The Minister for Education, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, has announced that the Federal Government will fund a trial Literacy and Numeracy Test (the Test) for initial teacher education students.
The introduction of the Test is a key recommendation of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group report,
Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers.
The Test also gives effect to the commitment made in the ‘Accreditation of Initial Teacher Education Programs in Australia: Standards and Procedures 2011′, that initial teacher education entrants will have personal literacy and numeracy skills broadly equivalent to those of the top 30% of the adult population.
Test to improve teacher quality
According to the Minister’s press release, the Test is part of the Government’s Students First approach which focuses on four key areas that will make a difference to students:
- teacher quality;
- school autonomy;
- parental engagement; and
- strengthening the curriculum.
The Test is intended to improve teacher quality and it will be introduced in two stages.
The first phase will commence in late August 2015, with up to 5000 students having the opportunity to voluntarily participate, in selected metropolitan and regional locations. The Government will cover the costs of students’ participation in 2015. Students who pass the Test in 2015 will be considered to have met the new requirements.
The second phase commences from 1 July 2016, with a national implementation of the Test. From this point, all initial teacher education students will be required to pass the Test to meet the new requirements.
From 2016 the cost of sitting the Test will be the responsibility of students.
Response to public concerns
Mr Pyne stated that ‘for too long there have been public concerns about the variability in the quality of teaching graduates and in the effectiveness of existing programmes in preparing new teachers’.
To try and address public concern, Mr Pyne stated that:
- every teacher education student who graduates must pass the Test from 2016;
- testing key aspects of the personal literacy and numeracy skills of aspiring teachers will assist higher education providers, teacher employers and the general public to have absolute confidence in the skills of graduating teachers; and
- on top of the Test, there will be an overhauled accreditation process established from the beginning of 2016. All courses will have moved to the new approach by the end of 2017.
What next?
The introduction of the Test means that some aspiring teachers may not graduate from their teaching course if they fail the Test. If failure rates are high enough, universities and other education providers may be forced to raise entrance criteria.
For example, Fairfax Media reports that the average ATAR (tertiary entrance rank) for education courses in Victoria was 61.9 last year, dropping as low as 40.25. This compares to an ATAR of 98.95 for biomedicine at Melbourne University and 98 for law at Monash University.
After the implementation of the first phase of the Test in August, students will have a better understanding of what is involved and the complexity of the questions.
