This Month
One in three kids struggles with maths. This school fixed it in a year
Too many Australian students are leaving school with substandard numeracy skills. But that can change if a few simple changes are made.
December 2023
Absenteeism, bad behaviour compound poor school performance
Disengaged parenting, disruptive classroom behaviour and growing levels of absenteeism are having a devastating impact on school performance.
Australian schools halt slide as kids shrug off pandemic setbacks
In a twist of fate, a big decline in performance in several key countries has helped push Australian students further up the academic assessment ladder.
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.
Jason Clare’s counter-insurgency must save the education revolution
The PISA results are an opportunity to draw a line under the failed educational thinking and practices that have allowed school students to fall behind.
Too many Australian students still failing
Only just over half of the country’s 15-year-olds can demonstrate more than elementary skills expected at their year level.
Only rich kids prosper from their education. That has to change
Australia’s 2022 PISA results look good, but in reality they raise more questions than answers.
Australian students’ PISA scores expected to ring alarm bells
A lot is riding on the results of the academic performance of Australia’s 15-year-olds when they are released on Tuesday. Here’s why.
November 2023
Why Australian school kids are failing
Australia’s national curriculum could be the very reason why kids are going backwards compared to their peers internationally.
May 2023
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
Rebooted NAPLAN may be the wake-up call Australia needs
NAPLAN is a cornerstone of Australia’s school education system and could now provide the ammunition to drive important improvements.
February 2023
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
Our schools abound in underachievement. Here’s a potent fix
A typical high school year 9 now spans seven grade levels of learning. The cost for those who may never catch up is too great.
November 2022
Inequalities baked into Australia’s education system
Falling standards and inequality of access to good education testify to a system that is badly in need of reform.
September 2022
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.
Gonski’s $319b reforms fail to improve school performance: PC
The next schools funding agreement must demand action be taken on declining academic standards, not just talk about it.
Australia’s ambition in jobs and skills start in the classroom
Governments have to stay committed to NAPLAN. Testing does not commoditise students, but is the best way of monitoring and supporting them.
May 2022
The uncomfortable truth about Australian schools
The finger often gets pointed at public schools for Australia’s long decline in international tests. But think again.
May 2021
NAPLAN vital for judging schools’ progress
We know things about our education system, and the inequalities within it, simply because of NAPLAN. To dump it would be a mistake, according to an education expert.
April 2021
Alan Tudge’s 10-year plan to get schools back to basics
To address a worrying trend that has seen Australian school performance decline over the past two decades will need a clear strategy, says federal Education Minister Alan Tudge.