1. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Building Educational Capacity: Enhancing Leadership Potential Barry McGaw International messages for Australia’s schools: still good but slipping Melbourne, 1 August 2011 Joint Conference of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals and the Victorian Principals Association

2. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Message from international surveys

3. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Australia tied for 2 nd with 8 others among 42 countries. Mean reading results (PISA 2000) OECD (2003), Literacy skills for the world of tomorrow: Further results from PISA 2000, Fig. 2.5, p.76.

4. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Trends in PISA reading performance Finland Hong Kong Canada New Zealand Korea Australia

5. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Trends in Australian reading performances 95 th %ile 5 th %ile 90 th %ile 10 th %ile 75 th %ile 25 th %ile Mean

6. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Countries ahead of Australia in PISA 2009 Canada Finland Hong Kong - Korea - - - Shanghai Singapore Reading Mathematics Science Canada Finland Hong Kong Japan Korea Liechtenstein Macao Netherlands Shanghai Singapore Switzerland Taiwan - Finland Hong Kong Japan Korea - - - Shanghai Singapore

7. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 The story so far… Australia’s average performance in international terms is high but slipping.

8. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Social background & reading literacy Social Advantage PISA Index of social background High Reading literacy Low Two indices of relationship Correlation or variance accounted for Social gradient: Magnitude of increment in achievement associated with an increment in social background (on average) Correlation: How well the regression line summarises the relationship Source: OECD (2001) Knowledge and skills for life, Appendix B1, Table 8.1, p.308 Social gradient

9. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 High quality Low equity High quality High equity Low quality Low equity Low quality High equity Social gradients for science (PISA 2006) OECD (2007) PISA 2006: science competencies for tomorrow’s world, Vol 1 – analysis, Figure 4.6, p.184.

10. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 High quality Low equity High quality High equity Low quality Low equity Low quality High equity Correlations for science (PISA 2006) OECD (2007) PISA 2006: science competencies for tomorrow’s world, Vol 1 – analysis, Figure 4.6, p.184.

11. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Variation in science performance (PISA 2006) Variation of performance within schools Australia 32% 68% Variation of performance between schools Explained by SES Not explained by SES

12. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 The story so far… Australia’s average performance in international terms is high but slipping. Differences in students’ social backgrounds have a more impact on educational performance in Australia than in most other high-performing countries though there are more exceptions in Australia than in some others.

13. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Using national data to address the issues

14. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 School B School A School C Performance vs socio-educational advantage Index of community socio-educational advantage (ICSEA) Performance

19. Indooroopilly Primary 460 445-475 Brunswick East Primary 524 502-546

21. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 The story so far… Australia’s average performance in international terms is high but slipping. Differences in students’ social backgrounds have a more impact on educational performance in Australia than in most other high-performing countries though there are more exceptions in Australia than in some others. One way to reduce the impact of differences in students’ social backgrounds is to learn lessons from cases where it matters less.

22. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Raising expectations – an international example

23. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Variation in science performance (PISA 2006) Variation of performance within schools Variation of performance between schools Explained by SES Not explained by SES

24. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Trends in PISA reading performance

25. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 The story so far… Australia’s average performance in international terms is high but slipping. Differences in students’ social backgrounds have a more impact on educational performance in Australia than in most other high-performing countries though there are more exceptions in Australia than in some others. One way to reduce the impact of differences in students’ social backgrounds is to learn lessons from cases where it matters less. A key research message is that raising expectations leads to improved performance, particularly of low performers, provided students have appropriate learning opportunities.

26. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Raising expectations – curriculum reform as one important step

27. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 The emerging Australian curriculum r Shape of the Australian Curriculum – 2008 l Initial version on Phase 1 – 2008 l Revised version for whole – 2011 r Position paper on whole curriculum, achievement standards, students with disabilities l Adopted by Ministers on Friday 8 July 2011 r Three-dimensional design l Learning areas l General capabilities l Cross-curriculum priorities r Benchmarked internationally l Comments on drafts included complaints about level of demand l All part of asking more of ourselves!

28. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 The whole story Australia’s average performance in international terms is high but slipping. Differences in students’ social backgrounds have a more impact on educational performance in Australia than in most other high-performing countries though there are more exceptions in Australia than in some others. One way to reduce the impact of differences in students’ social backgrounds is to learn lessons from cases where it matters less. A key research message is that raising expectations leads to improved performance, particularly of low performers, provided students have appropriate learning opportunities. The introduction of an Australian Curriculum with appropriate resources is an important step in raising expectations.

29. mcgaw group pty ltd ABN 34 117 491 228 Thank you. barry.mcgaw@mcgawgroup.org