The fact that this excellent analysis by Dr Ridd remains unanswered by the educational establishment in Queensland is a worrying indication that education in Maths and Science is in a very sad condition in the Sunshine State.
For more than four decades Queensland as attempted some brave experiments in public education and assessment. The Queensland Board of Secondary Studies pioneered a radical model of school based assessment and interschool moderation of academic performance. While educators and administrators have been extremely self congratulatory about the system that has evolved the outcomes have received little if any independent systematic analysis or review. What is now clear is that the performance of pupils in Queensland has declined steadily and alarmingly since the radical innovations were introduced in 1972.This decline has been most alarming in Mathematics and Science
In the absence of systematic analysis it is not possible to say if this decline in standards has been caused by the changes introduced under the Queensland school based curriculum and assessment model. However what can be said, is that the Queensland model has not resulted in any improved academic performance in Maths and Science in Queensland. Clearly, from the data available from TIMSS, there has been no improvement!
One of the most alarming aspects of the Queensland model has been the very poor definition of exactly what should be learnt by candidates. The specification of content is and has been very inadequate compared with high performance jurisdictions such as New South Wales and Victoria.
John Ridd’s call for clarity in syllabus specification, greater transparency in the way the curriculum is communicated to all interested parties and higher standards of probity in assessment deserves a thoughtful response from QSA and those who are called to govern Queensland.
Sadly the experience of the past decades in Queensland is that those responsible are not prepared to respond with well reasoned answers. More alarmingly they are unlikely to even understand the questions.
It is time that Queensland took serious steps to address the alarming decline in education standards and to reject decades of poorly conceived educational experimentation.

Great article John. I know you don't need it, but here is a bit of reinforcement.

Careful there Ozandy once all the older ones go, you'll find none of those left have any math, even arithmetic, without a calculator. I am from a little before the boomers, but my math was way beyond any kid leaving high school today in Queensland.

My kids suffered through the dumbing down of everything. It is largely, but not exclusively due to the feminisation of our education system.

In general, girls don't do well at math & physics, [many are very good at chemistry], so by removing exams from these subjects girls did better. Bright idea! Remove exams from all subjects & low & behold, girls do better. In class assessment, & home assignments play to girls strengths. More of this, & girls do better.

The advantage the boys had, at handling the stress of exams better, & actually assimilating some knowledge throughout the year both gone at a single swipe.

Of course the fact is that you can't assess a teacher if there are no comparisons of outside testing. Wow, the schools are now really teacher, & girl friendly, pity about the kids not learning anything.

The fact that so many of our teachers could not actually pass an exam on the work they are supposed to be teaching doesn't help.

A case study from a large near city school.

Maths head of department, a good knowledgeable teacher, is a union delegate, missing 20% of the time. Deputy not bad, but struggles a bit with some senior math C. Gets promoted & moved.

Really good junior math & senior biology teacher is told he must teach senior math C. He says he can't even do the work, let alone teach it, & says no. He's told tough, do it anyway. He quits, & after some time labouring for a builder, he now teaches math at TAFE, to kids who did not get what they needed at school, & is very happy.
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He is teaching boys leaving year 12, after studying math A & B, & being passed above average by their teacher, without enough math to do an electrical apprenticeship. Many need remedial work for a carpenter’s apprenticeship.

When he went the school got a lady from the subcontinent to teach senior math. She has a bit of paper, but could not pass an exam on year 10 math if asked. The only kids who do reasonable well in math at the school are those who get outside coaching. I do mine to end of 11, but 2 of them have to spend Saturdays at a math/physics coaching class at QUT for year 12, as I am a bit rusty.

Very time consuming, & expensive, but the kids get what they need, & desired OPs. My eldest wanted to be a math/physics teacher. She reckoned with the shortage of good teachers she'd be a head of dept by 28. After getting stuffed around by a Gold Coast campus of a large university she said stuff this, they are not getting any more HEX out of me. She is now in management earning much more money than a HOD.

If we want to get any teachers to teach hard stuff, we are going to have to pay more money for such subjects, & improve the experience for kids like my daughter at universities.

Just like the schools, our universities are institutions run for the staff, & the students are an unfortunate interference in a pleasant day for most of them.