Teacher guide Literacy and numeracy improvement: a whole-school approach

TLF ID S7073

This teacher resource describes how 74 public schools in metropolitan, regional and rural Western Australia used three major components of the school improvement cycle to achieve significant improvement in the literacy and numeracy learning outcomes of their students. The resource is organised in nine sections: Summary, Target student group, Method, Results, Lessons learned, Next steps, Research base, Further reading and links, and Contacts. It describes how the schools were targeted, the support provided by the WA Department of Education, the characteristics of the interventions selected by the schools, and the results achieved.





Educational details

Educational value
  • This is a valuable resource for schools intent on improving students' National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) literacy and numeracy results in years 3, 5 and 7. The strategy targeted schools where large numbers of students were at or below the National Minimum Standard in reading and numeracy. It included Aboriginal students and students speaking English as an additional language or dialect. Data provided in the resource shows its success - the schools' average was above the WA average on every measure, with approximately 70 per cent closing the gap between their performance and the state performance in both reading and numeracy.
  • The resource is useful in helping schools choose sustainable literacy and numeracy intervention strategies. The strategy aimed to build the capacity of school communities, rather than creating dependence on external support requiring ongoing funding. The resource can help schools locate the strategies within their school improvement cycle. It indicates that interventions need to be evidence-based, data-driven, individually targeted, systematic and intensive. They should also fit within school improvement activities of assessing data and other evidence related to student achievement. The advice includes planning to improve the standards of student achievement, and acting to implement the planned strategies.
Year level

F; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7

Learning area
  • English
  • Mathematics

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Organization: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.australia.gov.au
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Generic
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
  • Text
Rights
  • © 2014 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. This material is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence (CC BY-SA 3.0 AU) unless otherwise indicated. You may distribute, remix and build upon this material, provided that you include the acknowledgement '© Commonwealth of Australia 2014' and license under the same terms any new creations you have based on the material.