One of the National Catholic Education Commission’s strategic priorities is to support the continual improvement of educational outcomes for all students in all Catholic schools.
As part of this strategic focus we are working, through greater collaboration within the Catholic education sector, to understand the national picture and share expertise across the country to better serve the needs of our students and teachers. Our ‘systemness’ is our greatest asset to share evaluated best practice and learn from each other in order to lift educational outcomes for all students in all schools.
As part of this work, we are leading a number of Mathematics projects.
The Mastery in Mathematics project has engaged Ochre Education to work collaboratively with around 40 expert secondary mathematics teachers in Catholic schools and our project working group representing a number of dioceses across Australia to develop a full year’s worth of Years 7 and 8 curriculum lessons and resources.
A national Mathematics working group was also created in 2022 comprising leaders in Mathematics education from all Catholic systems and representation from RI & MPJP schools. The focus of this working group is to identify, develop, evaluate successful practices in schools and systems that have resulted in above expected student learning outcomes in Mathematics. These practices will be shared with other Catholic schools and system as a model of evaluated best practice for consideration. Work has commenced on the development of learning and teaching resources and webinars to support schools in improving learning and teaching.
Other significant initiatives include:
- the development of a literacy advisory group to explore reading improvement in Catholic sector schools, and the production of a draft reading framework, Cognitive foundations: Using a theoretical framework for evidence-based reading instruction and assessment, that sets out an evidence-based framework for teaching and assessing reading
- research into secondary schools that have been performing well above expectation in geographical hubs.
The NCEC’s Educational Excellence Standing Committee, comprised of Australian and international experts in the field of education, supports this work and advises the Commission on leading excellence projects and initiatives.