Reading literacy test data: Benchmarking success?

Abstract

This article draws together literacy achievement data from across Australia, exposing demographic trends which, the authors argue, should bring into question current school-based literacy practices. Alloway and Gilbert attempt to show how competitive, individualistic discourses contribute to the perpetuating of pathological stereotypes of groups of children and their families. In moving the argument to new ground, they offer an alternative model for understanding literacy performance at school and encourage teachers to engage with the conceptually demanding work necessary in shifting results such as those outlined here.