This resource document has been developed to assist communities – organisations and individuals – in establishing partnerships to support career and transition services and flexible education programmes in meeting the needs of young people on their education and employment pathways. The resource provides guidance on establishing these services, and information on the lessons learnt from the Career and Transition (CAT) and Partnership Outreach Education Models (POEM) Pilots.
Resource: HTML
The Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act of 2000 was designed to bring Australia’s copyright law into the digital arena. A review of these amendments by the Government commenced in April 2003 to see whether the changes are achieving their objectives after three years.
Report: HTML
The then Australian Government commissioned the Western Australian Department of Education and Training in conjunction with Edith Cowan and Murdoch universities to conduct a project to assist primary schools to understand data from the state-wide literacy and numeracy programmes and to use this data for school improvement.
The project aimed to identify and document best practice in supporting teachers and schools to make judgements about performance in relation to benchmark standards. Schools participating in the project were invited to attend professional development workshops to help them to interpret their own test data and how this could be used for school improvement. Participants were able to compare school results and assess successful measures established by other schools. The project has been very popular in Western Australia and is receiving continuing support from the Western Australian Department of Education and Training.
Given that it has attracted considerable interest from schools in other areas and that workshops have already been trialled in other States and Territories, it is hoped that these publications will be of interest to other education jurisdictions and key education stakeholders. The booklet and brochure were designed to make the findings of the project more accessible to these groups. The brochure in particular will be of interest to schools and teachers.
Data Club Brochure: PDF 
(137.6 KB), RTF 
(205.4 KB)
Data Club Booklet: HTML, PDF (75.4 KB)
Data Club Report: PDF (448.1 KB)
Reviews the progress of the Australian Government’s civics and citizenship programme, Discovering Democracy since 1 January 2000. Discovering Democracy has provided funding for curriculum resources made available free to every school in Australia, teacher professional development and related national activities.
Full Evaluation: PDF (444.7 KB); RTF (2.0 MB)
Executive Summary: HTML
The project Enterprise Education Action Research Project was conducted in approximately 200 primary and secondary schools over the period of April 2002 to April 2004. This action research is the first comprehensive national analysis of enterprise education in Australian schools and demonstrates the key elements for successful implementation of enterprise education.
Report: HTML
This is a report of evaluations of four Australian school-based arts programmes. The study addressed the following questions:
- What is the impact of each arts programme on participating students’ academic progress, engagement with learning and attendance at school?
- Are empirical or anecdotal examples of improved learning outcomes substantiated?
- What are the attributes of arts programmes that are of particular benefit to the students?
Report: HTML
In response to the report Footprints to the Future (2001) from the then Prime Minister's Youth Pathways Action Plan Taskforce, the then Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), established the Career and Transition (CAT) Pilot. An independent evaluation report prepared by Miles Morgan Australia Pty Ltd has found that the CAT Pilot has had a significant and immediate impact on a large number of students, on several school communities, and on many parents keen to support their children’s career and transition development. Between April 2002 and April 2003, the CAT Pilot assisted more than 37,000 young Australians to find and achieve their own potential through sound careers advice and guidance.
Report: HTML
The POEM Pilot was designed to test new ways of engaging young people who have become disconnected from mainstream education, and often their families and communities as well. The evaluation of the POEM Pilot was informed by two action learning forums (in November 2002 and in September 2003), a series of teleconferences and telephone interviews, two rounds of site visits to all projects during 2003, and the preparation of a series of reports and action learning diaries prepared by the project workers. The evaluation builds on the action research that the Pilot had been undertaking and has shown that a variety of approaches to re-engage young people on a learning pathway have been successfully trialled in the POEM Pilot.
Report: HTML
NIELNS was launched by the then Prime Minister in 2000 with the aim of improving Indigenous students’ literacy and numeracy outcomes. Some 265 initiatives are being implemented by education and training providers under NIELNS during 2001 – 2004. Projects address the 6 NIELNS Key Elements of improving attendance, improving participation in preschool, addressing hearing and health issues, getting good teachers, using best teaching methods and improving accountability.
NIELNS was the subject of an evaluation during 2002 and 2003. The evaluation team assessed provider reports, talked to key stakeholders and conducted a series of case studies. The evaluation concluded that 75% of projects, representing 75% of total funding, had either achieved their targets or made an improvement on their baseline.
Report: PDF (638.9 KB)
Report Executive Summary: HTML
Case Studies: PDF (857.5 KB)
The Australian Government Funding for Schools for the 2005-2008 Funding Quadrennium Discussion Paper details important aspects of the schools funding package for the 2005-2008 schools funding quadrennium, including:
- Australian Government policy and global funding for schools
- Performance framework and strengthened accountability and reporting provisions
- Australian Government Schools Programmes 2005-2008
Discussion paper: PDF (70.0 KB), RTF (219.1 KB)
A list showing the names, locations and funding levels of non-government schools and systems approved for Commonwealth General Recurrent Grant funding.
Year Published: 2004, HTML
Year Published: 2003, HTML
Year Published: 2002, HTML
Year Published: 2001, HTML
On 5 April 2004 the then Minister announced a record $2.1 billion funding package for Indigenous Education to pre-schools, schools, tertiary education providers and Indigenous students (including through ABSTUDY), over the next four years.
Publications: HTML
In 2001 the then Australian Government commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to conduct an investigation of effective mathematics teaching and learning in Australian secondary schools (Years 7 to 10).
The purpose of the research project was to examine a range of factors including the knowledge, beliefs, understandings and practices of teachers of mathematics and their qualifications, professional development and relevant personal experiences, and how these impact on student learning outcomes in the high school years.
Report: HTML
The Career and Transition (CAT) Pilot and the Partnership Outreach Education Model (POEM) Pilot have been successful Australian Government initiatives. This paper presents the learnings from the CAT Pilot and the POEM Pilot within the context of the development of a youth transition system as envisaged in the Prime Minister’s Youth Pathways Action Plan Taskforce report, Footprints to the Future. Such a system would include the successful elements of both the CAT and POEM approaches and tie together and build upon existing programmes and services. This approach would ensure that all young people have access to a high quality transition system, and appropriate career and transition education provision.
Report: HTML
Throughout Australia, government and non-government schools are undertaking exciting initiatives to improve the educational outcomes of their students.
The then Australian Government established the National Awards for Quality Schooling (NAQS) to encourage and reward such efforts – giving Australia’s most outstanding schools, principals and teachers the recognition they deserve.
National Awards for Quality Schooling Pamphlet: PDF (100.3 KB)
National Quality Schooling Framework Pamphlet: PDF (36.1 KB)
National Quality Schooling Framework Pamphlet Cover: PDF (72.3 KB)
These publications have been developed to help schools implement the National Safe Schools Framework. The Framework has been endorsed by all State and Territory Education Ministers at the time and is a collaborative effort by Australia’s government and non-government school authorities, academics, teachers, students, parent organisations and community groups. The Framework consists of a set of nationally agreed principles for a safe and supportive school environment and includes appropriate responses which schools can adopt to address issues of bullying, violence, harassment, and child abuse and neglect.
The Implementation Manual and Resource Pack, published by the then Department of Education, Science and Training, are a guide to the implementation of the Framework at the whole school level. These materials are not intended to be a set of prescriptive guidelines for establishing a safe and supportive school. Instead, they are provided as tools that can assist school communities to engage in a process of active reflection, audit and planning for improvement, based on the Framework.
Download the National Safe Schools Framework from MCEETYA 
: PDF 
(218kb)
Resource Pack: PDF (321.7 KB)
Implementation Manual: PDF (241.8 KB)
Research Summary: PDF (55.7 KB), RTF (90.3 KB)
Appendices: PDF (621.7 KB), RTF (2.2 MB)
The brief for this project, funded by the then Australian Government Department of Employment, Science and Training (DEST), was to identify, collect and summarise information about curricula and associated materials that have been designed with a specific gender focus or are gender related. Examples include published and unpublished works, internet resources, textbooks, school based programmes, audio/visual material and departmental resources.
Materials: HTML
This report discusses the results of a scoping study on parents’ and community members’ attitudes to schooling. The scoping study was conducted by the then Department of Education, Science and Training between May and June 2003 using a Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) survey method. The survey collected responses from 1,500 community members and 1,359 parents of school age children.
Report: HTML
The then Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training commissioned the Victorian Department of Education and Training, the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria and the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria to undertake a project to identify effective classroom teaching approaches in mathematics for primary school students in a range of Victorian schools. The project was conducted in partnership with a research team from RMIT University from September 2001 to April 2003.
The major outcome of this research is the identification, description and elaboration of twelve scaffolding practices that contribute to improved student learning outcomes. These practices describe a range of communicative practices that teachers use to support students’ mathematics learning. They can be selected and used appropriate to purpose, for example, to explore / make explicit what is known, challenge / extend students’ mathematical thinking, demonstrate the use of a mathematical instrument, or to assist students arrive at a key generalisation. In particular, they support teachers to make more informed decisions about how they will meet the learning needs of all students in the most appropriate way possible.
Report: HTML
The Phase 2 Review of the Indigenous Education Direct Assistance program was conducted between September 2002 and December 2003. The purpose of this Review was to:
- identify ways of improving the appropriateness and effectiveness of the IEDA programme;
- develop a performance framework that will measure educational outcomes of the IEDA programme;
- review the legal, fraud and audit compliance issues for each policy and program element of IEDA with the view to developing better outcomes;
- identify examples of good practice that can be utilised in the delivery of any proposed policy direction; and
- ascertain timelines and strategies for the implementation of any changes to the IEDA programme in 2004.
This report makes a range of recommendations to improve the appropriateness and effectiveness of the programme in terms of both policy and delivery.
Report: PDF (645.1 KB)
Executive Summary: HTML
A newsletter published by Schools Group of DEST. It aims to communicate important information about Australian Government priorities for schools to the schools sector, parents and the wider school community.
Report: HTML
The then Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) is publishing a series of brief reports titled “Schooling Issues Digests” which summarise existing research material on selected topics relevant to schooling in Australia. The purpose of these digests is to provide status reports on the results of recent international and national research on selected topics, in a non-technical, easy to read format, which brings together and demystifies complicated research and statistical data.
Report: HTML
The Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) is publishing a series of brief reports titled “Schooling Issues Digests” which summarise existing research material on selected topics relevant to schooling in Australia. The purpose of these digests is to provide status reports on the results of recent international and national research on selected topics, in a non-technical, easy to read format, which brings together and demystifies complicated research and statistical data.
Report: HTML
An innovative package for classroom teachers of primary students with Specific Learning Difficulties.
Resource: HTML
In late 2002, following completion of the report Changing Schools – Its Impact on Student Learning, two further studies on student mobility were commissioned. This report is a companion to the Best Practice in Student Data Transfer report. The objective of this study was to provide information for schools on how best to support mobile students. It involved interviews with representatives from 55 schools (61% primary, 23% secondary and 16% combined primary-secondary) many of which have high to very high turnovers of students.
Report: HTML
This study investigates whether Australian primary schools have sufficient resources to achieve the goals set for them by Australian Government and State Ministers for Education at the time in the statement, National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century.
Report: HTML
The Commonwealth has commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research to undertake a longitudinal study examining the practices and learning experiences that support the early numeracy development of children in the year before school (2002) and the first year of schooling (2003-4). The title of the project is Project Good Start. It will report in 2004.
This edition of A Survey of Current Australian Strategies in Numeracy (2001) follows on from the previous edition which surveyed numeracy strategies current in 1999. Updating the document was undertaken as part of Project Good Start. It provides information on numeracy initiatives and strategies in place in Government and Catholic schools in all States and Territories.
Report: PDF (456.4 KB)
On 11 March 2004 the former Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP, invited parents and other interested members of the community to put forward their views on Australian schooling, to inform and guide key aspects of national school education policies.
Paper: HTML
Understanding place value: A case study of the Base Ten Game was the research focus of nine teachers from five diverse schools in the independent sector in South Australia. The project explored the role of a commonly used teaching activity, referred to in this report as the Base Ten Game, in developing children’s understanding of our number system.
Report: PDF (522.9 KB)