Barry Mcgaw, Australia

The key drivers of high performance systems –Australia
Barry McGawChair, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
International perspectives on U.S. education policy and practice: what can we learn from high performing nations?Asia Society/Council of Chief State School Officers Symposium
Washington, DC, 27-28 April 2010

Quality of Australian education

Mean reading results (PISA 2000)
Australia tied for 2nd with 8 othersamong 42 countries.
OECD (2003), Literacy skills for the world of tomorrow: Further results from PISA 2000, Fig. 2.5, p.76.

Trends in PISA reading performance
Korea
Finland
Hong KongChina
Canada
New Zealand
Australia
Poland

Trends in Australian reading performances
95th %ile
90th %ile
75th %ile
Mean
25th %ile
10th %ile
5th %ile
OECD (2007), PISA 2006: science competencies for tomorrow’s world, Vol. 1 - analysis, Fig. 6.21, p.319.

Countries ahead of Australia in PISA 2006
Mathematics
Reading
Science
CanadaFinlandHong Kong
CanadaFinlandHong KongKoreaNew Zealand
CanadaFinlandHong KongKoreaMacaoNetherlandsSwitzerlandTaiwan

Story line
Quality
Australia ranks high among OECD and other countries
The competition is not standing still

Equity in Australian education

Social background & reading literacy
High
Two indices of relationship
Social gradient
Correlation or variance accounted for
Social gradient: Magnitude of increment in achievement associated with an increment in social background (on average)
Reading literacy
Correlation: How well the regression line summarises the relationship
SocialAdvantage
Low
PISA Index of social background
Source: OECD (2001) Knowledge and skills for life, Appendix B1, Table 8.1, p.308

Social gradients for science (PISA 2006)
High quality
High equity
High quality
Low equity
Low quality
Low equity
Low quality
High equity
OECD (2007) PISA 2006: science competencies for tomorrow’s world, Vol 1 – analysis, Figure 4.6, p.184.

Correlations for science (PISA 2006)
High quality
High equity
High quality
Low equity
Low quality
Low equity
Low quality
High equity
OECD (2007) PISA 2006: science competencies for tomorrow’s world, Vol 1 – analysis, Figure 4.6, p.184.

Variation in science performance (PISA 2006)
Variation of performance within schools
Australia
68%
32%
Variation of performance between schools
Explained by SES
Not explained by SES

Story line
Quality
Equity
Social background & educational differences related more strongly than in some other comparable countries

Current reforms in Australian education

The past and the future
Reasons for past success
Diffused among 6 states, 2 territories
Diffused among govt (67%) and non-govt (33%) schools
Systematic initiatives in govt schools systems
Current reforms to build upon best practices
Development of a national curriculum
Monitoring of system and schools
Reporting on school performance
Improving resource levels

History
Federation with State but not local curricula
Range from syllabuses to frameworks
Moves towards national approach since 1989
Rationale
Common needs of young Australians in C21, including those who cross state borders
We could do better working together to improve quality and equity
Globalisation and international competition

Curriculum development stages
Shape of the Australian Curriculum (15pp)
Shape of the Australian Curriculum:
English (16pp), Math (14pp), Science (13pp), History (16pp)
Australian Curriculum: English, Math, Science, History
Shape Papers
Draft
Final
Implementation
Other subjectsfollowing
Design Paper
www.acara.edu.au

Structure of curriculum
Subjects/learning areas
General capabilities
literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology literacy, thinking skills, creativity, self management, teamwork, intercultural understanding, ethical behaviour and social competence (likely to be restructured as developmental continua developed)
Cross-curriculum dimensions
Indigenous history and culture, Sustainability, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

OtherDimensions
GeneralCapabilities
Facility to restrict grade range
Content descriptions
(Section deleted here.)
Achievement standards with links to annotated samples of students’ work further down page
Content elaborations

A concept, not yet a reality
Teacher forum
Teacher’s selected curriculum
Potential resource material identified via meta-data in curriculum website.

Story line
Quality
Equity
Curriculum
Clear, brief, explicit, setting high expectations for all

Monitoring of system and schools

Monitoring system and schools
Sample-based monitoring
International – OECD PISA and IEA studies
National survey cycle
Science, Civics & Citizenship, ICT literacy
More could be added as Australian Curriculum implemented
Full cohort assessment
Literacy and numeracy (Grades 3, 5, 7, 9)

Reporting on school performance

Primary school with disadvantaged students
Dark green indicating school mean more than 0.5 std dev above national mean (ALL)
Dark green indicating school mean more than 0.5 std dev above mean in 60 schools with students from similar social backgrounds (SIM)
Index of socio-educational advantage (ICSEA) almost 1 std dev below mean
www.myschool.edu.au

Focusing on distribution not minimum acceptable level
Graphs show percentages of students in bands on test (in this case reading) for school (dark brown) its 60 similar schools (mid-brown) all schools (light brown)

Disadvantaged school outperforming similar schools
School better than comparison school:
>.5 SD – dark tan
>.2 and <.5 SD – light tanSchool worse than comparison school:
>.5 SD – dark purple
>.2 and <.5 SD – light purple

A pre-election Dec ‘07 commitment to computers in schools
Post-global financial crisis stimulus spending on school buildings
Increased recurrent funding
Federal government near doubling of school funding
Funding targeted to disadvantaged schools, identified empirically
New Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership

Story line
Quality
Equity
Curriculum
Clear, brief, explicit, setting high expectations for all
Buy in from States and Territories
Accountability
System and school-level to promote improvement
Some opposition from public school teacher unions at present
Resources
Targeted to improve the disadvantaged
Improved funding for all

Thanks.
www.acara.edu.au
www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
www.myschool.edu.au
barry.mcgaw@mcgawgroup.org

Barry Mcgaw, Australia

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