The current state-based systems of secondary education in Australia are historically constructed on the belief that success at the end of school equates to the completion of the relevant leaving certificate (e.g. the High School Certificate (HSC) in NSW), and for students seeking university entry, an Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) [1] and is a system that is failing our diverse range of students.
In 2022, 214 students were awarded an IBPLC with 76 of these gaining entries to university. Like other Big Picture graduates who went before them, they are continuing a trajectory of interest and learning that began back in Year 9 or 10 at a Big Picture Learning school. Many come ready to begin tertiary study equipped with experiences of learning in the real world, strong support systems with a range of mentors and teachers, some specialist knowledge in their chosen field, and a set of independent learning skills that will allow them to thrive in the university setting.
In this article, we share the preliminary findings of a study of graduates of Big Picture Learning Australia secondary schools who have matriculated using the IBPLC.
1.1 Background
In Australia, Big Picture Learning Australia (BPLA), led by co-founders Viv White and John Hogan, has been operating since 2006 with over 45 schools in urban, regional and remote locations. It has worked from the bottom up, partnering with one school and principal at a time, negotiating with one educational system, and one university at a time, to transform the educational lives of many young people, often in our cities and regions’ most disadvantaged schools.
Recently, BPLA has come to the attention of reviews into Australian schooling such as the Gonski Report, the Shergold Review; and the NSW Curriculum Review led by Professor Geoff Masters of the Australian Council for Educational Research. BPLA partners with six of the seven State education systems, and 17 universities around Australia [2].
The tertiary education landscape has been changing significantly over recent years, with many institutions regarding the ATAR as no longer fit for purpose as a mechanism for predicting the success of prospective university candidates [3, 4]. Meanwhile the number of students using an ATAR to enter university has been steadily decreasing [3].
As a result, many universities have been broadening admissions pathways for school leavers to attract students who are a good ‘fit’ but may otherwise not apply to university, or who would have self-selected out of the secondary schooling system for reasons of disengagement, disadvantage, or anxiety around high-stakes exams [5, 6].
1.1.1 What is the Big Picture Learning Design?
The Big Picture Learning Design was first implemented in 1996, in the USA, when principals Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor co-founded a not-for-profit school known as ‘The Met’ in Providence, Rhode Island. Their aim was to catalyse vital changes in education by generating and sustaining student-led schooling where every student knew that they ‘mattered’ and were encouraged to explore as deeply or as broadly as they wished in areas of intense personal interest free from the constraints of traditional schooling.
In his book Leaving to Learn, Washor argues that current school structures impose narrow definitions of success and impede productive learning. As he explains:
“Dropout research identifies four big reasons many young people disengage from school, leave without a diploma, and rarely if ever return: academic failure, behavioural problems, life events, and disinterest. Our research indicates that beneath these big four reasons (and often off the researchers’ radar screens) are four deeper reasons: not mattering, not fitting in, overlooked talents and interests, and restrictions” [1].
The design is centred around students learning through their passions and interests and learning both in and out of school. Students do not have subjects, timetables, multiple teachers and classrooms, or exams.
Instead, they develop personal Learning Plans around their interests and connect their work to six rigorous Big Picture Learning Goals [2]:
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Empirical reasoning
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Quantitative reasoning
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Social reasoning
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Communication
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Personal qualities
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Knowing how to learn
The Goals broadly cover the key areas of the Australian Curriculum without being overly prescriptive or content-based.
Students regularly learn on internships with adult mentors in the community, to try out interests, gain some relevant skills and build their networks. They also do school electives, external courses, seminars or workshops that are connected to their passions and interests.
Every term they exhibit their learning to a panel of teachers, peers, family and mentors. This allows them to demonstrate their strengths and the depths of their knowledge built up over time.
A key aspect of the design is the Advisory, which consists of 17 students and 1 consistent teacher over time. Every student has their own personal working space and there is a common table for all. Students thrive from the sense of belonging, (sometimes for the first time in their school life), from being treated as young adults, and from exposure to each other’s diverse passions and interests.
The role of Advisor is that of a generalist teacher who guides students one by one, helps them to extend their ideas and research, provides feedback and support, connects them to people, resources and places related to their interests, and explicitly teaches them independent learning skills.
In the Senior Years, a key focus of students’ work is a Senior Project that involves sustained, in-depth and original work, often with the assistance of an academic mentor from a university, or a practitioner from an industry, trade or art.
With the opportunity to work in great depth in areas that interest and challenge them (as opposed to spreading themselves across multiple subjects), students often produce work that surpasses the levels usually seen at the secondary level, especially if their mentor is from a tertiary institution.
The advent of the IBPLC means that students have no need to sit state-based standardised exams and can now complete all their secondary schooling using the Big Picture learning design. Since 2020, graduates have been successfully transitioning to employment, training and university using this new pathway.
1.1.2 An Overview of the Changing Australian University Admissions Landscape
In 2011, secondary education and the holding of an ATAR was the prevailing entry pathway for over half of university students in Australia. In 2019, this admissions pathway had declined to 45%.
From 2011 to 2019, other means of entry started to increase in importance such as:
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higher education course transfers (from 22–24%)
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VET/TAFE qualifications (from 12–13%)
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alternative pathway entries such as pathway providers, enabling programs, access schemes, portfolio entry (from 9% in 2011 to 14% in 2019) [7].
In 2021, over 25,000 NSW students locked in their university placement via the early offer ‘school recommendation scheme’, which was an increase from 5,447 in 2014, further indicating the decline of the prevailing ATAR pathway [8].
Another indicator of the irrelevance and decline of the ATAR entry pathway is the use of predictive analysis (multiple data sources about student progression through school) which has demonstrated that a student’s Year 12 HSC score can be predicted within 93% accuracy by Year 11 [9]. This means that evidence drawn from student work and performance is more meaningful than high stakes standardised examinations.
Globally, countries like British Columbia and Canada use more relevant forms of final student assessments such as ‘real-world’ projects in secondary education, whilst Estonia replaces old traditional approaches to assessing with more relevant emphasis on skills (critical thinking, problem solving, entrepreneurship, digital skills and citizenship) employers are requiring [8].
BPLA’s IBPLC approach aligns with these more global relevant, innovative and authentic approaches to assessing student learning for their future as well as a more accurate analysis of a student’s ability matched to their choice of university course of study.
1.1.3 How did the non-ATAR pathway to university evolve?
The IBPLC had its genesis in the Graduation Portfolio entry to university program, which began in 2016. Students who had been thriving in Big Picture in Years 9 and 10, faced uncertainty in their senior years. If they wished to go to university, did this mean they needed to return to a traditional mode of education and receive an ATAR? Alternatively, could they continue learning in Big Picture, pursuing their interest deeply and complementing it with stints in the field or in academia with expert mentors, developing through practice and becoming ever more certain of the career they wished to pursue after school?
BPLA approached several Australian universities to see if they were interested in pioneering a new pathway to undergraduate degrees for Big Picture students who could demonstrate deep knowledge and commitment to a prospective course of study.
The University of Newcastle, led by Pro Vice Chancellor Professor John Fischetti (who was Dean of Education at the time) agreed to set up a pilot project. BPLA looked for a set of standards that could be used to map Big Picture graduates’ capacities, to give the universities confidence about the quality of its candidates. It was agreed that the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) was a useful reference.
The Graduation Portfolio with its specific elements (including a Senior Thesis, an Autobiography, and a Post School Plan) was developed in order to put a framework around the sort of work that students would need to produce as evidence of their abilities and tertiary readiness. This was to be presented to a panel at the university, accompanied by an interview with the student.
In 2017, the first three students from Hunter Sports High School in Newcastle gained entry to the University of Newcastle to study Business/Law, Physiotherapy and Biomedicine.
Then in 2019, BPLA concluded that this personalised approach to transitioning students to life beyond school needed to be scaled up to provide a warranted form of final-year certification that universities could trust and that would streamline the admissions process.
BPLA approached the Assessment Research Centre in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne for support in building a framework of assessment practices that would become a new secondary schooling credential. The result was the IBPLC.
1.1.4 About the IBPLC
The IBPLC is a new way of assessing and measuring what students know, can do and value. It is represented in an interactive digital transcript that accords equal attention to assessment results and to personalised elements including a student video profile, an online portfolio of student work, a biographical statement and photo, and a list of achievements and experiences [10, 11, 12].
In 2021, the Assessment Research Centre produced a report that indicated that the performance levels of the IBPLC more than met the standards set by equivalent or aligned skills in the Australian Core Skills Framework [13].
“... a consistent pattern of linkage is evident between the levels of attainment in the IBPLC and those of the ASCF, such that, for example, the standard of attainment of Level 2 on a Learning Goal of the IBPLC largely maps directly to Level 3 from the ACSF. Likewise, the standard of attainment of Level 3 on a Learning Goal of the IBPLC largely maps to the level 4 of the ACSF. Those who perform at level 5 on the IBPLC are performing at above level 5 on the ASCF” [13].
1.1.5 What tertiary courses of study have Big Picture graduates entered?
Big Picture graduates have entered a diverse range of courses, some common ones including Physiotherapy/Exercise Science, Primary Teaching and Early Childhood Education, Biomedical Science/Medicine, Nursing, Visual Communication/Design and Creative Arts [14].