Mr Hunt urged schools to focus on lifting the performance of students right across the NAPLAN achievement bands.
'We have demonstrated with our Year 7 numeracy result, where we ranked fourth, that our performance can emulate those of the higher performing jurisdictions,' he said.
'We should continue to focus on boosting our performance in the higher bands at each year level.'
Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in every Australian state and territory sat the NAPLAN tests in May. The tests covered reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy.
The 2009 NAPLAN summary results are available from the NAPLAN website 
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