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Schools in Canada are less selective, and therefore the system is more equitable. Sean_Marshall, CC BY-SA

In most English-speaking countries, students are guaranteed a place at their local public high school. Students also have a right to apply for admission to a school of their choice, such as a private school or a non-local public school.

While students have a right to apply to a school of their choice, schools also have a right to choose their students. For example, they may use entrance examinations or prior academic performance to select students. Religiously oriented schools may only grant admission to active members of the faith.

Most English-speaking countries have a comprehensive system of secondary education, in which there is just one type of secondary school that offers both academic as well as technical/vocational subjects. In most comprehensive education systems, students are guaranteed a place at their local public school and school selectivity is minimal.

Most experts agree that comprehensive education systems are more equitable than differentiated systems (where the schools choose the pupils) because they are less selective. Differentiated systems tend to reproduce social inequalities. When schools are able to select their students, students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds have a competitive advantage. This is because they often enjoy more support and resources than those from less advantaged backgrounds.

School selectivity does not necessarily have negative consequences for equity, especially if schools are more or less the same. This is the case of Finland, where policymakers are committed to ensuring that all schools are good schools. When schools are stratified into a hierarchy of "good" and "bad" schools, however, school selectivity can have very inequitable consequences.

The system in Australia

Almost 40% of Australian high school students attend a non-government high school and another sizable group attends a non-local government school. In the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) dataset, a high-quality and nationally representative dataset of more than 14,000 Australian 15-year old students, only 29% of students attended a high school where admission was always based on residence in a particular area. This suggests that school choice is widespread, even within the government sector.

School selectivity is also widespread. In the same PISA dataset, 24% of Australian students attended a high school where admission was always based on past academic performance. Another 27% of students attended a high school where admission was always based on parents' "endorsement" of the school's religious or instructional philosophy. For most Catholic schools, this means being a member of the church. Some schools from other religions or Christian denominations have similar requirements.

School selectivity can be inequitable when there are large differences between schools. My recent study of curriculum offerings in Perth found that only 10% of low socio-economic status high schools offer advanced mathematics, chemistry, physics and English literature. These are the traditional subjects that provide pathways for university study and the professions. For students that reside in the catchment zone of these schools, options for accessing rigorous academic curricula are often very limited.

For students and families that are seeking academic curriculum pathways in low socio-economic communities, the only option may be to purchase access by attending a private school. In low socio-economic communities, this often means a Catholic school. Catholic schools in Australia do a good job of providing access to academic curricula, but they charge fees, which makes them unavailable to some families. They are also not typically available to non-Catholics.

The other option is to apply to a non-local government school. Pretty much all middle and high socio-economic public schools offer a solid range of academic curricula. The problem, however, is that there are often not that many extra places available.

Schools respond by setting rigorous selection criteria for non-local students. In many instances, only the very talented are given access. In some states like NSW, public schools that are 100% academically selective are becoming increasingly common.

The Australian education system appears to be moving more and more towards a differentiated system characterised by high levels of school selection and differing access to subjects that is strongly patterned by social class.

The Canadian way

Like Australia, Canada is a prosperous country that requires a large number of highly educated individuals to meet its labour market needs. Canada is the highest-performing English-speaking country on PISA and is among the very best educational systems in the world.

Students in Canada can choose to apply to a school of their choice. Most Canadian students attend their local public school, however.

In the Canadian 2009 PISA dataset (which includes over 23,000 students), 74% of students attended a high school where residence in a particular location was required for admission. Only 6% of students attended a private school. This lower number is partly explained by the fact that Catholic schools are classified as public schools in some Canadian provinces. As such, they do not charge fees.

School selection is also lower in Canada than in Australia. Only 16% of students in the PISA 2009 Canadian dataset attended a high school where admission was based on academic record. Only 15% attended a school where admission was based on parents' endorsement of the school's religious orientation.

Lessons for Australia

The Canadian education system excels on international tests because it is equitable. Data from PISA shows that students from high socioeconomic backgrounds perform the same in both countries, but students from low socioeconomic backgrounds perform better in Canada than in Australia.

Where one goes to school also matters more in Australia than in Canada. The achievement gaps between schools are substantially larger in Australia than Canada. The correlation between school socioeconomic status and the quality of its educational resources is also much smaller in Canada than in Australia. Only two countries are worse than Australia in this regard - Chile and Mexico.

When schooling becomes stratified and where one goes to school matters a lot, a vicious cycle can start. Competition among students for places at a "good" school increases, which in turn raises schools' ability to select students. And with the advent of public reporting of school performance data via the My School website, the incentive for schools to become selective becomes even greater.

Being able to compete with Canada on international league tables of educational performance requires that Australia, paradoxically, tone down competition within its educational system. Our education system is characterised by winners and losers and haves and have-nots, with students competing for places and schools competing for students and resources. While competition in education systems can spur innovation, it more often leads to inequalities and inefficiencies, neither of which is good for individuals or the larger society.

Further reading on what Australia can learn from education overseas:
Should Aussie kids go on US-style summer camps?

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The lesson from Canada: why Australia should have fewer selective schools

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In most English-speaking countries, students are guaranteed a place at their local public high school. Students also have a right to apply for admission to a school of their choice, such as a private school or a non-local public school.

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A detailed and data-rich 80-slide presentation on the need to invest in early childhood education for disadvantaged children and the value it produces in economic returns. This presentation is helpful when introducing the Heckman Equation to those who want to see the data behind the Professor Heckman's findings.

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Presenting The Heckman Equation: Schools, Skills and Synapses - The Heckman Equation

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A detailed and data-rich 80-slide presentation on the need to invest in early childhood education for disadvantaged children and the value it produces in economic returns. This presentation is helpful when introducing the Heckman Equation to those who want to see the data behind the Professor Heckman's findings.

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ARPA: 'My School' and others: Segregation and white flight

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Talk to enough parents about choosing schools for their kids, and sooner or later, you'll hear one express concern about the local public school having 'too many Asians', or Lebanese, or Muslims, or Aborigines. The minority groups change, but there is a growing unofficial creed among many Australian parents that a 'good school' for their children is one where minorities are in the minority.

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Top ATAR, HSC performances the result of years of achievement

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Is ti nature of nurture that leads to academic achievement? The debate is far from over.

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Complete Board of Studies NSW Statistics Archive - Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards NSW

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Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards NSW Australia serves teachers and a million students in both government and non-government schools. HSC examinations, School Certificate, state-wide curriculum online, e-Assessment, school registration.

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Number of HSC language students falls to record low

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The proportion of students studying a foreign language for the Higher School Certificate is at a historic low and less than a fifth of what it was during the 1950s, new data shows.

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Adult literacy and numeracy skills contribute to wellbeing in many ways. At an individual level, they are central to social and economic participation.

Literacy and numeracy skills are a core part of a person's human capital.

They also support the development of other forms of human capital, including knowledge, other skills and health.

Some Australians have low (level 1 or below) literacy and numeracy skills. In 2011-12:

14 per cent of Australians could, at best, read only relatively short texts from which they were able to locate only a single piece of information.

22 per cent could only carry out one&ndashstep or simple processes such as counting where the mathematical content is explicit with little or no text or distractors.

At the other end of the skill distribution, 16 per cent of Australians had high (level 4/5) literacy skills and 12 per cent had high numeracy skills in 2011-12.

People with high literacy skills can make complex inferences and evaluate subtle truth claims or arguments in lengthy or multiple texts.

People with high numeracy skills can understand a broad range of mathematical information that may be complex, abstract or embedded in unfamiliar contexts.

Most Australians have skills somewhere between these levels. Groups with relatively low literacy and numeracy skills include: people with low levels of education; older persons; people not working; and immigrants with a non-English speaking background.

Compared with other countries in the OECD, Australia performs above average on literacy but average in numeracy.

Higher literacy and numeracy skills are associated with better labour market outcomes (employment and wages). Econometric modelling shows that:

an increase in literacy and numeracy by one skill level is associated with an increased likelihood of employment of 2.4 and 4.3 percentage points for men and women, respectively

an increase in literacy and numeracy skills is associated with a similar increase in the probability of employment, whether a person had a degree, diploma/certificate or Year 12 education

an increase in literacy and numeracy by one skill level is associated with about a 10 per cent increase in wages for both men and women. This positive association is equivalent to that of increasing educational attainment from Year 11 to Year 12 or to a diploma/certificate

up to 40 per cent of the association between education and employment is attributable to literacy and numeracy skills. These results are consistent with education providing many other attributes of human capital that are valued in the workplace

more than half of the 'penalty' that affects the wages of people with a non-English speaking background is explained by their lower literacy and numeracy skills.

Background information

Patrick Jomini (Assistant Commissioner) 03 9653 2176

Australian adult literacy above OECD average

Australian adults are above the OECD average in literacy but only average in numeracy, according to a staff paper released by the Productivity Commission.

The Staff Working Paper - Literacy and Numeracy Skills and Labour Market Outcomes in Australia, by Anthony Shomos and Matthew Forbes - analyses the profile of adult literacy and numeracy skills in Australia, and how important those skills are for labour market outcomes.

The authors found a strong positive association between skills and labour market outcomes. Modelling results show that a one-level increase in skills, approximately equivalent to the difference between completing Year 12 education and completing Year 11 (or lower), is associated with:

an increased probability of employment of about 2 percentage points for men and about 4 percentage points for women

an increase in wages of about 10 per cent, for both men and women.

The authors found a high correlation between literacy and numeracy - that is, someone with low literacy skills is also likely to have low numeracy skills.

Much of the positive association between education and employment is attributable to literacy and numeracy skills. However, the results also suggest that improved education provides many other attributes of human capital that are valued in the workplace.

Background information

Patrick Jomini (Assistant Commissioner) 03 9653 2176

Requests for comment / other

Leonora Nicol (Media and Publications) 02 6240 3239 / 0417 665 443

Preliminaries
Cover, Copyright and publication details, Contents, Acknowledgments, Abbreviations and Key points

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Human capital, literacy and numeracy - why the policy interest?

1.2 Framework linking human capital and labour market outcomes

1.3 Previous research

1.4 Outline for the rest of the paper

Chapter 2 A profile of literacy and numeracy skills in Australia

2.1 How are literacy and numeracy skills defined and measured?

2.2 A profile of literacy and numeracy skills in Australia

2.3 Literacy and numeracy skills by labour market outcomes

Chapter 3 Modelling and results

3.1 Model and variables

3.2 Results

3.3 Conclusion

Appendix A Literacy, numeracy and problem solving measures in PIAAC

Appendix B Descriptive statistics

Appendix C Estimation results

References

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Literacy and Numeracy Skills and Labour Market Outcomes in Australia

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This paper by Anthony Shomos and Matt Forbes was released on 29 May 2014. It profiles the literacy and numeracy skills of Australia's adult population and assesses how important they are for two labour market outcomes - employment and wages.

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Australia is one of the few developed nations to not require graduating high-school students to study maths. Flickr/bootload

Australia is not doing well in the international literacy and numeracy attainment rankings and many rightly point out the funding issues, clearly identified in the Gonski Review, as central contributing factors.

Funding is a critical issue and the complexity of our schooling system funding does set us apart in international studies of schooling. However, if, as a parent or student, you've hmmphed at the news media and thought it's not what you spend but how you spend it, you are also right.

Here's one simple example of what can be done.

Make maths mandatory. Australia is quite possibly the only developed nation on the planet that does not mandate maths study for high-school graduation. Surprising?

For most education systems a maths requirement is assumed. Yes, in the UK is it not a requirement for A-levels but it is required for the equivalent of Australia's year 11 at GCSE. Across the USA and China it is a requirement for high school graduation, as it is in high attaining countries like Finland, South Korea and Singapore.

Maths should not be optional

Many young Australians will not have studied maths to year 12 level. It is not a requirement in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia; although it is compulsory in SA, and to a small extent in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In New South Wales the requirement for HSC maths or science study was removed in 2001; since then there has been a dramatic drop in maths with one quarter of students completing the HSC without maths. Many of these students have gone on to university and to teaching careers.

While there is a requirement for New South Wales primary teachers to complete general maths, many early childhood and secondary teachers are maths-free - yet expected to teach numeracy. Early childhood centres with an emphasis on the development of maths, through play, show better child outcomes overall. But many future teachers will disengage from the subject and because of a maths phobia that prevents them from using maths in their teaching. Thus some of the new generation of teachers may unwittingly set up a viscous circle of diminishing numeracy skills within our society.

The National Numeracy Review reported dramatic drops in national participation in maths since 1995 but the issue is yet to be addressed. As a nation, how can we value numeracy, and worry over international performance, if we are sending messages to students and teachers that maths is an optional element of education?

In this information age, deterioration in numeracy will pervade education, producing teachers who find it difficult to engage with technology and with educational data. By contrast, highly numerate countries, such as South Korea, are making rapid advances in education across curriculum areas because teachers have high levels of numeracy and scientific skills with which to organise, analyse and improve their teaching.

I am not saying that all teachers need to know calculus. Rather, they should be confident in the maths curriculum of the levels that they teach and comfortable in dealing with quantitative assessment data. In one study only one third of primary education students could attain 90% or above on Year 7 numeracy tests without further instruction.

The role of NAPLAN

Strengthening teachers' numeracy skills is also needed to fully harness the shift to Assessment for Learning. The evidence is in: assessment, and they way teachers and students get to know each other through it, is powerful. However many teachers are seriously challenged by assessment because it requires them to be comfortable with data and numbers.

NAPLAN's potential has been hampered by poor timing as teachers are not able to access feedback until late in the year which seriously hampers the way it can inform their teaching. However advances in technology, as seen in New Zealand's ASSTLE system, can address these issues. What is more critical is that teachers are suitably skilled in maths, IT and data use so that they can harness the potential to improve their performance and drive student learning.

Academics in teacher training who oppose NAPLAN claim it is being used to assess rather than develop learning, however it is the job of teacher training to ensure that teachers are skilled to use NAPLAN to drive learning. With assessment it's not what you do, but how you do it. Education academics are responsible for developing skills and sophistication in teachers that ensure we encourage learning and minimise harm from assessment. Technology now provides us with the tools to do this but, again, a lack of scientific engagement among some faculties limits their capacity to do so.

Time for change

It is true that Australia's recent performance was weakest in literacy; however among the many factors contributing to the poor performance the decline in maths participation is influential - and one which could be remedied.

It's time to make maths mandatory for high school certificates, make maths mandatory for all teachers and build a numerate culture in teacher training.

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Make maths mandatory and we'll improve our international education rankings

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Australia is not doing well in the international literacy and numeracy attainment rankings and many rightly point out the funding issues, clearly identified in the Gonski Review, as central contributing factors. Funding is a critical issue and the complexity of our schooling system funding does set us apart in international studies of schooling.

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This summary for the ten years 2004 to 2013 inclusive is of all Year 12 mathematics students enrolled through the secondary boards of studies in the six states (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, and TAS) and in the two territories (ACT and NT) together with Australian IBO (International Baccalaureate) students.

Advanced Mathematics Students

The 2013 Advanced mathematics percentage participation rate of 9.6% is up from 9.4% in 2012. This is the first significant rise in the Advanced rate since our records began in 1995. The actual NUMBER of Australian Advanced mathematics students (21,200 in 2013) is the highest for
three years (21,300 in 2010). However, measured against the ever-increasing Year 12 total population (approximately 213,000 in 2010 versus 221,000 in 2013) the percentage participation rate is now lower.

Girls continue to be under-represented in Advanced mathematics. In 2013, 6.7% of girls took Advanced mathematics, compared with 12.7% of boys. (The overall Advanced rate of 9.6% for 2013 is slightly less than the arithmetic mean of the female and male rates, the reason being that females outnumber males in Year 12.)

Intermediate Mathematics Students

Intermediate mathematics students are those enrolled in an Intermediate mathematics subject but NOT enrolled in an Advanced mathematics subject. In 2013 there were approximately 42,200 Intermediate mathematics students. Intermediate mathematics subject ENROLMENTS totalled about 60,000. Most Australian Advanced mathematics students are simultaneously enrolled in an Intermediate subject.

Girls are under-represented among Intermediate mathematics students, but not severely so. In 2013, 17.6% of Year 12 girls were Intermediate mathematics students, compared with 20.7% of boys.

Both the Intermediate participation rates (girls, boys) appear to be trending downwards still.

Elementary Mathematics Students

Elementary mathematics students are those enrolled in one or more Elementary mathematics subjects but NOT enrolled in an Intermediate mathematics subject NOR in an Advanced mathematics subject.

A graph of the female and male Elementary participation rates is uninteresting, because the male and female rates are virtually the same, and have been so for some years. (See page 1: the Elementary participation rate of 46% in 2004 has climbed since then.)

Yet for each of the last ten years, the NUMBER of female Elementary mathematics students has clearly exceeded the NUMBER of males, by virtue of the general female/male imbalance in Year 12 as a whole.

In 2013 there were approximately 115,000 Australian Year Elementary mathematics students, with a participation rate of 52%. Enrolments in Elementary mathematics subjects exceeded 120,000.

General

Overall, just over 80% of Year 12 students took some mathematics in 2013.

Of the girls, 76% took some mathematics in Year 12 during 2013, compared with 85% of the boys.

Accuracy matters: Advanced and Intermediate participation rates are quoted to the nearest 0.1%.

Since the last ten-year update was released a year ago, in our records some small retrospective adjustments have been made both to enrolment numbers and to reference populations (total Year 12), following advice from some of the secondary boards of studies. As a consequence, some previously quoted Advanced and Intermediate participation rates have been amended by 0.1%. For example, the 2012 Intermediate mathematics participation rate of 19.4% quoted at this time last year has been amended to 19.5%, while the 2012 Advanced rate of 9.4% did not require amendment, remaining correct to the nearest 0.1%. The graphs are not visibly altered.

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Participation in Year 12 mathematics 2004 - 2013 - AMSI

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This summary for the ten years 2004 to 2013 inclusive is of all Year 12 mathematics students enrolled through the secondary boards of studies in the six states (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, and TAS) and in the two territories (ACT and NT) together with Australian IBO (International Baccalaureate) students.

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How can we work together ?

We collaborate daily with representatives from governments, parliaments, international organisations, business and labour, civil society, as well as citizens from across the globe.

The OECD needs your views. Whether by attending an event, using our analysis or joining a public consultation, there are many ways for you to engage with us.

Make a difference with us

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The OECD creates better policies for better lives. Read the OECD's main figures to find out more about their work:

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How can we work together ? We collaborate daily with representatives from governments, parliaments, international organisations, business and labour, civil society, as well as citizens from across the globe. The OECD needs your views. Whether by attending an event, using our analysis or joining a public consultation, there are many ways for you to engage with us.

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IEA joins World Educational Research Association "The IEA is proud to join WERA, it is a great opportunity for us to build new partnerships based on our common interest in education research and the improvement of education worldwide."

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OECD member countries and Associates decided to postpone the PISA 2021 assessment to 2022 and the PISA 2024 assessment to 2025 to reflect post-Covid difficulties.

PISA 2022

PISA 2022 will focus on mathematics, with an additional test of creative thinking. The new PISA 2022 mathematics framework was recently launched.

Preparations for this test are underway with participants from 38 OECD members and likely 50+ non-members involved.

PISA 2025

PISA 2025 will focus on science and include a new assessment of foreign languages. It will also include the innovative domain of Learning in the Digital World which aims to measure students' ability to engage in self-regulated learning while using digital tools.
Want to join PISA?

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OECD member countries and Associates decided to postpone the PISA 2021 assessment to 2022 and the PISA 2024 assessment to 2025 to reflect post-Covid difficulties. PISA 2022 will focus on mathematics, with an additional test of creative thinking. The new PISA 2022 mathematics framework was recently launched.

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Smithsonian.com | Smithsonian Magazine | Smithsonian

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Smithsonianmag.com places a Smithsonian lens on the world, looking at the topics and subject matters researched, studied and exhibited by the Smithsonian Institution -- science, history, art, popular culture and innovation -- and chronicling them every day for our diverse readership.

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Declining test scores, dwindling participation in maths and science, and too few in early learning: just three of the ways Australia is failing in education. AAP

Amid debates about budget cuts and the rising costs of schools and degrees, there is one debate receiving alarmingly little attention in Australia. We're facing a slow decline in most educational standards, and few are aware just how bad the situation is getting.

These are just six of the ways that Australia's education system is seriously failing our kids.

1. Australian teens are falling behind, as others race ahead

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey tests the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in more than 70 economies worldwide. And it shows that Australian 15-year-olds' scores on reading, maths and scientific literacy have recorded statistically significant declines since 2000, while other countries have shown improvement.

Although there has been much media attention on falling international ranks, it is actually this decline in real scores that should hit the headlines. That's because it means that students in 2000 answered substantially more questions correctly than students in 2012. The decline is equivalent to more than half a year of schooling.

Our students are falling behind: three years behind students from Shanghai in maths and 1½ years behind in reading.

In maths and science, an average Australian 15-year-old student has the problem-solving abilities equivalent to an average 12-year-old Korean pupil.

An international assessment of school years 4 and 8 shows that Australian students' average performance is now below that of England and the USA: countries that we used to classify as educationally inferior.

The declining education standards are across all ability levels. Analysis of PISA and NAPLAN suggests that stagnation and decline are occurring among high performing students as well as low performers.

2. Declining participation in science and maths

It has been estimated that 75% of the fastest growing occupations require science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills and knowledge.

The importance of STEM is acknowledged by industry and business. Yet there are national declines in Australian participation and attainment in these subjects. We are also among the bottom of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's ( OECD) 34 nations on translation of education investment to innovation, which is highly dependent upon STEM.

Fewer than one in ten Australian students studied advanced maths in year 12 in 2013. In particular, there has been a collapse in girls studying maths and science.

A national gender breakdown shows that just 6.6% of girls sat for advanced mathematics in 2013; that's half the rate for boys, and represents a 23% decline since 2004. In New South Wales, a tiny 1.5% of girls take the trio of advanced maths, physics and chemistry.

Maths is not a requirement at senior secondary level in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, although it is compulsory in South Australia, and to a small extent in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In NSW, the requirement for Higher School Certificate (HSC) maths or science study was removed in 2001. The national curriculum also makes no requirement for maths or science study after Year 10.

Australia is just about the only developed nation that does not make it compulsory to study maths in order to graduate from high school.

A recent report by the Productivity Commission found almost one-quarter of Australians are capable of only basic mathematics, such as counting. Many universities now have to offer basic (school level) maths and literacy development courses to support students in their study. These outcomes look extremely concerning when we review participation and achievement in maths and science internationally.

3. Australian education is monolingual

In 2013, the proportion of students studying a foreign language is at historic lows. For example in NSW, only 8% studied a foreign language for their HSC, the lowest percentage ever recorded.

In NSW, the number of HSC students studying Chinese in 2014 was just 798 (635 of which were students with a Chinese background), whereas a decade ago it was almost double that number, with 1,591.

The most popular beginner language in NSW was French, with 663 HSC students taking French as a beginner in 2013. These numbers are extremely small when you consider that the total number of HSC students in NSW: more than 75,000.

These declines, which are typical of what has happened around the country, have occurred at a time when most other industrialised countries have been strengthening their students' knowledge of other cultures and languages, in particular learning English.

English language skills are becoming a basic skill around the world. Monolingual Australians are increasingly competing for jobs with people who are just as competent in English as they are in their own native language - and possibly one or two more.

4. International and migrant students are actually raising standards, not lowering them

There are many who believe that Australian education is being held back by our multicultural composition and high proportion of migrant students. This could not be further from the truth. In the most recent PISA assessment of 15 year olds, Australian-born students' average English literacy score was significantly lower than the average first-generation migrant students' score, and not significantly different from foreign-born students.

The proportion of top performers was higher for foreign-born (14%) and first-generation students (15%) than for Australian-born students (10%).

Students from Chinese, Korean and Sri Lankan backgrounds are the highest performers in the NSW HSC. The top performing selective secondary schools in NSW now have more than 80% of students coming from non-English speaking backgrounds.

5. You can't have quality education without quality teachers

While there are many factors that may contribute to teacher quality, the overall academic attainment of those entering teaching degrees is an obvious and measurable component, which has been the focus of rigorous standards in many countries.

An international benchmarking study indicates that Australia's teacher education policies are currently falling well short of high-achieving countries where future teachers are recruited from the top 30% of the age cohort.

In Australia between 1983 and 2003, the standard intake was from the top 26% to 39%. By 2012/2013, less than half of Year 12 students receiving offers for places in undergraduate teacher education courses had ATAR scores in the top 50% of their age cohort.

Teacher education degrees also had the highest percentage of students entering with low ATAR scores, and the proportion of teacher education entrants with an ATAR of less than 50 nearly doubled over the past three years. We cannot expect above-average education with below-average teachers.

6. Early learning participation is amongst the lowest in the developed world

While Australia has recently lifted levels of investment in early childhood education, this investment has not been reflected in high levels of early childhood participation. In Australia, just 18% of 3 year olds participated in early childhood education, compared with 70% on average across the OECD. In this respect, we rank at 34 out of 36 OECD and partner countries.

Australia also ranks at 22 out of 37 on the OECD league table that measures the total investment across education as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product.

While low levels of expenditure and participation curtail any system, there is more negative impact from a lack of investment in early childhood than there would be from a lack of funding further up the educational chain. Nobel prize winner James Heckmann has shown how investment in early childhood produces the greatest returns to society.

What to do?

Funding is a critical issue, and not just in terms of what you spend, but also how you spend it. Research suggests spending on early childhood, quality teaching and core curriculum have the greatest returns on investment.

There is also growing evidence to suggest that a segregated schooling system - for example, socio-economically or academically selective schools - is counterproductive and restricts social mobility. High-performing countries have school systems on a far more level playing field than Australia.

We need a long-term plan across education sectors: from early childhood, to schools, universities and TAFE, which includes plans for supporting and strengthening teacher education in all those sectors.

We also need a louder public conversation about Australian education, and lobbying to shift how we value and invest in education.

When Germany was shocked by its first performance on the 2000 PISA assessment, it started a national conversation that saw education on the front page of newspapers for the next two years. Germany's education has been improving ever since.

If Australia wants to build a strong and competitive economy, we need fewer front page articles about budget cuts, and more on reform and investment in education.

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Six ways Australia's education system is failing our kids

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Amid debates about budget cuts and the rising costs of schools and degrees, there is one debate receiving alarmingly little attention in Australia. We're facing a slow decline in most educational standards, and few are aware just how bad the situation is getting.

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In a typical Australian classroom, the gap between the achievement of students at the top of the class and those at the bottom is more than seven years, computer skills are lagging behind decade-old benchmarks, and fewer Australian pupils are taking maths than ever before.

Students from Poland and Vietnam are now outperforming Australia's teenagers. If our results were to match South Korea's by the end of this century the Australian economy would be $4.7 trillion better off, says the OECD.

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Where once Australia kept up with South Korea, now our east Asian neighbours are streaking ahead on tests that compare the academic ability of 15-year-olds around the world.

Students from Poland and Vietnam are now outperforming Australia's teenagers. If our results were to match South Korea's by the end of this century the Australian economy would be $4.7 trillion better off, says the OECD.

This week, a new report from the Grattan Institute gave Australia's educators plenty more to think about. Amid declining standards in a global context, Australia's own domestic assessment system was also found wanting.

The report found many of the nation's students were incapable of reaching benchmarks set by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training, at Parliament House in Canberra.
Photo: Andrew Meares

According to the Grattan Institute year 9 students were meeting the national minimum standard even if they were actually achieving below the level of a typical year 5 student.

"Australia must raise its sights," says the report's author Peter Goss.

Andreas Schleicher of the OECD is concerned about falling Australian standards.
Photo: Jeffrey Glorfeld

"The bar we are setting with the [NAPLAN] national minimum standard is just too low. If we set the bar too low, it is very hard to aim high."

The warning signs have been there for over a decade. Australia's PISA results have been on the slide since 2003. NAPLAN tests have shown the writing ability of Australia's students has not improved since 2008.

Australia must raise its sights.
Peter Goss

All the while the computer literacy of the nation's students has reached a crisis point. The 2015 results showed that in an area crucial to the nation's future prosperity, only 55 per cent of 10,000 students tested by ACARA were considered IT proficient.

As our literary and computer skills have declined, so too has the nation's mathematical ability, drawing outcry from the academic and business communities.

The chair of the National Committee for Mathematical Sciences, Nalini Joshi, says that compulsory mathematical subjects "absolutely have to become a national policy".

"We are leaching out the mathematical skills from the majority of the population," she says.

"We are not just talking about university entry anymore, we are taking about larger portions of the population who would find it difficult to work out something that isn't plugged into a calculator.

"Apprentices are becoming bricklayers who don't how many bricks to order and students are becoming nurses who are unable to work out dosages."

Schleicher identified a lack of investment in Australia's teachers as the central reason for the lacklustre results. He described Australia's education system as "a classroom led by robotic widgets", forced into delivering a rigid curriculum.

Teacher quality, Schleicher believes, is at the heart of every successful education system, from Finland to South Korea, and Australia must do something about it to have any hope of thriving in the global economy.

"What I like is the image of a professional that is not just defined by delivering an established curriculum but people who see themselves as owners of professional standards," he says. "People who learn from and with their colleagues, where there is a greater degree of professional collaboration and professional autonomy."

Schleicher says the education industry is about 150 years behind health in its capacity for collaboration and development, key aspects that have seen doctors rise to the top of the social and professional ladder.

"We are still very far away," he says. "In Finland they are doing really well, every teacher has to do a masters thesis to create a professional inquisitive mindset, so they know 'I work with my colleagues but I'm also responsible for developing the work of my colleagues'."

He says teachers in Shanghai spend one lesson a week in someone else's classroom working on collective lesson planning, design and evaluation.

"Look to Australia, you more or less define teachers by the number of hours that you teach in front of students, and that is part of the problem."

Educators, politicians, and academics agree, Australian teachers have an image issue.

In September, NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the choice of teaching as a profession had become "a joke".

"I keep hearing stories about students coming into schools and principals saying that they are not up to scratch," Piccoli told an education leaders' conference in Sydney, before announcing tough new entry restrictions on teaching degrees.

"There is this joke, I couldn't get into physiotherapy so I went into teaching. That is just unhelpful for that person and it's unhelpful for the profession," he said.

The same dilemma was at the heart of the debate among world leaders in Dubai where the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] sought to define the teacher of 2030.

"Is it a real profession, is it for talented people?" asked the executive director of Brazil's Education Laboratory, Beatriz Cardoso. "I think we have to face these dilemmas."

Indonesia's Education Minister Anies Baswedan told global leaders that Australia's largest neighbour had taken steps to elevate the status of the teacher in response to the recommendations of the OECD.

"We now have a dedicated teacher check-in desk for Garuda Airlines," he said. "We would also like them to introduce priority boarding, first class, business class, and teachers class."

"Why? It's a reminder to everyone. Airports are where policymakers are constantly, it makes them realise they are flying because teachers taught them, without those teachers they would not be flying."

Schleicher sees targeted funding as crucial part of allowing education systems to be able to afford to rotate teachers through professional development and classroom time.

He praised Australia's needs-based Gonski reforms, which directs funding to students with disabilities and from low socio-economic areas, as a step in the right direction.

The federal government does not agree with Schleicher's assessment. It has so far refused to honour the final two years of Gonski funding, potentially stripping an estimated $4.5 billion out of the nation's schools.

Last week Education Minister Simon Birmingham seized on Australia's declining PISA results as evidence that more funding does not necessarily equal greater results. He did so again when the Grattan Institute's damning report came out this week.

"The report is a wake-up call for those policymakers who are fixated on how much Australia spends on education," he says. "It highlights the need to focus education reform conversations on how to lift standards, not a simplistic debate about how much we spend."

Despite the near unanimous calls from teachers over the effectiveness of Gonski funding and Piccoli's passionate belief in its merits, the NSW government now appears to have backed down on its demands.

Fierce lobbying from Piccoli and Premier Mike Baird has given way to compromise, with two years of funding now set to be spread over four, a pattern likely to be replicated across the states, according to documents obtained by Fairfax Media.

Schleicher fears that without adequate funding and a re-imagining of the role of the teacher, the best teachers won't go in to the most-needed areas and Australia risks falling further behind.

"The competition for highly skilled workers is fierce," says Schleicher. "We are not getting them into education unless we make changes."

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Education policy not adding up: OECD asks what's wrong with Australia's schools?

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Where once Australia kept up with South Korea, now our east Asian neighbours are streaking ahead on tests that compare the academic ability of 15-year-olds around the world. Students from Poland and Vietnam are now outperforming Australia's teenagers.

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The Conversation has asked 20 academics to examine the big ideas facing Australia for the 2016 federal election and beyond. The 20-piece series will examine, among others, the state of democracy, health, education, environment, equality, freedom of speech, federation and economic reform.

There is no doubt that Australian education standards are slipping. International tests show that Australia has either stagnated or declined in maths, science and reading literacy.

At the recent Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, Andreas Schleicher, the OECD director for education and skills, referred to Australia's poor performance in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and warned that the country's previous ranking as a high-equity and high-quality education system was in jeopardy.

Australia is falling behind

The overwhelming story presented by international assessment data is one of an education system in decline.

Scores in all international studies are either stagnating or decreasing, while many other countries have proved to be doing significantly better than Australia.

Of concern is that much of the change in the scores for Australia is associated with a decrease in the proportion of top achievers - those students in the highest proficiency bands in PISA, for example.

However, of equal concern is the students that the system is failing - those students in the lowest achievement bands.

Our international scorecard

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CC BY-ND

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The low achievers

Australia needs to do better in capitalising on the talents of students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. At present it does not.

By far the largest proportion of low achievers come from disadvantaged backgrounds. These students predominantly attend government schools.

These students are not illiterate or innumerate. Rather, they do not have the level of knowledge that will allow them to participate as productive citizens in a modern society. These results are reflected in TIMSS and PIRLS results as well.

Sue Thomson/ACER

Non-cognitive outcomes

Other outcomes of education contribute to Australia's under-capitalisation on all students' talents.

Students from a disadvantaged background are much less likely to report that they enjoy mathematics, are less likely to recognise its importance for their future, and are more likely to suffer from maths anxiety than their advantaged peers.

Disadvantaged schools report more problems with resourcing and student discipline; have fewer confident teachers; and have less of an emphasis on academic success. All of these factors are associated with poorer performance in reading, mathematics and science.

What needs to be done?

If Australia is to reverse the decline in maths, science and reading literacy achievement, funding needs to be targeted to programs in schools that have high numbers of students from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds.

OECD research has shown that the systems that have been most successful in reducing the gaps between low and high achievers are those that direct more resources to schools in this way.

Schleicher made explicit that:

"Australia's needs-based Gonski reforms, with increased investment in teacher training, were a positive step but that more commitment was needed."

Targeting programs that focus on intervention in early childhood areas is particularly essential in closing achievement gaps as early as possible.
You can read other articles in the series here.

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Ideas for Australia: Why is Australia falling behind in maths, science and literacy - and what can be done about it?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Conversation has asked 20 academics to examine the big ideas facing Australia for the 2016 federal election and beyond. The 20-piece series will examine, among others, the state of democracy, health, education, environment, equality, freedom of speech, federation and economic reform. There is no doubt that Australian education standards are slipping.