{"id":239620,"date":"2023-10-27T04:07:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T04:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=239620"},"modified":"2023-10-27T04:07:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T04:07:05","slug":"as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"As other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Save articles for later<\/h3>\n

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n

The reading standards of Victorian students could noticeably decline unless the state government adopts a consistent teaching approach to the key learning skill, experts have warned.<\/p>\n

NSW, South Australia and Queensland have now all backed a phonics-based approach, while Victoria continues to allow schools to \u201cchoose their own adventure\u201d when it comes to their literacy teaching strategy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Victorian government needs to offer more explicit guidance to schools on literacy or risk declining results, academics say.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Simon Schluter <\/cite><\/p>\n

A group of 45 academics delivered a joint letter to state and federal governments this week, calling for immediate action to provide evidence-based science of reading instruction to stem the flow of students who leave primary school without proficient reading skills.<\/p>\n

Academic Pamela Snow, professor of cognitive psychology at La Trobe University\u2019s School of Education, said there were still significant gaps between reading research and classroom teaching, and governments needed to be more deliberate in guiding schools to adopt best practice.<\/p>\n

The Victorian government said schools were doing an \u201coutstanding job\u201d at teaching students literacy, as evidenced by the highest year 3 students reading scores in the country in this year\u2019s NAPLAN assessments.<\/p>\n

But Snow said NAPLAN was not a high benchmark, and she expected Victoria\u2019s performance would decline over time if it didn\u2019t follow the lead of other, more prescriptive, states.<\/p>\n

Snow said it was impossible for the government to determine how much of Victoria\u2019s current success was attributable to schools moving independently to a phonics-based approach, parents paying for tutors or the state\u2019s broader social advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019ve devolved autonomy down to individual schools, we\u2019re tolerating high levels of variability,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t tolerate high levels of variability in health. Why would we tolerate high levels of variability in education?\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost one third of Australian children and just over a quarter of Victoria\u2019s students failed to meet new proficiency standards for literacy in this year\u2019s NAPLAN (National Assessment Program \u2013 Literacy and Numeracy) test.<\/p>\n

Unlike other states that have openly backed a phonics-based approach, the Victorian government allows primary schools to choose their own literacy strategy.<\/p>\n

As a result, some schools have adopted \u201cscience of reading\u201d principles, which involve systematic synthetic phonics instruction and decodable readers in the early stages, to teach children the sounds of the English language and the letter combinations that make them.<\/p>\n

Others choose a \u201cbalanced literacy\u201d approach, which combines some phonics with whole language practices that teach children to read using full words and predictable texts that encourage them to guess words.<\/p>\n

Churchill Primary principal Jacquie Burrows has led one of the state\u2019s reading success stories after switching the small Latrobe Valley school to a science of reading approach in 2018.<\/p>\n

Within three years, most of her students went from underperforming to above average NAPLAN results. She now leads regular tours from school leaders keen to replicate her success.<\/p>\n

Burrows said the government should eliminate practices that don\u2019t align with reading science research.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our experience, when we were teaching whole language\/balanced literacy with fidelity our results were poor and we had high levels of students with dysregulated behaviour,\u201d she said. \u201cOur shift to aligning our practice with science of reading research is what improved our academic results and student engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Education Department spokesperson said every school was required to have a four-year plan reflecting priorities and goals. They said the department provided clear advice to schools on evidence-based practices.<\/p>\n

Snow said the government needed to distil the latest research and direct schools, instead of offloading responsibility and allowing them to choose their own path.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just put a whole lot of \u2026 teaching approaches out there and say, okay, go fish, use whichever ones appeal to you,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s not ensuring high-quality reading instruction for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The academics\u2019 letter calls for six policy reform initiatives including embedding evidence-based approaches in initial teacher education and professional development, and establishing new proficiency targets in the next National School Reform Agreement, due to be delivered at the end of October.<\/p>\n

It also calls for national implementation of the grade 1 phonics check and screening in the first year of high school to identify students who were struggling or falling behind.<\/p>\n

Victoria introduced a mandatory phonics test this year to screen the reading ability of all grade 1 students but critics of the $11.3 million tool say it is too brief to be useful and has made it impossible to compare the state\u2019s results to other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

The Victorian Opposition has pledged to establish an evidence-based learning framework, including resources for teachers and phonics screening, in all schools if elected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Labor Government should put an end to their phonics-phobia and instead put in place the best evidence-based learning and teaching practices available to them to ensure every Victorian student is taught to read and write,\u201d education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Get the day\u2019s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Most Viewed in National<\/h2>\n

From our partners<\/h3>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. The reading standards of Victorian students could noticeably decline unless the state government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAs other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind - lovemainstream.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind - lovemainstream.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. The reading standards of Victorian students could noticeably decline unless the state government…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"lovemainstream.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T04:07:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/As-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-Victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/\",\"name\":\"As other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind - lovemainstream.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-27T04:07:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-27T04:07:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abc9aeefdadf991087d66599cfc40c8d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"World News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/category\/world-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"As other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/\",\"name\":\"lovemainstream.com\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abc9aeefdadf991087d66599cfc40c8d\",\"name\":\"mediabest\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38da2a5c83e5b947af91e83c833be9d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38da2a5c83e5b947af91e83c833be9d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mediabest\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"As other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind - lovemainstream.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"As other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind - lovemainstream.com","og_description":"Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. The reading standards of Victorian students could noticeably decline unless the state government…","og_url":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/","og_site_name":"lovemainstream.com","article_published_time":"2023-10-27T04:07:05+00:00","author":"mediabest","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/As-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-Victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mediabest","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/","url":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/","name":"As other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind - lovemainstream.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-10-27T04:07:05+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-27T04:07:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abc9aeefdadf991087d66599cfc40c8d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/as-other-states-back-phonics-experts-say-victorian-kids-could-be-left-behind\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"World News","item":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/category\/world-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"As other states back phonics, experts say Victorian kids could be left behind"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/","name":"lovemainstream.com","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abc9aeefdadf991087d66599cfc40c8d","name":"mediabest","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38da2a5c83e5b947af91e83c833be9d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38da2a5c83e5b947af91e83c833be9d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mediabest"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239621,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239620\/revisions\/239621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}