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UNE TamTalks: Education Edition

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Beyond The Headlines - The Truth About Student Achievement

Date: Wed Aug 26, 2026 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Location: UNE Tamworth
Contact: Haley Craig hcraig4@une.edu.au 67663860

Ask any interested person and they’ll tell you that Australian students’ school achievement is getting worse. Media reporting emphasises the negatives with annual stories of educational failure and decline. But is this really the whole story?

Australian schools are awash with educational assessment data. Along with the national testing program, NAPLAN, there are multiple international tests that students participate in, including the PISA tests of reading, mathematics and scientific literacy. All this data can tell us a lot about how students’ academic scores have changed over time.

In this presentation, Dr Sally Larsen, a senior lecturer in the School of Education, will uncover the real story about students academic achievements over the last 25 years. And the results might really surprise you.

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The University of New England respects and acknowledges that its people, courses and facilities are built on land, and surrounded by a sense of belonging, both ancient and contemporary, of the world's oldest living culture. In doing so, UNE values and respects Indigenous knowledge systems as a vital part of the knowledge capital of Australia. We recognise the strength, resilience and capacity of the Aboriginal community and pay our respects to the Elders past, present and future.