Achieving effective change in education systems is challenging. Unlike many other areas of public administration, schooling touches almost every child and family, every day, for more than a decade.
Meaningful improvement doesn’t happen overnight – it builds gradually as students, teachers, schools and regions make progress. And because change unfolds over many years, education systems rely on strong, ongoing relationships with communities.
The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)’s new report, Leveraging Evidence for System Support, brings together research to help education systems strengthen how they support schools to adopt and sustain evidence-based teaching practices.
'Teaching is the single most powerful in-school influence on student outcomes,' says AERO CEO Dr Jenny Donovan. 'If we want to improve outcomes for students, we need to ensure that schools are effectively supported to adopt teaching practices that are grounded in evidence.'
Research shows that effective system support depends on a set of key reinforcing elements that help schools implement and sustain improvements.
'One of the most important things systems can do is provide clarity,' Jenny explains. 'That means being clear about priorities, aligning policies and initiatives with the reality of implementation in schools, and ensuring decisions are informed by the best available evidence.'
Systems also rely on practical levers that translate system priorities into meaningful support for schools. A clearly defined technical core helps articulate what effective teaching looks like, while a coherent school improvement ecosystem ensures that school planning, review and improvement processes work together to support progress.
'Schools operate within a wider ecosystem of policies, guidance and support,' Jenny says. 'When these elements are aligned, schools are better able to focus on improving teaching and learning.'
These efforts are strengthened by enabling conditions such as leadership, effective use of data and clear communication across the system.
'Most education systems already have many of these ingredients in place,' Jenny adds. 'The challenge is ensuring they work together in a coordinated way to deliver an effective model of support to schools.'
By drawing on strategies research identifies as the best ways help schools adopt evidence-based practices, systems can strengthen their capacity to drive improvement at scale.