Reversing the decline of numeracy and literacy

The most recent NAPLAN tests, the Australian national exam on the basic literacy and numeracy skills, show one third of students are not meeting the minimum benchmarks. Almost half a million children are in the lowest performance band, meaning they need significant work to catch up. 

National and international testing of Australian students has documented a consistent decline over the last two decades. Some claim it represents the steepest and most consistent decline in achievement in the entire world. For example, the OECD’s 2019 PISA – Programme for International Student Assessment – results placed Australian 15-year olds three and a half years behind their Chinese counterparts in maths. 

 
Image: ACER, PISA key findings – Australia 

Another trend in literacy and numeracy attainment in Australian schools is the outperformance of children from language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE) consistently well above their non-immigrant peers. In other OECD countries, children from immigrant families often struggle. Australian education experts believe that there's common trends behind this success, including a strong emphasis on education in the home; these students are often from families that strongly value education.

Some schools are improving literacy and numeracy outcomes by switching from whole language and inquiry-based learning (non-hierarchical, student led approaches) to explicit learning – teacher led instruction, which emphasises the teacher directing the lesson, discipline and clearly breaking down and explaining concepts to students. 

“There's also a lot of systematic repetition and the science here is that for many students to commit something to memory, they need to hear it over and over again and it's not efficient to do that with writing, so there'll be a lot of call and response in the classroom, a lot of engagement. Both here and overseas, the evidence is that this approach, especially for basic literacy and numeracy, works for the largest number of students.”

Source: ABC News Daily (14min) Who’s to blame for declining school results?