How to boost reading skills

A new report by the state government’s literacy advisory panel will help Tasmania close this gap.

The government has accepted the report’s priority recommendations and is committed to widespread reforms, including spending $6.5m over the next four years to start the process. This should help turn the tide on Tasmanian students’ poor reading performance. Not before time.

According to international benchmarks, about half of Tasmania’s 15-year-olds fall short of Australia’s proficiency benchmark in reading.

Grattan Institute analysis of NAPLAN results shows that the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged Tasmanian students more than doubles between Grade 3 and Year 9. By Grade 3, students whose parents did not finish school are already more than two years behind students whose parents have a university degree. By Year 9, that gap grows to more than five years.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Thanks to decades of reading research, we know more than ever about how to ensure almost all children achieve reading proficiency.

We know that children need to master the foundational mechanics of reading in the early years of school so that they can understand how letters relate to sounds and can say the words they see on the page. Research shows that well-structured, systematic phonics teaching, which follows a careful sequence of learning and provides lots of opportunities for repeated practice, gives all students the best chance to clear this hurdle.

We also know that children and young people must develop a rich bank of vocabulary and background knowledge so they can understand what they read, particularly as they move through the primary years and into secondary school. Otherwise, they will struggle to grasp the meaning of text – the ultimate purpose of reading – even if they can say the words out loud.

And we know that it is critical that teachers keep a watchful eye on the rate of progress their students make – and give additional support to the children who need it.

Without a failsafe approach to identifying struggling students, they can often fall further behind their peers until they reach the point where catching up is almost impossible.

Fortunately, the state government is committed to closing the gap between what we know works and what actually happens in classrooms.

The government has accepted the literacy panel report’s recommendation for a “minimum guarantee” that reading instruction in schools must be done according to the evidence about what works best – and that non-evidence-based practices be discontinued. This includes explicit teaching of systematic phonics, monitoring students’ progress, and providing catch-up support to those who need it.

The government hopes to have these changes implemented in every Tasmanian primary school by 2026, with an intermediate target of 25 per cent of primary schools by next year.

The government is also committed to implementing the Year 1 Phonics Check – which assesses students’ phonics knowledge – in every school this year, and publishing the aggregate results.

These reforms should lift the quality and consistency of reading instruction in Tasmanian schools. However, the government should do three more things to guarantee these policy goals make it into practice:

It should provide clear guidance on effective whole-class reading instruction, and ensure teachers have access to quality-assured reading programs and curriculum materials for all year levels.

To help teachers hone their skills on the teaching of reading, the government should embed literacy-focused instructional specialists in all schools and establish literacy master teacher roles across schools. These senior teachers must have an up-to-date understanding of the evidence of effective practice, and the coaching skills and a clear mandate to spread best practice among their colleagues.

The government should conduct regular school reviews that include a rigorous examination of student achievement, curriculum implementation, and instructional approaches to reading.

Every effort must be made to ensure reading is taught well in every classroom in the state. The future prosperity of Tasmania, and the future life chances of every Tasmanian child, depend on it.