Media Statement - 18th November 2007
A Rudd Labor Government will focus on achieving higher standards, greater accountability and better results from our school system.
Federal Labor is determined to lift the standard of every one of our 9,217 schools.
Federal Labor will pursue improvements to our school performance that benefit the more than 1.4 million secondary students and almost 2 million primary school students.
These reforms are aimed at lifting school retention rates from 75 to 90 per cent by 2020.
These changes will be progressed through the forthcoming schools funding agreement (the Quadrennium) and in partnership with State and Territory Governments, the Independent and Catholics School Sectors as well as Deans of Education.
Federal Labor is committed to the current school funding formula and will ensure that no school loses one dollar under the next four year funding agreement. Key elements of Labor’s plan to lift school standards include:
- Greater accountability through easy to understand reports for parents, national testing and the introduction of annual reports comparing the performance of schools.
- Improved quality of teaching.
- A focus on the basics – reading, writing, arithmetic and computer skills.
- A focus on the early years – intervening early.
- The development of individual learning plans.
- The development of a national curriculum - and an uncluttered primary school curriculum.
Greater accountability
Children cannot learn unless we tell them and their parents honestly when they do well and when they do badly. Parents are entitled to honest judgements about how well or badly their child is progressing at school – and without honest assessment and communication, teaching cannot be effective.
That is why we must be able to make clear judgements about what is a pass and what is a fail.
Educators sometimes avoid expressing these judgements because they want to protect children. But what kind of protection is it when we hide the truth from children and parents? We can’t let children encounter the tough judgements of the real world, when it is all too late.
For parents and the public, assessments reported as A, B, C, D and E are clear and unambiguous.
Federal Labor believes our schools must be clear about assessment and grading so that everyone understands how children are progressing, and what is needed for them to improve.
Honest assessment is also essential for young people who are succeeding. Recognising excellence encourages excellence in others. Instead of students simply being told that they meet relevant benchmarks, we must be able to measure how far they have exceeded the minimum benchmarks.
Federal Labor will improve the current assessments of reading, writing and numeracy to provide parents with more information about their child’s performance in these key areas. Current benchmarks describe nationally agreed minimum acceptable standards for aspects of literacy and numeracy at particular year levels.
Federal Labor believes students and their parents should know how proficient they are at reading, writing and numeracy, in addition to whether they are achieving the minimum benchmark standard.
We cannot expect excellence from students and schools if we fail to provide them with appropriate feedback on their performance in basic subjects.
Literacy and numeracy benchmark testing is important to find out how our students are performing. But this testing is wasted unless the results are used to take action, to intervene to improve educational outcomes.
Comparing the performance of schools allows us to judge how well our education system is performing.
There is no better or more transparent way to make the case for additional support for those schools which are falling behind than making the performance of all schools public. We cannot pretend that all schools are succeeding when it is clear that some do better than others.
A comprehensive and sophisticated public reporting system should reflect the challenges faced by each school. Not being honest about the performance of our schools has the same problem and effect as not being honest about students.
Accurately reflecting the performance of schools also means that more can be done to actually improve schools performance, by allowing additional resources to be directed to areas where they are needed most.
A Rudd Labor Government will publish the annual results of individual primary and secondary schools on national reading, writing and numeracy assessments for students in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9.
This will be done in a comprehensive way, including socio-economic analyses and trend line improvements in decline in like schools over a period of time.
Publication of school performance information will form an integral part of Federal Labor’s plan to improve literacy and numeracy and our drive to lift school retention rates from 75 per cent to 80 per cent in 2015 and 90 per cent by 2020.
Improving teacher quality
The quality of teachers actually in the classroom has great potential to improve the educational outcomes of students generally but especially in key, core disciplines like literacy and numeracy.
A recent survey of beginning teachers by the Australian Joint Principals’ Associations confirmed the trend for new teachers not to have training or qualifications in the core areas they teach was confirmed in.
A Rudd Labor Government will work with the Deans of Education to ensure that:
- All trainee teachers are assessed so that they meet necessary literacy and numeracy skills and standards when they enter and leave university. Student teachers would not be able to graduate without having these appropriate skills and standards.
- All teacher training courses will include modules on the teaching of literacy and numeracy to ensure all teachers can confidently teach individual students using a variety of methods, including phonics.
- Teacher training equips new teachers to use ICT so that they can make the most of new technology in the classroom.
A Rudd Labor Government will pay half the HECS repayments of maths and science graduates who teach in our schools.
A focus on the basics and the early years
Federal Labor believes we need more rigour in our education system. Every child needs basic skills and knowledge as a platform for further learning at school and later in life. For example:
- Primary school students should study mathematics for a minimum of five hours each week;
- Children should learn how to spell rather than relying on a spell check;
- All children should be able to write in sentences and use a comma or an apostrophe properly; and
- All four year olds should have access to high quality early learning for fifteen hours a week.
Sustained attention on the basics should be evident throughout a student’s entire schooling career, but particularly in the early years and primary school.
Many students’ achievement against literacy and numeracy benchmarks decline as they get older.
The rigour of teaching and learning must not diminish over time at school.
Just as the basics are the focus in primary school, senior school work should be assessed for proper grammar, punctuation and spelling, as well as the complexity and sophistication of ideas.
Individual learning plans and a National Curriculum
Federal Labor has committed to the development of individual learning plans for all students to ensure they are progressing in the acquisition of reading, writing and numeracy skills.
A Rudd Labor Government will establish a National Curriculum Board to develop a rigorous, consistent and quality curriculum for all Australian students – from prep/kindergarten to Year 12.
Initially it will focus on English, maths, science, and history, followed by geography and languages. Curricula should be concise, in plain English and understandable for parents and teachers.
Under a Rudd Labor Government, goals for learning will be clear and concrete. This is the way to ensure that every child learns. Parents, teachers and students themselves should be given clear direction about what proficiency in a subject means.
Unless we are clear about what our children should learn - the content - it is impossible for teachers, parents and students themselves to make the judgement about competence or proficiency.
Federal Labor will work cooperatively with State and Territory Governments and the Catholic and Independent school systems in developing the new national curriculum. The National Curriculum Board will include representatives from the States and Territories and the Catholic and Independent School systems.
Federal Labor is determined to ensure the national curriculum builds on the strengths of each of the State and Territory systems. It is about taking the best of the best from each jurisdiction.
The Australian Primary School Principals Association recently called for a simpler primary curriculum focused on the basics. Federal Labor endorses this principle and general approach.
To remove the clutter, Labor’s new National Curriculum will refocus our primary schools on four core subjects - English, maths, science, and history.
These measures which will be negotiated as part of the next school funding agreement build on Federal Labor’s capital funding commitments to modernise our schools including:
- $2.5 billion Trades in Schools Plan;
- $1 billion Secondary School Computer Fund
- $489 million Solar Schools Plan