ACARA news, July 2025

Latest findings from the 2025 NAPLAN National Results released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) show that performance is broadly stable at a national level, with 2 out of 3 students at the “Strong” or “Exceeding” proficiency level for their reading, numeracy and writing skills, and one in 10 students at the “Needs additional support” level across all year groups and domains.

The findings also show that participation rates across all years and domains have rebounded to pre-COVID levels, reaching 93.8% – the highest level since 2017.

Commenting on the latest NAPLAN National Results, ACARA CEO, Stephen Gniel, said:

“As the only national assessment that helps teachers, parents and carers see how students are progressing in literacy and numeracy over time, NAPLAN is a key tool in the Australian education landscape.

“It’s encouraging to see higher NAPLAN scores on average across Years 5, 7 and 9 in numeracy, particularly among the stronger students. These may be small percentage changes, but the increases represent an additional 20,000 Australian students performing at the highest proficiency level – “Exceeding” – in 2025 compared to 2024.

“It’s also fantastic to see the national participation rates rebound, with Years 3 and 5 hitting their highest rates in over a decade, the Year 7 national participation rate the highest since 2017, and the Year 9 national participation rate exceeding the 90% mark for the first time since 2019.

“However, latest results also continue to highlight areas that need collective attention, such as supporting students from our regional and remote areas, those from a disadvantaged background, and Indigenous students.”

Read our media release (PDF 124 KB).

Find out more about the 2025 NAPLAN National Results.

Parents and carers of students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who took this year’s NAPLAN assessment in March will receive an individual student report (ISR) of their child’s results from their school from the start of Term 3.

Specific timing will be determined by the relevant state or territory test administration authority.

These reports provide useful information on a student’s results in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

NAPLAN individual student results are reported against proficiency standards. The standards are set at a challenging but reasonable expectation of what students know and can do at the time of testing.

There are 4 levels of proficiency, which provide parents and carers with clear information on their child’s achievement:

• Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
• Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
• Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
• Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

The front page of the ISR provides general information about the tests and an explanation of how to read the report. The student’s results in each of the assessment areas are set out in the middle pages of the report. The final page of the ISR provides a brief summary of the skills typically demonstrated by students at each of the proficiency levels.

Along with other school assessment reports, parents and carers can use the NAPLAN individual student reports to discuss their child’s progress with their teacher.

For more information:

• visit the Results and reports page on our NAP website
• read our parents and carers information guide on ISRs (PDF 294 KB) – it’s also available in other languages.