Understanding NAPLAN results across a Principal Network
For: Executive Directors and Directors, Educational Leadership
NAPLAN provides opportunities for Executive Directors (EDs) of School Performance Directorates (SPDs) and Directors, Educational Leadership (DELs) to compare the achievement of students across schools within their SPD and Principal Network against Statistically Similar Schools and State results.
Scout provides several reports to support EDs and DELs, including the Cohort proficiency report and the Cohort score report. These reports help leaders monitor the literacy and numeracy performance of cohorts and identified groups of students across networks and schools. These reports may assist in identifying areas of strength and areas for development across SPDs and networks.
To support the monitoring of literacy and numeracy across SPDs, networks and schools, it is recommended that users utilise a range of data from Scout.
This Scout in Practice focuses on how EDs and DELs can utilise the information found in the following reports:
- Cohort proficiency report – Multischool view
- Cohort proficiency report – Equity view
- Cohort Score report
Cohort proficiency report
The Cohort proficiency report provides a high-level overview of student progress across all domains. There are five reports:
- Overall view
- Multischool view
- Domain view
- Assessment year view
- Equity view
These reports support users to understand the percentage of students in each proficiency level within the selected school. Comparisons are made to both the Statistically Similar School Group (SSSG) and the State.
Users can easily view the proportion of students working in each of the proficiency levels in a selected cohort across multiple years.
Optional slicers allow users to focus on equity groups and by NCCD adjustment and category.
The Multischool view and Equity view reports include slicers that allow EDs and DELs to view data at the SPD and network levels.
Scenario
As a DEL, you would like an overall view of student performance in proficiency levels across all NAPLAN domains in your network. This analysis will be used as a starting point for discussions with individual school leadership teams. As part of your analysis, you would like to see how different groups of students are performing, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students with English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D), by Gender and by Socio-Economic Advantage (SEA).
Focus question: How are students performing compared to SSSG and/or State across NAPLAN domains?
Open the Cohort proficiency report. Select the Multischool view.
From the slicers provided, EDs should select:
- School performance directorate
- Assessment
- Domain (the default is reading)
- Assessment year
- *DELs must also select their Principal network.
The chart provided shows schools presented in alphabetical order. Toggle SSSG and State comparison on by clicking the grey bars. The default alignment marker is set to Developing / Strong. Changing this will move the dotted line on the chart.
The commentary bar on the side will alert users to issues such as small sample sizes, unavailability of data and highlight schools working higher or lower that their SSSG.
Consider:
- How are schools working in relation to their SSSG and the State?
- Are there schools where the number of students in a particular proficiency level is significantly higher or lower than other schools in the network?
- What school contextual factors could be impacting results?
- Are there any results that are surprising and need further investigation?
Now select the Equity view report.
From the slicers provided, EDs should select:
- School performance directorate
- Assessment
- Domain (the default is reading)
- Assessment year.
- *DELs must also select their Principal network.
Start with SSSG and State bars off. The default alignment marker is Developing/strong. Change this as needed.
The easiest way to read this chart is to look at each individual component separately at the start.
With no slicers selected, users will be presented with the data that reflects their whole SPD or network in each of the four charts. Hover over separate proficiency levels in the chart to see additional information about the number of students as well as the percentage. Be cautious of small sample sizes when using the equity view and note the both percentage and number of students. In the example below, the 100% noted for ‘Not Available’ was one student.
Focus on one equity group and add one level of slicers.
For example, you might focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in your network (select Yes in the Aboriginality Slicer) and compare the selected group’s performance to the performance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students across the State (toggle the State button on – it will turn blue).
In the example below, the user has focused on the performance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students across the network, drilling down to compare the performance of students by gender. This might provide some points of discussion with schools around the differences in achievement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male and female students.
Consider which additional slicers would be relevant to the context of your SPD or network. Add the next slicer and interpret information across 3 charts. For the example above, the user might focus on SEA. An additional area of investigation may be the performance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from different Socio-Economic Advantage groups. Is achievement across SEA groups the same or different?
Repeat for other equity groups.
To view results for individual schools, select them from the school list. To group schools together, for example, the high schools in the network, use the ctrl key to select multiple schools
Consider:
- How are different equity groups within the network achieving compared to SSSG and/or State?
- Does the achievement of any group stand out? Does this need further investigation?
- Do any schools in the network have specific programs or strategies in place to support different equity groups? How do these schools perform when compared against other schools in the network? Is there evidence that additional programs or strategies are making a difference?
- What other data is needed to support discussions on the achievement of students based on equity groupings?
Where to next?
It is recommended that Scout data is used in conjunction with other data sources. Triangulate findings from these reports with other available internal and external data. This could include data from other relevant external sources such as Check-in Assessment or Tell Them From Me. Depending on the context of the school, it may also be relevant to look at attendance and engagement data alongside student performance data.
Executive Directors and Directors, Educational Leadership may also find the Value added report useful to better understand the achievement of students and schools. The Value added report displays information about the learning growth of students in schools. This can be useful to gain an overview of changes in performance as it highlights differences in results over time and across schools.