National School Reform Agreement

• All Australian governments have endorsed the national goal of a high quality, high equity education system and have a long history of collaborating on reforms to pursue this goal.
  • The most recent vehicle for national collaboration — the National School Reform Agreement (NSRA) — outlines eight National Policy Initiatives (NPIs) to lift outcomes in student achievement, attainment and engagement.
• The NSRA’s initiatives have done little, so far, to improve student outcomes.
  • Some NPIs are complete but will take time to produce results, while others have not yet led to actual reforms.
  • Two important NPIs — the Unique Student Identifier and Online Formative Assessment Initiative — have been delayed. In December 2022, Education Ministers announced progress in addressing sticking points.
• Even so, the NSRA is a sound platform for intergovernmental collaboration.
  • The objective, outcomes and many of the NSRA’s sub-outcomes are still relevant and should continue to set the direction of reforms in the next school reform agreement. A new outcome on student wellbeing should be added, as wellbeing is both a desired outcome of schooling, and a means of improving learning outcomes.
• The next school reform agreement should include firm targets for improving academic achievement for all students, including students from priority equity cohorts, in each jurisdiction.
  • New state-level targets would provide jurisdictions with greater discretion about how they improve achievement (compared to NPIs), while strengthening accountability for results (compared to national performance indicators that are directional and open ended).
  • The basis of each new target should be common to all jurisdictions; however, there should be scope for the Commonwealth and each jurisdiction to negotiate the level of the target.
• All jurisdictions face common reform challenges — addressing these should be the focus of the next school reform agreement. Governments should advance reforms to:
  • support quality teaching and effective school leadership: priorities could include reducing low-value tasks and out-of-field teaching, disseminating best practice, and producing evidence-backed resources that teachers and leaders trust and use — the last of these could be the basis of new NPIs.
  • support all students to achieve basic levels of literacy and numeracy: tens of thousands of students do not achieve basic levels of literacy and numeracy each year. The next school reform agreement should include specific targets and measures to support these students.
  • reduce differences in achievement across students: many students identified as priority equity cohorts in the NSRA, along with other students (such as those in out-of-home care), face significant challenges. Governments should consider augmenting the priority equity cohorts, and adopt new approaches, developed and implemented in consultation with the relevant parties, to lift outcomes for all students.
  • promote wellbeing: many children and young people struggle with poor wellbeing because of experiences in and outside their schools. Teachers need more support to help students to manage these issues and achieve their potential.
• Greater flexibility in progressing reforms should be accompanied by increased accountability for and transparency of results.
  • Along with better use of targets, bilateral agreements will need to be more of a focal point for jurisdictions to advance reforms, and annual performance reporting will need to be improved.

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Still lessons to be learned to improve student outcomes

The Productivity Commission’s Review of the National School Reform Agreement (NSRA) recommends redesigning the agreement to focus more attention on lifting students’ academic results and supporting students’ wellbeing.

“Governments have boosted funding for schools and are implementing reforms to lift student outcomes. However, so far, this effort has had little impact on literacy and numeracy results. In the next agreement, the Commission recommends governments commit to firm targets to lift students’ results — targets do not guarantee success but they create a clear direction for reform and make governments accountable,” Commissioner Natalie Siegel-Brown said.

“Each year, almost 90,000 students do not meet minimum standards for reading or numeracy in NAPLAN. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students in outer regional and remote Australia, and students of parents with low educational attainment are three times more likely to fall behind than other students. The Commission recommends that each state and territory should set a target to reduce the share of students who are falling behind,” Ms Siegel-Brown said.

The current agreement sets goals to lift the outcomes of students from ‘priority equity cohorts’ — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students living in regional, rural and remote locations, students with disability and students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds — but a lack of data and reporting means jurisdictions are not accountable. The Commission recommends that, under the next agreement, governments fill the data gaps, outline their programs to lift students’ results and report annually on progress.

To ensure Australia has a high quality, high equity education system the next agreement must focus on addressing the different educational needs of particular cohorts, in addition to effective teaching and school leadership and supporting student wellbeing.

“Effective teaching is the single most influential ‘in-school’ factor for creating an effective learning environment. Compared to many countries, our teachers work longer hours but have less time for activities that make a real difference in the classroom. Teacher shortages also mean we are asking many teachers to teach subjects they are not trained to teach,” Ms Siegel-Brown said.

“Governments have announced reforms to address these issues. The Commission is suggesting further reforms, which could help ease these pressures on teachers.”

“Many students experience challenges to their wellbeing and can have difficulty engaging at school. We recommend the next intergovernmental agreement recognise wellbeing as a priority and governments take steps to support all schools to adopt effective wellbeing strategies,” Ms Siegel-Brown said.

For a full copy of the Review of the National School Reform Agreement report, please visit the Commission’s website: www.pc.gov.au

Media requests

02 6240 3330 / media@pc.gov.au

Strengthening outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

Download the factsheet

• Strengthening outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (PDF - 704 Kb)