The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy tests were completed in May last year by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to assess students’ in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy.

The averages scores were measured against other schools in their district and those across Australia in similar socio-economic areas.

Schools are concerned the data from these tests will be misused when comparing rankings.

Dalyellup College principal Gary Quinn said the results provided a small scope of a school’s performance and did not consider external factors that could affect a student’s performance.

"Kids are bringing lots of significant social issues with them to schools and the State Government cannot deny a child an education " so regardless of the difficulties, we are required to address the needs of these children and provide each one with a quality education," Mr Quinn said.

Mr Quinn said he did not see any benefit in comparing the results from one school in a different district and comparing them to another school in another socio-economic group.

"At the end of the day, you’re comparing apples with carrots," he said.

Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School performed high in all year levels, with Year 7 students scoring well above national averages.

Bunbury Primary School’s Year 5 students ranked 523 for reading and 507 for writing, high above similar school averages and national average of 495 for reading and 485 for writing.

However, the school’s Year 7’s grammar and punctuation was 40 points below the national and local averages.

Dalyellup College scored below the national average across each category in every year level, but did not have data to compare it to similar local schools.

Withers Primary School was one of the lowest ranked schools in the district, with Year 3 students scoring 251 for spelling, more than 100 points below the local average of 362, and 169 points below the national average of 420.