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PISA

December 2023

Rising levels of absenteeism and poor classroom behaviour are contributing to poor academic performance.

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.

  • Julie Hare
The latest PISA education results are out.

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.

  • Updated
  • Julie Hare
Federal education minister Jason Clare is being urged by the usual educational suspects led by the teacher unions to double down on Labor’s Gonski spending monument.

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.

  • The AFR View
The factor that has the greatest impact on student outcomes is the quality of teaching they receive.

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.

  • Glenn Fahey
The gap between public and independent schools is vast and growing.

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.

  • Julie Hare
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Education Minister Jason Clare

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.

  • Jennifer Hewett
Craig Butler, principal of Eagle Vale High School in Sydney with students Sofia Faumuina, William Willis, Mia Al-Ali and Amelia Sparks. The school has turned around poor discipline and misbehaviour in just two years with a corresponding improvement in academic results.

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.

  • Julie Hare

November 2023

Australian school kids are being undermined by a poor quality curriculum, says Ben Jensen, CEO of Learning First.

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.

  • Julie Hare

May 2023

Education Minister Jason Clare knows what to do – he just as to do it.

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.

  • Glenn Fahey

March 2023

NAPLAN could now fulfil it’s potential to improve student performance.

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.

  • Jordana Hunter

February 2023

NAPLAN is in danger if making bare minimum results into something passable.

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.

  • Glenn Fahey

January 2023

Catch-up tuition was established after the pandemic.

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.

  • Jordana Hunter

November 2022

Schools are perhaps the most foundational and important component of a nation’s social infrastructure.

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.

  • Julie Hare

September 2022

When students are engaged then truancy is not a problem.

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.

  • Glenn Fahey
Governments must address teacher effectiveness, student wellbeing and growing inequality in the school system, says the Productivity Commission.

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.

  • Updated
  • Julie Hare
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Year 3 and 5 students in Sydney did the NAPLAN tests online this year.

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.

  • Dallas McInerney

May 2022

Disruptive student behaviour in Australian schools is above the OECD average.

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.

  • Sue Thomson

May 2021

NAPLAN is part of the nation’s armoury in improving academic performance.

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.

  • Julie Hare

April 2021

There are systemic issues troubling school education.

We need bold schools reform, not tinkering

Schools are struggling within a maladapted system that has evolved organically, unchecked for decades and been distorted by complex dynamics.

  • Rachel Wilson and Paul Kidson
Alan Tudge says a back-to-basics approach is necessary if Australia is to improve on international rankings.

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.

  • Julie Hare

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/program-for-international-student-assessment-1nc7