On 15 May 2013 the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee for inquiry and report.

The effectiveness of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

On 2 December 2013 the Senate agreed to the Senate Education and Employment References Committee's recommendation that this inquiry be re-adopted in the 44th Parliament.

The terms of reference of the inquiry are:

The effectiveness of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), with specific reference to:

(a) whether the evidence suggests that NAPLAN is achieving its stated objectives;

(b) unintended consequences of NAPLAN's introduction;

(c) NAPLAN's impact on teaching and student learning practices;

(d) the impact on teaching and student learning practices of publishing NAPLAN test results on the My School website;

(e) potential improvements to the program, to improve student learning and assessment;

(f) international best practice for standardised testing, and international case studies about the introduction of standardised testing; and

(g) other relevant matters.

The re-adoption of the inquiry is for the purposes of providing a substantive final report to the Senate, as foreshadowed in the Committee's interim report tabled on 27 June 2013.

Submissions for this inquiry closed on 7 June 2013 and a final report will be presented on the last sitting day in March 2014 (27 March 2014).