Chapter 5: The Numeracy Coaching Program: An Examination of the Program Impact from the Training Room into School Classrooms

The public perception of schooling in Australia is driven by a media resplendent with headlines reporting how the results of student assessment are becoming less competitive in comparison to the test performance of math students of other countries. This alarming perception is further supported by the Australian government’s establishment of a website (http://www.myschool.edu.au) where parents can find the performance of their child’s school in both numeracy and literacy. This also means parents can form favorable or odious perceptions/ comparisons with other schools, thus further opening the debate about the state of educational standards in mathematics in Australia. Like it or not, this is the level of public scrutiny that schools now receive, and they must continue to respond to the changing demands in student performance in mathematics. In terms of this dynamic, two fundamental questions are: 1) What are the facts that underlie the present state about Australian mathematics education, beyond the hysteria created by the press and policy makers? and 2) Is there a need for a fundamental change in the teaching and learning of mathematics in Australia?