National Report on Schooling in Australia 2010
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education
7.4 Literacy and numeracy (Second Page)
Table 7.10 shows the national percentages by Indigenous status of Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students whose results place them at or above the minimum standard for Numeracy and the mean scale scores for Numeracy, by Indigenous status.
Key Performance Measure 2(a)
Proportion of students achieving at or above the national minimum standard for Numeracy
Key Performance Measure 2(b)
NAPLAN mean scale scores for Numeracy
|
Table 7.10 Achievement in Numeracy for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 at or above minimum standard and mean scale scores by
Indigenous status, Australia, 2010
Status
|
|
Percentage of students at or above national minimum standard (%) |
Mean scale score
|
Standard
deviation
|
Year 3
|
Indigenous
|
76.6
|
325.3
|
71.2
|
|
CI±
|
1.7
|
3.1
|
|
Non-Indigenous
|
95.3
|
399.0
|
69.8
|
|
CI±
|
0.2
|
0.9
|
|
All students
|
94.3
|
395.4
|
71.8
|
|
CI±
|
0.2
|
1.0
|
|
Year 5
|
|
|
|
Indigenous
|
71.4
|
416.9
|
70.5
|
|
CI±
|
1.9
|
3.1
|
|
Non-Indigenous
|
95.0
|
492.6
|
67.8
|
|
CI±
|
0.2
|
1.0
|
|
All students
|
93.7
|
488.8
|
69.9
|
|
CI±
|
0.2
|
1.0
|
|
Year 7
|
|
|
|
Indigenous
|
77.0
|
477.5
|
66.6
|
|
CI±
|
1.5
|
2.6
|
|
Non-Indigenous
|
96.1
|
551.4
|
70.8
|
|
CI±
|
0.2
|
1.5
|
|
All students
|
95.1
|
547.8
|
72.4
|
|
CI±
|
0.2
|
1.6
|
|
Year 9
|
|
|
|
Indigenous
|
70.4
|
515.2
|
64.7
|
|
CI±
|
1.9
|
2.8
|
|
Non-Indigenous
|
94.3
|
588.5
|
68.8
|
|
CI±
|
0.3
|
1.8
|
|
All students
|
93.1
|
585.1
|
70.4
|
|
CI±
|
0.3
|
1.8
|
|
Notes:
Exempt students were not assessed and are deemed not to have met the minimum standard.
CI = Confidence Interval
The percentages reported in this table include 95 per cent confidence intervals.
Confidence intervals should be used to compare data within 2010 only.
Sources: ACARA, National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy Achievement in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy 2010; ACARA (unpublished)
In 2010, Numeracy achievement was the highest for Year 7 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, with 77.0 per cent achieving at or above the national minimum standard. Year 9 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students had the lowest achievement, with 70.4 per cent achieving at or above the national minimum standard.
Further information about student achievement in Numeracy, by Indigenous status, is available from the 2010 NAPLAN National Report. Specific achievement data for Numeracy are included for Year 3 (p. 48), Year 5 (p. 112), Year 7 (p. 176) and Year 9 (p. 240).
Closing the Gap
The targets for the Closing the Gap strategy are to halve the gap in Reading, Writing and Numeracy achievement between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and non-Indigenous students by 2018 and to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student participation rates in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
Figures 7.6 to 7.9 depict the gaps between the proportions of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students achieving the minimum standards in each of the NAPLAN key domains in 2010. The number shown between the plot points for each domain is the percentage point difference or ‘gap’ between non-Indigenous and Indigenous achievement.
Figure 7.6 Achievement of Year 3 students at or above minimum standard, by NAPLAN key domains, by Indigenous status,
Australia, 2010
Note: The number shown between the plot points for each domain is the percentage point difference or ‘gap’ between non-Indigenous and Indigenous achievement.
Source: ACARA, National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy Achievement in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy 2010
Figure 7.7 Achievement of Year 5 students at or above minimum standard, by NAPLAN key domains, by Indigenous status,
Australia, 2010
Note: The number shown between the plot points for each domain is the percentage point difference or ‘gap’ between non-Indigenous and Indigenous achievement.
Source: ACARA, National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy Achievement in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy 2010
Figure 7.8 Achievement of Year 7 students at or above minimum standard, by NAPLAN key domains, by Indigenous status,
Australia, 2010

Note: The number shown between the plot points for each domain is the percentage point difference or ‘gap’ between non-Indigenous and Indigenous achievement.
Source: ACARA, National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy Achievement in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy 2010
Figure 7.9 Achievement of Year 9 students at or above minimum standard, by NAPLAN key domains, by Indigenous status,
Australia, 2010
Note: The number shown between the plot points for each domain is the percentage point difference or ‘gap’ between non-Indigenous and Indigenous achievement.
Source: ACARA, National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy Achievement in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy 2010
The gaps between the proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and non-Indigenous students achieving at or above the national minimum standard in Reading ranged from 19.3 percentage points for the Year 7 cohort to 28.0 percentage points for the Year 9 cohort.
The gap between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous student cohort for Year 3 Writing at 17.6 percentage points was the smallest of the gaps any each year level in any of the key domains.
The gap (29.7 per cent) between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous students was larger in Year 9 Writing than the gap in any other year level in any of the key domains.
The gaps between the proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous students achieving the national minimum standard in Numeracy ranged from 18.7 percentage points for the Year 3 cohort to 23.9 percentage points for the Year 9 cohort.
In its 2010 report to COAG on the National Education Agreement, the COAG Reform Council includes the following key finding:
Based on three years of data, the COAG targets to halve the gap in literacy and numeracy achievement by 2018 are generally on track for Years 3, 5 and 7 – but at risk for Year 9.²
NAPLAN participation
Key Performance Measure 7(i) in the Measurement Framework for Schooling in Australia relates to NAPLAN participation rates. Table 7.11 reports this KPM by Indigenous status.
Key Performance Measure 7(i)
Proportion of students participating in NAPLAN for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 for Reading, Writing and Numeracy
|
Table 7.11 Number and proportion of students participating in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 NAPLAN Reading, Writing and Numeracy, by
Indigenous status, Australia, 2010
Status
|
Reading
|
Writing
|
Numeracy
|
|
No.
|
%
|
No.
|
%
|
No.
|
%
|
Year 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Indigenous
|
11,272
|
89.9
|
11,322
|
90.3
|
11,170
|
89.1
|
Non-Indigenous
|
225,078
|
96.1
|
224,938
|
96.0
|
224,498
|
95.8
|
Year 5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Indigenous
|
12,710
|
91.2
|
12,685
|
91.0
|
12,547
|
90.0
|
Non-Indigenous
|
249,232
|
96.6
|
249,157
|
96.5
|
248,465
|
96.3
|
Year 7
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Indigenous
|
11,953
|
89.1
|
12,002
|
89.5
|
11,876
|
88.6
|
Non-Indigenous
|
248,611
|
96.5
|
248,785
|
96.5
|
247,812
|
96.2
|
Year 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Indigenous
|
10,366
|
79.7
|
10,431
|
80.2
|
10,253
|
78.8
|
Non-Indigenous
|
246,035
|
93.7
|
246,688
|
94.0
|
244,950
|
93.3
|
Notes:
Participation rates are calculated as all assessed and exempt students as a percentage of the total number of students in the year level, as reported by schools, which includes those absent and withdrawn.
Students for whom ‘Indigenous status’ was not stated are not included in the data which is provided by Indigenous status.
Source: ACARA, National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy – Achievement in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy, 2010
Participation rates in NAPLAN in 2010 were consistently lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students than for non-Indigenous students across all cohorts and key domains.
Further information on the participation rates of Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students in Reading, Writing and Numeracy, by Indigenous status, is available in the
2010 NAPLAN National Report. Specific participation data for Reading, Writing and Numeracy are included for Year 3 (p. 58), Year 5 (p. 122), Year 7 (p. 186) and Year 9 (p. 250).
¹ COAG Reform Council, The National Indigenous Reform Agreement: Supplement on literacy and numeracy achievement 2010, COAG Reform Council, Sydney, 2011
² COAG Reform Council, Education 2010: Comparing performance across Australia, COAG Reform Council, Sydney, 2011, p. ix