Reading, maths scores show need for classroom reform

Concerning as they are, the latest NAPLAN test results are a good guide to where and how the Albanese government and the states and territories should direct taxpayer funding for school students. The figures point to the need for catch-up instruction in literacy and numeracy for one in 10 students, but the problem runs much deeper considering another 23 per cent of students were in the “developing” category – failing to meet the required standard but working towards it. Just 15 per cent exceeded expectations and half performed “strongly”.

Education editor Natasha Bita reports that of 1.3 million students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who sat the NAPLAN tests this year, about 130,000 need extra support and 300,000 are “developing” their skills. In an interesting and positive reflection on the cultural attitudes towards education of immigrants, the highest scores in almost every category, including reading, were achieved by children from language backgrounds other than English. Students in city schools performed better than those in the regions and remote areas, and Indigenous children struggled at three times the rate of non-Indigenous children. Girls topped boys at reading and boys generally did better in achieving the top grade for numeracy.

Identifying trends among groups and individual students’ problems as early as possible is vital in rectifying them if students are to have their best chance at further education, skills training and employment. On Monday, Bita reported on a separate study showing that children who fall behind in English or maths – the building blocks for further learning – by year 3 are ­likely to struggle with schoolwork as teenagers. The study by the Australian Education Research Organisation recommended small group tutoring to help struggling students catch up. Federal Education Minister Jason Clare, who is a proponent of small group tutoring, said the AERO report proved early intervention was critical. He is trialling such an initiative in disadvantaged Indigenous schools in central Australia.

The AERO data tracked 185,000 students identified as struggling in year 3, tracing their progress across seven years of testing. While they had the best chance of catching up in years 4 and 5, many slipped backwards in high school. Indigenous students, children in remote areas and those whose parents had dropped out of school before year 12 were most likely to have problems with maths and English through primary and secondary school.

Mr Clare said the next National School Reform Agreement, which would set long-term school funding from the federal, state and territory governments next year, would “fix the funding of our most disadvantaged schools first, where the challenges and the need is the most acute and widespread”. He said he wanted to “make sure that funding is invested in the things that work and are going to make a real difference”.

Resources and how they are directed matter. But funding is not the main issue. Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson says the NAPLAN results have continued to decline despite a 60 per cent increase in spending on schools across the past 20 years. That increase includes the so-called Gonski funding. A record $72bn in taxpayer funding was spent on schools last year alone.

The good news, education researcher Ben Jensen wrote in Inquirer on July 29, is that a growing body of research shows that a high-quality, content-rich curriculum can close much of the inequality gap that for years has plagued Australian education and is evident in the latest NAPLAN results. And from taxpayers’ perspective, Dr Jensen wrote, curriculum reform is much cheaper than the reforms that have been tried in the past: “An enormous amount is spent on curriculum resources but bad curriculum generally costs the same as good curriculum.”

Australia is moving in the right direction on teaching students the fundamentals of how to read in the early years of primary school, Dr Jensen argued. But too often public discourse focuses on phonics and core literacy skills, and much less on reading comprehension, particularly in secondary schools. Yet this is where inequality has greatly increased and where gains are to be made. “Many research studies through the years have shown that students’ background knowledge, in science, history, culture and other fields determines reading comprehension more than whether students are good or poor readers,” he wrote.

Coupled with the NAPLAN results, such insights, in addition to improvements in teacher training, are a chance to tackle educational failure, to the benefit of many of the nation’s most disadvantaged children.