Is Australia doing better or worse when it comes to literacy?

After reading a twitter post and link to a Sydney Morning Herald article from Alice Leung, @aliceleung (http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/naplan-testing-disguises-illiteracy-says-labor-mp-20131109-2×833.html) about a back to basics approach to literacy sprouted by Labor backbencher Alannah MacTiernan, it brought to mind an article shared by Darcy Moore, @Darcy1968 (http://theconversation.com/what-would-a-more-literate-world-look-like-18420) on worldwide literacy results.  This article briefly made reference to a stat that 17 to 24 year olds in Australia have a better functional literacy than older Australians.

Even though one spoke of NAPLAN and the other International testing the different messages confused me.  This set my subconscious whirring and while I went about my mundane Sunday routines my subconscious began to ask me some serious questions.  Australia is sitting 4^th in the latest rounds of OECD testing for functional literacy as part of its Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, but what does this mean?

I know from teaching, that class position tells nothing about reaching benchmarks or achieving outcomes.  I have an outstanding chemistry class this year.  The top 6 students are all operating way above where my top student was last year.  Having spent many years swimming, I know that coming first in the heat does not get you a spot in the final.  So what does this fourth place mean in terms of our levels of literacy and how does this compare to previous years?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics confirms that older Australians have lower levels of literacy and numeracy than younger Australians. While I am not naïve enough to think that education is the key factor in this statistic.  Is it such a long bow to draw to say that literacy and numeracy education have been getting better over time?  Perhaps we are doing things better and a ‘back to basics’ approach will lower our standards.  I am all for evaluating what we do but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

I felt the only way to validate any claim about rising or falling literacy rates would be to compare the level achieved by each age group over time.  In my limited online search, all I could find was a comparison between 1996 and 2006 OECD data on Australian document literacy and age cohorts.  Which shows that literacy has improved in all age groups from 1996 to 2006 and that there is a decline in document literacy each year in the older age groups. http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/102029/05-chapter3.pdf

As well as an article by Wayne Sawyer http://www.aate.org.au/files/documents/Literacy%20Crises.pdf on how we cook up literacy crises in Australia, which outlines how we should be more worried about our educational inequities rather than our international ranking and how the media has been blaming teachers about poor literacy since the early 1970s.  I think this gets at the core of why those with the lowest literacy in Australia get worse while those with the highest literacy continue to improve.  This social inequity is the stat governments should be focusing on rather than blaming teachers.

Is Australia doing better or worse in terms of literacy overall? In my brief search, I could find no proof. Has anyone done a longitudinal study? Shouldn’t this be an important part of our evaluation process? Particularly when both sides of the political spectrum are calling for the ‘back to basics’ approach.

Term 4 and The Perfect Storm

I am currently sitting at my computer, in the eye of a perfect storm.  The prevailing conditions of my personal and professional life have converged to provide the air and sea temperatures required to produce the mother of all storms.

Like all natural disasters, I wasn’t aware of the prevailing conditions as they developed.  Some I had control over, others I did not.  It started with a wedding in Vietnam and some long service leave. This of course lulled me into a false sense of security.  I was relaxed, reinvigorated and had become blissfully accustomed to having people cater to my every whim.  Little did I know that deep under the water, professional conditions were shifting out of the normal range and up in the upper atmosphere personal conditions were also beginning to shift to extreme. I did not see the signs soon enough to issue my extreme weather warning.

Like a good science teacher, I have tabulated the data:

Professional Factors	Ocean Temp change (oC)
LSL	-2
Year 12 finished	-2
Meadowbanks	+1
2IC sustaining broken collar bone and severe concussion in holidays	+2
Faculty not wanting to disturb my break to tell me	+2
Faculty stepping up to do all ‘visible’ HT jobs + some ‘invisible’  jobs DP & other HT communicated	-2
ESSA organisation incomplete	+2
Markbook structure incomplete	+1
Report structures incomplete and not linked to Markbook	+2
15 uni essays to mark before last lecture 2nd week back	+5
Year 11 reports due first day back from LSL & left to last minute by me	+1
Year 8 exam & prac assessment not written or done and now to be written by me	+2
School Plan Evaluation	+1
Reporting to P&C on 2nd day back re new T&L strategy	+1
Regional TPL to organise & deliver at end of 2nd week back	+2
Decision to apply for promotion having never addressed the General Selection criteria before	+4
Total Increase	20
Personal Factors	Air Temp change (oC)
Primary school fete assistance	+5
Head cold for me and entire family	+4
Son’s Performing Arts HS performance nights and rehearsals	+2
Husband’s charity motor cycle ride to Snowy Mountains	+4
Child’s sporting and music lesson commitments	+3
Total Increase	18

Without the extreme weather warning, I have been unable to implement my usual safety procedures when storm conditions prevail.  The increased air and sea temperatures have converged and I have been buffeted by extreme winds and rain with hits to my health and quality of teaching and learning in my classroom.  This storm will then circle around to hit again as I take on ESSA marking and half my faculty is out for HSC marking followed by flooding from the storm surge that is personal and work Christmas functions after the wind and rain subside.  So as I sit in the self imposed eye of the storm I am restocking my natural disaster supplies, recharging batteries, catching up on sleep, doing a bit of exercise and meditation, planning lessons and catching up with friends and family so I can sustain less damage as the eye moves past me.