Terms of Reference for the National Inquiry into the Teaching of
Literacy 2004
The Australian Government is working with the States and Territories to
ensure all Australian children achieve high standards of literacy and
numeracy. A key Australian Government priority is to focus on achieving
real, sustained improvements in the literacy and numeracy skills of
Australian children to better prepare them for their futures.
In April 1999, the State, Territory and Australian Government Ministers
for Education, met in Adelaide as the 10th Ministerial Council on Education,
Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA), and endorsed new National
Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century known as the Adelaide
Declaration. In relation to literacy and numeracy, it was agreed that upon
leaving school:
students should have attained the skills of numeracy and English
literacy; such that every student should be numerate, able to read, write,
spell and communicate at an appropriate level.
To help support the achievement of these National Goals, the Australian
Government and the State and Territory Education Ministers have endorsed a
National Literacy and Numeracy Plan, which calls for a coordinated approach
to improving literacy and numeracy standards at the national level. Under
the National Plan, Ministers' agreed to support:
- assessment of all students by their teachers as early as possible in
the initial years of schooling;
- early intervention strategies for those students identified as having
difficulty;
- the development of agreed benchmarks for Years 3, 5 and 7, against
which all children's achievement in these years can be measured;
- the measurement of students' progress against these benchmarks using
rigorous assessment procedures;
- national reporting of student achievement against the benchmarks;
- professional development for teachers to support the key elements of
the Plan.
International data indicate that Australian school students compare well
with the performance of students in other OECD countries, but some are still
not achieving acceptable literacy standards. This Inquiry reaffirms the
Australian Government’s commitment to ensuring that all Australian children
achieve high standards of literacy and the essential reading skills to make
satisfactory progress at school.
The Inquiry will be conducted in consultation and co-operation with
government and non-government school education authorities, the teaching
profession, universities, parents and researchers. To implement the Inquiry,
a Committee will be established to provide advice and recommendations to the
Minister for Education, Science and Training on best practice in effective
approaches to literacy teaching and the implications of this advice for
teacher preparation and teaching. It will also report on current classroom
practice for the teaching of reading. The Committee will be further assisted
by a Reference Group.
Objectives of the Inquiry
The Inquiry will:
- Review and analyse recent national and international research about
literacy teaching approaches, particularly approaches that are shown to be
effective in assisting students with reading difficulties.
- Identify the extent to which prospective teachers are provided with
reading teaching approaches and skills that are effective in the
classroom, and have the opportunities to develop and practice the skills
required to implement effective classroom reading programs. Training in
both phonics and whole language approaches to reading will be examined.
- Identify the ways in which research evidence on literacy teaching and
policies in Australian schools can best inform classroom teaching practice
and support teacher professional learning.
- Examine the effectiveness of assessment methods being used to monitor
the progress of students’ early reading learning.
- Produce a report of the Inquiry’s findings in the second half of 2005
and offer best practice in effective approaches to literacy teaching and
learning, both at the classroom level and in the training of teachers.
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