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As researchers call the value of homework into question, hear parents on both sides of the debate and meet the principal who's made homework optional: Central Coast Sports College's Paul Chapman.

While NAPLAN is under review in three states, 7.30 meets advocates and critics of the tests, amid a call to boycott the program, and proposed on-demand testing.

It's being described as a radical new experiment in education, the Catholic school that has done away with tests, grades and even year levels. St Luke's Catholic College is delivering a personalised curriculum for every student and it's all being delivered in a brand-new, open plan school with life coaches. But critics are questioning the radical approach to learning.

Liam Bartlett meets Sesame Street co-creator Lloyd Morrisett and the team behind the experiment to see if early childhood could be "disguised" entertainment, 50 years ago this year.

The recruitment of 15 highly paid executive principals tasked with improving the performance of schools in NSW with high proportions of Aboriginal students is starting to pay off in Tamworth. Hillvue Primary School executive principal Chris Shaw has the authority to choose his own staff and vary the curriculum, and the school's NAPLAN results and level of parent engagement have been transformed.

Macquarie University's Anne Castles and Signy Wegener explain the importance of introducing new terms when speaking to children, revealing that their research demonstrates for the first time an "intimate relationship between [spoken] vocabulary and reading ability".