Improving Educational Outcomes in the Northern Territory : preliminary advice to the Northern Territory Department of Education and Training, with a particular focus on the ongoing improvement of students’ literacy and numeracy achievements

The primary focus of this review is on strategies for improving literacy and numeracy outcomes in the Northern Territory. Clearly, the role of school education is much broader than the development of students literacy and numeracy skills, but these are foundational skills on which almost all other school learning is based. It is also clear from research that low levels of literacy and numeracy by the middle years of school are associated with lower school completion rates and a range of post-school outcomes, including higher levels of unemployment, lower lifetime earnings, and poorer health outcomes. Although the primary focus of the review is on literacy and numeracy, many of the underlying strategies and principles discussed in this report apply equally to other areas of school learning.