The reading literacy of Australian 15-year-old students has fallen sharply over the past decade, results from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reveal. The Australian national report shows Australia’s results have also slipped in mathematics but held ground in science. PISA measures how well 15-year-olds from across the globe are prepared to use...

Using data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), this briefing paper explores the impact of literacy and numeracy levels on the educational gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth. The paper focuses on the early post-school outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people between 1999 and 2007. Raising the levels of literacy and numeracy...

Despite Australia’s overall economic recovery, this report finds that young people continue to feel the negative impacts of the global financial crisis. How Young People are Faring 2010 (HYPAF), is an annual report on the learning-and-earning situation of young Australians. The 2010 report shows that the number of teenagers not in full-time education or work...

Partnerships between literacy teachers and community service workers have the potential to engage people with low literacy levels in learning. Through interviews and surveys with these two groups, this paper explores their views on literacy, how it impacts on their work, and their ideas about partnerships with each other. Overall, partnerships are viewed more favourably...

The debate about the Australian Government’s funding for schools has been reinvigorated by its school funding review—the first comprehensive government appraisal of school funding since the early 1970s.In 2009, the Australian Government restructured its funding for schools, particularly for government schools, as a result of a new federal financial relations framework established by the Council...