The Maths Guarantee

A couple of weeks ago the Grattan Institute released an excellent report titled 'The Maths Guarantee: How to boost students’ learning in primary schools'. The report explains the current ‘state of play’ in the teaching and learning of Mathematics across Australian schools. As you probably can gather, I am very passionate about improving maths instruction across our country, so in this week’s blog I thought I would share my key take-aways from the report (Already, I am worried this blog will end up being as long as the 111 pages of the actual report- so apologies in advance!).

The Grattan Report begins by painting a bleak (but accurate) picture of where we are in Australia in relation to our achievement levels. One in three students in Year 3,5,7 and 9 are 'not proficient' in Numeracy according to the 2024 NAPLAN data (p. 7).

For a student to be considered 'proficient' they need to be in either the NAPLAN 'Strong' or 'Exceeding' Categories. I have written before on my concerns around the NAPLAN 'Strong' category... by my calculations you can be in the 'Strong' category and performing below the National Average. I would not consider this 'Strong'!

This was also highlighted in the Grattan Institute report which stated a "Year 9 student would achieve it [proficiency] even if their performance was on par with the average Year 7 student." (p. 8). As such, the measure we (when I say we, I mean Governments, education systems etc.) are using for 'proficiency' is actually quite a 'low bar'. This makes the 1 in 3 statistic even more concerning! 

Basically the upshot (or downshot as it could more accurately be described) is we are failing too many of our students and we need to do something about it...STAT (a term derived from the Latin word 'Statim' meaning immediately)!

I think everyone reading this would agree that our students deserve better.

We all know the importance of Numeracy skills.

These skills allow us to function in society. This fascinating research from the Medical world, explores the levels of Numeracy proficiency required to choose a health plan, decide upon the best treatment, and understand instructions provided on medications. It is scary to think that a large percentage of our students will grow up and not have the Numeracy skills required to correctly administer medicine to themselves or a loved one.

I believe everyone has the right to access quality teaching in Mathematics. No one should be precluded from pursuing a particular career, or successfully functioning in society because they are 'instructional casualties'. 

Our Girls

As the eldest of 3 girls growing up, and a mum of 3 girls (and one boy!) I am extremely passionate about girls succeeding in mathematics. The Grattan report presents lots of really important data related to the achievement of our girls in Numeracy.

Australian girls are performing below our boys in Numeracy. 

The report shared that "In Year 3, girls are four months behind boys. This gap grows to about half a year by Year 9" (p.10). Interestingly this is something I observed in my PhD research. In the PVAT Trials, the achievement of boys was substantively better (Effect Size of 0.6) compared to girls. Research has shown that there is no reason why this should be the case.

Even more concerning was the statistic shared in the report that "compared to Singaporean girls, Australian girls are nearly four and a half years behind in maths on the PISA tests" 😯(p.10).

The news doesn't get any better when we look at:

-Students who go to school outside major cities (43% not proficient)

-Students whose parents did not finish high school (64% not proficient)

-Indigenous students (67% not proficient)

Your gender, where you go to school, your cultural heritage or your parent's education level should never determine your success or otherwise in Mathematics.

While the data presented is very bleak, what I find particularly refreshing about the Grattan Report is the practical, achievable, affordable (approximate costs of the reforms suggested are included) and well thought through steps it suggests Governments and Education systems can take to address these issues over the coming 10 years.

There is plenty of research done in the Maths Education world, but for me the missing piece is putting that research into action-at scale. This is the hardest part, but the part that will actually make the difference.

Part of the Grattan report included a detailed case study of 7 schools who were "identified through recommendations from a range of experts and sector leaders working directly with schools, analysis of publicly available information, and screening interviews" (p.43) as having embedded evidence-informed teaching approaches. 

This is a very different participant recruitment model to that used in the 2016 "Nothing left to chance: characteristics of schools successful in mathematics" report, where 52 successful schools (defined as those showing superior gain +1 SD above the mean based on overall NAPLAN Numeracy results, compared with like schools and with schools with similar starting scores") (Callingham et al., p.8) were studied. 

While there is a clear and important difference between these sampling methods, if you read both reports, there are several important complimentary findings which I think is important to focus on.

Both reports found that critical to successful schools was: 

High Quality Professional Learning

The Grattan Report repeatedly points to the fact that "High-quality professional learning is essential to build the quality of maths teaching" (p.53). As one Principal noted in the report there is a scarcity of ‘teacher professional learning in discipline-based knowledge and effective pedagogy for mathematics learning.’ Over and over I see this in schools. Teachers talk about the fact they have never having experienced high quality Maths PD, and when they do, it is like a light-going on and immediately their practice changes for the better! If you haven't been shown high quality teaching of maths, how can you be expected to enact it!

Consistent messages

At the moment in education systems across Australia, there are mixed messages, and different levels of understandings related to evidence-informed research. This makes it very hard for schools and teachers who are caught in the cross-fire. The Grattan Report highlights the importance of everyone pushing in the same direction. From my point of view, we need to take a pragmatic approach and help schools to understand there are different pedagogical approaches that can and should be used as students learn mathematics. As the Grattan report highlights, teachers, schools and systems having in-depth understanding of the Instructional Hierarchy (Haring et al, 1978) is key. 

For several years I have been sharing the Hierarchy with schools. I believe the Hierarchy provides us with a structure that allows us to see the importance of using quality assessment data to make informed decision about when Explicit instruction is required, when students are ready for fluency building tasks, and when it would be appropriate to provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge in novel contexts.

The Instructional Hierarchy makes it very clear that 'Fluency' plays a key role in any instructional sequence we develop. It was my research into the IH that led me to create my Number Fluency Program, to support schools to systematically implement one of the critical pieces I believe we are missing in the 'maths teaching puzzle'. 

High Quality Assessment Driven data

Too many schools are struggling to find high-quality assessments. For me this is a key issue in schools. This was also identified in the Grattan report. We need to provide schools with examples of high-quality curriculum-based and diagnostic assessments. We need robust screeners that provide data before NAPLAN in Year 3. It is great to see several States have already committed to a Year 1 Number Check, so we can identify, and then enact early intervention using a MTSS model for students 'at risk'.

A consistent whole school approach led by knowledgeable and passionate leaders.

A  whole school approach is key to ensure consistency for our students and teachers. Vocabulary, methods, strategies and approaches need to be shared and refined as a school. We need to invest time and money into our Maths Leaders, so they are not chasing their tails, but actually have the time to support teachers through high-quality, meaningful modelling, planning and instructional coaching.

Use and access to high quality resources

Nobody wants to re-invent the wheel. It is crazy to have every teacher creating lesson plans when they are teaching mostly the same thing. I absolutely believe that we need to provide teachers with resources to work from. However, these must be HIGH-QUALITY, research-informed and mathematically and pedagogically accurate! Our students and teachers deserve nothing less! I have seen some horrendous examples of Place Value lessons provided on websites, ones that literally would lead to student's developing misconceptions. We need to ensure whatever we produce is of the highest standards! Not every lesson will fit every classroom context, but if we provide a great starting point, teachers are masters at making (minor!) but important adaptations for their students!

Unrelenting focus on Mastery (interesting both reports use this word, but in a different way)

We all know maths is hierarchical. Students need to build on their knowledge over time. This requires teachers and schools to know and assess students to determine who has achieved mastery, and have consistent and school-wide goals for the mastery of key skills. 

It's complex...

While, I completely understand that the current situation we find ourselves is complex and has many moving pieces and differing viewpoints (schools, universities, governments, systems etc). Clearly what we are doing at the moment, at a National, State and Territoy Level, isn't working...so things must change!

As I always say to my kids : "if it feels too hard, it just means the first step isn't small enough." 

We all want the best for our students, so I encourage Government and Education Systems to 'double down' on our Maths problem, look ahead 10 years, as the Grattan Report does, and guarantee we take the steps required to change the trajectory for our future generations.  

Have a great week,

Ange🎓🎲

P.S. You can download the PDF version of this blog to print or share with colleagues here.