SPELLING standards in the ACT are so low that in year 9 not a single school managed to meet the average level set by similar cohorts interstate, according to 2011 National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy results released on Friday.
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While ACT schools performed well on raw scores, when their scores were compared to statistically similar schools, many in the ACT were found to be lagging. The weighted results take into account the socioeconomic background of a school's population, its remoteness and proportion of Aboriginal students.
Numeracy and writing standards are also below average, while grammar and punctuation are slightly better. Reading produced the best results across both year groups, with about half the schools above the national average.
Merici College was one of the best performers, topping the rankings in reading (year 7), writing (years 7 and 9) and grammar and punctuation (year 9).
Primary schools again fared better overall, with one-third to half recording above average results.
Jervis Bay School, 220 kilometres east of Canberra, again outperformed prestige schools once relative weightings were applied.
Hughes Primary ranked first in numeracy, reading and grammar and punctuation for year 3.
Meanwhile, Orana Steiner School finished below average in 18 of 20 categories across the four age brackets tested. However, reading was a significant strength, returning the best result in Canberra in year 9 and placing third for year 7.
Of the 670 students, many of the primary pupils were withdrawn from sitting the exam by their parents. The school's director John Davidson said the majority of high school students sat the examination.
Orana follows the educational philosophy of Rudolph Steiner and places an emphasis on personal growth above testing benchmarks. While Mr Davidson said the school didn't place much value in NAPLAN exams, he was disappointed it did not performed better.
''For us, NAPLAN tests are not a way we'd compare ourselves to other schools,'' Mr Davidson said. ''We're very concerned about the results of our students [and] for us NAPLAN gives us an insight into some areas.
''[But] our students do a lot of other testing, across a far wider range of areas than just the subjects covered in NAPLAN, to find out how they're doing.''
He said the school allows students to learn at their own pace.
''[We don't press] education or adult expectations on our students … We try to see what they need to learn and provide that.''
