Recently released, the Institute’s ‘Orange Book’ is deemed to be a ‘policy blueprint’ for the next government and aims to identify the changes that will improve the lives of Australians, with school education earmarked as a key sector ripe for reform. 

The authors flag that no matter the measure used, far too many students across all jurisdictions are falling short of national proficiency benchmarks in literacy and numeracy. 

“In the 2024 NAPLAN tests, about one in three students did not meet proficiency benchmarks across tests of numeracy, reading, writing, and language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9.

“This indicates that at least 1.3 million students across the country are at risk of leaving school without the essential foundations they need for their future,” the report states. 

While states signed on to the new Better and Fairer Schools Agreement have committed to lifting the proportion of students who meet NAPLAN proficiency benchmarks for reading and numeracy by 10 per cent by 2030, this is not good enough and locks in equity for longer, the report contends. 

“While this is a clear improvement on the vague goals in the 2018 National School Reform Agreement, governments should raise their level of ambition and commit to a long-term target that at least 90 per cent of Australian students reach proficiency in reading and numeracy,” the report flags. 

To make this target ‘immediately tangible’ for all jurisdictions, and especially Tasmania, South Australian and the Northern Territory who have ‘a long way to go’, the authors say the federal government should encourage the states to set an ‘ambitious but realistic' target right away. 

Namely, to lift the proportion of students who meet proficiency benchmarks in NAPLAN reading and numeracy by 15 percentage points over the next decade. 

If realised, the impact of this would be profound, the report suggests. 

“Achieving this target for reading, for example, would mean that an extra 46,500 Year 3 students across Australia would be able to read proficiently in 2034. 

“This translates to about six more Year 3 students per primary school, on average, hitting the benchmark in 10 years time.” 

The existing targets work to solidify disadvantage for longer, the report adds. 

“The Northern Territory, for instance, has the most need – and the most room for improvement – but its existing target will benefit far fewer students. 

“To meet the existing target, the NT needs to increase the number of students who reach proficiency in numeracy by only 3.8 percentage points…” 

Australian teachers also need access to ‘robust’ teaching practice guidelines, which the federal government should develop with the support of AERO. 

“There is no way an individual doctor can stay on top of all the emerging research evidence and the implications for practice in their field. Neither can teachers. 

“But unlike in healthcare, Australian governments have not tried hard enough to ensure systems are in place to tackle this challenge in education,” the report proposes. 

The guidelines should include an implementation plan for schools and be linked to practical materials, such as off-the-shelf curriculum materials and assessment tools for teachers.

Despite recent improvements, the authors say an ‘evidence-to-policy to-practice gap’ is hindering student performance.

“Reliably translating evidence about effective teaching into actual practice across all of Australia’s 9500-plus schools is no small feat. 

“At a minimum, schools need clear, robust, and detailed guidance on what works best to create secure learning foundations for all students, while also encouraging excellence.”

It argues that guidance provided to schools is often not based on a rigorous review of the research evidence, which means teachers are sometimes given ineffective or even harmful advice. 

“And often different teams inside the same education department adopt inconsistent approaches, which means advice given to schools by one part of the department contradicts the advice given by another part.”

Governments also need to get a better grasp of what actually happens inside schools, the report says. 

They should seek to better understand how school organise their staff workforce, how teachers’ time is actually spent day-to-day, and the instructional approaches, curriculum materials and assessments that are used, it clarifies. 

Immediate priorities include firming up research on: 

  • how best to use and integrate the wider schools’ workforce, including specialists and support staff, so teachers can focus on high-quality classroom instruction; 
  • how to streamline the work involved in core teaching activities, to reduce the need for teachers to ‘re-invent the wheel’ in curriculum and lesson planning; and 
  • how to increase school leaders’ flexibility to strike a ‘sensible balance’ between class sizes and teachers’ face-to-face teaching time, and to smooth out workloads over the school year, by scheduling more time for teachers to work together in term breaks on professional development or preparation activities.

The Institute reiterate that lifting the quality of school education should be a national priority. 

“Better academic results would improve students’ lives, lift workforce productivity, and support Australian prosperity.”

Policy change is “urgently” needed to raise the standards of achievement and to hand schools the support they need to provide high-quality teaching in every classroom, the report concludes.