Ending the ‘School Lesson Lottery’

Teachers are left to scour the internet and social media to find lesson content, exposing Australia’s school students to a damaging ‘lesson lottery’ because governments have dramatically underestimated how much support teachers need in creating lessons.

A Grattan Institute survey of 2243 teachers and school leaders across Australia, found that only 15 per cent of teachers have access to a common bank of high-quality curriculum materials for all their classes.

And teachers in disadvantaged schools are only half as likely to have access to a common bank as teachers in advantaged schools.

“Teachers tell us they often plan alone from scratch, searching social media to try to find lesson materials," says lead author and Grattan Institute Education Program Director Dr Jordana Hunter.

“This creates Australia's lesson lottery – it undermines student learning and adds to the workload of our overstretched teachers.”

According to the Grattan Institute, to overcome the lesson lottery teachers need system level support. Governments should invest in high-quality, comprehensive curriculum materials, and make them available for all teachers, whether in government, Catholic, or independent schools.

Second, governments should strengthen curriculum expertise in schools. Principals, curriculum leaders, and teachers need much more professional development to implement a high-quality, whole-school curriculum approach, and adapt teaching materials effectively for their schools and their students.

Third, governments should closely review curriculum planning in all schools, to track implementation on the ground and target more support to the schools that need it.

Having access to a common bank of high-quality curriculum materials for all subjects makes a big difference. Teachers say students are then almost twice as likely to consistently learn the same things, no matter which classroom they are in.

When teachers have access to a common bank of materials, they are almost four times more likely to say they are satisfied with their school’s planning approach. Teachers also save about three hours a week, because they don’t have to source and create materials themselves.

“Great teaching requires classroom instruction based on well-designed, knowledge-rich, and carefully sequenced lessons that build student knowledge and skills over time,” Dr Hunter says.

“Without a whole-school approach to curriculum planning, even the hardest-working teachers will struggle to give their students the best education.”

The Australian Curriculum and its state variants provide high-level direction only, leaving vast gaps for teachers to fill in.

Some schools are doing whole-school planning well. The Grattan Institute’s report profiles five role-model schools: Marsden Road Public School in south-west Sydney, Docklands Primary School in central Melbourne, Ballarat Clarendon College in regional Victoria, Aveley Secondary College in outer Perth, and Serpentine Primary School in a regional town near Perth. But these schools are the exception, not the rule.

Read the report Ending the lesson lottery: How to improve curriculum planning in schools

Image by Tatiana Аzatskaya