What this comparison answers
A common claim is that private schools "out-perform" government schools on NAPLAN. The claim is true on raw scores; it becomes much weaker once you account for the very different ICSEA profiles of the two sets. This page shows both numbers side by side, by school type, for each of NSW, VIC, QLD and WA.
What the state patterns suggest
In NSW, the Independent-versus-Government gap is about 30.4 NAPLAN points in Primary and 36.9 in Secondary, while the ICSEA gap is roughly 87 and 106 respectively. That does not erase the score gap, but it does make it harder to read the gap as a pure sector story.
In VIC, the Independent-versus-Government gap is about 30.1 NAPLAN points in Primary and 43.0 in Secondary, while the ICSEA gap is roughly 75 and 95 respectively. That does not erase the score gap, but it does make it harder to read the gap as a pure sector story.
In QLD, the Independent-versus-Government gap is about 36.5 NAPLAN points in Primary and 43.9 in Secondary, while the ICSEA gap is roughly 90 and 97 respectively. That does not erase the score gap, but it does make it harder to read the gap as a pure sector story.
In WA, the Independent-versus-Government gap is about 25.2 NAPLAN points in Primary and 35.3 in Secondary, while the ICSEA gap is roughly 75 and 87 respectively. That does not erase the score gap, but it does make it harder to read the gap as a pure sector story.
NSW — 2025
Primary
| Sector | Schools | Mean score | Mean ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 1,354 | 479.8 | 996 |
| Catholic | 411 | 501.8 | 1055 |
| Independent | 282 | 510.2 | 1083 |
Secondary
| Sector | Schools | Mean score | Mean ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 434 | 550.7 | 971 |
| Catholic | 120 | 574.6 | 1043 |
| Independent | 283 | 587.6 | 1077 |
VIC — 2025
Primary
| Sector | Schools | Mean score | Mean ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 1,051 | 488.7 | 1028 |
| Catholic | 381 | 496.5 | 1062 |
| Independent | 170 | 518.8 | 1103 |
Secondary
| Sector | Schools | Mean score | Mean ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 312 | 558.6 | 1003 |
| Catholic | 96 | 576.9 | 1062 |
| Independent | 151 | 601.6 | 1098 |
QLD — 2025
Primary
| Sector | Schools | Mean score | Mean ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 779 | 457.2 | 966 |
| Catholic | 222 | 487.4 | 1041 |
| Independent | 159 | 493.7 | 1056 |
Secondary
| Sector | Schools | Mean score | Mean ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 258 | 527.8 | 952 |
| Catholic | 103 | 566.1 | 1038 |
| Independent | 159 | 571.7 | 1049 |
WA — 2025
Primary
| Sector | Schools | Mean score | Mean ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 547 | 469.5 | 992 |
| Catholic | 120 | 486.1 | 1050 |
| Independent | 116 | 494.7 | 1067 |
Secondary
| Sector | Schools | Mean score | Mean ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 150 | 546.7 | 964 |
| Catholic | 37 | 578.1 | 1036 |
| Independent | 106 | 582.0 | 1051 |
Reading the table
The headline is the gap in mean score between sectors. The interesting number is the gap in mean ICSEA. A 30-point NAPLAN gap with a 70-point ICSEA gap is mostly demographics. A 30-point NAPLAN gap with a 5-point ICSEA gap is sector effect.
For a school-by-school view that explicitly controls for ICSEA, see ICSEA vs NAPLAN.
A practical way to use this page is to treat it as a reset on simplistic sector claims. If a sector score gap travels with a very large ICSEA gap, the safer interpretation is that intake profile is doing a lot of the explanatory work.
Frequently asked questions
Why is "Combined" not shown?
Combined schools are still represented indirectly because they contribute to the primary or secondary cohort they reported in. We avoid showing them as a separate sector table because that usually muddies the comparison more than it clarifies it.
Is mean ICSEA the same as ICSEA percentile?
No. Mean ICSEA is the raw score ACARA publishes per school, while percentile is a rank position within the national distribution. The raw score is more useful here because the table is trying to show how different each sector’s average intake profile is, not just where it ranks.
Does this page prove a sector effect?
Not by itself. It shows how much of the raw score gap sits next to a demographic gap. If a score gap remains after you notice the ICSEA gap, that is a reason to ask harder questions, not a definitive proof that sector alone caused the difference.