If we want more Australian students to learn to read, we need regular testing in the early primary years

• But according to 2023 NAPLAN results, about one-third of Australian school students can’t read at their grade level.
• For Indigenous students, students from disadvantaged families, and students in regional and rural areas, it’s more than half.
• Our new Grattan Institute report, The Reading Guarantee, outlines a strategy to ensure at least 90% of Australian school students are proficient readers.

Struggling students need early support

• As previous Grattan Institute research shows, struggling students need early support so they do not fall even further behind.
• A focus on these early reading sub-skills is also more likely to instil a love of reading in students.

Tests can help

• For example, a 2017 US study of nearly 200 students found Year 1 and Year 2 students receiving additional help to catch up on their word reading progressed twice as fast as students who didn’t receive this help until Year 3.
• The choice of assessment matters too – they need to be quick to administer and give teachers useful information.
• But our report argues they are not necessarily recommending effective tests and they do not always provide the information teachers need to monitor reading progress.

We need a national Year 1 Phonics Screening check

• There should be a nationally consistent Year 1 Phonics Screening Check to provide governments with a useful “health check” on early reading performance across states.
• The test was developed in the United Kingdom where it has been mandated for government schools since 2012.
• But having a test focusing on phonics acknowledges how the ability to accurately decode words is a good predictor of students’ future reading achievement.

We should also be assessing students at other times

• This would identify students who may not have learnt necessary reading skills in primary school.
• The alternative is we keep going with a “wait-to-fail” approach, which lets too many students fall through the cracks.

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• Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities as disclosed on its website.