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Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

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Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

School and system improvement

2011

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Education

The Hard Work Of Improvement, Geoff N. Masters Nov 2011

The Hard Work Of Improvement, Geoff N. Masters

School and system improvement

A common strategy for promoting improved employee or organisational performance is to place a strong focus on organisational results. The perceived advantage of focusing on results is that it clarifies and concentrates effort on the main game: the key purpose of the organisation's work. It also provides a basis for evaluating employee performance. As part of their drive for improvement, organisations also sometimes attach incentives to results, either in the form of rewards or sanctions. There is growing evidence, however, that focusing on results alone is an ineffective improvement strategy in many contexts and often leads to unintended behaviours. There …


Improving Educational Outcomes In The Northern Territory : Preliminary Advice To The Northern Territory Department Of Education And Training, With A Particular Focus On The Ongoing Improvement Of Students’ Literacy And Numeracy Achievements, Geoff N. Masters Apr 2011

Improving Educational Outcomes In The Northern Territory : Preliminary Advice To The Northern Territory Department Of Education And Training, With A Particular Focus On The Ongoing Improvement Of Students’ Literacy And Numeracy Achievements, Geoff N. Masters

School and system improvement

The primary focus of this review is on strategies for improving literacy and numeracy outcomes in the Northern Territory. Clearly, the role of school education is much broader than the development of students literacy and numeracy skills, but these are foundational skills on which almost all other school learning is based. It is also clear from research that low levels of literacy and numeracy by the middle years of school are associated with lower school completion rates and a range of post-school outcomes, including higher levels of unemployment, lower lifetime earnings, and poorer health outcomes. Although the primary focus of …