Welcome to the NAPLAN Data Explorer

Explore trends in Indigenous students' performance in NAPLAN relative to their peers across grades 3, 5, 7, & 9, states and territories, remoteness categories, and calendar years from 2010 to 2019, inclusive.

NAPLAN Data Explorer Dashboard by Relational Insights Data Lab is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

About this data explorer

Data reporting in the Australian education system produces deficit-based comparisons of academic achievement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.
Explore these interactive insights to understand how a rights-based approach to working with open data provides novel insights that justify changing the deficit assumption by supporting the use of within-cohort peer-matching and setting more aspirational goals.
Use the button below to select a view.

Choose a view

Choose a view to start with. You can change views at any time.
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Guided view

Take a guided view through the data.

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High-level view

For policy makers.

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Individual view

For teachers and individual users.

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Academic paper out now!

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Read the paper
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About the RIDL

Learn more about the RIDL.

Let's look at a map of Australia

Click/tap legend to expand or collapse it

This map is split not only by state, but also by Remoteness Area (adapted from ABS geographies). These geographies are, in order of remoteness:

Very remote Remote Regional Major cities

So, what are the colours on the map telling us?

They're modelled relative performance of Indigenous students in a state and remoteness area. Performance is relative to the national mean of all Indigneous/non-Indigenous children in a grade in a particular year, in that domain. (At the moment we're looking at Year 3 Numeracy in 2019 - you'll be able to play around with different combinations shortly).
Areas which are more blue are performing above the national mean.
Areas which are more orange are performing below the national mean.
We can see that, pretty uniformly across the country, modelled relative peformance differs more by remoteness area than state.
You can use the dropdowns below to adjust the year, grade, and NAPLAN domain to see how the data changes. The map can be zoomed, dragged, and specific areas can be tapped/hovered over for more information. When you're ready to move on, use 'Let's explore further'

Let's look at a graph

This plot is an interaction plot, which explores the effects of different variables, such as grade or state, on students' relative performance. By default, we're looking at the effect of Region and Grade on relative performance in Numeracy.

As we can see, Region has a much larger effect on performance than Grade, since relative performance differs much more by area than it does by grade per area.

You can use the dropdowns below to adjust the two variables and NAPLAN domain to see how the data changes. When you're ready to move on, use 'Let's explore further'.

Let's look at a matrix plot

This plot is a matrix, where students in different combinations of states, remoteness areas, and grades sit in a matrix of relative performance and relative population. By default, we're looking at the Numeracy domain.

Combinations in the bottom left have both relatively lower population and relatively lower performance, and combinations in the top right have relatively higher populations and performances.

As we can see, lower performance and higher performance are clustered more by remoteness area than by state.

You can use the dropdown below to see results for different NAPLAN domains. When you're ready to move on, use 'Let's explore further'.

Let's have a closer look

Click/tap legend to expand or collapse it

Let's dive a little deeper now. The map on the left again shows us relative performance in Australia.

Remember, areas which are more blue are performing above the national mean, and areas which are more orange are performing below the national mean.

Let's have a look at specific state-region combinations now. Click/tap an area on the map, or search a postcode to identify and zoom in on that state.

You can use the dropdown below to see results for different NAPLAN domains, years, and grades. When you're ready to move on, use 'Let's explore further'.

Let's have a look at a more individualised matrix plot

This matrix plot compares state/territory population and relative performance in a selected region, grade and domain.

Remember, states in the bottom left have relatively lower relative performance and student population, and states in the top right have relatively higher relative student performance and student population.

Adjust your inputs below to compare other states and areas. When you're ready to move on, use 'Let's explore further'.

Let's see how performance fares across grades in a state/remoteness area.

The highlighted grade is the one selected in the dropdown below. Adjust the other pickers to see the data for those choices.

Want to go back to the start of this guided view? Use 'Go back to start' button below.

High-level view

Explore relative student performance across states and remoteness areas, and how variable interaction affects relative performance.
'Relative performance' is performance relative to the national mean for all students in the selected grade in the selected year.

Relative performance by state and remoteness area

1. Use the domain, grade, and year dropdowns to view relative performance on the map.

Click/tap legend to expand or collapse it

Variable effect on relative performance

1. Pick a domain and two variables to see how they interact on relative performance

Individual-level view

Compare relative student performance in a remoteness area and state with like across Australia.
'Relative performance' is performance relative to the national mean for all students in the selected grade in the selected year.

1. Use the domain, grade and year dropdown pickers to change data on the map and graphs.

Relative performance by state and remoteness area

Click/tap legend to expand or collapse it