Improving performance through Equity and Excellence in Queensland state schools

In this article, our Director-General, Michael De’Ath shares insights about how we are improving performance and ensuring all students in Queensland state schools are provided with the opportunity to realise their potential.

In an era of data-informed decision-making, schools and education systems sometimes face the challenge of data overload, where the sheer volume of information collected can be overwhelming. It is important for systems to clearly define expectations, prioritising the most relevant metrics so that schools can focus their efforts on analysing and using the data that provides the greatest insight into what is happening at the student, school, region and system level.

It’s also important to seize opportunities for collective reflection on what data tells us about where we have improved and what we might need to focus on next.

While national attention often focuses on NAPLAN and other standardised testing regimes, in Queensland there is a long-established practice of focusing on report card data – that is, student grades of A to E in their learning of the Australian Curriculum. Compared to NAPLAN, this data offers continuous comparison points across every year of learning from Prep to Year 10, it doesn’t divert the teacher or student from their curriculum-based learning, and the resulting data is now so well moderated against other forms of assessment that the Department is confident to use it to inform decision making.

Since 2022, Queensland state schools have implemented a range of measures under the education strategy Equity and Excellence: realising the potential of every student to lift student performance, support wellbeing and engagement, and celebrate culture and inclusion. Close monitoring of system data along the way has informed differentiated support for schools and a targeted capability suite for teachers and educational leaders.

This is working.?

Semester 1, 2024 data shows that what appeared to be initial performance upticks have developed into sustained improvement, for example in:

• continued improvement across all year levels from Prep to Year 10 in proportion of students achieving a C or above in Mathematics and English, and
• continued improvement across all year levels from Prep to Year 10 achieving an A or B in Mathematics and English.

Additionally, at the end of 2023:

• the proportion of Year 12 students awarded a Queensland Certificate of Education or Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement was up, with 98.7% or almost 30,000 achieving certification. This was 842 more students than 2021 and reflects a 1.3% percentage point increase over this time. For First Nations students, the gains were even greater - up 3.5 percentage points to 96.2%, and
• the proportion of Year 12 completers who progressed into education, training or employment was up by 1.8 percentage points for all students and up by 3.9 percentage points for First Nations students since 2021.

Sometimes education systems see improvement because more challenging learners are exited from the system. Here in Queensland, it is quite the opposite. We are now seeing more students re-engaged in our state schools and yet results are still improving.

Students retained in some form of education or training are more likely to have better life outcomes. So reducing our school disciplinary absences through a support model has been a significant achievement.

These results call for recognition of the great work principals, teachers and school staff - as well as the central and regionally-based teams who are supporting schools – do every day. They affirm the professional judgment of school leaders who initially co-designed the Equity and Excellence strategy (including selecting report card data as the most appropriate measure of academic success) and whose constant feedback has informed its implementation and refinement.

Shared ownership of Equity and Excellence has existed since its inception. Our strategy is led at all levels with schools creating a self-sustaining momentum. It has fostered system learning along the way, strengthened a culture of co-design, and provided a long-term architecture through which schools can plan and prioritise.

Data collection and analysis are only purposeful if they inform decision-making and support for students at both the individual and cohort levels. Queensland’s educators now have more than two years (five semesters) of improving data, which they are using to determine what’s working well and identify their next priorities.

Schools are not relying on the system to tell them what is expected or what to do next, they are working towards the vision espoused in their co-designed strategy, continually informed by their own data, and leading 1,264 improvement stories around the state.

For more information about the Queensland Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Strategy visit our website.