Can anybody hear? Is anybody listening?

22 August 2024

Dear Reader,

Can anybody hear? Is anybody listening?

In 2023, a University of Melbourne study involving Grades 3 and 4 students tested children’s reading fluency progress in open plan and enclosed learning environments. Unsurprising to many IPA Members I am sure, the study found that the poor acoustics and intrusive background noise within the cavernous spaces of open classrooms present a significant barrier to children’s reading progression.

Lead researcher and audiologist Professor Gary Rance said he was shocked by the strength of the findings and the clear difference in academic achievement between the two settings: “Sixty-five per cent of the kids developed their literacy at a faster rate when they were in an enclosed classroom, so the results were really quite striking and surprising.”

And yet, these classroom environments persist around Australia and continue to be built into new schools.

Students trying to learn in these spaces face a barrage of stimuli that are not related to the task at hand. Open plan classrooms were designed for student-centred learning and were, and continue to be, built on unsound ideology. Moreover, these environments are particularly troublesome for children with any kind of learning difficulties. Carl Hendrick, an Education Professor at Academica University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam, stresses that open plan environments can negatively affect both academic performance and mental health, impacting students and teachers alike.

Most open plan classrooms are acoustically hostile and are very difficult environments, particularly for young children, in which to listen to and understand the teacher because of background noise. Fashionable buzzwords such as ‘21^st Century Learning’ or ‘shared and flexible learning spaces’ or ‘learning communities’ mask the fact that the student’s learning experience is being subordinated to building budgets, architectural trends, and woke ideology.

NAPLAN 2024

The 2024 NAPLAN results, just released, again and unsurprisingly expose the fact that one in three Australian students is failing to meet basic proficiency benchmarks. This means well over one million students fall below the baseline and nearly half a million require specific intervention to have any hope of catching up.

While much is being made of the gap between students of parents who did not complete school to year twelve and those students of parents with a bachelor degree or more, there is absolutely no justification for Australia’s results to languish as they do. Research shows that with high-quality teaching and support, almost all students can learn to read proficiently. Let there be no doubt: it is the flawed teaching methods and the polluted subject matter that persists in our schools which means our teachers and students are set up to fail.

Just prior to the release of the NAPLAN results, the federal education minister Jason Clare called for a 10 per cent improvement in student proficiency in each state and territory by 2030 as part of a new funding agreement (so far, only Western Australia and the Northern Territory have signed up).

Clare said he had made it clear that the additional $16 billion the Commonwealth has put on the table will be tied to reforms to ensure the money “makes a difference to the kids who really need it”.

“Practical things like phonics checks and numeracy checks, evidenced-based teaching and catch-up tutoring, to identify kids who need additional support and make sure they get it,” he said.

This is admirable however, here’s the kicker. The agreement will require states and territories to reach the “highest rate of Year 12 certification ever achieved”, with one key target being that by 2030, 83.8 per cent of students will complete the final year of schooling. But in order to achieve this, it means 83.8 per cent of the current Year 6 students, a third of whom did not meet proficiency standards at grade five, are expected to compete Year 12 in 2030. All research indicates that once a student falls behind it is very difficult to catch up, so there must be an urgent and honest conversation about dramatically lifting standards if the minister’s target it is be met. Let there be no doubt: this is a national emergency.

Education unions and state ministers cry ‘more funding’. But these are the same people who have overseen the catastrophic fall in our kids’ education outcomes. A small group of other organisations rightly call for the return of explicit teaching, but the IPA stands as the lone voice calling out the damage of the cluttered, activist, ideologically driven National Curriculum and the politicised initial teacher training courses.

The 2024 NAPLAN results are, unfortunately, no surprise. What needs to be done is to turn the tide; this is not rocket science. But those with the authority to make the necessary changes are not listening.

Class Action out and about

Adelaide gathering:

An enthusiastic group of parents and teachers, and Ben Hood MP and Heidi Girolamo MLC joined me in Adelaide for a Class Action gathering where I presented an overview of what is happening in schools, how it is happening, and what we can do about it.

Teachers and parents in attendance expressed their concerns and were enthusiastic about the free Class Action resource materials. Many spoke of the value of collective support and of the utmost importance of speaking up for our children.

Quote:

Parents often tell me how grateful they are to the IPA and the Class Action program for speaking up for our children and calling out the singularly damaging ideology the education authorities impart in schools. Of course, I understand it’s not always easy to be the parent who makes noise, however, for inspiration and encouragement to be brave, I refer this month to none other than Leonardo da Vinci who said: