Who dares to get off the improvement treadmill...

Recently, I once again met with the 50 or so first mover schools involved with the University of Melbourne's New Metrics Project. It has become a regular sojourn - one where Lead Principals, school leaders, educational researchers, Executive Directors and representatives from all jurisdictions, gather in one place for two days of robust debate, sharing and spirited discussion. I'm sharing my key takeaways that have accumulated over the past 5 years of my association with the Project; each of them continually agitating my passion for educational and systemic change, and always generating a sense of urgency.

In my current role, have an acute interest in developing and shaping progress with the other research partners on our education transformation agendas. The cusp of educational change is an exciting place to be. However, this space is not to be confused with educational fads that keep us entertained on the merry-go-round of change. The 'new normal' is coming. In fact, it's already here.

Our schools are leading for the future through a competencies curriculum which involves supporting all of our stakeholders through a transition to the 'new grammar of schooling'. It's been happening for a while now but for many of us, it has gone unnoticed. I begin with the NSW School Certificate which was made redundant in 2012, in favour of the Record of School Achievement (RoSA), which was designed in response to the students opting not to enter Years 11 and 12.

In a similar vain, with multiple pathways for our Year 12 graduates to begin their post-school endeavours, the NSW HSC and ATAR are now becoming less relevant. To illustrate, the number of early entry offers from universities around the country has jumped 20 000 since 2014. Adding to the demise of the ATAR is the conservative estimate of less than 25% of students actually requiring an ATAR to begin their tertiary studies. Further, In 2024, a record number of over 27,000 students applied for early entry schemes at the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory but that's another blog post.

Back to the New Metrics seminar... During one of the robust panel discussions, it was purported that schools need to be able to get on with the business of educating our young people so that they can genuinely flourish in their post-school lives. The work of university admissions should be left to the universities themselves. The present system of 13 years of schooling being represented with a 'number' is simply ludicrous in contemporary society. The majority of our school graduates simply don't need it. We owe it to all students to equip them with the skills and credentials they need and value.

So it is time to get off the improvement treadmill and start educational transformation, although views from progressive reformers such as Valerie Hannon and Ellen Koshland have a more robust preference for the term, educational 'revolution'. Despite the prevailing rhetoric surrounding 21st Century Education, we still, largely, structure educational experiences for our students as an industrial process.

So, where do we begin? Dr Jim Watterston, former Dean of Melbourne Graduate School of Education recognises that teachers are the architects of reform. Finally, teachers are being recognised as the catalysts and enablers of meaningful change! The notion was supported by Michael Fullan who claimed that we need to mobilise the bottom. I am certain he didn't mean to insinuate that teachers are bottom feeders. I took it to mean that there is no top without a bottom.

However, when do we architects of reform begin? I suggest we don't wait for politicians and the laggards to catch up. There is a palpable sense of urgency for teachers to rethink how we teach and why. We have often heard the phrase, 'do we teach subjects or people?'