On 15 May 2013 the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee for inquiry and report: the effectiveness of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), with specific reference to: (a) whether the evidence suggests that NAPLAN is achieving its stated objectives; (b) unintended consequences of...

Innovation, creativity and passion are alive and well in schools throughout Australia. However these are increasingly constrained in a command-and-control approach that is leading to an unprecedented level of centralisation, standardisation and bureaucratisation.

The NAPLAN involves all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 being assessed using common tests nationwide. Student performance can also be shown on a single scale that continues from Year 3 to Year 9, which will enable parents to see their child’s progress over time. The report includes results for Indigenous students, students...

I HAVE A GREAT IDEA to improve the health of Australians, and it goes to the heart of the problem: the performance of doctors. The profession has been operating free of scrutiny for too long and must be made much more transparent. As consumers we need to be assured that our local medico is up...

Using a dataset covering over 10,000 Australian primary school teachers and over 90,000 pupils, Leigh estimates how effective teachers are in raising students’ test scores from one exam to the next.