HSC 2023 results explained in five charts

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I’ve been reporting the annual HSC results since 2018 when eight of the top 10 ranked schools were government-run fully selective institutions. This year there’s been a few changes. Half of the top 10 are privately run schools and the Herald has doubled its breakdown of the results from the top 150 to 300 as measured by the number of students who scored 90 or more.

Success in the HSC comes in many forms but the NSW government only releases results for students who score 90 or above in each subject, which is what we use to rank and analyse school performance.

This chart shows the trajectory of the top schools since 2016.

The big news is James Ruse Agricultural High’s 27-year reign as the state’s best-performing school is over after North Sydney Boys High claimed the number one spot for the first time.

There were some other large changes to HSC success rates this year, but looking at North Sydney Boys, it improved by more than 6 percentage points while James Ruse results declined by more than 7 percentage points.

The 2023 HSC data also reflects Sydney’s most and least advantaged areas when measured by success rates. The disparities continue across NSW where the more wealthy an area is, the more likely local schools in that area will score well.

The HSC data is not adjusted for socio-economic advantage and this means 287 of the 300 top-ranked schools teach students with above-average backgrounds, as measured by the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) score.

The rankings race between private schools in the top 300 has expanded to 132 this year, up five from last year. And, after a long run as the state’s top independent school, Sydney Grammar has placed second and third recently.

Comprehensive schools took 68 spots in the top 300 (five boys, 53 co-ed and 10 girls), one more than last year. Moss Vale High and Dulwich Hill school of visual arts and design made their debuts in the top 20 public school list this year.

Catholic schools had 64 entries on the list (10 boys, 39 co-ed and 15 girls) down from 67 last year. There were also 15 partially and 20 fully selective schools in the top 300 this year.

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