Victorian kids the bright sparks as NAPLAN fails to shine

13 hours ago 3

Victoria’s schoolchildren have defied a national trend of lacklustre results in this year’s NAPLAN tests to catapult the state to the top of the class.

Nationwide NAPLAN results show little or no improvement on the previous year, with large numbers of children still struggling with the basics of learning and nearly a third of students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 playing catch-up in reading, writing, spelling and maths.

The results of tests sat by more than 1.3 million children around the nation in March show nearly 33 per cent are either “in need of additional support” or “developing”, on average, across reading and writing.

The data also highlights the sharp economic and demographic divides in Australian education, with more than 57 per cent of Australia’s most disadvantaged year 9s – and about 53 per cent of Victoria’s – struggling with their reading, compared with just 17 per cent of those from the top socioeconomic bracket.

Despite the underwhelming national picture, Victorian students recorded either the best or second-best results in the country in 18 of the 20 categories reported, in what the state government describes as the “best ever” NAPLAN performance by local students.

Victoria also recorded fewer students struggling across all subjects and age groups, with less than 28 per cent of the state’s children needing additional support or “developing”, compared with a national average of almost 33 per cent.

The state government said the improvement was a direct result of its push towards an explicit-instruction approach to teaching maths and literacy, but a leading expert said Victoria could and should be doing better.

Education Minister Ben Carroll said there was a direct line between the Victorian government’s high-profile push for explicit learning and the improved results.

“The credit goes mostly to our hardworking teachers because, at the end of the day, pedagogy is the single most important lever we have in uplifting standards,” Carroll said. “So, explicit instruction is now mandated in Victorian teaching and learning models that I have launched, and that is what is occurring.

“I see it daily, whether it’s mathematics, whether it’s reading, our teachers are using what the science says is best practice, and it’s being now consistent across our classrooms and our schools.”

Jordana Hunter, education program director at progressive think tank the Grattan Institute, acknowledged the “green shoots” of Victoria’s results, but said the state’s schools had the potential to do much better.

“Victoria is a highly advantaged jurisdiction, so would you expect it to be doing better than Tasmania or South Australia or the Northern Territory? Absolutely,” Hunter said.

“When we look internationally, for kids in primary school, for maths outcomes Victoria is below England, they’re well below Singapore.

“So Victoria could be one of the top-performing systems in the world.”

Hunter said the key to lifting more children above the NAPLAN proficiency level was the ongoing training of their teachers.

“It’s not rocket science,” she said. “It comes down to investing in a much more strategic way in professional expertise for teachers, particularly in the primary school years. We should be doing more to lift the professional expertise of our primary teachers when it comes to mathematics, reading and writing.”

The Australian Education Union, which is embarking on what is expected to be a tough round of pay talks with the state government, said improved performance of Victoria’s children had been delivered by underpaid teachers and support staff.

“The premier and education minister are talking about these results, while cutting $2.4
billion in funding from Victoria’s public schools, and overseeing a system in which public
school teachers work an average 12 unpaid overtime hours every week,” the union’s state president, Justin Mullaly, said.

At the conservative Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) think tank, education policy director Glenn Fahey said the results showed the nation’s education system was in a “state of high-spend stagnation”.

“Despite encouraging glimpses, the overwhelming evidence is of an education system stuck in neutral, when it needs to be revving up,” Fahey said. “The best that can be said for the education system is that Australia’s results haven’t dipped as badly as peer countries over the past few years, but that’s hardly something to celebrate.”

CIS research fellow Trisha Jha said the answer to mediocre performance was not more money, but a better use of time in the classroom.

“Governments have tried spending their way to school improvement, but that approach has reached its limits,” Jha said. “It’s time to shift the focus to what actually works: a knowledge-rich curriculum, explicit teaching, and better use of classroom time.”

Bethal Primary School in Melbourne’s north has overcome its serious socioeconomic challenges over the past three years, launching itself from the bottom 10 per cent of NAPLAN performers among comparable schools to be in the top 10 per cent this year.

Ayman Alsabri, Zainab Zahra and Mariam Haddad.

Principal Dave Warren said the Meadow Heights school had been using explicit teaching and evidence-based learning long before it was mandated by the government, leading to standout results by the school’s year 3s and year 5s in reading, writing and numeracy.

“At our school, we don’t believe that postcode determines destiny,” Warren said on Tuesday. “Our staff are relentless in their belief that every child can achieve extraordinary things.

“When you combine that belief with passionate teaching and evidence-based practice, you can elevate student success beyond what many think is possible.”

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