In 2000, students in Years 3, 5 and 7 will be assessed against the literacy and numeracy benchmarks, using tests from the Multilevel Assessment Program (MAP), as part of the Department’s strategic plan and for the purpose of national reporting.

The MAP assesses students in years 3, 5 & 7 in a range of knowledge and skills in literacy and numeracy based on outcomes levels 1-5 of the NT English and Mathematics curricula.

We provide the results of individual students against the benchmark to school principals showing the following: achieve/not achieve, exempted or absent. Exempted students are shown as not achieving. No scores are reported.

Principals have the information to report to individual parents (should this be required).

We also provide benchmark data to school councils allowing councils to compare their own school results with those for ‘all NT schools’ and ‘all urban schools’ or ‘all non-urban schools’. The data is further broken down to allow comparison between subgroups: all students; female and male; Indigenous and non-Indigenous; ESL and non-ESL. Results of individual students are not shown in the council reports.

Comparability of results obtained through different state-based assessment programs is ensured through a mechanism established by an expert committee of the Benchmarking Taskforce. This committee comprises independent measurement experts as well as representatives of State and Territory education departments and assessment agencies. We currently have a representative on the Benchmark Equating Steering Committee.