Australian test scores flat-lined since 1964

In Australia, it was the time of the Beatles, the Mavis Bramston Show, the EH Holden and prime minister Robert Menzies. We have seen a lot of changes since 1964, but there are new suggestions that there has been little or no improvement in children’s literacy and numeracy skills since then.

Researchers claim little has changed despite the millions of dollars pumped into the education system. The researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) looked at literacy and numeracy tests between 1964 and 2003 in which successive groups of students were asked the same questions.

One of the study’s authors, Andrew Leigh, says a typical young teenager in 2003 was about a quarter of a grade level behind his or her counterpart in 1964. “The test scores have flat-lined over this period. In fact, there’s even a little bit of evidence suggesting they may have fallen a smidgin,” he said. Read more at ABC News online.