Strong school identity can help NAPLAN scores

School identification was an important and significant predictor of performance. On average it's able to lift students' performance by about 10 points on NAPLAN, that's after we take the other variables into account. Ahead of National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results due to be released on Tuesday, new psychology research has found a surprising new factor that can lift student NAPLAN scores by as many as 10 points. Professor Kate Reynolds from The Australian National University (ANU) found that 'school identity', the feeling of being connected and belonging to a school, made a difference along with other known performance indicators such as socioeconomic circumstances and education levels of parents. Professor Reynolds, from the ANU Research School of Psychology used data from a School Climate and Social Identification survey to identify the best factors for predicting academic performance. "Parental education makes a difference, socioeconomic circumstances make a difference, but the other variable that emerged as being important was this sense of belonging and connection to schools," Professor Reynolds said. "School identification was an important and significant predictor of performance.