School Education
25 August 2019
Attracting high achievers to teaching
Top teachers should be able to earn $80,000 a year more, and top school-leavers should get $10,000-a-year scholarships if they take up teaching, as part of a $1.6 billion reform package to boost teacher quality and student performance.
16 April 2019
Commonwealth Orange Book 2019: Policy priorities for the federal government
The winner of the 2019 federal election should defy the national mood of reform fatigue and stare down vested interests to pursue a targeted agenda to improve the lives of Australians. The Orange Book charts the policy priorities.
28 October 2018
State Orange Book 2018: Policy priorities for states and territories
State and territory governments can do more to improve the lives of Australians. In many cases, states are different because their governments adopted better policies. Every state should learn from the others and do better.
22 October 2018
Measuring student progress: A state-by-state report card
Our new report card on NAPLAN results reveals big differences between the states on students’ learning progress through school. Governments should investigate why students make more progress in some states, to identify teacher practices and school policies that produce the best results.
11 February 2018
The Commonwealth’s role in improving schools
The Commonwealth should not use the extra money it is spending on schools as an excuse to intervene in school education. The danger is that the ‘Gonski 2.0 Review’ could be used as a platform for Commonwealth interventions that sound good, but don’t actually help on the ground.
26 November 2017
Towards an adaptive education system in Australia
Australia’s school education system is not fit for purpose, and we need to rethink the way we teach students, support teachers and run schools. To halt the decline, we should make the system more adaptive.
5 February 2017
Engaging students: creating classrooms that improve learning
Forty per cent of Australian school students are unproductive in a given year. The education system needs comprehensive reform to tackle widespread student disengagement in class.
27 November 2016
Circuit breaker: a new compact on school funding
A new deal among governments and school systems can end Australia’s toxic school funding debate and transform teaching and learning in schools, without costing the Commonwealth more money.
14 June 2016
Orange Book 2016: priorities for the next Commonwealth Government
Australia faces many domestic policy challenges as the election looms. Yet a survey of seven years of Grattan Institute reports and policy proposals shows that a government prepared to forcefully articulate the public interest could win public support for a brave and powerful reform agenda.
21 March 2016
Widening gaps: what NAPLAN tells us about student progress
Learning gaps between Australian students of different backgrounds are too wide, and grow wider as students move through school.