National report on schooling in Australia 2006. National benchmark results: reading, writing and numeracy, years 3, 5 and 7

This report is part of the commitment of State, Territory and Australian Government Education Ministers to informing the public of progress made towards achieving the national goals for schooling in the twenty-first century. The benchmarks that underpin the reporting of student achievement describe nationally agreed minimum acceptable standards for aspects of literacy and numeracy at particular year levels. They represent minimum standards of performance below which students will have difficulty progressing satisfactorily at school. MCEETYA has been publishing Reading data since 1999 and Writing and Numeracy data since 2000. During this time there has been continuous development of the data reported and improvement in the comparability of data between the States and Territories. Currently individual State and Territory tests are equated to provide comparable reporting of student achievement data. MCEETYA has now developed its own national tests and from 2008 all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will sit the same tests