Cross sector leaders affirm need for disciplined innovation in schools

Leaders from schools, government, philanthropy and business came together this week for the SVA Education Dialogue, an annual event designed to galvanise action on educational disadvantage in Australia. The focus of this year’s event was how to enable great teaching in every classroom through evidence-informed practice.

Speakers from across Australia were joined by international guests who have led successful reform initiatives in Canada, the US and the UK. The line-up included:

  • The Hon. Adrian Piccoli, MP – NSW Minister for Education
  • Ian Narev – Chief Executive Officer, Commonwealth Bank
  • Margery Evans – CEO, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL)
  • Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young – Director, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)
  • Professor Sir George Berwick – CEO, Challenge Partners (UK)
  • Rod Allen – Superintendent of Learning, Cowichan Valley School District (Canada)
  • Michael Fullan –  Former dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  • Dr Sara Glover – Executive Director, Mitchell Institute

SVA’s Director of Education Matthew Deeble commented:

‘Despite increased spending on education in Australia, there has been no aggregate improvement in educational outcomes. Whilst the causes are complex and contested, proposed solutions are often not well informed by the evidence on what has worked to lift outcomes, particularly for students experiencing disadvantage.’

‘To change this we need to support teachers and schools leaders to better engage with evidence in their local contexts. This requires improving the conditions for better engagement with evidence, expanding the availability of scientific evidence in Australian education, through new funded research in schools, and enabling meaningful access to evidence, through resources like the Australian Teaching and Learning Toolkit.’

‘We need to shift the system in Australian education so that every school is a great school and there’s great teaching in every classroom.’

Dialogue events will be held across the week and include workshops for school leaders in NSW, Victoria and South Australia, as well as a full day conference in Sydney on Tuesday September 29.

The SVA Education Dialogue 2015 is generously supported by the Commonwealth Bank, the Australian Department of Education and Training, the Bryan Foundation and Microsoft as the technology partner.

SVA Education Dialogue