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Too many young Australians leave school without the knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions they need to make the transition from school to higher education, training or employment.
This is a persistent problem that has resisted political and programmatic efforts for decades. Innovation has tended to be peripheral, unable to be scaled up or sustained.
This paper sets the context for the problem and the opportunity. It examines the dominant conceptions of achievement embedded in the recognition system in Australian higher secondary education, and explores how to build a fairer system that celebrates and measures a broader and deeper conception of achievement.
One of the national goals of Australian education is that all young people leave school with the knowledge to become confident and creative individuals, engaged in lifelong learning as active and informed members of the community who will thrive in work, family and community life.
However, there is every reason to believe that the Australian school system is stalled, even regressing, when it comes to successful learning for every individual.
Key indicators and measures are not improving, or only slowly. Many young people are still not completing their schooling. Achievement levels in some core areas of learning are falling. Even for those who do complete their schooling, the transition to post-school pathways satisfactoryis often difficult, slow and not conducive to self-confidence.
The system's effectiveness is uneven, and less so for young people from rural, isolated and low socio-economic communities, those from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, those with special needs, and those who are refugees or immigrants.
The central problem is the gap between what we measure as educational success and the learning objectives we aspire to.
Correcting this discrepancy offers a powerful opportunity for impact. As assessment and recognition change, so too does the curriculum and organization of learning.
The dominant recognition system for tertiary education comprises the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) for tertiary selection and tertiary certificates. The system is long-established, deeply rooted, generally reliable and operates with high levels of efficiency and integrity, thanks to the work of assessment and recognition authorities, tertiary selection bodies and schools in each jurisdiction.
The system establishes curricula, defines study rules and regulations for students, sets assessments and exams, calculates scores, monitors and moderates standards, and issues certificates.
Learning Creates Australia is focused on delivering a new, trusted and approved approach to learning recognition that will empower and increase young people, helping them to navigate effectively and access a range of pathways beyond school.
A better recognition system in Australia would assess and represent for each young person the degree to which a learner has achieved the full range of learning they need to thrive, and help a learner represent their learning regardless of how, where or when they learned it.
Current recognition defines success in narrow, superficial terms that do not reflect the breadth and depth of learning now required.
Grading is (generally) competitive and not standards-based. It tends to emphasize examinable academic knowledge rather than the learner's know-how, learning ability or exercise of autonomy. It has the effect of marginalizing professional and community learning, and learners often have to set aside their own interests, passions, cultural backgrounds and motivations, as well as the cultural, economic and educational needs of their community.
To thrive, a learner needs both broad and deep learning. This learning should encompass the acquisition of basic literacy and numeracy skills, as well as mastery of the knowledge of a discipline or field. But it should also include know-how in the application of knowledge to create value for society, and competence in general, transferable skills and dispositions.
Young people should have the ability to maintain deep ties with the communities in which they learn, work and create value. They should be able to exercise their learning power independently, channeling their passions and interests into learning for their own benefit and that of their community.
