Early childhood education and care (ECEC) and school education bear on the wellbeing and quality of life of young Australians as well as on the capabilities and productivity of Australia’s future labour force. Recognising this, Australian governments have committed to national education goals that emphasise the importance of excellence and equity in Australia’s education system. Like other developed nations, Australia has sought to achieve these goals through increased investment in education and by implementing reforms focused on monitoring, performance benchmarking and reporting against national standards.
However, these reforms have not achieved the desired gains in education outcomes. Australian students’ performance on national and international student assessments has stalled or, in some cases, declined. Australia is not alone in this regard. Other countries have also substantially increased their investment in education, and emphasised targets, accountability and transparency, with the aim of driving improved outcomes through competition between schools. Yet these efforts have not seen commensurate improvement in metrics of student achievement (for example, mathematics, figure 1).
There is a growing consensus that increased resourcing and an accountability focus, alone, are insufficient to achieve gains in education outcomes. Adopting and applying an evidence-based approach to education policy and teaching practices is what drives a better allocation of resources and improved outcomes
