National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy

The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests involve students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 from all States and Territories. In Victoria approximately 260,000 students from all Government, Catholic and Independent schools participate in the program.

Timetable for NAPLAN 2010

The VCAA will notify schools as soon as possible if any changes are made to these arrangements.

Year Level	Tuesday 11 May	Wednesday 12 May	Thursday 13 May
Year 3	Language Conventions* 40 minutes Writing 40 minutes	Reading 45 minutes	Numeracy 45 minutes Year 3 students undertake one numeracy test. Calculators are not permitted to be used in this test.
Year 5	Language Conventions* 40 minutes Writing 40 minutes	Reading 50 minutes	Numeracy 50 minutes Year 5 students undertake one numeracy test. Calculators are not permitted to be used in this test.
Year 7	Language Conventions* 45 minutes Writing 40 minutes	Reading 65 minutes	Numeracy 40 minutes x 2 (80 minutes total) Year 7 students undertake two numeracy tests. Calculators are permitted to be used in one of these tests only.
Year 9	Language Conventions* 45 minutes Writing 40 minutes	Reading 65 minutes	Numeracy 40 minutes x 2 (80 minutes total) Year 9 students undertake two numeracy tests. Calculators are permitted to be used in one of these tests only.

* Language Conventions comprises spelling, grammar and punctuation.

The test times indicated in this table are the published test times - that is, the time allowed to complete the test, excluding administration time.
The published test time is the maximum time allowed for test completion excluding administration time.
It is expected that a majority of students will complete the tests within the published test time.

Test content

The NAPLAN tests assess:

Reading
Writing
Language Conventions (including spelling, grammar and punctuation)
Numeracy (includes a calculator and a non-calculator test for Year 7 and Year 9 students)

Schools need to ensure that all Year 7 and Year 9 students have either their own calculator or a calculator that they are familiar with, to use during the test. Schools are advised to have a reserve of working calculators available for students to use should students forget to bring their own calculators, or if their own calculator fails during the course of the test.

NAPLAN Writing Test details

Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students will be given a common writing stimulus and then asked to write in the narrative genre. Students have 40 minutes (excluding administration time) to complete their writing. The breakdown of time for the Writing test is as follows:

5 minutes planning time
30 minutes writing time
5 minutes editing time.

Student writing is assessed using ten criteria. Following are the names and a brief descriptor for each criterion.

Audience	The writer’s capacity to orient, engage and affect the reader.
Text Structure	The organisation of narrative features including orientation, complication and resolution into an appropriate and effective text structure.
Ideas	The creation, selection and crafting of ideas for a narrative.
Character and Setting	Character: The portrayal and development of character. Setting: The development of a sense of place, time and atmosphere.
Vocabulary	The range and precision of language choices.
Cohesion	The control of multiple threads and relationships over the whole text, achieved through the use of referring words, substitutions, word associations and text connectives.
Paragraphing	The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assist the reader to negotiate the narrative.
Sentence Structure	The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences.
Punctuation	The use of correct and appropriate punctuation to aid the reading of the text.
Spelling	The accuracy and range of spelling.

Reporting

The results from the NAPLAN tests provide an important measure of how Australian schools and students are performing in the areas of reading, writing, spelling and numeracy.

The results from the NAPLAN are used for individual student reporting to parents, school reporting and aggregate reporting by States and Territories against national standards.

For further information contact the VCAA NAPLAN Help Desk on freecall 1800 648 637 or email vcaa.naplan.help@edumail.vic.gov.au.

Alternatively, you may find the answer to your query in the list of Frequently Asked Questions contained in NAPLAN FAQs or on the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) website: www.naplan.edu.au.