School Performance Results: A Parent's Guide

School performance data can sharpen a family’s questions, but it cannot choose a school or predict one child’s experience. The useful task is to understand what each measure covers, check whether a comparison is valid and then ask the school for context.

This guide explains the current national measures without turning them into a league table. Use it alongside school visits, conversations with teachers and evidence about wellbeing, support, pathways and daily learning.

Read NAPLAN proficiency levels correctly

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy at particular year levels and reports results separately for each assessment area. The current NAPLAN proficiency descriptions↗, opens in a new tab use four levels:

• Exceeding: the result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
• Strong: the result meets challenging but reasonable expectations.
• Developing: the student is working towards expectations.
• Needs additional support: the result indicates that the student is not yet achieving the expected learning outcomes and is likely to need additional support.

These levels are specific to the year level and domain being reported. A student can therefore receive different levels across reading, writing, conventions of language and numeracy. The descriptions summarise skills students at a level can generally demonstrate; they are not a complete description of an individual learner.

The official NAPLAN results FAQ↗, opens in a new tab states that NAPLAN is not a pass-or-fail test. Treat an individual result as one point-in-time input for a conversation with the teacher about classroom work, learning progress, strengths and support. At school level, NAPLAN describes a cohort, not what a particular child is guaranteed to experience.

Understand what My School can and cannot show

My School↗, opens in a new tab publishes nationally consistent school-level data to support informed discussions with schools. Its own guidance says NAPLAN is only one aspect of performance, does not measure overall school quality and should not replace visiting a school or speaking with teachers and principals. My School does not publish a school league table.

The information visible can change as new collections are released. The current What’s new page↗, opens in a new tab lists:

• school profile and enrolment information;
• NAPLAN achievement and matched-student progress;
• student attendance;
• school financial information; and
• VET participation and outcomes, and Year 12 certifications, where available and currently published.

Different data types may refer to different reporting years, so read the label and notes beside each figure. Do not assume every number was collected at the same time or that every measure applies to every school.

Keep the 2023 NAPLAN reset in view

The NAPLAN scale changed in 2023 alongside the move to the earlier test window and new proficiency standards. ACARA’s current My School change guidance↗, opens in a new tab draws two firm boundaries:

• Achievement: do not directly compare results from 2008–2022 with results from 2023 onwards.
• Progress: the 2023–2025 matched-student progress series is separate from the earlier progress series and should not be joined into one trend.

Within the new scale, results from 2023 onwards can be compared when the same domain, year level and measure are used. Even then, check cohort size, participation, confidence information and whether the student groups are comparable before interpreting a change.

Treat grey and missing data as a limitation, not a verdict

My School only displays comparisons it considers reliable. Its technical FAQ↗, opens in a new tab explains that a NAPLAN result appears grey as “No comparison available” when a cohort has between 5 and 10 students or participation for that domain and year level is below 80%. It also reports no progress result when there are fewer than 5 matched students in the cohort.

Small cohorts can move sharply when only a few students change, while participation can affect how representative a result is. A missing, grey or suppressed result is therefore not evidence that a school is performing poorly. It means the public data cannot support that comparison.

You can ask the school how it monitors learning and responds to cohort needs, but do not expect staff to disclose unpublished results, identifiable student information or sensitive records. Useful context can come from processes and examples rather than another percentage.

Use ICSEA only for its intended purpose

The Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) identifies the socio-educational context of students at a school. The My School FAQ↗, opens in a new tab says its calculation draws on parental occupation and education, students’ Indigenous status and the school’s geographic location. My School uses this context to support comparisons with students from similar backgrounds and also publishes uncertainty and confidence information for results.

ICSEA is not a school rating, a measure of family wealth or a score for an individual child. It does not measure teacher quality, staff capability, programmes, facilities, relationships or wellbeing. A higher or lower ICSEA does not by itself mean a school is better, worse or better value.

For methodology rather than a parent-level interpretation, My School’s technical and statistical information↗, opens in a new tab page indexes the current ICSEA guide and technical reports.

Compare signals with questions and caveats

Use the same structure for every school so that one attractive figure does not dominate the decision.

Follow an evidence-led comparison workflow

1. Start with the family’s priorities

Write down what matters before opening a results page: learning support, extension, subject access, belonging, travel, affordability or a particular pathway. This prevents a prominent score from silently becoming the whole decision.

2. Check the definition and reporting period

For each figure, record the domain, year level, cohort, reporting year and comparison group. Note whether it is achievement, matched-student progress, attendance, finance or a senior outcome. Leave cells blank when measures are not genuinely comparable.

3. Read the reliability notes

Look for grey cells, participation, matched-student counts and confidence intervals. Keep the 2023 NAPLAN boundary visible. Do not convert “no comparison available” into a score of your own.

4. Ask the school for interpretation

Take two or three patterns to the school rather than asking staff to defend a rank. Ask what they noticed, what action followed and how they know whether it helped. A useful answer explains process, review and limits without exposing another student’s information.

5. Connect cohort evidence to the child’s likely day

Confirm the subjects, teaching approach, adjustments, extension, pastoral support and transition arrangements your child would actually access. School-level averages cannot tell you who will teach a class, how a student will feel or whether a specific programme will be available.

Handle senior outcomes separately

Senior certificate names, measures and public reporting vary across states and territories. The Northern Territory qualification is the NT Certificate of Education and Training (NTCET)↗, opens in a new tab. Other jurisdictions use their own certificates, authorities and reporting conventions.

Do not line up certificate completion, subject results, VET participation and ATAR-related information as though they are one nationally comparable measure. School subject access can also differ from what a jurisdiction permits. Use our state curriculum and senior certificates guide as a directory of current authority and admissions links, then verify the current measure with the relevant authority and school.

Questions to take to a school

• What learning pattern are you focusing on, and what evidence informed that priority?
• How do teachers monitor progress between national assessments?
• What support or extension can a student access, and how is its effectiveness reviewed?
• How should we interpret a grey, missing or unusually variable result for this cohort?
• How do attendance, mobility or small cohort size affect the figures we are viewing?
• Which senior subjects, certificates and vocational pathways are actually available here?
• What evidence should we consider alongside My School data to understand daily learning?
• Who can explain the school’s current data without sharing information about individual students?

The aim is not to find one “best” number. It is to build a transparent picture of what the published evidence says, what it cannot say and which questions still need a direct answer.

Official sources

• NAPLAN proficiency level descriptions↗, opens in a new tab — official four-level, year- and domain-specific descriptions; they do not describe every skill of an individual student.
• NAPLAN results, reports and performance FAQ↗, opens in a new tab — pass/fail boundary, uses of results and the break between pre-2023 and current achievement scales.
• About My School↗, opens in a new tab — purpose, nationally consistent school-level data and the explicit limit that NAPLAN does not measure overall school quality.
• My School FAQs↗, opens in a new tab — grey results, cohort and participation thresholds, matched-student progress limits, ICSEA factors and confidence information.
• What’s new on My School↗, opens in a new tab — current data mix, 2023 scale reset and separation of the 2023–2025 progress series.
• My School technical and statistical information↗, opens in a new tab — index of current ICSEA guidance and technical reports for further reading.
• ACARA Update, December 2025↗, opens in a new tab — bounded snapshot of the current My School data release and ACARA’s warning against out-of-context league tables.
• Northern Territory Government: NTCET↗, opens in a new tab — official certificate name and pathway overview for the Northern Territory; other jurisdictions use different arrangements.

Data collections, labels and publication years change. Check the notes on the live source and confirm current school-specific information directly before relying on it for a decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the current NAPLAN proficiency levels?

Can I compare NAPLAN results from before and after 2023?

What does a grey NAPLAN result on My School mean?

Is ICSEA a school rating?