What is NAPLAN? It stands for National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy. The first National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests were held in May 2008 for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in Australia. For the first time, students were assessed on the same test items in the domains of Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. Before 2008, students had undertaken different tests in each state and territory. The average score is 500. The spread of scores has been set so that just over two-thirds of students’ scores lie between 400 and 600.

The ICSEA was scaled to a mean of 1000 and standard deviation of 100 for all Australian schools and each of the variables was weighted in such a way as to produce a single index that best predicts performance on the NAPLAN tests.

It consists of tests in Literacy and Numeracy for years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
NAPLAN Literacy includes:
* Reading
* Writing
* Language Conventions (which comprises spelling, grammar and punctuation)

NAPLAN Numeracy includes:
* Number
* Algebra, function and pattern
* Space
* Measurement, chance and data.

When: May every year. NAPLAN test schedule of dates for the next ten years has been approved. All the states and territories have agreed on the schedule of dates. These tests will be held in the second full week in May, with the scheduled test days being Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Visit NAPLAN test schedule of dates for the next ten years for more details.