Raising the expected performance standard in each year of school and holding all teachers and students accountable for achieving these higher standards may not be the most effective way to improve levels of performance in Australian schools, Professor Geoff Masters AO writes in his latest Teacher column.

There are good reasons to rethink how we organise the school curriculum. An alternative would be to structure the curriculum as a sequence of proficiency levels unrelated to age or year level, according to Professor Geoff Masters AO.

The decision to move NAPLAN online provides an opportunity to place less emphasis on comparing the performances of schools and more emphasis on supporting student learning, according to Professor Geoff Masters AO.

It’s often asserted that some things can’t be measured, Professor Geoff Masters AO writes in his latest column. But how true is this? And if we can’t measure something, should we stop pretending we can teach or develop it?

How well do we help students recognise and reflect on the long-term progress they make at school? Could progress in school mathematics learning be more like progress in music learning? Professor Geoff Masters AO discusses.

In any given classroom, students are likely to be at very different points in their learning and development. Professor Geoff Masters AO explores why it is important for teachers to be able to track the long-term progress that each student makes.

School improvement is most likely when an entire school has a shared improvement agenda and is committed to learning how to improve. Professor Geoff Masters AO discusses a five-step improvement cycle.

There is a well-established way of thinking about schooling. But is there another way? Professor Geoff Masters AO discusses.

One of the biggest challenges we face in improving quality and equity in our schools is to better address the learning needs of the many children who, on entry to school, are at risk of being locked into trajectories of long-term low achievement, writes Professor Geoff Masters AO.

One of the biggest challenges educators face is to find better ways to meet the learning needs of the many students who fall behind in our schools, fail to meet year-level expectations (often year after year) and, as a consequence, become increasingly disengaged, writes Professor Geoff Masters AO.