An organisation that is in opposition to the developments for teaching and teacher-training, and assessing systematic phonics, in Australia has been founded - I suspect this thread will grow over time as the battle continues for evidence-informed reading instruction in Australia:
Foundation for Learning and Literacy
https://foundationforlearningandliterac ... uchstones/
FOUNDATION TOUCHSTONES
Alice Springs Education (Mparntwe) Declaration:
Education plays a vital role in promoting the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians, and in ensuring the nation’s ongoing economic prosperity and social cohesion. They need to deal with information abundance, and navigate questions of trust and authenticity. They need flexibility, resilience, creativity, and the ability and drive to keep on learning throughout their lives. (Education Council, 2019, p.3)
The Foundation for Learning and Literacy supports the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration. We are particularly concerned with the role literacy plays in ensuring our children become compassionate, confident, competent and creative citizens in an increasingly complex world. Literacy is about making and communicating meaning. It is a powerful, wide-ranging life skill that includes the traditional notions of speaking, reading and writing as well as new kinds of communication that continue to arrive with new technologies.
The Foundation provides information about relevant research and classroom practices that establishes an evidence base for effective literacy teaching and learning. Our aim is to support teachers and parents who work everyday with children to give them the power, the joy and the skills of reading and writing. The Foundation’s resources will also be of interest to anyone concerned with educational policy making, including politicians, business and the media.
The following touchstones for effective literacy teaching and learning are supported by research, and classroom success. To read more about the research evidence base, or see examples of classroom practice which exemplify each touchstone, have a look around this site.