Saving Money by Spending: Solving Illiteracy in Australia
Summary
A national study into Australia’s literacy standards by Equity Economics has found that four in ten 15-year-old students are not meeting reading benchmarks. The cost of lost lifetime earnings for those who fall behind is estimated at over $12 billion alone. This doesn’t even begin to account for the emotional costs to individuals or costs to our economy in terms of lost productivity and poorer health and wellbeing outcomes.
We looked at each state and territory’s performance in national and international assessments and attempts by jurisdictions to implement evidence-based practices. We found that all states need to do better.
Commissioned by Code REaD Dyslexia Network and submitted to the National School Reform Agreement Expert Panel, the report compares the literacy performance of states and territories and unveils a $942 million plan to introduce evidence-based approaches to literacy instruction in primary schools. The report estimates a conservative 13-fold return on investment for such a spend.
Findings
The report, Saving Money by Spending: Solving Illiteracy in Australia, makes five recommendations
Implementing a high-quality evidence-based curriculum for early literacy instruction
Training and coaching for teachers in explicit and structured literacy instruction
National implementation of the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check
Small group tutoring and one-on-one intervention for those students who require support
Adopting targets to reduce the proportion of students who do not meet basic levels of literacy.
Read the full report
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