From the Office of the Chief Scientist
The state of mathematics in Australian schools is a widely shared concern. Parents, educators, industry groups and governments all query why a prosperous country, placed second on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, is sliding down the global education rankings.1 The trend is clear: Australia’s mathematics performance has stalled or declined in NAPLAN (the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy), TIMSS (the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), and PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) whilst government funding per student has increased.2,3,4 In TIMSS, strong international performers like Singapore and Japan continue to extend their lead.5,6 Canada, a nation to which we are often compared, now significantly outperforms us in all PISA and Year 8 TIMSS domains, despite its similar levels of per-student expenditure.3,4,7