Gonski 2.0 "Through growth to achievement report of the review to achieve educational excellence in Australian Schools - Summary

Important Note: This is not my work, this is a summary provided by the AEU Victoria branch's  research officer, John Graham. I believe it needs to be more broadly seen and viewed by actual, practicing teachers who have been likely too busy to pore over the 150 page report.

Through Growth to Achievement Report of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools March 2018

(Gonski Review Report https://docs.education.gov.au/node/50516 )

Summary of Recommendations and Findings

Recommendations (summarised and bold added)

Recommendation 1: Each student should achieve at least one year’s growth throughout each year of schooling.

Recommendation 2: Implement best practice approaches to supporting parents and carers to engage in their children’s learning throughout their education.

Recommendation 3: Ensure all students have the opportunity within schools to be partners in their own learning.

Recommendation 4: Introduce new reporting arrangements with a focus on both learning attainment and learning gain.

Recommendation 5: Revise the structure of the Australian Curriculum progressively over the next five years to present the learning areas and general capabilities as learning progressions.

Recommendation 6: Prioritise the implementation of learning progressions for literacy and numeracy in curriculum delivery during the early years of schooling.

Recommendation 7: Strengthen the development of the general capabilities, and raise their status within curriculum delivery.

Recommendation 8: Strengthen school-community engagement.

Recommendation 9: A national inquiry to investigate and review the objectives, curriculum, assessment provisions and delivery structures for senior secondary schooling.

Recommendation 10: Accelerate the development of contemporary pedagogy through the use of collaboration, mentoring, observation and feedback and creating the conditions to enable teachers to engage in them.

Recommendation 11: Develop a new online and on demand student learning assessment tool based on the Australian Curriculum learning progressions.

Recommendation 12: Create the conditions necessary to enable teachers to effectively engage and benefit from professional learning [in the recommended changes].

Recommendation 13: Provision of high-quality professional learning for teachers.

Recommendation 14: Develop a comprehensive national teacher workforce strategy

Recommendation 15: Create the conditions to enable teachers to engage in effective induction practices.

Recommendation 16: Provide opportunities for structured career pathways for teachers that allow for accelerated progression and provide the opportunity for remuneration, recognition and allocation of responsibilities based on expertise.

Recommendation 17: Review and revise the Australian Professional Standard for Principals to prioritise leadership of learning.

Recommendation 18: Ensure principals have the professional autonomy and accountability required to lead their school on the improvement journey most relevant to their starting point.

Recommendation 19: Create and provide opportunities to implement a structured career pathway for school leaders.

Recommendation 20: Provide school leaders with access to a variety of professional learning opportunities and recognise and harness the skills and experience of high-performing principals by enabling them to share their expertise

Recommendation 21: Enhance school and system internal self-review and external quality assurance processes

Recommendation 22: Accelerate the introduction of a national Unique Student Identifier for all students to be used throughout schooling.

Recommendation 23: Establish an independent institution to coordinate the strategic development of a national research and evidence base

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Findings (summarised and bold added)

Finding 1: a focus on achievement through learning growth for all students

Finding 2: Early childhood education makes a significant contribution to school outcomes. The transition between preschool and school education should be seamless.

Finding 3: There is strong and developing evidence of the benefit of parent engagement on children’s learning. Development of an evidence-informed definition of parent engagement.

Finding 4: Teaching curriculum based on year or age levels rather than levels of progress leaves some students behind and fails to extend others.

Finding 5: Reporting against year-level achievement standards hides both progress and attainment for some students and does not amount to a diagnostic assessment of real learning needs.

Finding 6: School-community engagement is an effective way to improve the relevance of learning, and to support personal development and student learning growth.

Finding 7: Tailored teaching based on ongoing formative assessment and feedback are the key to enabling students to progress to higher levels of achievement.

Finding 8: Ongoing professional development is an essential part of a teacher’s workload in high-performing education systems.

Finding 9: Teaching must become a high-status profession of expert educators.

Finding 10: Raising the quality of initial teacher preparation and improving the classroom readiness of graduate teachers.

Finding 11: Implementation of effective induction practices and appropriate conditions are critical to support the transition from initial teacher education into the profession.

Finding 12: Certification at the Highly Accomplished and Lead levels of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers can play a key role in keeping excellent teachers working with students and helping to improve colleagues’ pedagogical practices.

Finding 13: Aspiring school principals require clear pathways leading to the role, and comprehensive training and preparation to a quality standard before their appointment.

Finding 14: To have an impact, strategies for school leadership development need to be aligned to the nationally endorsed Australian guidelines for school leadership

Finding 15: School leaders play a variety of roles, including leaders of learning, business administrators, and culture setters. Participation in ongoing quality professional learning is essential, with a particular focus on their role as leaders of learning.

Finding 16: As Australian schools transition to diagnostic assessment and differentiated teaching within the framework of learning progressions, there will be increasing opportunities for, and benefits to be gained from, external quality review processes at school and system level.

 Finding 17: Australian schools need access to: valid and reliable evidence of effective teaching practice; independent and rigorous evaluations of commercial and other teaching and educational interventions; and the most recent findings on educational innovation and research.