Now the dust has settled and the ‘Education Revolution’ is squarely on the national agenda, the debate begins on how to truly implement a revolution in education. While NEiTA, the National Excellence In Teaching Awards program, applauds education reform, it urges the Federal Government to take into account the latest international research about the three areas proven to matter most to the educational outcomes for the nation’s youth.
The McKinsey & Company Report, How The World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out On Top, is a seminal research study of 25 of the world’s school systems, including the top ten performers.
This important Report has found that despite massive increases in spending and ambitious attempts at reform, the performance of many school systems has barely improved in decades.
NEiTA Chairman, Mr Terry O’Connell said, “the Report’s findings highlight the need to focus on what governments can immediately do to improve student outcomes”.
Education issues were a focus of the recent Federal Election because of the importance for Australia to be able to develop its workers’ skills to a high level so that the country can improve its productivity and compete in the global knowledge economy. Gaining improvements in the quality of schooling outcomes and providing learning opportunities is key to achieving these objectives.
The Report shows that increases in expenditure on education don’t necessarily result in improved student outcomes. Australia has almost tripled education spending since 1970 with little improvement in student outcomes.
“This Report reveals that more money does not necessarily lead to higher quality student outcomes, and that the school systems with the best teachers produce the best results,” Mr O’Connell said.
What are the commonalities across these countries’ education systems? The results are surprising. Not more money. Not smaller class sizes. Not more hours in school. Not the highest teacher salaries.
The Report states that:
“Across the globe – whether it is Canada in North America, Finland in Europe or Japan and Korea in Asia – some education systems demonstrate that excellence in education is an attainable goal, and at reasonable cost. They also show that the challenge of achieving a high and socially equitable distribution of learning outcomes can be successfully addressed and that excellence can be achieved consistently throughout the education systems, with very few students and schools left behind.
“But measuring performance does not automatically lead to insights as to what policy and practice can do to help students to learn better, teachers to teach better, and schools to operate more effectively. This is where McKinsey’s Report comes in, with its first-of-its-kind approach that links quantitative results with qualitative insights on what high-performing and rapidly improving school systems have in common. With a focus on issues that transcend cultural and socio-economic contexts, such as getting the right people to become teachers, developing those people into effective instructors, and putting in place targeted support to ensure that every child can benefit from high-quality instruction, the Report allows policy-makers to learn about features of successful systems without copying systems in their entirety.
“Its objective has been to understand why the world’s top-performing school systems perform so very much better than most others and why some educational reforms succeed so spectacularly, when most others fail.
Mr O’Connell said: “The Report clearly shows the school systems with strong improvement trajectories have all introduced reforms recently that are raising student outcomes – they are all recognising the effect of teacher quality. The research shows that students with high performing teachers consistently outperform those with low performing teachers irrespective of the students’ backgrounds.”
As the Report states, “The evidence is indisputable – you can’t improve student learning without improving instruction”. The Report goes on to conclude, that to improve instruction high-performing school systems consistently do three things well:
1. They get the right people to become teachers
2. They develop them into effective instructors,
3. They put in place systems and targeted support to ensure every child is able to benefit from excellent instruction.
Mr O’Connell said: “Teaching is the area that we must focus on. NEiTA has been advocating since 1994 that building and supporting the teaching profession is the key to changing student outcomes because the impact of teachers on children is critical to their performance, and therefore the nation’s future.
“It’s all about building the status of the teaching profession, attracting and retaining the right people into the profession, supporting them appropriately and ensuring they receive constant professional development.
“The key to unlocking the gates to the education revolution is in the Government’s hands. Let’s hope the new Federal Government has the courage to turn the key,” Mr O’Connell said.
McKinsey & Company Report,
How The World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out On Top, September 2007
is available from the website:
www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/socialsector/resources/pdf/Worlds_School_Systems_Final.pdf
Information provided by NEiTA.
Further information about NEiTA’s teaching awards program can be found at:
www.neita.com or by calling the NEiTA Secretariat on 1800 624 487 or by emailing neita@asg.com.au.
This important Report has found that despite massive increases in spending and ambitious attempts at reform, the performance of many school systems has barely improved in decades.
NEiTA Chairman, Mr Terry O’Connell said, “the Report’s findings highlight the need to focus on what governments can immediately do to improve student outcomes”.
Education issues were a focus of the recent Federal Election because of the importance for Australia to be able to develop its workers’ skills to a high level so that the country can improve its productivity and compete in the global knowledge economy. Gaining improvements in the quality of schooling outcomes and providing learning opportunities is key to achieving these objectives.
The Report shows that increases in expenditure on education don’t necessarily result in improved student outcomes. Australia has almost tripled education spending since 1970 with little improvement in student outcomes.
“This Report reveals that more money does not necessarily lead to higher quality student outcomes, and that the school systems with the best teachers produce the best results,” Mr O’Connell said.
What are the commonalities across these countries’ education systems? The results are surprising. Not more money. Not smaller class sizes. Not more hours in school. Not the highest teacher salaries.
The Report states that:
“Across the globe – whether it is Canada in North America, Finland in Europe or Japan and Korea in Asia – some education systems demonstrate that excellence in education is an attainable goal, and at reasonable cost. They also show that the challenge of achieving a high and socially equitable distribution of learning outcomes can be successfully addressed and that excellence can be achieved consistently throughout the education systems, with very few students and schools left behind.
“But measuring performance does not automatically lead to insights as to what policy and practice can do to help students to learn better, teachers to teach better, and schools to operate more effectively. This is where McKinsey’s Report comes in, with its first-of-its-kind approach that links quantitative results with qualitative insights on what high-performing and rapidly improving school systems have in common. With a focus on issues that transcend cultural and socio-economic contexts, such as getting the right people to become teachers, developing those people into effective instructors, and putting in place targeted support to ensure that every child can benefit from high-quality instruction, the Report allows policy-makers to learn about features of successful systems without copying systems in their entirety.
“Its objective has been to understand why the world’s top-performing school systems perform so very much better than most others and why some educational reforms succeed so spectacularly, when most others fail.
Mr O’Connell said: “The Report clearly shows the school systems with strong improvement trajectories have all introduced reforms recently that are raising student outcomes – they are all recognising the effect of teacher quality. The research shows that students with high performing teachers consistently outperform those with low performing teachers irrespective of the students’ backgrounds.”
As the Report states, “The evidence is indisputable – you can’t improve student learning without improving instruction”. The Report goes on to conclude, that to improve instruction high-performing school systems consistently do three things well:
1. They get the right people to become teachers
2. They develop them into effective instructors,
3. They put in place systems and targeted support to ensure every child is able to benefit from excellent instruction.
Mr O’Connell said: “Teaching is the area that we must focus on. NEiTA has been advocating since 1994 that building and supporting the teaching profession is the key to changing student outcomes because the impact of teachers on children is critical to their performance, and therefore the nation’s future.
“It’s all about building the status of the teaching profession, attracting and retaining the right people into the profession, supporting them appropriately and ensuring they receive constant professional development.
“The key to unlocking the gates to the education revolution is in the Government’s hands. Let’s hope the new Federal Government has the courage to turn the key,” Mr O’Connell said.
McKinsey & Company Report,
How The World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out On Top, September 2007
is available from the website:
www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/socialsector/resources/pdf/Worlds_School_Systems_Final.pdf
Information provided by NEiTA.
Further information about NEiTA’s teaching awards program can be found at:
www.neita.com or by calling the NEiTA Secretariat on 1800 624 487 or by emailing neita@asg.com.au.