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The report said much of the workload fell to already-stretched principals,who were expected not only to do their own research but to lead change management in their schools. But it said once clear policies had been set,principals should be held accountable if reading progress was poor.
The Australian curriculum moved to evidence-informed reading instruction for the early years in 2022. Victoria,which uses its own adaptation of the curriculum,allows schools an autonomous approach and advises a mix of evidence-informed and balanced literacy approaches. It also uses its own year 1 phonics test,whichexperts have dismissed as “hopeless”.
Victoria’s Education Department websitelists a target of a 25 per cent improvement in years 5 and 9 reading results by 2025 but the goal relies on the previous NAPLAN scale and results have not been publicly reported since 2019.
Grattan’s Amy Haywood said governments could expect stagnant results for reading if they continued to depend on action at individual schools instead of changing policies.
“We should be relying on the departments and sector leaders to have done the research and[provided] clear and consistent advice to schools,” she said. “Parents should be in a position where they can actually trust that we’ve got a highly reliable system where their child goes to school and that school will be able to implement strategies that give them the best chance of reading success.”
Grattan’s six-step ‘Reading Guarantee’
1. Pledge that at least 90 per cent of Australian students will become proficient readers.
2. Give principals and teachers specific guidelines on how to teach reading in line with the evidence on what works best.
3. Provide schools with the high-quality curriculum materials and assessments that teachers need to teach reading well.
4. Require schools to do universal screening of students’ reading skills and help struggling students to catch-up.
5. Ensure teachers have the knowledge and skills they need,through extra training,and by appointing Literacy Instructional Specialists in schools.
6. Mandate a nationally consistent year 1 phonics screening check,and regularly review schools’ and principals’ performance on teaching their students to read.
At Templestowe Heights Primary School,in Melbourne’s north-east,COVID lockdowns were the catalyst for a shift to a structured approach.
Principal Rhys Coulson said it became clear early in remote learning that students couldn’t sit through a normal 60-minute reading lesson,and teachers needed to “cut out all the waffle” to provide explicit instructions in short bursts.
The results of the following year’s phonics test spoke for themselves. In 2021,the year before the school implemented structured reading,24 per cent of year 1s were categorised as struggling. In 2022,it was 2 per cent.
The number of students in the fluent category grew from 55 per cent to 87.
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“I always felt this was the right way to go. But I didn’t know just how much of an impact you could potentially have,” he said.
Templestowe Heights is now eighth-highest in the state for NAPLAN reading results. Students identified as needing intervention are those not yet in the exceeding or strong categories.
Coulson said the school had written its own curriculum materials and often gave tours to other principals interested in emulating their approach. But he said not everyone was sold,particularly those already achieving good results with other approaches.
Victoria’s Education Minister Ben Carroll said the state’s students were the strongest performers in the country for year 3 NAPLAN reading results and many of the actions recommended in the Grattan report were already core features of Victoria’s approach to reading instruction.
Carroll did not answer questions related to targets or guidance but said the state’s new English curriculum had a stronger focus on phonics and he was open to considering how Victoria’s mandatory year 1 phonics assessment might be strengthened. Victoria has already invested heavily in catch-up tutoring.
Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said it was time for Victoria to drop its “phonics-phobia” and follow other states in adopting it across the board.
“The ‘choose your own adventure’ approach to teaching reading in Victorian schools is failing students,” she said.
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