The latest NAPLAN results have been released, showing the Hunter's selective, grammar, Catholic and Christian schools recorded higher results than the standard public system at high school level.
At the primary school level, though, some public schools in the region match or better the other education sectors.
The NAPLAN results were released in a way that highlights concerns in the education system about socio-economic disadvantage.
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority published the results of individual schools on the My School website, but not a list of the "best performing" schools.
Interest in the results, though, appeared strong. The website crashed repeatedly on Wednesday.
Rochelle Dooley, principal of Merewether High - a selective school - said NAPLAN involved "making sure we know where each student is with their progress and growth and ensuring all students' needs are catered for".
Ms Dooley said it was also about creating opportunities to challenge students with their learning, but also "identifying any students who may be falling through the cracks or not performing to their potential, and whether we have to do any strategic support for them".
Avondale School, an independent Seventh-day Adventist school based at Cooranbong, uses NAPLAN as a tool.
The school's secondary academic co-ordinator Darren Martin said the NAPLAN assessment "which occurs on one day at a certain time", provided an opportunity to compare how students are going in the classroom.
"For us, we also like to simply use NAPLAN as a tool to be able to compare, versus other standardised assessments as well," he said.
"Comparative data is fantastic because it helps to round out our understanding of how students are learning and performing."
Mr Martin said Avondale uses NAPLAN - which tests for reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy - to improve teaching and student learning.
Charlestown South Public School principal John Costolo said the school had "shown progress well above expectations" in the recent NAPLAN results.
"We celebrate these results and remain committed to high expectations and continuous improvement for our students and their future," Mr Costolo said.
Charlestown South Public works with "schools around us and beyond our local network to help drive literacy and numeracy outcomes upwards".
He said the school is "committed to high expectations of all students" and conducts "daily English and maths warm-ups to embed concepts into long-term memory".
Lisa Peterson, acting deputy head of Newcastle Grammar School, said NAPLAN is important as it "provides data on student performance and achievement that schools can use as part of their evaluation and planning".
"It is one tool we use to identify areas of strength and opportunities for growth, both at the school level and for individual students," she said.
"We use NAPLAN results as part of our longitudinal data tracking process to build a profile of student performance. This enables us to support student learning and improve outcomes.
"As literacy and numeracy are general capabilities and a specific focus area for our school, these skills are explicitly taught as part of every subject, with a bespoke reading program for our early learners."
The curriculum authority said presenting the results as "league tables" would take no account of the socio-educational advantages that students have, such as parents' occupation and education, in these "so-called top-performing schools".
However, each school's average results are compared to "students with a similar background", relative to "socio-educational advantage".
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