Policy reform to meet Australia’s schooling challenges and opportunities

As part of the Gonksi review of school funding Nous was commissioned to produce a research paper entitled ‘Schooling Challenges and Opportunities’.  Nous worked with two consortium partners, the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and the National Institute of Labour Studies to conduct a mixture of primary and secondary research. Nous also engaged Professor John Hattie and Professor Ben Levin, two of the worlds most respected educational researchers, to act as expert adviser and review the final report.

The final report contained detailed analysis of the current performance of the Australian school system, along with econometric modelling which unpacked the drivers of individual and system performance. This primary research was supplemented with local and international evidence from a comprehensive literate review. Having formed a credible evidence base on the drivers of the current levels of performance, the report then outlines the key challenges facing the education system, and policy reform options designed to lift the performance of the Australian schooling system. The policy reform options included bold ideas such as incentives for high performing schools to take more students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and for the creation of regional school councils.

While controversial, these reforms are based on solid evidence base, and have been endorsed by educational commentators.