It has been 15 years since the launch of NAPLAN standardised testing for Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 in Australia.  And while the test itself is not without controversy, the main trends in the nation’s students have been clear: numeracy is sound, reading has improved, writing has declined.  Such a downward trend in writing is a problem not only faced by Australian schools.  US school districts and colleges are reporting similar low performance.

Underneath big data, worrying trends are appearing.  Large scale studies of teachers in NSW suggest that many feel ill-equipped to teach writing.  Those in the teaching community report a lack of confidence to assess writing or in some instances, even give their students effective feedback.  At the level of the student, gaps are equally glaring.  As many as 20 per cent of Year 9 students no longer meet the minimum writing standard.  And there can be an almost two-year lag when comparing boys’ writing results against those of girls.

It was at this juncture that Writer’s Toolbox intervened.  Writer’s Toolbox is a cloud-based writing programme that employs Composition Theory, Discovery Learning, and advances in neuroscience to provide immediate feedback to students on writing of any genre.  A K-12 initiative, the intelligent AI inside Writer’s Toolbox has been programmed to teach a student how to be a better writer (not just gifting answers or writing the text for them).

The impact of this approach has now been tested in a four-year longitudinal study involving 71 Queensland schools and nearly 79,000 students.  The aim was to see if this approach to writing instruction—across an entire school system—could trigger change.  The initial results surprised even the research team.  Across every year level, NAPLAN writing improvement results were between double and ten times those achieved by the state of Queensland in the same period.  It did not matter if the school was a state school, private school, independent, single-sex or co-ed, inner-city or very remote, writing outcomes lifted.  And for boys in Year 9, this was especially true.  The rate of writing improvement among boys using Writer’s Toolbox was 9.6 times greater compared to the Queensland state average.

Additional benefits 

The use of the AI-driven writing programme also had some useful side benefits.  Schools involved in the study observed improvements in student self-expression and confidence.  Teachers reported greater ability in writing instruction, and due to higher levels of student engagement, confidence, and writing quality, teachers also spent less time marking. 

The work is not over 

The inability to express oneself clearly and powerfully is holding back too many Australian students from fully enjoying the educational and life goals they desire.  Using the best of what technology can offer, Writer’s Toolbox is steadfast in its mission to change this trend.