The Impact

Our ability to measure outcomes, impact and showcase the benefits of the Catalyst program for our teachers and students has been critical through the implementation to ensure success. As such, CECG engaged Deloitte Access Economics (DAE) as an external, objective evaluator to monitor and evaluate the program during the initial implementation period.  

The DAE evaluation of the approach sought to first understand a baseline analysis of system performance pre-Catalyst and then to establish an understanding of how Catalyst had been introduced and put into practice. From this understanding, DAE have published their findings on progress made over the course of the three-year implementation period, with an early assessment of the impact of Catalyst across the system. 

Read the report

Commencing in 2020, Catholic Education Canberra & Goulburn (CECG) launched Catalyst by implementing evidence-based teaching practice in every school in the Archdiocese. In less than three years, 56 schools, 1,700 teachers and over 21,000 students have engaged in the Catalyst journey in some way.

Explore our findings from the first three years of program implementation, and what’s next for Catalyst.

Reads the report

In 2021, we first introduced the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills 8th Edition (DIBELS) to monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills in K-2. With additional reading based assessments, we can access more reliable data to inform our baseline level of reading across year levels and inform our teaching practices to support students’ individual learning needs.

In the coming years, we will continue to use these assessment measures to track improvement in reading outcomes.

NAPLAN achievement data highlights the positive impact of the Catalyst program across the Archdiocese. Between 2019 and 2022, CECG achieved the largest improvement in Year 3 and 5 Reading and Numeracy among large Dioceses in Australia, relative to the National Average. This progress continued in 2023, with Year 3 and 5 students exceeding national averages in both areas. CECG now ranks among the top four Dioceses for improvement in 9 of the 10 NAPLAN domains, standing out as a significant improver from the 2019 to 2023 National Average.