Too many Australian students still failing

But the Australian Council for Education Research points out there can be no complacency given the significant number of Australian students demonstrating only the most basic of skills in key areas.

That has been compounded by the introduction of an overcrowded and ill-directed national curriculum in 2010. That failure seems certain to be repeated in the latest version agreed with the states.

Only 12 per cent of Australian students performed at a high level in maths and reading last year and 13 per cent in science, for example. This was higher than the OECD average but compared to 41 per cent of high performers in maths, 23 per cent in reading and 24 per cent in science in the best achieving country, Singapore.

The data also shows the worrying gap in Australia between the high performers and the large rump of low performing students whose skills and knowledge are considered “too low to participate effectively and productively in all aspects of life”.

According to the measurement of more than 13,000 students from 743 Australian schools, 26 per cent of students were assessed as being in this unhappy category in maths literacy, 20 per cent in science and 21 per cent in reading.

Not surprisingly, those numbers are even more pronounced among students from lower income families, those who are Indigenous or who live in remote communities.

Across all levels from the national proficiency standard to the extremes of high and low performers, Australian-born students did worse on average than those born overseas or to migrant parents.

Most parents would argue good teachers deserve better pay and it’s becoming harder for all teachers to deal with disruptive students.

Students at independent schools did better than those in government or catholic schools, even when adjusted for differences in socio-economic backgrounds.

The decades of declining results in student performance overall has led to increasing alarm from governments belatedly acknowledging that teacher education in universities has been inadequate or incorrectly designed.

That has obviously left many teachers ill-prepared for the challenges of managing a classroom and getting the best out of their students – particularly with often little mentoring or professional feedback.

Instead, it’s been up to the skills of individual teachers, passionate school principals or some subsets of independent or Catholic schools to make a difference. Some do that wonderfully well – but it’s in the face of systemic obstacles.

A Productivity Commission report made the obvious point that “effective teaching is the single most important ‘in school’ factor for student outcomes”. It described this as a combination of teacher quality (the attributes of individual teachers) and quality teachers (effective teaching methods).

Yet the approach to educating teachers in teaching reading has only recently improved after decades of arguments about use of phonics despite all the evidence this is an essential building block for reading literacy for most children.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare is attempting to improve outcomes via various reviews, including one into teacher education focused on developing these practical skills in foundation subjects and class management. Another review will link school funding more directly with educational targets and achievements. Clare says he is determined to tie funding to the sorts of things that help children who fall behind to catch up.

This won’t stop the usual demands from the states and teacher unions arguing for more money for public schools as a one-size-fits-all “reform”.

Most parents would argue that good teachers deserve much better pay and that it’s becoming harder for all teachers to deal with the number of disruptive students or those distracted by mobile phones or mental health issues.

Yet the Australian system is weighted towards paying teachers relatively well at the start of their careers but then forcing them out of the classroom into more administrative roles if they want to earn more.

Sporadic efforts to develop and reward more high-quality teachers have been extremely limited in the number being certified. All the while many teachers complain about the amount of general administration and non-teaching work they must undertake.

Hopefully, real change will come in time for the next generation of 15-year-olds.