February 2024
- Opinion
- Education
Don’t blame the COVID pandemic for truant kids
Social trends, parents and governments are all at fault for rising rates of student absenteeism that threaten to become permanent.
December 2023
- Opinion
- PISA
What Australia must do to lift flatlining student scores
This country may have averted the worst of the COVID-era education destruction, but that doesn’t mitigate the many flaws in our school system.
September 2023
- Opinion
- Education
How to turn around Australian kids’ appalling classroom behaviour
Australia’s education system has consistently been marked down when it comes to the behaviour of students and the capacity of teachers to manage classrooms.
July 2023
- Opinion
- University
Uni shake-up mustn’t reheat the Gonski fallacy
Rather than fixating on the supposed lack of input, higher education funding reform should focus on lifting outcomes and improving incentives.
May 2023
- Opinion
- Schools
Vested interests thwart school reform
The Albanese government has correctly identified the things that need to change in our classrooms. The test will be facing down unions, academics and state bureaucrats.
March 2023
- Opinion
- Teaching
Finally, a game changer for improving teaching in Australia
A new review into teacher training could be a game changer in better preparing new teachers and improving classroom teaching.
February 2023
- Opinion
- Schools
NAPLAN sets bar too low to spot students at risk of failing
The new minimum test benchmarks make it even less likely that parents and teachers can help serious underachievers in time.
January 2023
- Opinion
- Schools
Why Australian schools are failing
The education system seems unable to turn new reform and funding inputs into better outcomes for school students. Where does it fall down?
October 2022
- Opinion
- NAPLAN
It’s the gender literacy gap that warrants the greatest attention
The 2022 NAPLAN results continue to reveal the educational social justice issue that nobody speaks about: boys in Australian schools are at a decisive educational disadvantage.
September 2022
- Opinion
- Schools
Truancy is a scandal, but don’t blame the kids
Poor teaching, not poor homes, is the cause of truancy. But that should also make the problem easier to fix directly in Australia’s classrooms.
July 2022
- Opinion
- Schools
There is no great resignation of teachers
Teaching is an attractive profession that many want to enter. The problem is there are too many barriers in the way.
December 2021
- Opinion
- Education
High marks for classroom mediocrity
The teachers’ union is happy with a salary system that pays the talented and the time-serving just the same. Students, parents and taxpayers are the losers.
November 2021
- Opinion
- Schools
Education establishment fails the curriculum reform test
Bureaucrats and academics stubbornly hang on to education practices and pet ideas that have no basis in evidence.
September 2021
- Opinion
- Private schools
Pandemic is yet to teach us its true lessons
The apparent NAPLAN success must be greeted with caution, as the weight of pandemic’s impact on education is yet to be seen.
June 2021
- Opinion
- Teaching
Treat teaching as a supply-side problem
It’s not burnout or the pay that’s to blame for shortages in the quantity and quality of teachers. It’s the lack of a flexible pathway for high achievers with expert knowledge to enter the profession mid-career.
May 2021
- Opinion
- NAPLAN
Quitting NAPLAN would be a fail for Australian education
Opponents of standardised national testing ignore the international evidence that greater transparency improves the performance of school systems.
April 2021
- Opinion
- Education
States spoil Australia’s school scorecard
The federal government wants better PISA outcomes. That means getting distracted states on board.
December 2020
- Opinion
- School funding
It's not giving a Gonski but better teachers that improve schools
More money has achieved declining student results. It's time to lift Australia's educational performance by targeting teaching quality instead.
September 2020
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
Paying best teachers to perform will help lift education outcomes
The declining status and quality of teachers isn't due to under-funding of schools as unions claim. The problem is the lack of performance pay, which has made teaching an unattractive profession.
December 2019
- Opinion
- Schools
Truly clever country shouldn't get short-changed on schooling
The declining performance of Australian students in math and science proves that sinking more money into education doesn't improve results.