Reimagining Schools and School Systems: Success for All Students in All Settings

By Brian J. Caldwell

This is the first book that deals with the reimagination of schools and school systems in international settings. Reimagination should lead to transformation, defined as significant, systematic and sustained change that secures, or has the evidence-based potential to secure, success for all students in all settings through integrated and aligned action in the major domains of school education. Detailed attention is given to Australia, but each chapter contains illustrations from at least two other countries, including the high performers. Australia has gone backwards among nations over several decades despite countless reforms and dramatically increased funding. The prescriptions for reimagination suit all countries where performance falls short of expectations. The book will add value to the work of policymakers at the national and sub-national levels and those who advise them, as well as leaders in school systems and schools. Recommendations will resonate with teachers who feel overwhelmed by what is expected of them. Academics, postgraduate students and other researchers will find fertile ground for their work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9780228889588

Brian J. Caldwell

Brian J. Caldwell is Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, where he is a former Dean of Education. He has served as Deputy Chair of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). He holds the highest awards of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) and the Australian College of Educators (ACE). He has provided research and consultancy services in or for 43 countries. He has published 20 books and is Principal Consultant at Melbourne-based Educational Transformations.

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Reimagining Schools and School Systems

Success for All Students in All Settings

Brian J. Caldwell

Reimagining Schools and School Systems

Copyright © 2023 by Brian J. Caldwell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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ISBN

978-0-2288-8957-1 (Hardcover)

978-0-2288-8956-4 (Paperback)

978-0-2288-8958-8 (eBook)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Jim Spinks, an outstanding school principal, who has been a leader in the reimagination of schools for four decades. He conducted training programs for thousands of school and school system leaders in many countries and, with Marilyn Spinks, also a former school principal, served as a highly-valued consultant. He is my friend, colleague and co-author of six books that have guided related developments around the world.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: The Case for Reimagination

The concepts of reimagination and transformation

The gold standard

Universal interest

Scale of change

Contra-indications of reimagination

Narrative

Chapter 2: The First Reimagination

Karmel Report

Whitlam’s position on state aid

International and national context

Commonwealth Schools Commission

Establishment: 1973–’74

Fraser government: 1975–1983

Hawke Government: 1983–1987

Demise in 1987

Expanding the role of the federal government

Needs-based funding

Challenge to historical approaches to needs-based funding

National school reform agreements

Chapter 3: Assessing the Impact

Leadership of Gough Whitlam

Role of the Commonwealth

Needs-based funding

School autonomy and learning

Conclusion

Chapter 4: Values in Action

Personal backstory

Effective Resource Allocation in Schools Project (ERASP)

Victoria

From national to international implementation

School self-management from 1992 to present

Victoria

England

Principal Autonomy Research Project

International Project to Frame the Transformation of Schools

International Study on School Autonomy and Learning

Conclusion

Chapter 5: An Education Revolution

Backstory

The Australian Curriculum

Benchmarking

Cascading

Contentious issues

Ministerial interventions

History

Reading

Mathematics

Length

Ebb and flow

A lost opportunity

International illustrations

Reimagining vocational education and training (VET)

Discussion

Chapter 6: The Quality of Teaching

Backstory

Approaches to assessing the quality of teaching

Standards-based

Evidence-based

Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

Federal initiatives

Research

Contentious issues

Selection of candidates for initial teacher education

Impact of teaching

NAPLAN, PISA and TIMSS

Teacher workforce characteristics

Manageability of the teacher’s role

Direct instruction

Trust

Discussion

Chapter 7: Seeing Ahead

Trends and scenarios

Exponential change

Education 2030

Federal election 2022

Discussion

Conclusion

Chapter 8: Reimagining Schools

FutureSchool

Innovation and the HundrED

Innovation and the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE)

Case studies of reimagination

Michaela Community School

Templestowe College

Macquarie College

Queensland Academies

Nossal High

Pangea at Haileybury

Port Phillip Specialist School

The Song Room

Designing schools with majority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Reimagining the role of the teacher

Revisiting Michaela

Views of thought leaders

Chapter 9: Leadership for Reimagination

Resilience

Risk-taking

Navigating and stumbling

Neuroscience and leadership

Conclusion

Chapter 10: Reimagining School Systems

The OECD studies

Sharing the findings

Examples of system transformation

Multi-academy trusts in England

Charter schools in the United States and Canada

Chapter 11: Serious Reimagination

Benchmarking against the best

Hypothesized explanatory model

Discussion

Conclusion

Abbreviations

References

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Preface

I wrote this book in response to a deep concern that Australia has hit the wall in its attempts to achieve higher levels of success for its students, despite decades of reform and dramatic increases in funding. It used to be one of the top nations, but it is rapidly sinking in comparison to the high performers. Why is this so? What can we learn from others? Should we, quite literally, reimagine our schools and school systems to ensure success for all students in all settings? It became apparent as I studied the issue that the idea of reimagination in education was being embraced in other countries; indeed, in many fields of public and private endeavour.

I intend the book to guide efforts at transformation in Australia, and in other countries where performance falls short of expectations. I decided to take a strategic approach. Taking the lead from Henry Mintzberg (1995), an international expert on strategy, the essence of such an approach is strategic thinking, a process that calls for seeing: seeing ahead, seeing behind, seeing above, seeing below, seeing beyond, and, above all, seeing it through.

To anticipate the future (seeing ahead), the process involves describing what has occurred in the past (seeing behind); reviewing what policymakers have designed and implemented (seeing above); exploring the impact of policies at the level where intended outcomes were or were not achieved, or how they were experienced (seeing below); noting what other countries or systems are doing or have achieved (seeing beyond); and identifying how favourable outcomes have been sustained, or proposing how this may be done (seeing it through).

This is the methodology I adopted. What was ostensibly a national study became an international study, not limited to what occurs at higher levels of policymaking, but going deeper, to the level of the student. Moreover, I had to think about the future, canvassing possibilities for Australia as well as writing about what schools, systems and thought leaders elsewhere have achieved or are proposing. I wanted to incorporate the findings of my own related research and consultancy in many countries. In several instances, I have included a personal backstory to describe what I have learned more informally, outside research and consultancy, that account for my values and views on related subjects. Such personal perspectives are not always encouraged in scholarly work.

Understandably, I wanted the book to be accessible to a wide range of stakeholders so that action may follow. Most academics want this to happen, and that has been a feature of my work over the years. The book is written for leaders of national or sub-national governments and those who advise them, as well as leaders in school systems and schools, parents and the wider community, and academics and post-graduate students who study and research in related fields. Jargon is avoided, but the protocols of scholarly writing are observed. It is evidence-based and extensively referenced.

It may be helpful to international readers if I provide a brief description of the way school education is governed in Australia. This provides a context for the narrative that runs through each of the chapters. Australia has a population of 25.98 million (June 2022) and is a federation of six states and two territories.¹ It was constituted from existing colonies in 1901 as the Commonwealth of Australia, with a federal parliament and a federal government. There are three levels of government: federal, state and municipal. The Constitution leaves responsibility for schools in the hands of the states, but there are factors that explain why and how a key role for the federal government has emerged. One is because Section 96 of the Constitution allows it to grant money to states under whatever terms and conditions are mutually agreed upon. States are not permitted to levy an income tax, but they receive the proceeds of a Goods and Services Tax (GST) levied across the country, currently set at 10 percent. The upshot is that government (public) schools in states, as well as non-government (private) schools, are dependent on the federal government for significant amounts of public funding.

States have responsibility for their public schools, which they build, own, operate and fund. Prior to federation, schools were operated by colonial governments, local committees and churches. Public schools were brought under the arm of education departments, which also implemented legislation and regulations applying to private schools.

The federal government had no role in school education until the 1960s, when funds started to flow to the states to support, for example, building science laboratories and enhancing libraries in public and private schools. The watershed for large-scale federal involvement came with the report in 1973 of the Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission, known as the Karmel Report, which provided a framework for the systematic delivery of federal funds.

The federal government can create, or operate within, structures and processes that enable it and the governments of states to work together, as illustrated in the deliberations of what was formerly known as the Education Council (EC) (of ministers for education) of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). Before EC it was known as the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA), established in the early 1990s under reforms of the Hawke-Keating governments. It became the vehicle for increased federal involvement in association with the states, but it soon became a complex and unwieldy arrangement with more than fifty sub-groups reporting to it.

Significant changes in 2020 were designed to improve efficiency in federal/state/territory relations. The EC was replaced by the Education Ministers Meeting (EMM). COAG was replaced by the National Cabinet (NC) of leaders of federal and state governments, early meetings of which were associated in the public mind with matters related to COVID-19. EMM does not report to the NC, unlike previous arrangements in which the EC reported to COAG. The purpose of the EMM, considered to be a forum, is to progress matters of national strategic importance . . . to achieve agreed objectives and priorities. The EMM is chaired by the federal minister.

A narrative about Australia flows through each chapter, often in considerable detail, and international readers may wish to skip some of this. There are several narratives within this national story that relate to what has been achieved or is underway in other countries. Each chapter describes what is occurring in at least two other countries as well as Australia. Illustrations are drawn from most high-performing nations. I hope this book is a worthwhile guide to action that will ensure, in the long run, success is achieved for all students in all settings.

Brian J. Caldwell

Melbourne

1 March 2023

Chapter 1

The Case for Reimagination

Is it time to reimagine schools and school systems in Australia? A positive response suggests that the place we currently call a school should change in profound ways, ranging from its purpose, underlying philosophy and values to the way in which young people learn, with a new role for teachers, students and the system. Reimagining or re-envisioning or transforming a school will mean, at the most basic level, that it will be experienced by teachers and students in dramatically different ways to the manner they experience it now. It is not just Australia that has adopted the concept of reimagining; for example, it has been embraced as a need for education in the United States.

It is noted at the outset that the idea of reimagination now pervades the literature on change, and is promoted in advertisements in the corporate sector as a good thing to do. Such an approach even extends to the Church. The introduction to a recent book was titled: Reimagining Vatican II. (Weigel, 2022)

Apart from a larger role for the federal government, the architecture of school systems has remained essentially the same for 150 years. Public schools, attracting a declining proportion of students, are built, owned and operated by state governments. The creation of regions, districts, clusters and precincts is not the result of a reimagination of the system. Power relations remain the same.

The case for reimagining is indicated by the performance of Australia’s students over the last twenty years. From a ranking in the top ten among nations in 2003, Australia’s performance has steadily declined in international tests of student achievement (Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] and Trends in Mathematics and Science Study [TIMSS]), despite large increases in funding by state and federal governments and the creation of national bodies such as the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and, more recently, the Australian Education Research Organization (AERO), along with their state/territory counterparts. Performance in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) has flatlined or declined, especially for boys, with some improvement in literacy in the early years, likely due to evidence-based reforms such as the adoption or return of phonics. Indicators of equity are a further cause for concern. The gap between high- and low-performing students has widened. There has been little improvement for Indigenous students. These trends suggest that what has transpired in recent decades constitutes one of the largest failures of public policy in Australia’s education history.

Some commentators have been reassured that there has not been an overall decline in NAPLAN scores after three years of the pandemic and long school lockdowns. What can be made of this finding when up to 20 percent of students did not take the tests? This is complacency at its worst, because there is an assumption that NAPLAN is fit for purpose, or at least has a high degree of validity, and that there has been a positive, sustaining impact of emergency actions by teachers and their colleagues. NAPLAN may not be sensitive to a drastic decline, unlike the US where results in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found that Year 8 achievement scores in mathematics had fallen to levels last reached two decades ago.² As in the US, large numbers of Australian students have not returned to public schools after the pandemic.

There is no local research on the impact of the best efforts of teachers who have worked remotely from their students for extended periods. Disturbingly, some may argue that schools, as traditionally configured, are not as influential as we thought they were, since achievement in NAPLAN has held up well, so the best emergency actions should be refined and made permanent, even at the primary (elementary) level, providing the critically important social and emotional needs of students are met.

If this is not enough, there is a crisis in teaching. States are struggling to find enough teachers and school leaders, and research suggests that most plan to, or would like to, leave the profession even though they find the work intrinsically satisfying, and despite the often-disheartening workload.³ There is a powerful case for reimagining the role of the teacher.

And what of students? It is likely that the following commentary on the US also applies to Australia: Many teenagers are sleepwalking through high school, and our high schools are sleepwalking through the twenty-first century. There’s a lot of talk about reimagining high schools, but very little transformative action.⁴ One example of action is a project of the XQ Institute, a private philanthropic organization (famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma is a member of its board) that has declared, This is the moment for all of us—policymakers, students, educators, families, and communities—to join together to create a vision and a plan for high school transformation.⁵

Affecting all is agility in respect to the adoption of new technologies that will enable teachers and students to keep up with the volatile and often unpredictable changes in the world of work. This takes us into the domains of unknown knowns, or even unknown unknowns.

The concepts of reimagination and transformation

Imagination should be positive and uplifting. It should also be never-ending, and that is why the idea of reimagination is important, especially if emotions have been dulled, scientific effort has stalled, deprivation is evident, and learning is impaired. But what is reimagination, and how is it related to transformation?

Reimagination was a term that made its appearance in the early twenty-first century with a high-profile book written by management expert Tom Peters under the title Re-imagine!⁶ He took aim at virtually every institution in the public and private sectors and singled out education as a prime target for reimagination. Writing of the United States, he declared that I despair of the education system more than any other part of our society.⁷ His reimagination of schools involved a change in image from the school as a factory, with a focus on units of mass production, to the school as a studio, with a focus on uniqueness and the needs and accomplishments of individuals. As far as pedagogy was concerned, he argued that teachers need enough time and flexibility to get to know kids as individuals . . . Teaching is about one and only one thing: Getting to know the child. Getting inside his or her psyche. Getting close enough to learn something about his or her learning trajectory.⁸ As far as curriculum was concerned, he believed there should be a school curriculum that values questions above answers . . . creativity above fact regurgitation . . . individuality above uniformity . . . and excellence above standardised performance.⁹ It is fair to say, two decades later, that the US and Australia fall short of what Peters had in mind.

Reimagination in action may result in transformation, which is a term often used but rarely defined. I have updated for the purposes of this book a definition that I have used consistently over nearly two decades: Transformation is significant, systematic and sustained change that secures, or has the evidence-based potential to secure, success for all students in all settings through integrated and aligned action in the major domains of school education. I have added the first set of italicised words to accommodate the findings of several international projects that have been concerned with innovation in schools. These projects focus on impact and, especially, scalability. I have added the second set to include reimagination of fundamental aspects of schools, including curriculum, pedagogy, technology, space and time. Configurations of these major domains constitute the design of the school. Transformation of school systems calls for the support of schools as they are re-designed to achieve these ends.

Finally, reimagining is similar to visioning, if the latter involves the creation of a mental image of a desired future. It seems that the vision thing, an expression usually attributed to former President George H. W. Bush, has fallen out of favour. The closest is re-envisioning, which is sometimes used in the same sentence as reimagining, as it was in the first paragraph of this chapter.

The gold standard

Singapore may provide the gold standard of reimagination in action—reimagining the nation and reimagining the school—and it warrants attention here as it serves as a benchmark. Addressing the National Day Rally in 2005, shortly after becoming Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, son of legendary founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, issued a challenge: What will Singapore be like forty years from now? I can’t tell you. Nobody can. But I can tell you it must be a totally different Singapore, because if it is the same Singapore as it is today, we’re dead. We will be irrelevant, marginalized; the world will be different. You may want to be the same, but you can’t be the same. Therefore, we have to remake Singapore—our economy, our education system, our mindsets, our city.¹⁰ Singapore was transformed within twenty years of Lee’s statement. A vibrant discussion will ensue if the reader replaces Singapore by Australia or Australia’s schools.

Later that year, the Ministry of Education in Singapore released Nurturing every child: Flexibility & diversity in Singapore schools, a policy that called for a more varied curriculum, a focus on learning rather than teaching, the creation of specialist schools and more autonomy for schools and teachers.¹¹

Singapore is a nation whose chief, if not sole, resource is its human resource. It realized there was a need to re-make the nation, and accepted that it must also re-make the school if it were to achieve that end. Prime Minister Lee expressed it this way in his contribution to a special edition of Newsweek on the theme of The Knowledge Revolution: Why victory will go to the smartest nations & companies: We are remaking ourselves into a key node in the global knowledge network, securing our place under the sun.¹² Singapore’s vision of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation captured the imagination of educators around the world when it was announced by former prime minister Goh Chok Tong at the Seventh International Conference