He said about 400,000 Australian students a year, 10 per cent, needed extra support or were below the international benchmark in maths. Only 20 percent of those who fall behind make it.
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In Screening that counts: why Australia needs universal early numeracy screening, Norris said school systems across the country were conducting inefficient and haphazard early assessments of math skills.
He said the early maths test should take place twice a year and focus on strong models of “number sense”, which include numbers (including saying them, reading them and write them); numerical relationships (comparing and understanding them in terms of “more” and “less”); and numerical operations (understanding addition and subtraction).
Ultimately, Norris envisions the screening happening every school year as math concepts progress through multiplication, algebra and more complicated concepts.
In 2017, a national advisory group called for a universal digital screening test for the first time. Most recently, a panel of experts reporting on the upcoming National School Reform Agreement recommended adoption of a nationally consistent numeracy test by the end of 2028.
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“Unfortunately, over the course of these six years, little change in supportive practice and policy has been implemented,” Norris said in the report. “As a result, the current tools available to Australian schools are not designed or well suited to universal screening procedures.”
Achievement in mathematics has implications for life beyond formal schooling.
“Adults with poor numeracy have higher rates of employment, income, homelessness and poorer health outcomes,” Norris said.
“It is estimated that around one in five adults do not have the numeracy levels needed to successfully complete everyday tasks, such as reading a petrol gauge or managing the household budget.”
Norris said that early identification of struggling students and the provision of high-quality help helped to alter patterns of underachievement. But teachers needed the tools to do it efficiently and accurately.
“We now know a lot about what predicts early numeracy success and, by extension, what predicts numeracy failure,” he said.
“It's time to start putting some of these reliable tools in the hands of teachers so they can step in and provide the support kids need as early as possible.”
Grattan Institute education program manager Jordana Hunter said numeracy attainment had fallen over the past decade and improving primary school results was key to raising achievement for older students .
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Hunter, who sat on the National School Reform Agreement's expert panel, said that without robust universal testing of early numeracy skills, it was too easy to miss children who needed intervention.
“If we don't adopt universal screening, we will continue to take a 'hit or miss' approach to identifying students who need extra help,” he said.
Dr Katherin Cartwright, president of the Mathematical Association of NSW and a former primary school teacher, agreed there needed to be more focus on early intervention.
But he said there were many factors at play, including a lack of access to free early childhood education, students' backgrounds and even their sense of belonging to the school.
“I don't think there is a lack of systems, schools and teachers working to help students develop numeracy, but there is a lack of consistency across Australia and access to national data for our youngest students” , he said.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said he had “made it clear” that the upcoming National School Reform Agreement must link funding to reforms that “help children catch up, stay up and finish school.”
With Lucy Carroll
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