NAPLAN results: 28 South Australian schools make national 'most improved' list
Almost 30 South Australian schools have shown an improvement on their literacy and numeracy skills, according to results from last year's NAPLAN tests.
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has released a list of 307 Australian schools, including 28 from South Australia, that have shown significant improvement in literacy and numeracy results.
The release coincides with an update of the My Schools website, which now includes more information about individual schools' performances in last year's NAPLAN tests and the latest profile and population data on each school.
Of the 28 South Australian schools listed, 19 were public schools and more than half were from regional areas.
State Education Minister Susan Close said she was pleased with the results, which showed improvements above expectations.
"The really good result that we've seen is that 19 [public] South Australian schools have seen progress above what you'd normally expect," she said.
"What that means is that from years three to year five on reading, on numeracy, children have made more progress than you would expect and I'm really happy to see that."
But Ms Close was concerned South Australian children would not continue to improve once funding for the Gonski education reforms was wound back in 2018.
"What the Gonski funding does is deliver money where it's needed," she said.
"It's judged not on what kind of school the kid goes to but what that particular child needs.
"What I'm worried about is having the Commonwealth Government walk away from Gonski in 2018 and 2019, which means that the kind of progress we've seen in those 19 schools is far less likely to happen."
Opposition calls for school autonomy reform
State Opposition Education spokesman David Pisoni said South Australia still had the worst performing mainland school when it came to the 2014 NAPLAN results.
While he was pleased by the improvement, he said the Government must look at more drastic changes to the school system.
"We've seen significant improvements in the states who've introduced more school autonomy such as Western Australia and Queensland, who saw the 2008 results in their states as a wake up call to do things differently," he said.
"Here in South Australia we've continued to do things the same way and consequently we've seen outcomes that have deteriorated in NAPLAN since those first NAPLAN results in 2008."
Western Australia had the most number of schools on the most improved list, with a total of 62.
Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales each had more than 50 schools on the list.
The ACT had 20 schools on the list, with schools from the Northern Territory making up 19 of the list and 15 schools from Tasmania.
