Cirrus@Austlit

'In recent years, the media coverage of Australian schools has focused on a number of overlapping crises: a staff retention crisis (up to 50 per cent of teachers leave the profession within five years); a student disengagement crisis (a 2012study found that 60 per cent of South Australian high school students were disengaged from learning); a behaviour crisis (according to the OECD, Australian classrooms are among the least disciplined in the developed world) and an achievement crisis (on the PISA ratings, Australia’s maths, reading and science scores are all in steady decline). Each fall in the rankings has prompted another round of hand-wringing, but the problem continues to worsen.' (Introduction)