Monday 31 July 2006

Tuesday 1 August

Wednesday 2 August

Thursday 3 August

Friday 4 August

Saturday - Sunday, 5 - 6 August

Monday 31 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers plan new round in OBE brawl (page 6)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    

    Education lobby group warns 'it will be the end of the Carpenter Government' if teaching system goes ahead

    
    
    "Teachers are preparing for a new battle with the State Government over outcomes-based education, saying the Curriculum Council is still ignoring serious concerns with assessment and course content.
    
    "Despite several clarification documents from the Curriculum Council and information sessions last week, many teachers say they are still confused and wary about what will be expected of them in 2008.
    
    "The Curriculum Council is reviewing the content of each course and has promised to finish doing so by the end of this year. It has told teachers it is listening to their concerns and collating feedback.
    
    "Teachers of 13 courses aligned to current TEE subjects got a partial reprieve last month after the planned implementation of the courses next year was effectively delayed. While the courses will carry new names, teachers have been told to use the TEE course they are now teaching.
    
    "But teachers' group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes said the council had given every indication that it would be full steam ahead for OBE courses in 2008.
    
    "PLATO president Greg Williams said that from the scant information available, little had changed. Though teachers had been promised they could use marks as well as levels to assess students, it appeared that levels still would be essential to calculate students' scores for university entrance.
    
    "Mr Williams said PLATO would continue its campaign. "It will be the end of the Carpenter Government if they let (OBE) go ahead," he said.
    
    "Private school senior physics teacher Robert Higgins said the public could be forgiven for thinking all problems had been resolved, but it had simply been a stay of execution.
    
    "They are trying to tell us that what they have not been able to deal with in six years now is going to be fixed by Christmas," he said.
    
    "He said parents with children now in Year 9 were "at dire risk of exposure to this rubbish."
    
    "The entire group of some 100 teachers at the professional development that I attended were still angry and frustrated and many of us are still uncertain about what is happening after next year," he said.
    
    "But Science Teachers Association president Julie Weber – a State school head of department and staunch OBE supporter – said teachers had got an extra year and more support to prepare for the changes. The association had government funding to write material for physics and chemistry courses."
    
    Full story in The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Curriculum head pulls out of race for top job (page 6)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The beleaguered Curriculum Council is to get its fourth chief executive in 12 months after the present acting head announced he no longer wants the job permanently.
    
    "David Axworthy, who has battled widespread opposition to the implementation of outcomes-based education to Years 11 and 12 since he took on the role last December, said he was withdrawing from the selection process because of family issues.
    
    "He will stay on until a new appointment is made and assist in a handover.
    
    "The West Australian understands the frontrunner for the job is Sevenoaks Senior College principal David Wood, who is also treasurer of the Science Teachers Association and a former curriculum policy officer. Mr Wood declined to comment yesterday.
    
    "Mr Axworthy said an "unfairly intrusive" report in The West Australian last week and other events had brought forward the need to advise council staff of his decision by email from Hobart, where he was attending a conference.
    
    "Please be aware that a recent medical diagnosis for a member of my family made it imperative my private life takes precedence right now and I would not be in a position to juggle the heavy demands for a Curriculum Council chief executive officer," he said.
    
    "He congratulated staff on taking up the challenge of change "with all the extra work that has arisen from the agreements to modify and refine the new courses and the implementation process so the transition is more comfortable for teachers.
    
    "Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich said she was disappointed that Mr Axworthy had withdrawn.
    
    "David took on the role at a very difficult time and I have been impressed by his professionalism, dedication and leadership of the Curriculum Council," she said. "David has been instrumental in listening to, and acting on, the concerns of teachers during the implementation of the courses of study."
    
    "Ms Ravlich did not say when a new appointment would be made.
    
    "Norma Jeffery, the last permanent chief executive, was controversially moved aside last August after criticism of OBE. Her replacement, Greg Robson, quit to take up a job at the South Australian Education Department."
    
    
    Full story in The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Monday Education section always has something interesting [not yet online as of 1 am]
    
    

  This one seemed to merit special attention: it sounds so familiar...   Web-2
  

  • Solving the learning puzzle
    by Christopher Bantick
    
    "The new school curriculum may create better learners, but it has proved a riddle teachers and parents are yet to decipher.

    "A LACK of time has seen some schools struggling to implement Victoria's new school curriculum, leading to staff stress and the risk of goodwill being eroded, union and principal groups say.

    "This has been the experience of Steve Higham, deputy principal of curriculum for years 7-9 at MacKillop College in Werribee.

    "In the VELS documentation, support is really given lip service. I feel like I've got 2000 pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in front of me. I need to feel confident that I can feed this back to my staff," he says. "But when I do not have the time to put the VELS pieces together, then this makes it difficult..."
    
    "So what is VELS?

    "In releasing the Blueprint for Government Schools in November 2003, Education Minister Lynne Kosky established the broad guidelines for what has become known as VELS. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority was then charged to create a framework for what were deemed essential learnings for all schools. The new curriculum would not compromise on standards but enhance them while promoting flexibility in their delivery..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Planning a career as a witch? Go to uni
    by Harriet Alexander and Anna Patty
    
    "Universities are offering courses in computer games and witchcraft in a growing competition for student enrolments.

    "The University of Sydney will introduce a combined medicine and music degree, said Merrilyn Walton, of the university's office of Teaching and Learning in Medicine.

    "Southern Cross University has introduced a diploma in surfing studies, which turns away almost as many students as it accepts.

    "Universities struggling financially are particularly feeling the pressure to compete for students. The University of Newcastle, which finished 2005 with an operating deficit of $7.3 million, offers courses in magic and witchcraft as part of its liberal arts degree..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

  
  © The Sydney Morning Herald
  

• American Federation of Teachers
  Press Release (20 July 2006)

  
  AFT Report: Many State K-12 Tests Don't Align With Strong Content Standards
  
  Results of Unaligned Tests Often Lead to Inaccurate Judgments about School Performance
  
  "BOSTON—According to a new report on statewide testing released today by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), most states have made progress in developing clear grade-by-grade standards, but many have not aligned their high-stakes math, reading and science tests with a strong set of content standards, which leads to a distorted picture of how students, schools and teachers are performing..."
  
  Full report at http://www.aft.org/presscenter/releases/2006/smarttesting/index.htm
  
  

• The Guardian [30 July their time]
  
  
  • US child expert quits Britain over 'hidden crisis' in special needs
    by Anushka Asthana
    
    "An Observer story triggered an NHS doctor's decision to speak out on discrimination against vulnerable pupils - and to return home early.
    
    'It was always my intention eventually to return home to the United States, but I'm going years early because in all conscience I can no longer participate in a corrupt and dysfunctional system that is dishonest in its treatment and management of children with special needs.'

    "Janis Newcomen throws her hands in the air in exasperation. She is part of a system that is supposed to provide for the needs of Britain's most vulnerable children, those with conditions such as autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and severe learning difficulties. But she has had enough.

    "In seven years as an NHS neuropsychologist, Newcomen has been so disgusted and upset by what she has seen that she is packing her bags and walking away. She says she can no longer bear to watch children and their families let down again and again. As a specialist who is supposed to provide help she says that she feels 'handcuffed', forced to accept hidden waiting lists, discrimination and constant cost cutting. She says she is officially prevented from making recommendations that could safeguard children's futures.

    "The system is in crisis,' she said. 'But it is like the emperor's new clothes - nobody is willing to tell the truth...."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1833463,00.html
    
    
    

• The Telegraph (UK)
  
  

  • The ear, the eye and an open mind

    Tom Burkard, inventor of the Sound Foundation system, believes that phonetics holds the key to teaching dyslexics to read
    
    "I was one of the lucky ones. Within weeks of discovering that my son, who was six-and-half, couldn't read a word, I spotted an article in The Daily Telegraph about Mona McNee, the doughty phonics campaigner.
    
    "After listening to Arthur's teacher explain how children supposedly learnt to read just by looking at words and guessing, I found Mona's common-sense approach a welcome relief. We took Arthur to see her once a week, and she gave us lessons to use at home after school. Six months later, he was way ahead of the rest of his class.

    "Once Arthur had learnt to read, we started the Promethean Trust, a charity devoted to helping parents teach their own children to make sense of the alphabet. In the past 15 years, I have talked to thousands of distraught parents. Almost invariably, the first question they ask is: "How can I tell if my child is dyslexic?" They mistakenly assume that a diagnosis of dyslexia will open doors, and that their children will get help from trained specialists.

    "Unfortunately, the dyslexia lobby, which deserves credit for promoting the understanding that poor readers aren't lazy or stupid, has also created the impression that dyslexics are "special", learn differently and need special treatment. This simply isn't so. The kind of teaching that works best with dyslexic children works best with all children. They just need a lot more of it.

    "In the future, as schools take on board the kind of synthetic phonics teaching that Mona used with my son - identifying and synthesing the sounds in words - we will wonder why learning to read was ever considered a problem. Unfortunately, many heads of infant schools did their training back in the days when phonics of any kind was considered a form of child abuse, so it will be some time before all parents are spared the ordeal of coping with illiterate offspring.

    "In the meantime, your safest option is DIY. No one else cares about your child as much as you do. Do not be tempted to write a large cheque to anyone offering a "miracle cure". There is little, if any, independent research to demonstrate that exercises or meditation help children learn to read. On the other hand, there is a very substantial body of research demonstrating the effectiveness of synthetic phonics..."
    
    Full story in The Telegraph at link
    
    

• The New York Times
  
  
  • A Language to Air News of America to the World
    by Holli Chmela
    
    "WASHINGTON — Voice of America, the government-sponsored news organization that has been on the air since 1942, broadcasts in 44 different languages — 45 if you count Special English.
    
    "Special English was developed nearly 50 years ago as a radio experiment to spread American news and cultural information to people outside the United States who have no knowledge of English or whose knowledge is limited.

    "Using a 1,500-word vocabulary and short, simple phrases without the idioms and clichés of colloquial English, broadcasters speak at about two-thirds the speed of conversational English. But far from sounding like a record played at the wrong speed, Special English is a complicated skill that takes months of training with a professional voice coach who teaches how to breathe properly and enunciate clearly..."
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link [May require free registration]
    
    
    

Tuesday 1 August

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teacher anger at Catholic school pay bid (page 13)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Catholic school teachers could resort to industrial action within two weeks after their employer issued a take-it or leave-it ultimatum on a new pay offer.
    
    "The Catholic Education Office has offered staff in Catholic schools a collective enterprise bargaining agreement that matches a salary agreement recently accepted by State school teachers.
    
    "Teachers had until today to accept the offer or they would not get the first 2.5 per cent salary increase which public school teachers are getting from today.
    
    "The Independent Education Union, which represents Catholic teachers and some non-teaching staff, said the Catholic Education Office should let the pay rise go ahead automatically before sitting down at the negotiation table to thrash out other issues such as class sizes and workloads.
    
    "IEU secretary Theresa Howe said teachers were angry they were given just six working days after the school holidays to decide on the offer. "The Catholic Education Office is the one saying this money is on the table but you can only have it when you agree to what we've offered," she said. "That's not good faith bargaining."
    
    The union is giving the employer two weeks to agree to remove that penalty and start negotiations. "If the Catholic Education Office doesn't agree to that then there will be industrial action," she said.
    
    "That could include banning before and after-school activities and possibly boycotting classes.
    
    "The teachers wanted a pay increase of 9.5 per cent in one year to put them at the same pay level as NSW teachers. Ms Howe said the Catholic Education Office had offered teachers up to 12.7 per cent over two years.
    
    "Catholic Education Office assistant director Terry Wilson confirmed that teachers would not get their 2.5 per cent pay rise until an agreement was reached.
    
    "He said the last time it made an in-principle agreement and allowed several pay rises to go ahead, it took 20 months to complete the rest of the agreement. "We decided we were not going to do that again," he said. "It just left us in limbo, having handed everything over." [I thought the Church had abandoned the concept of limbo.   Web]
    
    "Mr WIlson said it had offered exactly the same terms to teachers as the Government was offering. "For the last 20 years we have tried to match Government school rates and we are continuing to do that under this agreement," he said.
    
    
    
    
  • Bishop refuses to act on low university entry limits (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has refused to say how low university entrance scores should be allowed to fall before she will act to safeguard taxpayers' money by withdrawing funding for university places.
    
    "Ms Bishop said yesterday that although she was concerned about any drop in standards, it was not up to her to set university entrance requirements.
    
    "Edith Cowan University announced last week it would drop its minimum tertiary entrance ranking to a new low, with students needing a TER of 55, down from 65, to get into the institution next year.
    
    "Based on this year's entrance formula, a TER of 55 could have been achieved by averaging just 42 per cent across all subjects.
    
    "Although she was concerned that accepting students with such low scores could be setting them up to fail, Ms Bishop refused to say what she considered would be an acceptable minimum entry requirement.
    
    "I am not going to dictate to universities the minutiae of what they do in terms of entry scores," she said.
    
    "The Government doesn't micromanage the business of the universities. It is up to the universities to set those assessments of competence. It's up to me to protect the taxpayer funding that goes to universities.
    
    "Universities must be responsible for assessment of competence, universities must ensure that they get students that are able to complete their course," she said.
    
    "However, she said that ECU and other universities might have to hand back some federally funded student places if the only way they could fill them was by dropping entrance requirements. "I don't want to see universities dropping their entry scores in order to fill places so they don't have to account to the Government for them," she said." [That seems to contradict what she said a few paragraphs ago.   Web]
    
    "Under the new legislation, universities that do not fill their Commonwealth-funded places by the end of this year must hand them back to the Government. This is the first year that legislation will be in force. Ms Bishop said she was giving vice-chancellors six months to negotiate.
    
    "Last week, ECU vice-chancellor Kerry Cox agreed that businesses might look at graduates from other universities first because of the perception that the quality of ECU graduates was lower."
    
    Full stories in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Spelling fad cost kids 14pc drop in results
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Dumping 1970s methods of teaching spelling, which included primers and graded workbooks, in favour of the "whole language" method caused primary school students' reading scores to fall about 14 per cent over 15 years.

    "Despite a move back to teaching phonics and devoting more time to spelling, students are yet to catch up to their peers of 30 years ago.

    "A study of spelling scores among South Australian school students over 26 years showed the need for the direct teaching and testing of spelling skills, and the inclusion of phonics in teaching children to read, write and spell.

    "South Australia was the most ardent of the states in rejecting the need for the direct teaching of spelling and teachers were discouraged from teaching phonics in the 1980s and 1990s.

    "Phonics is the understanding of the sounds that make up words, while whole language teaching believes students will "catch" spelling and reading through their daily exposure to books and writing.

    "The study, published in The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist, analysed the results of three large-scale studies of spelling tests sat by more than 40,000 South Australian students aged six to 15 in 1978, 1993 and 2004.

    "The biggest difference was among children aged 7 1/2.

    "Between 1993 and 1978, their scores fell about 14 per cent.

    "The difference at 6 1/2, seven and eight fell between 10 and 14 per cent.

    "Study authors, Peter Westwood of the University of Hong Kong and Kerry Bissaker of Flinders University, said the most plausible explanation for the fall was that less attention had been given to the direct teaching and testing of spelling skills.

    "This was because of the implementation of "whole language" philosophy.

    "The traditional teacher-directed methods of the 1970s based on the use of graded primers or workbooks was rejected in the 1980s for "a freer and more developmental or child-centred approach", the study said.

    "While teachers are increasingly embracing a more systematic approach that combines the best of whole language principles with explicit instruction in literacy, students in 2004 were still behind their 1978 peers."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Parents blamed for fat kids
    by Michelle Wiese Bockmann
    
    "Parents packing the school lunch box - not fast-food outlets or tuckshops - are most to blame for allowing their children to get fat.

    "Peter Clifton, who co-wrote the worldwide best-selling CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet, laid responsibility yesterday for the nation's childhood obesity epidemic on parents and what they fed their kids.

    "He singled out the school lunch box and the sugar-laden drinks and high-fat snacks that children were eating at home..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

    
    

• Sydney Daily Telegraph
  

• Report card reshuffle
  by Bruce McDougall
  
  "The Iemma Government has been forced to make major changes to new-style school reports grading students on their academic performance.
  In the face of fierce opposition from thousands of teachers and educators, the controversial A to E grades will be dropped for Year 1 and Year 2 students in every subject except literacy and numeracy.
  
  

"Premier Morris Iemma has personally championed the new reports, which will grade children as young as six on their performance in class.

"Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt said yesterday the decision was based on advice from the Board of Studies and followed "ongoing consultations with parents, principals and teachers".

"The NSW Board of Studies has advised that for Years 1 and 2, A to E grading should only be applied to English and maths," she said.

"For Years 1 and 2 students the majority of their class time is devoted to developing their literacy and numeracy skills.

"Other than in the areas of numeracy and literacy, the Board of Studies has also been unable to find sufficiently diverse work samples to provide teachers with the necessary grading guide.

"A student's achievement in other subject areas will be advised through a written comment from their teacher.

"For Years 3 and above, the Board of Studies has advised it would be able to find sufficient work samples to differentiate the five grades across all subject areas."

"But the reports due to be sent out to the families of 430,000 students by the end of this year have hit yet another setback.

"The Daily Telegraph has learned the department has abandoned software vital for teachers to implement the new report format.

"An email to schools states: "It is with regret that at this short notice I must inform you of the cancellation of the (School-based Student Report) software workshops which have been scheduled . . . this term."

"A concerted campaign led by the Teachers' Federation aims to get the grades dropped completely – or at least delayed – until next year.

"Teachers claim grades will brand young children as failures and are educationally unsound.

"Federation vice-president Angelo Gavrielatos said the changes were a step in the right direction – but did not go far enough.

"No matter how it is dressed up, an A-E grade is nothing short of labelling," he said. "While it may recognise success, it reinforces failure."

Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link



• The New York Times
  
  
  • Evolution’s Backers in Kansas Mount a Counterattack
    by Ralph Blumenthal
    
    "KANSAS CITY, Kan.— God and Charles Darwin are not on the primary ballot in Kansas on Tuesday, but once again a contentious schools election has religion and science at odds in a state that has restaged a three-quarter-century battle over the teaching of evolution.
    
    "Less than a year after a conservative Republican majority on the State Board of Education adopted rules for teaching science containing one of the broadest challenges in the nation to Darwin’s theory of evolution, moderate Republicans and Democrats are mounting a fierce counterattack. They want to retake power and switch the standards back to what they call conventional science..."
    
    Full story in The New York TImes at link [Free registration may be required.]
    
    
    

Wednesday 2 August

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Report card stance risks school funding
    by Anna Patty Education Editor
    
    "The State Government risks losing federal funding if it fails to deliver A to E grades to year 1 and 2 pupils for all subjects in new school report cards.

    "The Minister for Education, Carmel Tebbutt, wants to abolish the controversial system for all subjects other than literacy and numeracy in years 1 and 2 because of difficulties in measuring outcomes in the other subjects.

    "Ms Tebbutt said the NSW Board of Studies had been unable to find "sufficiently diverse work samples to provide teachers with the necessary grading guide".

    "Teachers argue that A to E grades for English and maths should also be abolished for young students on the same ground.

    "Yesterday the Board of Studies had not provided teachers with samples of grades A, B and E in literacy for years 1 and 2. And no work samples for a grade A and E in maths were available.

    "Wendy Currie, from the NSW Teachers Federation, said teachers had not had sufficient guidance on how to grade year 1 and 2 literacy and numeracy results on the A to E scale.

    "Until there are work samples, teachers are at a bit of a loss as to what to give an A to," she said.

    "A Board of Studies spokeswoman said the number of work samples for year 1 English grades would increase from six to 19 overnight as part of a monthly update. The maths work samples would increase from six to 32.

    "Dr Brian Croke, from the Catholic Education Commission, said all Catholic schools had completed their first half-year reports using A to E grades, as required by the state and federal governments.

    "While the NSW Government has now modified its requirement for years 1 and 2, it is not clear that the Commonwealth will follow the NSW lead, so schools still face uncertainty about how to treat students in years 1 and 2," he said.

    "The Federal Government has rejected a submission from the South Australian Government to exempt years 1 and 2 from the A to E grading system.

    "The federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, said yesterday she would not change the requirements for younger students. It was a condition of funding that all schools provide parents with reports twice a year with A to E grades for all subjects.

    "Ms Bishop said she would consider this week whether the NSW Government's proposal breached the funding agreement."

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Libs to scrap reports
    
    "The chaos surrounding planned new school reports which grade students on academic performance deepened yesterday as the NSW Liberal Party and the Howard Government split over the issue.
    
    "Opposition education spokesman Brad Hazzard indicated a Coalition government would dump the new reports.

    "The stance could threaten tens of millions of dollars in funding to NSW that the Commonwealth has made conditional on the reports being introduced by the end of this year.

    "Mr Hazzard said the A to E reports must be scrapped because they were counterproductive and labelled children as failures.

    "The whole system should simply be dumped . . . it's a dithering (NSW) Government that has got it completely wrong," he said.

    "They didn't listen to teachers, they didn't listen to parents, they didn't listen to the Coalition."

    "A spokesman for Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop conceded the issue had produced the "unusual situation of a State Labor Government aligning with the Federal Government".

    "As the the reports row deepened, 170,000 primary students yesterday sat the Basic Skills Test on writing. The Year 3 and Year 5 students will sit exams on literacy and numeracy tomorrow."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Prospective teachers may need higher English scores
    by Chee Chee Leung
    
    "Prospective teachers could be required to achieve higher marks in year 12 English under a proposal aimed at improving the quality of applicants for teacher training.

    "But education deans and a parents group have questioned the need for change, with one education expert warning it could exacerbate the teacher shortage "crisis".

    "A Victorian Institute of Teaching discussion paper says applicants for undergraduate teacher education degrees should achieve a study score of at least 30 out of 50 in VCE English.

    "Current year 12 students who want to study teaching next year are required by most universities to have a minimum English score of 25. Two universities have set their English prerequisite at 20.

    "Institute chief executive Andrew Ius said there was already a high demand for university teacher education places, and it was not expected the proposed change would reduce demand.

    "It's just saying that we have some expectations about the calibre of people that should come into teaching," he said.

    "But Professor Sue Willis, dean of education at Monash University, said raising the English requirement to 30 could lead to applicants with strong skills in other areas missing out on university offers.

    "If we were prevented from taking people into maths, science and technology education because they didn't have a study score of 30 for English, that could increase the crisis in providing enough teachers in Victorian schools," Professor Willis said..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    

  • Union seek caveats on schools plan
    by Chee Chee Leung
    
    "Victoria's teachers union has moved to ease concern about its support for private funding of school buildings, releasing a list of conditions it says will protect public schools from privatisation.

    "In a document sent to members this week, the Australian Education Union's Victorian branch said public-private partnerships should only be used for the building and maintenance of new schools, and not the refurbishing of existing schools.

    "The resolution, from the joint primary and secondary council, also said schools must have complete control over the use of the facilities, and a private consortium should have no role in curriculum, staffing or daily school operations.

    "If (the) Government is going to go this way … this is our list of demands," said the union's state president, Mary Bluett. "It's all focused on ensuring that it's not semi-privatisation of public education, but that for all intents and purposes, it's effectively as it is today."

    "Victorian Education Minister Lynne Kosky has previously stated she was keen to investigate public-private partnerships and other strategies to reduce building costs, but said the partnerships would not bring the same financial benefits in Victoria as in other states and Britain.

    "Teachers unions have historically opposed the partnerships, but last month Ms Bluett said Victoria's public school infrastructure had deteriorated to the point that "we must be prepared to look at an appropriate form of PPPs as part of the solution".

    "Her comments sparked concern among some of the union's 33,000 members. At the union's annual conference last month, a group of members unsuccessfully attempted to suspend standing orders to discuss the partnerships..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

    
    
    
• The Australian Higher Education Supplement
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Popular scholarship
    Theoretical language is needed for scholarly understanding of everyday life, write Amanda Wise and Selvaraj Velayutham
    
    "In her opinion piece "Left out of debate by convoluted speaking", published in The Australian on July 28, Emma Dawson expressed concern at the theoretical language (or gobbledygook, as she called it) employed in a call for papers for the conference on Everyday Multiculturalism we are convening at Macquarie University in Sydney.

    "Although she says she defends the right of humanities and social sciences scholars to use and debate theory, it is Dawson's view that a conference on a topic of national importance such as multiculturalism should be accessible to the general public. What the article fails to register is that research into the everyday dimensions of cultural diversity is a specialised field of inquiry within disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and cultural studies..."
    
    "Amanda Wise and Selvaraj Velayutham are research fellows at the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University, and conveners of the Everyday Multiculturalism conference..."
    
    Full story in The Australian Higher Education Supplement at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Degrees of separation
    Labor's quality assurance plan may provoke outrage but is better than the alternatives, writes Gavin Moodie
    
    "Ian Young, the vice-chancellor of Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology, has said his "blood ran cold" at the suggestion of minimum national standards for university degrees.

    "Young's view would be shared by many vice-chancellors, even though the federal and state governments have extensively deregulated higher education over the past decade and have just agreed to deregulate it further over the next half-decade.

    "Bachelor degrees are offered by TAFE institutes, private universities and private for-profit and not-for-profit higher education providers, as well as by public universities throughout Australia and at several sites overseas.

    "Most degrees are still taught by research-engaged staff at recognisable campuses with full libraries, laboratories and other educational facilities.

    "But many others are taught by staff who have never conducted research, at sites whose "library" is a computer lab and where the academic culture is provided by a few hundred undergraduate students and their contract teachers. It is fiction to maintain that all these degrees meet appropriate minimum standards.

    "The failure of Australian governments to index university grants fully for cost increases has put many universities under considerable financial pressure. They have responded by increasing teaching loads, increasing casual teaching staff and cutting library acquisitions and other costs. It is wishful to imagine that this hasn't lowered educational provision at many campuses..."
    
    Gavin Moodie is a higher education policy analyst at Griffith University who writes regularly for the HES.
    
    Full story in The Australian Higher Education Supplement at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Literacy lies on and off campus
    Academic-speak in Australia is relatively comprehensible, writes Elspeth Probyn
    
    "I'm reading a quite unreadable book at the moment. Completely without irony, its title is The Way We Argue Now. The subtitle places it within a largely American frame: A Study of the Cultures of Theory (Princeton University Press, 2006). Author Amanda Anderson is a professor of English literature at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, specialising in Victorian literature.

    "Increasingly the mention of theory makes me cringe.

    "This is how Anderson places the stakes of her argument: "As a result of post-structuralism's insistence on the form of finitude that limits individual agency, and multiculturalism's insistence on the primacy of ascribed group identity, the concept of critical distance has been seriously discredited, even as it necessarily informs many of the accounts that announce its bankruptcy."

    "Yes, it's a mouthful. I'm increasingly irritated by the use of blanket terms such as post-structuralism, multiculturalism and even theory as empty categories wielded as if their meanings were commonsensical. To whom and what is she referring? The language of her argument is clearly arduous. But, of course, many would say that, given my background in cultural studies, I'm calling the kettle black..."
    
    Elspeth Probyn is professor of gender studies at the University of Sydney.
    
    Full story in The Australian Higher Education Supplement at link
    
    
    Other stories in The Higher Education Supplement
    
    
    
    

• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Iemma warns Stanhope on schools
    by Markus Mannheim and Paul Maley
    

    "NSW Premier Morris Iemma has stepped into the school closures controversy, warning ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope that his plan to close 39 Canberra schools would seriously impact on children across the border.

    "The rebuke from his NSW Labor counterpart came just three days after Mr Stanhope's radical school reforms sparked a rebellion within ACT Labor ranks at the party's annual conference..."
    
    Full story in The Canberra Times at link

    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • All the world's a stage - especially classrooms, says school union
    by Matthew Taylor, education correspondent
    
    "The drone of monotonous teachers may become a thing of the past after union leaders said that all staff should get voice training to ensure their students' concentration never wavers.

    "Unemployed actors should be on hand to offer training in voice projection and classroom performance, according to Philip Parkin, the general secretary of the Professional Association of Teachers.

    "His remarks follow research showing that many teachers with damaged or "breathy" voices fail to hold their pupils' attention for long periods of time.

    "Mr Parkin said: "If you have got a voice where you change the pitch, you raise the pitch, you lower the pitch, then clearly teaching and children's learning is more effective. If teachers are monotonous, no inflection in their voice, children will lose interest.

    "Let's be honest, there are some of those around..."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link

    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Evolution Opponents Lose Kansas Board Majority
    Associated Press
    
    "TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Conservative Republicans who approved new classroom standards that call evolution into question lost control of the State Board of Education in Tuesday's primary election.

    "A victory by pro-evolution Republican candidate Jana Shaver over conservative Republican Brad Patzer, who supported the standards treating evolution as a flawed theory, meant conservatives would at best have five of 10 seats on the board.

    "Five seats were up for election in the primary, the latest skirmish in a seesawing battle between faith and science that has opened Kansas up to international ridicule..."
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link [May require free registration.]
    
    
    Similar story in The Washington Post [May require free registration.]
    
    Similar story in USA Today
    
    
    
    

Thursday 3 August

• The Australian
  
  
  • School locked down over fight plan
    AAP
    
    "Police have locked down a Sydney high school to stop a planned fight between two rival groups of students.

    "Up to 10 students were being questioned today after the lock down at a high school in Harold Street at Macquarie Fields, in Sydney's south-west.

    "The principal alerted police when a group of students from a second school arrived at the Harold Street campus about 12.35pm (AEST).

    "The principal had been told an inter-school fight was planned once classes had finished for the day.

    "Some of the students attempted to leave after the lock down was enforced, NSW Police said.

    "The NSW Ambulance Service said it was called to the school but did not treat anyone.

    "Comment was being sought from the NSW Education Department. "
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    Similar stories are in most daily newspapers.
    
    
    

  • Follow-up story: The Brisbane Courier-Mail [and similar in most dailies]
    
    Teen charged after school lock down
    
    "A teenage boy has been charged by police in relation to an incident in which a southwestern Sydney school was locked down to prevent a fight between rival students.

    "James Meehan High School on Harold Street in Macquarie Fields was locked down for nearly three hours yesterday after students from a second local school turned up there.

    "Between 10 and 15 students gathered outside the school and threw a rock which hit a student, and a bottle which hit a teacher.

    "Police said a 16-year-old boy had now been charged with two counts of assault and one count of affray over the incident.

    "He will appear in Campbelltown Children's Court on August 21."
    

    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Monash floats 'special campus' plan to taken on rival
    by David Rood
    
    "Monash University will specialise its six Victorian campuses in a bold move to compete with Melbourne University's new US-style graduate system..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • High schools, low numbers
    by Kate Rose
    
    "Secondary class sizes have dropped to the smallest average in 13 years.
    Classes are now made up of 21.5 students on average, down from a high of 22.7 from 1997-99.

    "This follows the release last month of primary school class sizes, with an average of 22.4 students, the lowest in 30 years.

    "[Victoria] Education Minister Lynne Kosky said the proportion of classes with more than 25 students had also dropped.

    "In 2006 the percentage of secondary English classes with more than 25 students was 10.8 per cent," Ms Kosky said.

    "That's almost halved since 1999 when 20.4 per cent of English classes in secondary schools had more than 25 students."

    "Average size is measured by English classes, which are mandatory for almost all students..."
    
    Full story in the Melbourne Herald Sun at link

    
    
    
• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • ABC apologises for bias on kids' news show
    by Caroline Overington
    
    "The ABC has apologised to the Jewish community for presenting biased, anti-Israeli information to school children during an episode of Behind the News.

    "The educational program described Hezbollah terrorists as "soldiers" and as "refugees" whose land had been "taken by Israel".

    "In a letter to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which lodged a formal complaint with Communications Minister Helen Coonan, the ABC admits the information presented on the program was "inappropriate".

    "Audience liaison manager Denise Musto said the ABC acknowledged "that the content failed to meet the requirements of balance and impartiality".

    "In its attempt to be simple and concise, the story did not represent key relevant viewpoints," she said. "Some of the descriptions were over-simplistic and inappropriate."

    "Behind the News is a news program designed for school students..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
    
    
    

• The New York Times
  
  
  • Editorial
    The Evolution of Kansas [refers to following article]
    
    "The seesaw battle over state science standards in Kansas seems to have tipped back a bit in the direction of sanity. In Tuesday’s primary elections, moderates who subscribe to the theory of evolution won just enough races to guarantee them a slight majority on the school board after November’s general election. That should make it possible for them to overturn the benighted science standards pushed through by conservatives on the board last year in an effort to undercut the theory of evolution.

    "We’d be inclined to rejoice in this evidence that Kansas may be rejoining the modern world were it not for the state’s disturbing habit of backtracking from teaching evolution whenever the anti-science ideological faction gains the upper hand.

    "At least the standards that Kansans are arguing over have gotten less appalling over the years. Back in 1999, a board dominated by conservatives expunged from the standards any mention of evolution as an explanation for the development of humanity. It tossed out the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe as well. That lunacy was ended when voters rejected three of the board members responsible, but the conservatives regained the majority in 2004 and pushed through the current standards by a 6-to-4 vote last year.

    "Those standards leave evolution in the curriculum and shy away from explicit promotion of either intelligent design or creationism as alternatives. But the standards do their best to cast doubt on evolution by stressing supposed weaknesses in the theory. In some cases, the standards incorporate arguments and terminology associated with the intelligent design movement. Even worse, the standards incorporate a new definition of science that seems to open the way for supernatural explanations. Fortunately, the standards have yet to take effect, so they are likely to be trashed before they do any harm.

    "With the education of young Kansans hinging on whether the board is controlled by moderates who accept the theory of evolution or conservatives who are skeptical of it, the cause of science would be well served if the pro-evolution side could gain a greater majority. Voters will have another chance in November to oust two Republican conservatives who collaborated in the board’s attacks on the bedrock theory of modern biology."
    
    Complete Editorials in The New York TImes at link [May require free registration.]
    
    

  • Evolution Fight Shifts Direction in Kansas Vote
    by Monica Davey and Ralph Blumenthal
    
    "TOPEKA, Kan. — Less than a year after the Kansas Board of Education adopted science standards that were the most wide-reaching in the nation in challenging Darwin’s theory of evolution, voters on Tuesday ousted the conservative majority on the board that favored those guidelines.
    
    "Several of the winners in the primary election, whose victories are virtually certain to shift the board to at least a 6-to-4 moderate majority in November, promised Wednesday to work swiftly to restore a science curriculum that does not subject evolution to critical attack.

    "They also said they would try to eliminate restrictions on sex education passed by the current board and to review the status of the education commissioner, Bob Corkins, who they said was hired last year with little background in education.

    "In a state where a fierce fight over how much students should be taught about the criticism of evolution has gone back and forth since 1999, the election results were seen as a significant defeat for the movement of intelligent design, which holds that nature by itself cannot account for life’s complexity.

    "Defenders of evolution pointed to the results in Kansas as a third major defeat for the intelligent design movement across the country recently and a sign, perhaps, that the public was beginning to pay attention to the movement’s details and, they said, its failings.

    “I think more citizens are learning what intelligent design really is and realizing that they don’t really want that taught in their public schools,” said Eugenie C. Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education.

    "In February, Ohio’s board of education dropped a mandate that 10th-grade biology classes include critical analysis of evolution. Last year, a federal judge ruled that teaching intelligent design in the schools of Dover, Pa., was unconstitutional. But Ms. Scott said that opponents of evolution were hardly finished.

    “They’ve had a series of setbacks,” she said, “but I don’t think for one moment that this means the intelligent design people will fold their tents and go away...”
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link [May require free registration.]
    
    Similar Story in The Washington Post [May require free registration.]
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • MP to call for later school start age
    by staff and agencies
    
    "Children should not start formal schooling until the age of seven, an influential Labour MP is to tell teachers today.

    "Pupils should then attend their first formal school which lasts until 14, when they start to specialise, said Barry Sheerman, the chairman of the Commons education select committee.

    "Speaking ahead of an address to the Professional Association of Teachers conference in Oxford later today, Mr Sheerman warned that the government's drive to give parents more "choice" over their children's schools in an attempt to raise standards was "naive".

    "Mr Sheerman, who has been the chairman of the committee for the past five years and outlasted several education secretaries, said: "Let's think really radically.

    "Why not let early education last until seven? Why not have a preschool that lasts from three to seven?"

    "Many EU countries such as Norway had structures such as this, said the Huddersfield MP.

    "Mr Sheerman said: "And why don't we have a common school from seven to 14, then let's do the specialism from 14?"

    "The government had followed a concerted but flawed plan to widen choice for parents in recent years, he suggested.

    "Mr Sheerman said: "The belief that parental choice can achieve good education for all is naive."

    "Inevitably, parents "organise themselves as best they can" to find good schools for their children, he said. "Parental choice only too often can mean a good education for the minority but significant numbers of people left behind..."

    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Leading Article
    New diplomas are on the wrong track
    
    "There is still a good deal of scepticism in the profession over the Government's plans for a new specialised vocational diploma to run alongside A-levels. At the weekend, ministers published the first details of what students could be expected to study if they opt to take up any of the five diplomas that will be on offer from September 2008.

    "These specifications show that the diplomas - in construction and the built environment; IT; engineering; health and social care; and creative and media writing - will include a mixture of A-level-style academic content and a more vocational element. Students can elect to study them at level one, pre-GCSE standard; or level two, the equivalent of GCSE; or level three, the equivalent of A-level. The diplomas have been devised in consultation with industry to ensure they are recognised by employers when they come on to the market - for that, the Government deserves praise.

    "However, to many in education, they still seem unlikely to be treated with the same respect as the more traditional academic qualifications. In truth, it is unlikely that they ever will unless they are united under the same umbrella as A-levels and GCSEs..."

    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    
    
  • Schools and children 'are suffering under Blair'
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "The Government's obsession with parental choice is leading to the creation of "bloody awful" schools, Labour's most influential backbench voice on education said yesterday.

    "Barry Sheerman, chairman of the Commons Education and Skills Select Committee, said efforts to give parents more say over their children's schooling were creating a, "whole section of good schools but some bloody awful schools as well".

    "Middle-class parents were becoming ever more desperate to get their children into top performing schools, he said. Some were even encouraging their children to perform badly in tests to take advantage of new "banding" arrangements for schools - whereby they have to admit an equal number of talented and poorly performing pupils. Mr Sheerman made his comments during a wide-ranging critique of government policies at the Professional Association of Teachers annual conference. He also called for the start of compulsory schooling to be put back from five to seven years old - in line with Nordic countries.

    "We are stealing their childhood away from children in this country," he said. He added that the only way to introduce fair school admissions and avoid creating poorer performing schools was a lottery system.

    "I don't blame parents wanting to get their kids into the school of their choice," he said. "But this has to be balanced by other needs. To have a scrupulously fair system, you'd do it randomly in a computer..."
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    

Friday 4 August

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Bishop good on words, but missing on action (page 18)
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop is developing a reputation for being fine on rhetoric but skirting around issues that call for decisiveness and resolve.
    
    "Her response to the lowering of entry standards at Edith Cowan University was a cop-out.
    
    "Yes, she was concerned about any drops in standards; but, no, she wouldn't do anything about it – setting university entrance requirements was not up to her.
    
    "No one suggested that it was.
    
    "But if students with a TEE average of just 42 per cent across all subjects are to be accepted to fill federally funded places at university, surely she has an obligation to act.
    
    "She could simply withhold funding for those places."
    
    
    
  • Bishop pushed on low uni scores (page 9)
    by Amanda Banks
    
    "Pressure is mounting on Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop to intervene to halt falling minimum university entrance scores after Edith Cowan revealed it would accept students with average TEE marks as low as 42 per cent.
    
    "State Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich said she was worried by falling entry levels and called on Ms Bishop to review a model linking Federal funding to numbers of students by making universities hand back places that were not filled.
    
    "ECU announced last week it would drop its minimum TER score from 65 to 55, which, based on last year's formula, could be achieved by averaging 42 per cent across all subjects, because of a drop in student demand, a multi-million-dollar budget shortfall and a push to open the institution to more people.
    
    "Ms Ravlich said universities had to work harder to attract students because of high employment rates, but she did not believe minimum entry levels should be imposed. [Pardon ???   Web]
    
    "I do think that the Federal Minister needs to look at the funding model," she said.
    
    "An ECU spokesman said the university stood by the explanation for the drop by vice-chancellor Kerry Cox, who said last week university rankings in WA had been pushed up by a shortage of places and high demand.
    
    "Ms Bishop, who has said she is concerned about the ECU move, yesterday stood by changes requiring universities to fill all places."
    
    
    Full stories in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• ABC News Online
  
  
  • WA revamps apprentice training

    "Apprentices from 17 trades will be able to complete their training earlier under a West Australian Government initiative.

    "The nominal training period for trades such as hairdressing, horticulture, and plastering has been cut from four years to three.

    "Apprentices can enter the work force earlier or later depending on when they complete their requirements.

    "Similar reforms have already been introduced for apprentices in the construction, automotive and metal trades industries.

    "The State Government says it is the biggest reform of the apprenticeship system in nearly 100 years.

    "Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich says it is long overdue.

    "This is about moving from a time-served model to a competency-based model," she said.

    "Some students will be able to complete their training a little bit earlier than the nominal duration period.

    "However, if they don't meet the competencies they in fact may take longer."

    "Ms Ravlich says the changes will help ease the skills shortage..."
    
    Full story in ABC News Online at http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1706675.htm
    

    
    
    
• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Teachers' ultimatum: pay up or we strike
    by Brad Watts
    

    "Canberra's public school teachers are poised to take further industrial action over the ACT Government's pay offer, which the union has lambasted for "gouging jobs for savings".

    "Teachers are threatening rolling four-hour stoppages during a three-week campaign from August14 if their demands for better pay and conditions are not met.

    "Under the WorkChoices legislation, the Australian Education Union was required to have a secret ballot, with its members asked to return their vote by this Monday on various recommendations, including strike action, contained in a circular.

    "The circular, obtained by The Canberra Times, called on the Government to revise its current position and make a further salary offer that did not hinge on increased teaching loads and consequent job losses..."
    
    Full story in The Canberra Times at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • New school report card system in chaos
    by Bruce McDougall
    
    "The new school report card system is in disarray after the Federal Government admitted yesterday that parents could refuse to have their children graded from A to E.
    
    "They will have the right to opt out of new-style academic reports by writing to their child's school.

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop told The Daily Telegraph parents could instead order a report prepared under existing formats for students up to Year 10.

    "And NSW education chiefs have agreed to include a second grading scale in reports - measuring a student's level of effort.

    "The developments emerged as the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations accused the Howard Government of "holding education to ransom" in NSW.

    "Federation president Dianne Giblin said her organisation would seek a meeting with commonwealth officials over the issue.

    "Parents yesterday joined teachers and educators in opposing A to E grades for children - at least until they reached Year 3.

    "Ms Giblin, supported by the Primary Principals' Association and the Public Schools' Principals' Forum, said school communities should decide on report formats for older children.

    "The (NSW) Government is starting to listen and realise that you can't brand them and allocate grades to children in the younger years," she said.

    "What we need to ... pressure is the Federal Government, which seems to be putting itself into the agenda of State Government issues ... and holding education to ransom through funding."

    "NSW Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt yesterday defended the new "plain English reports", due by the end of this year.

    "However, Ms Bishop said there was no need to change the current requirements for younger students because "individual parents can opt out of the system".

    "The majority of parents want to know, in plain English, how their children are performing in each area of learning and how they compare with their peers.

    "For parents, an indication that their child is not performing as well as others in their year is a useful way of identifying if there may be a problem," she said.

    "Education authorities have been asked to report to the Commonwealth on their progress in implementing the system.

    "Federal Government will then decide if NSW breached requirements by dropping A to E grades for all subjects in Years 1 and 2 except literacy and numeracy.

    "Millions of dollars in funding to state education authorities is conditional on launching the reports.

    "Under the agreement with the Commonwealth they must be:

    * Written in plain language
    * Provided twice a year
    * Include for all subjects studied an assessment against achievement levels labelled A, B, C, D, E (or equivalent)
    * Defined against specific learning standards
    * Provide access for parents to information about how their child compares with their peer group."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link

  • [Interestingly, the identical story, by the same author, is in The Adelaide Advertiser and The Hobart Mercury -- all three are News Ltd newspapers.    Web.]

    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Tebbutt calls for federal boost to state schools
    by Anna Patty Education Editor
    
    "The state's primary schools are being short-changed $32 million a year by the Federal Government, enough to pay for 26,000 computers or 354 extra teachers, the NSW Government has warned.

    "The Minister for Education, Carmel Tebbutt, has written to her federal counterpart, Julie Bishop, to complain that government primary schools are underfunded.

    "Non-government primary and high schools receive the same rate of federal funding.

    "However, government primary schools receive a lower rate than government high schools.

    "Under the Commonwealth's funding arrangements, government primary schools receive 8.9 per cent of estimated Average Government School Recurrent Costs, while government secondary schools receive 10 per cent," Ms Tebbutt said of the figures, to be released today.

    "This approach stands in contrast with that taken to Commonwealth funding of non-government schools, where there is no distinction made between primary and secondary schools in terms of their percentage of AGSRC entitlement.

    "Removing this inconsistency would inject an extra $32 million, or $75 per student, into our public primary schools..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• The Hobart Mercury
  
  
  • Editorial
    Making sense of reading
    
    "Ten per cent of Australian children are affected by dyslexia, a neurological condition limiting their ability to read well despite having normal intelligence and learning opportunities.
    
    "Many well known personalities, including Whoopi Goldberg and Erin Brokovich (played by Julia Roberts in the film of the same name), have overcome difficulties associated with dyslexia and enjoyed much success in life.

    "Unfortunately, many people also suffer the negative consequences of dyslexia in both childhood and adulthood in the areas of educational achievement, behaviour, employment and mental health.
    
    "The Menzies Institute's Literacy Pathways project is looking at the connection between reading problems among children with low literacy and poor binocular vision in order to better understand the causes of dyslexia and evaluate new treatments.

    "Binocular vision describes the ability of the eyes to work well together.

    "Binocular vision problems among primary school-age children are fairly common. Some disappear as a child grows up.

    "In a large New South Wales study of children aged three to 12 years, 39 per cent were found to have difficulties in binocular vision tests.

    "The Literacy Pathways study is recruiting up to 300 children with binocular vision problems in southern Tasmania to participate in an educational trial.

    "The trial is designed to assess three reading support programs which past research has suggested may help children with dyslexia.

    "For 10 weeks the children will receive either an hourly one-on-one session with a trained facilitator or a home-based program to be conducted by the parents.

    "Assessments will be completed before and after the trials to see if there has been any improvement in reading ability.

    "The assessments will also be repeated after six months to see if there are any long-term effects.

    "This program will provide new information on how best to tailor reading support programs for children with different types of reading difficulty.

    "If your child struggles with reading and you would like more information about this project, please contact Jill Burrill at the Menzies Research Institute on 6226 7765 or at jburrill@.utas.edu.au."
    
    Full story in The Hobart Mercury at link
    
    
    

• The New York Times
  
  
  • U.S. Issues New Rules on Schools and Disability
    by Diana Jean Schemo
    
    "WASHINGTON — For more than 25 years, federal law had required that schools nationwide identify children as learning disabled by comparing their scores on intelligence tests with their academic achievement. This meant that many students had to wait until third or fourth grade to get the special education help they needed.
    
    "In regulations issued today after changes to the law, the federal Education Department said states could not require school districts to rely on that method, allowing districts to find other ways to determine which children are eligible for extra help.

    "It was the final step in the federal government’s repudiation of the old approach, which had come under severe criticism from advocates for children with disabilities, testing experts and eventually federal officials themselves. Advocates for those children applauded the change...."
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link [May require free registration.]

    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Telling pupils they're clever is uncool, teachers warned
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "Teachers have been told they should stop telling their pupils they are clever, because it is "uncool" and could put them off learning.

    Instead, delegates at the 34,000-strong Professional Association of Teachers annual conference in Oxford heard yesterday, they should use words such as "successful".

    Simon Smith, a teacher from Sweyne Park school in Rayleigh, Essex, told the conference: "I am sorry to say a culture has developed that mocks being clever. We should fight against it: change the language that we use, change something.

    "I have talked to various pupils. They said being clever meant you were boring, lacked personality, were a teacher's pet and other things not polite enough to mention in company such as this. With a few exceptions, including sport, academic prowess is in many eyes not 'cool'. We need to change this, perhaps by changing the language we use. 'Clever' suggests to me a pure academic ability, passing exams at A grades..."
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Teen charged, 11 suspended
    by Evelyn Yamine
    
    "Eleven students were suspended from school yesterday after a violent brawl outside the gates of a neighbouring school.

    "The students from Eagle Vale High School were told not to return to school after they began a riot at the gates of James Meehan High School on Wednesday afternoon – forcing a student lockdown.

    "A fight between students from the school and Eagle Vale High School at a football game is believed to have triggered the fracas at the school about 12.35pm.

    "A text message was sent out which stated boys from Eagle Vale High were coming to fight.

    "When the headmaster heard of the impending trouble, about 600 James Meehan students were locked in the school as a fight erupted outside the locked gates on Harold St.

    "A group of about 20 students from Eagle Vale were involved. A teacher was hit by a flying rock and a bottle was thrown at a student.

    "Superintendent Stuart Wilkins said the "instigator" of the brawl – a 16-year-old from Eagle Vale High – was charged with assault and affray.

    "Another five students were arrested, questioned and then released but charges may still be laid..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
    
    
    

• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • Editorial
    Uni off-short boom fading
    
    "More than 43,000 university students from overseas are currently paying tens of thousands of dollars each to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Queensland's universities.

    "In an international marketplace that is growing more competitive every year, the success of the state's institutions in attracting such strong enrolments from all over the world is a tribute to their quality and standing. Griffith University has students from 120 countries and as vice-chancellor Professor Ian O'Connor says, they add richness to Australia's academic mix as well as contributing financially.

    "While overseas students have provided a windfall for the economy in general, injecting $1 billion a year to this state alone, Auditor-General Glenn Poole has sounded a prudent note of caution in his latest report. Mr Poole's warning to universities about being over-dependent on overseas fee payers is timely given the fact that for the past year, growth in overseas student enrolments has been slowing down. While numbers remain strong, the sector is facing increased competition as other countries try to capitalise on what is a lucrative export industry. China is building English-language universities, a move that could blunt an important advantage Australia enjoys in the south-east Asian region where students are keen to improve their English. Australia faces keen competition, too, from international institutions such as the University of Phoenix with a vast online academic community of more than 200,000 students and 17,000 academics in north America alone..."
    
    Full editorial in the Brisbane Courier Mail at link
    
    

  • Graduates lured overseas
    by Patrick Lion
    
    "Uuniversity debts are contributing to the skills shortage by driving our brightest and most skilled young workers to overseas tax havens, says KPMG demographer Bernard Salt.
    
    "Talking about Generation Y's impact on businesses on the Gold Coast yesterday, Mr Salt envisaged a future in which northern hemisphere economies conducted poaching missions Down Under to steal our best workers in their late 20s.

    "He said the transient nature of the Y demographic – aged 15 to 29 – meant they were not tied down by mortgages and often travelled to places such as the UK where they could avoid tertiary debts.

    "His research showed many failed to return because they realised their debts had since grown, effectively meaning Australian taxpayers were paying to train skilled workers for other countries.

    "We should be greedier for talent," Mr Salt said.

    "In an environment where we've got the resources boom, we need as much skilled talent as possible and the fact that you don't have to pay HECS from the UK or from any other nation is an issue that needs to be addressed..." [That last comment is a bit suspect, given extremely high cost of US universities.     Web]
    
    Full story in the Brisbane Courier Mail at link
    
    
    

Saturday – Sunday, 5 – 6 August

• PerthNow /The Sunday Times Online
  
  
  • Reader feedback on story "WA's great leaders 2006", which included Ljiljanna Ravlich, Paul Albert and Mike Keeley
    
    
    • I nominate Greg Williams, co-founder of PLATO, a group of teachers, parents and others opposed to Outcomes Based Education (OBE). The PLATO website www.platowa.com provides a much-needed forum for open debate on education in WA. PLATO has been influential in at least slowing down the implementation of OBE, a deeply flawed model of education, in WA. Posted by: Naomi Ferreirinho
      
      
      
    • I'd love to know what possible selection criteria could have included either Ljiljanna Ravlich or Paul Albert. The majority of the public have lost confidence in WA public education, and those two must share most of the responsibility. Posted by: Steve Kessell of Willetton
      
      

    These comments, and more as they arrive, at http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/comments/0,21590,20007172-2761,00.html
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Confidence crisis in schools, poll finds (front page)
    by Amanda Banks
    
    "There is a crisis of confidence in the State's education system, with a fresh poll revealing West Australians have little faith in standards at public schools.
    
    "The latest Westpoll, which comes after months of heated debate over the State Government's controversial push to extend outcomes-based education in Years 11 and 12, shows six out of 10 respondents believe State schools are paying inadequate attention to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
    
    "The poll, which surveyed 402 people this week, found just one in five people believes academic standards at State schools are improving and more than one-third think education levels are slipping.
    
    "An overwhelming 83 per cent of respondents want Australian history to be taught as a compulsory, stand-alone subject at some stage of high school and 57 per cent believe standards of dress and behaviour among public school students are falling.
    
    "A majority of the 54 per cent believe private schools offer a higher standard of education, while 44 per cent say students who graduated from public schools 20 years ago were better prepared for life and the workforce.
    
    "Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich conceded yesterday more work was needed to promote public schools, but said education was a priority and had an annual budget of $3.6 billion. "From next year, school uniforms will be compulsory in all State schools," she said.
    
    "The most comprehensive review of numeracy and literacy ever undertaken in WA is currently under way and I expect to have the recommendations by the end of the year."
    
    "But shadow education minister Peter Collier seized on the figures to criticise Ms Ravlich's handling of the OBE crisis, which led to a Government backdown last month when it agreed to delay introducing new OBE courses to Years 11 and 12.
    
    "(Education) has been demonised because the Minister has so manifestly mishandled the debate," Mr Collier said.
    
    "The public perception therefore is that the education system in general terms is in chaos. It is not in chaos."
    
    "History Council of WA president Jenny Gregory said she was not surprised by the staggering support for Australian history to be compulsory in high school, which reflected the community's hankering for knowledge of Australia's past.
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop, who wants Australian history as a mandatory stand-alone subject until Year 10, said concerns about the downgrading of the subject's teaching had prompted a summit of leading historians and educators later this month."
    
    
    
  • Westpoll (page 6)
    
    

    Do you believe independent schools generally offer a higher standard of education?
    Yes	58 %
    The same	32 %
    [public schools ?] Provide better education	5 %
    Don't know	5 %
    Are school students who graduated 20 years ago better equipped for life and the workforce?
    Better prepared	44 %
    No difference	24 %
    Not as prepared	22 %
    Don't know	10 %

    
    Westpoll carried out from July 31 to August 2 through phone interviews with 402 voters. Westpoll conducted by Patterson Market Research (westpoll@pmrwa.com.au)
    
    
    
    
  • Top public schools wary of liar parents (page 38)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Top public schools are making it harder for parents to enrol their children because some are lying about where they live so they can get their children into a school with a good reputation.
    
    "And houses within boundaries of some top schools are selling at a premium of up to $50,000.
    
    "Principals of high-performing public schools that are bursting at the seams have made it compulsory for parents to provide multiple items of proof of residence to keep a lid on numbers.
    
    "While none has direct evidence of parents rorting the system, all said they believed it occurred.
    
    "Willetton Senior High School, which last year had three students in the top 21 in the State who achieved the highest tertiary entrance rank possible, has to monitor its enrolments closely to make sure people do not provide false information when enrolling their children.
    
    "Rossmoyne, Churchlands and Shenton College said they had similar concerns. Rossmoyne real estate agent Alan Hutchinson said houses within the Rossmoyne high school boundaries were for between $30,000 and $50,000 more than comparable properties outside.
    
    "And as fewer properties became available in Rossmoyne, demand had increases for houses in the Willetton SHS catchment during the past 18 months.
    
    "Willetton principal Chris Booth said the school asked for a range of documentation as proof of residence. "But if people are going to perjure themselves, I don't know what I can do about that," he said. Many parents wanted the top-class education available at Willetton for minimal fees rather than pay thousands of dollars for private schools, Mr Booth said.
    
    "The easiest way for people to rort the system was to buy an investment property in the area, which gave them a local address, but live elsewhere. "I only say that as a possibility," he said.
    
    "Shenton College insists that all applicants provide at least three pieces of recent evidence to confirm residential address.
    
    "Families moving into rental accommodation must provide a rental agreement that shows they will be in the area for a minimum of 12 months."
    
    Full stories in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • New-age ways miss the mark
    
    William Spady's approach to learning - outcomes-based education - is full of flaws and contradictions, writes Kevin Donnelly
    
    "After listening to US academic William Spady - the father of outcomes-based education - at last month's Australian Primary Principal Association 2006 conference in Alice Springs, I can see no doubt about Spady's views on education.

    "The more traditional approach to education is labelled as educentric by Spady and he condemns it for being competitive, academic, having right and wrong answers, being rational and logical and, as a result, instilling fear and an either-or mentality.

    "In Spady's words: "The curriculum box, time box, grade-level box, opportunity box, testing box, marking box, achievement box, school box and classroom box all severely constrain how teachers and learners function and think about outcomes." [emphasis added]

    "In opposition to the more conservative approach, Spady argues in favour of what he terms transformational outcomes-based education, described as a paradigm that embraces empowerment, divergent, lateral thinking, holistic and spiritual unity and a win-win approach imbued with love and synergy.

    "While acknowledging it is difficult to properly implement OBE, Spady argues that teachers and educational leaders should strive to embrace an "inner realisation" paradigm of educational reform, involving "expanded consciousness of one's spiritual nature-potential", "one's intuitive connection to universal wisdom", "meditative exploration by quietening the conscious mind" and "learner-controlled timing group-enhanced experience".

    "In arguing the case for "a total learning community", Spady further suggests: "In a total learning community, no one has to prove anything to anyone else to be accepted for who they are and what they cancontribute."

    "While it might be tempting to dismiss Spady's views about education - blending, as they do, new-age managerial speak and age-of-Aquarius psychobabble - the reality is thatSpady has had and continues to have asignificant impact on Australian education.

    "Not only were the original national curriculum statements and profiles developed during the 1990s under the Keating government, based on an outcomes model, but all states and territories, to various degrees, are also implementing curriculums founded on atransformational, outcomes-based approach.

    "The result? Competition and failing is considered bad for self-esteem, the focus of learning shifts from teaching subjects such as history and literature to instilling new-age and politically correct values, dispositions and attitudes, teachers facilitate instead of teach and students are described as knowledge navigators or adaptive, lifelong learners.

    "The flaws in Spady's views about education are many. First, Spady's description of the more conservative model of education, labelled as educentric, is misleading and simplified. Since the time of Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, learning has always been about outcomes.

    "Those familiar with Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy and the educational writings of T.S. Eliot will also know that a liberal humanist approach places at its centre the need to educate young people to be critically aware, to read with sensitivity and discrimination and to value the best that has been thought and said.

    "While such outcomes might not be the ones Spady prefers, the reality is that the type of learning associated with Western civilisation has a noble history and a proven record in benefiting mankind.

    "The way advocates of OBE repeat the mantra of change, or what Spady terms the prevalence of "constant change and continuous discovery", is also wrong. As suggested by Eliot, education must acknowledge continuity as well as change and holding on to what is lasting is equally as important as embracing the new.

    "In belittling academic subjects and the need for memorisation and rote learning, Spady also makes the mistake of favouring one form of learning over another. Creativity and the ability to master higher order skills requires structured, formal learning and, on occasion, students need to learn by rote and be told they have failed.

    "While OBE rightly promotes values such as tolerance, openness and respect for diversity and difference, such beliefs are often used as code for imposing the cultural Left's agenda on schools. Especially in areas such as multiculturalism, feminism, the class war and gender issues, the curriculum is often one-sided.

    "Thankfully, there is evidence that OBE's impact on Australian education is open to scrutiny and there is a willingness to admit mistakes. In Western Australia, after the debacle caused by Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich's attempts to force OBE into years 11 and 12, Premier Alan Carpenter was forced to intervene in an attempt to ameliorate some of its worst excesses.

    "In Tasmania, after Paula Wriedt nearly lost her seat at the most recent election and was subsequently replaced as education minister, the new minister, David Bartlett, has agreed to review Tasmania's OBE-inspired essential learnings.

    "At the federal level, Prime Minister John Howard has spoken out against OBE gobbledygook and its impact on history and literature teaching, and the NSW Education Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, has publicly condemned OBE and argued that teachers need a clear road map of what is taught, associated with a more traditional syllabus approach to curriculum." [emphasis added]

    Kevin Donnelly is director of Education Strategies.
    
    From The Weekend Australian at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20019599-13881,00.html
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Melbourne Age
  
  
  • 'Crazy' state system costing us billions
    by William Birnbauer
    
    "Abolishing state governments would rid the nation of a cumbersome bureaucracy that is costing $30 billion a year — and a rare survey of state public servants indicates they would be happy to see them go.

    "Ninety per cent want the present system changed, with two thirds saying they would prefer a less unwieldy two-tier system. The desire for change is also reflected among ordinary Australians, with more than 50 per cent believing the states should be replaced with regional governments..."

    "While Commonwealth-state-local government relations do not attract a great deal of public interest, many of the problems in health, education and other key services result from buck-passing between governments and lack of accountability..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Learning best done beyond reach of the left

      "In Public v private (30/7), key points were missed in why people increasingly send their kids to private schools.

      "A large number of my state school teaching colleagues send their kids to private schools. What they are buying is not better teachers or a different curriculum but a peer group that values education plus the absence of disaffected students or seriously disruptive kids who are allowed to spoil the learning environment of a large number of state school students.

      "Secondly one has to be very wary of state schools in Labor strongholds. Labor's John Brumby said: "Typically, the kids who are being failed by failing schools are Labor kids in Labor areas".

      "Victoria is the home of the educational left, the architects of the equality-of-outcomes nonsense, their crowning glory that dictates that everybody should pass their VCE or equivalent and "don't worry if you cannot read or write to a satisfactory level". They believe in automatic promotion from one year to the next of students who cannot really read or write or understand basic maths. The result is that in, say a year 9 class, you often have students of grade 2-3 level.

      "The poor teacher is then supposed to run up to six different classes within a 45-minute period, an impossible task, with each student getting about a minute of individual tuition.

      "We can also thank the educational left for the abolition of meaningful sanctions against poor behaviour.

      "Some state schools are great schools and on a par with private schools and where hard-working staff do their utmost to ignore the educational left directives or nonsense. The others, increasingly safety net schools. Avoid like the plague."

      Marcus L'Estrange, St Kilda
      
      

    Complete Letters to the Editor in The Sunday Age at http://www.theage.com.au/letters/
    
    
    

• The Sunday Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Schools 'gagged' ahead of election
    by Mary Papadakis
    
    "The Bracks Government has been accused of "gagging" schools in the lead-up to the November state election.
    
    " Victorian principal groups have described new protocols as the start of a calculated election plan to control schools.

    "The Department of Education has sent a bulletin to schools ordering them to inform regional directors of any visits to schools by politicians and local candidates..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Herald Sun at link

    
    
• The Sunday Hobart Mercury
  
  
  • Fight on for schools cash
    by Kathy Grube
    
    "Frustrated parents have called for an infrastructure audit of Tasmanian state schools.
    
    "Parent representative bodies say they have been campaigning for urgent renovations to ageing schools, in some cases for up to 25 years, while other schools have had multi-million dollar redevelopments..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Hobart Mercury at link
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • A lesson learned

      "If the State Government is serious about improving the quality of applicants for teacher training ( The Age, 3/8), there is a simple solution: pay teachers more. Teachers are paid sub-standard salaries for what is the most important job in the workforce. Yes, doctors may save lives, but would they have been accepted into medicine at Melbourne University without teachers? No.

      "If we look at the amount we pay certain professions as an indication of their worth, then CEOs, lawyers and advertising executives all make much more than lowly teachers. Mr Bracks, show us you are serious and invest in the future generation by increasing salaries."

      Anna Wild, Doncaster East
      
      

    • The real teacher

      "Pride, passion, enthusiasm for the job, plus the ability to work with staff and parents in the interests of children; the ability to be flexible, use their initiative and be lifelong learners: as a primary school principal, these are the qualities I look for in any teacher. ENTER scores pale into insignificance in comparison with the above qualities."

      Ian Drysdale, principal, Hazelwood North Primary School
      
      

    Full Letters to the Editor of The Melbourne Age at http://www.theage.com.au/letters/
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Politics needs more than technocrats
    by Fred Chaney
    
    [Not on education, but an interesting statement about "politicians who don't believe in anything"... seemed appropriate.    Web]
    
    
    
    
  • Paper set to restart history wars
    by Jewel Topsfield, Canberra
    
    "The history wars are about to be reignited, thanks to a paper that argues that Australian history in schools focuses "excessively" on topics such as the Vietnam War and the Whitlam government while ignoring issues such as economic development.

    "The paper, commissioned by the Federal Government for consideration at a national Australian history summit this month, also stresses the need to tackle the common perception that "Australian history is crap … 'cause nothing happened"'.

    "Its author, Gregory Melleuish, says school is the only significant contact most people have with the study of history. But he argues there is a tendency for Australian history lessons to "exclude or marginalise" many significant elements.

    "These include economic development issues, middle-Australia, people of religious belief and the churches," Associate Professor Melleuish says in the paper, which outlines what he believes students should be taught by the end of year 10.

    "It is necessary that a place be made for these elements."

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop announced the summit last month, claiming that not enough students were learning Australian history, there was too much political bias and that not enough pivotal facts and dates were being taught.

    "She said it was essential that a structured, narrative approach was taken and every child should know when and why James Cook sailed along the east coast of Australia..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Parents want class teaching secular views of morality
    by Anna Patty Education Editor
    
    "Most parents want a non-religious alternative to school scripture classes, a survey has found.

    "Of 280 parents surveyed for the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations of NSW, 59 per cent thought it was "important" or "very important" that their child be given the option of attending a secular ethics-based class.

    "Parents said activities offered to children who did not attend scripture classes included watching videos, reading and supervised activities such as colouring in.

    "Seventy-nine per cent of parents said they would support their children being exposed to faiths other than their own.

    "Almost a quarter of parents said they would like to see the teaching of faiths other than Christianity introduced..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • The gods must be crazy if they call this intelligence
    
    Robyn Williams insists the intelligent design movement is as sinister as it is wrong, writes Deborah Smith.
    
    "Robyn Williams' heart sank this week when he listened to people from Toowoomba on the radio blithely rejecting the latest scientific evidence on the quality of recycled water in favour of the myths.

    "It was as if science was just another choice of product on a supermarket shelf they could ignore at will, says the ABC science broadcaster. "People simply say, 'I don't want to know that. It's inconvenient'."

    "The prevalence of this attitude has been playing on Williams's mind as he ponders the way the intelligent design movement - creationism's "belligerent teenage cousin" - has sprung up "like a boil on a bum". One of its hallmarks, he says, is the arrogant dismissal of carefully weighed scientific evidence.

    "Until recently Williams had thought it unwise to give any more publicity to intelligent design - the notion that life is too complex to have evolved without some assistance from an intelligent designer, whom many adherents believe to be God.

    "But its well-resourced backing in the US, from the President, George Bush, down, and its spread here - it is taught in science classes in about 100 schools, he estimates - has finally forced him into print.

    "He pulls no punches. Intelligent design is a politically sinister movement, a form of terrorism focused on public education, he argues in a new book, Unintelligent Design - Why God Isn't as Smart as She Thinks She Is. "The means are devious, the arguments deceitful and the consequences profound."

    "Recent scientific findings about the evolution of life are far more fascinating than the intelligent design movement's untestable Just So stories, he says. "I find it gobsmackingly outrageous that ID can be allowed to pretend our state of knowledge is inadequate. Incomplete, certainly, but expanding at a ferocious rate," he says..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Series of articles (the latest is today) on "Oxbridge and Elitism"
    
    
    
    
• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • School sales a 'war chest'
    by Markus Mannheim, Assembly Reporter
    

    "ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope admitted yesterday that his Government was likely to sell unused school land to make way for residential developments, contradicting earlier assurances from Education Minister Andrew Barr.

    "Mr Stanhope also confirmed that the fate of 39 Canberra public schools earmarked for possible closure would be decided before the end of the school year.

    "The Opposition described the prospect of school sales as Labor's plan to amass a "war chest" for the 2008 election.

    "But Mr Stanhope's comments were welcomed by the housing industry, which said Canberra was in desperate need of more aged-care accommodation.

    "In June, Mr Barr denied that the land of closed schools would be used for residential purposes, and later told a meeting of Belconnen parents that "there will be no land sales as a result of school closures".

    "But the Chief Minister dismissed yesterday Mr Barr's comments as a poor explanation, and described the suggestion that empty schools be fenced off and abandoned as "nonsense".

    "He said possible future uses for the land included aged-care and affordable housing..."

    Full story in The Canberra Times at link

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This page last updated 29 May, 2008 9:31 PM