Australia’s national education evidence body
15 March 2023

Over the past three decades Australia has developed an increasingly advanced national system of student assessments, results from which have been used to identify areas of growth, stagnation or decline in student learning. For the most part, trends in different standardised assessments have been considered in isolation. By examining literacy and numeracy results across assessments, we can better understand the performance of Australian students over time; we can pinpoint areas of national strength and weakness and improve Australia’s educational outcomes.

15 March 2023

The paper draws on the latest National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) data to discuss student participation and engagement with the tests – factors which impact the quality and usefulness of the results. It highlights important considerations for interpretation of student results and future implementation of NAPLAN.

Practice guide
19 April 2022

Targeting sentence-level instruction is critical in order to develop foundational skills in writing. Sentence combining is an instructional technique used to improve sentence quality, complexity, and variety.

Implementation tool
19 April 2022

A writing instruction template for primary school principals and leaders.

The intent of this framework is to show how the school approaches and implements the effective teaching of writing and writing assessment, and to evaluate opportunities for further improvement. 

Research
4 February 2022

This publication summarises available evidence on writing and writing instruction. While the literature on writing instruction is modest compared with reading, and the quality of the research is variable, there are a number of findings and recommendations that can be drawn.

News article
15 October 2021
Writing proficiency is central to student success during the school years, and it influences personal and vocational outcomes post-school. The importance of writing as a communication and learning tool cannot be overstated.
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