Monday 18 September 2006

Tuesday 19 September

Wednesday 20 September

Thursday 21 September

Friday 22 September

Saturday – Sunday, 23 – 24 September

 

Monday 18 September

• The Australian
  
  
  • Preschool spending lowest in OECD
    by Natasha Bita, Florence
    
    "Australia spends less on preschool education than the rest of the industrialised world, with its kindergarten teachers among the least-trained and worst-paid.

    "The OECD will tomorrow release a report showing Australia spends 0.1 per cent of gross domestic product on formal preschool education - the least of any of the 20 industrialised countries surveyed. And barely half the workers in Australia's childcare centres and private kindergartens have formal qualifications - "a low percentage by OECD standards"...
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [Similar stories in most daily papers.]
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Teacher marks down A-to-E grading system
    by David Rood
    
    "A prominent English teacher will give all of his students a C if forced to use the new A to E reporting system.
    
    "Princes Hill Secondary College teacher Tony Thompson said the Federal Government's controversial new plain-language reporting system "jams children into superficial boxes".

    "Far from becoming 'parent friendly', the reports will become increasingly bland, totally impersonal and altogether a waste of time and energy," he said, in an opinion article published in The Age today. [next story]

    "The system has met widespread criticism from parents, teachers and principals, who have labelled them confusing, inaccurate and damaging to student self-esteem..."

    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
  • Op Ed
    C is for meaningless when assessing children
    by Tony Thompson
    
    "... There will no longer be any need for me to employ that capability when writing reports, because now I just have to decide if the student is a 4.25 or a 4.5 or even a 4.75. It will be easy, and utterly meaningless.

    "Supposedly, the Government has some idea of making reports more parent friendly. It is difficult to imagine anything less friendly than a system that jams children into superficial boxes. On the report the parent will see a letter grade. That letter grade, unless other teachers know something that I don't, will be a C. A "C" means that the student is more or less where they should be academically. The higher grades are reserved for students who somehow demonstrate that they already have the skills taught at higher levels.

    "I wouldn't be in a position to make this kind of a judgement unless I was offering some kind of a formal extension program. So all of my students will receive a C. If this seems unimaginative, then it is an accurate reflection of a system that will not allow for anything else. Student without a name, classroom without a number; the only information will be a C. The parents will learn nothing, particularly if schools use the descriptors as a basis for a comment bank. Far from becoming parent friendly, the reports will become increasingly bland, totally impersonal, and altogether a waste of time..." [He should try levelling !    Web]
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    

  • School fees hit $20,000
    by Chee Chee Leung
    
    "Private school fees will soar past $20,000 next year, and some Victorian parents will pay almost $400 a week for their child's education..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • Editorial
    HECS debt cap needed
    
    "Australian university graduates will owe $19 billion in HECS fees by 2008, an average of $10,500 which will take most at least seven years to repay.
    
    "Is the impost, which will keep many from travelling or buying a home for much of their 20s, worth it? Only students and their families can decide after working out the mathematics involved, which includes looking at what salaries their degrees are likely to help them attain.

    "While HECs is here to stay with both sides of politics, it would be unreasonable to expect students to pay much more than the $8333 a year that those in courses such as medicine and law will face from next year onwards."
    
    From The Brisbane Courier Mail at link
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • When dollars dry up, universities go for the hard sell
    by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Reporter
    
    "Universities are using increasingly aggressive marketing tactics to attract full-fee-paying international students as the demand for Australian higher education courses falls..."
    
    "Critics have accused the universities of being so reliant on international students that they are "soft marking", turning a blind eye to plagiarism and allowing full-fee-paying students with inadequate qualifications and English levels into courses..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • More than third of ADHD pupils excluded
    Press Association
    
    "Nearly 40% of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been excluded from school, according to the results of a survey published today..."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    
    

Tuesday 19 September

• ABC News
  
  
  • Bishop joins calls for compulsory preschooling
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop is backing calls for mandatory preschooling.

    "An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, which compares 20 member nations, names Australia as one of the lowest spenders on preschool education.

    "Australia is behind South Korea and Mexico, with only 0.1 per cent of gross domestic product being spent.

    "The report has prompted former Australian of the Year, Professor Fiona Stanley, to call for mandatory preschooling to ensure children's early development is properly looked after.

    "Ms Bishop says preschool education is a state responsibility but she would also like to see it made compulsory.

    "I think that parents will always retain the right to choose when they want their children to commence school," she said..."
    
    Full story at ABC News Online at link
    
    

  • Stanley urges compulsory preschooling
    
    "Former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley is calling for compulsory preschooling for children..."
    
    "The OECD report also found that just over half of the workers in childcare centres and private kindergartens actually held formal qualifications.

    "Professor Stanely says that is unacceptable.

    "I think we do need to have people who are fully trained, particularly trained in child development and the early educational environments that are really positive for child development," she said..."
    
    Full story at ABC News Online at link
    
    

  • WA leading Aust in preschool spending: Ravlich
    
    "Western Australian Education Minister Lilijana Ravlich has rejected suggestions the Government is not spending enough on preschool education.

    "An OECD report has named Australia as one of the lowest spending countries on preschool education.

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop says the report is misleading because it does not take into account the education children receive at day care.

    "However, she says more needs to be spent on early childhood education, which is the responsibility of state governments.

    "Ms Ravlich says Western Australia is a national leader in preschool education spending.

    "We spend $102 million annually on the provision of preschool programs and it is interesting to note that we provide a ratio of two adults to 20 children, that is one teacher and one teacher assistant to every class," she said.

    "Ms Bishop says she would like to see a nationally consistent approach to early childhood education and her preference is that schooling be compulsory.

    "Ms Ravlich says while the attendance rate for preschool students in Western Australia is 90 per cent, there is still room for improvement.

    "There needs to be more work done by the Commonwealth, if we are to move in this direction, and obviously there are resource implications that need to be considered and so I think we need to have an open and frank discussion in relation to these matters," she said."
    
    From ABC News Online at link
    

    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Johnson's staff accused of burying poor school results
    by Thair Shaikh
    
    "The government was yesterday accused of burying bad news about poor primary school test results by releasing the figures on the same day as improved GCSE results in secondary schools.

    "Special advisers to Alan Johnson, the education secretary and a possible challenger to Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership, were said to have overruled communications staff in the Department for Education and Skills to determine the date of publication..."
    
    "The primary school figures revealed falling standards in reading, writing and maths among seven-year-olds and missed targets for 11-year-olds..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    Related stories in The Guardian
    
    Similar story in The Independent
    
    
    

• The Times
  
  
  • Alarm over pupils facing a 50-hour school week
    by Alexandra Frean, Education Editor and David Brown
    
    "Teachers and campaigners clashed yesterday over government plans for schools to offer “wraparound” childcare that would have pupils spending 50 hours a week in school.

    "All schools will have to open from 8am to 6pm within the next four years in an attempt to give state school pupils the same opportunities as those in the private sector. Beverley Hughes, the Children’s Minister, told The Times yesterday that the initiative was so popular that 2,500 schools had signed up ahead of target.

    "But as the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed concern about the growing pressures on children at school, head teachers, staff, unions and campaigners questioned whether it was good for children to spend so long in school. Dr Rowan Williams said that children faced too much “pressure to achieve” and had to take too many tests..."
    
    Full story in The Times at link
    


© The Times


• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Pass mark for UAIs but can improve
    by Elizabeth Bellamy
    
    "A review of the process used to determine university entrance scores for ACT Year 12 students has conceded the system is "not ideal" and should continue to be monitored.

    "The ACT Government commissioned Monash University Professor of Statistics Rob Hyndman to review the system in response to claims the process used to convert students' Year 12 marks into nationally recognised Universities Admission Index scores was flawed..."
    
    Full story in The Canberra Times at link
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  

• PM tips new fund in plans to remedy skills shortage
  by Misha Schubert
  
  "Prime Minister John Howard has blamed past intakes of unskilled migrants and high school drop-out rates in the 1970s and 1980s for leaving 3.5 million Australians of working age without a complete school education.

  "And he has warned that many of them may lack the basic literacy and numeracy skills that are becoming essential for keeping a job or finding a new one in a high-tech age.

  "Foreshadowing a wave of reforms to realign Australia's training system to workers who need upgrades or retraining, the Prime Minister agreed to consider creating a billion-dollar national skills fund..."
  
  Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
  
  Similar story in The Australian and other daily papers
  
  
  

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Civics education will boost our wellbeing (page 20)
    Recognition of its value has been integral to our heritage, says Harry Phillips
    
    "... The recognition of the value of civics education, encompassing politics, to enhance wellbeing has been integral to our heritage and can be traced back to the ancient Greeks..."
    
    "Civics, though, gradually fell out of the curriculum. Throughout the ideological Cold War there were criticisms that its delivery was sometimes politically biased. Very few teachers had the depth of background to effectively implement its content, and there was a lack of resources to make its presentation interesting and relevant.
    
    "Addressing a broader idea of active citizenship in 1989, a Senate committee spoke of "a crisis which Australians cannot afford to ignore". Education ministers across Australia responded by incorporating "active citizenship" in the common agreed national goals of schooling..."
    
    "Civics, though, is rarely given the status of a subject in its own right, and often lacks a vehicle for its implementation..."
    
    "Scores on some political facts will probably always be poor but if our educational agencies can effectively engage citizens, young and old, to achieve a functional level of civic education, our societal wellbeing will be advanced."
    
    Dr Harry Phillips is Adjunct Professor at Edith Cowan and Curtin Universities
    
    Full article in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• CNN
  
  
  • Taking aim at admissions anxiety
    
    "CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) -- Though just teenagers, the applicants to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are a scarily accomplished lot. They have started businesses and published academic research. One built a working nuclear reactor in his garage. In their high schools, they have led every extracurricular club and mastered the SAT.

    "But surprisingly few have done what Marilee Jones, the woman who actually decides which one in seven MIT applicants gets in, thinks 18-year-olds ought to be doing.

    "Not many sleep eight hours a night, or eat three meals a day. Few spend time each day just staring into space..."
    
    A long but interesting expose: Full story at CNN at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • School ban on parents
    by Milanda Rout, education reporter
    
    "Scores of Victorian schools are taking out intervention and trespass orders to hold back a rising tide of abusive and violent parents.
    
    "Cases of ugly parents assaulting principals, stalking students and abusing teachers are on the rise in primary and secondary schools.

    "The alarming trend has led to calls for more government and police support, and a code of conduct for parents..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
    
    
    
    

Wednesday 20 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • School-based trades scheme lacks law tool (page 43)
    by Kim Macdonald
    
    The State Government has promised a school-based apprenticeship program will come into effect next year, even though it has not introduced legislation to make the new system possible.
    
    The promise comes as Prime Minister John Howard criticised the State Government for being one of only two States to drag its heels on the apprenticeship scheme.

    Shadow minister for education and training Peter Collier said students and their parents were unable to sign up for the much-vaunted new program, which allows teenagers to do an indentured apprenticeship while studying.

    “The issue of school-based apprenticeships has wide industry support and is a requirement of the February 2006 COAG agreement, but the Government has been slack,” Mr Collier said.

    A spokesman for Training and Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich admitted there were no students enrolled in the indentured program yet because legislation to set the program up had not been passed.

    But a similar program known as the School Apprenticeship Link, in which students can build credits towards an apprenticeship during high school, already had 540 students signed up for next year. A further 340 students in regional high schools were expected to sign up for the SAL program, which is offered in 68 high schools.

    Ms Ravlich said legislation establishing the new apprenticeship program would be introduced this week.

    “The intention is that the program will essentially be based on SAL. This program already has runs on the board,” she said.

    “In under two years, nearly 800 have enrolled and 227 have left school to take up an apprenticeship as a direct result of the program.”

    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Let's bring back the basic tool of the maths trade

      "For the past two years, I have had the privilege of assisting with the teaching of primary school children at a Victorian resort during the winter term. The children cover the grades 3-6 and come from several states, not just Victoria, and represent both public and private schools.

      "I have been struck by the change in emphasis that I have observed, particularly in the way that maths is taught and the relative unimportance now assigned to it. In particular, I have been dumbstruck by the indifference shown towards the learning and use of multiplication tables. My own observation was that most of these children have the greatest difficulty in multiplying two single digit numbers together, an operation that seems to involve much muttering and use of fingers.

      "Inquiries made of parents and teachers have made me aware that the fashion in education has moved away from the rote learning implicit in the mastering of tables.

      "The result, as I see it, is that the tools necessary for performing quite simple operations in solving mathematical problems have been taken away but nothing of value has been put in their place.

      "I am constantly asked for assistance by children who, in trying to solve mathematical problems, become mired in the mechanics of multiplication and division, with the larger picture (the initial problem) becoming lost in the detail of performing what should be simple computations.

      "The usual solution adopted is to resort to printed tables or calculators. I find that continued use of tables does not result in anything being learned, while using calculators merely ensures that proficiency is achieved in pressing buttons. What is missing with both of these approaches is the feeling for numbers that can be gained from actually manipulating them (which, once mastered, may be supplanted by use of calculators).

      "Of course learning tables involves rote learning — but so do a great number of the other things we take for granted, including the alphabet, names of cities and countries, days of the week, the names of the numerals, and significantly, the spelling of English. No one seems to object to rote learning in these cases.

      "There is no intrinsic value in learning tables: their real value is in supporting other, more difficult tasks. No one would expect to build a house without the basic tools, yet many children are being asked to work out shopping list totals, compute areas, add and subtract fractions, compute averages and perform all kinds of mathematical tasks without the tools. It's time we gave them back."
      
      Richard Jago, Mansfield
      
      

    • Separating the As from the Es
      
      "Tony Thompson ("C is for meaningless when assessing children", Opinion, 18/9) is in the mainstream of a profession that has been required, for at least a generation, to avoid making real distinctions between levels of academic achievement in school students. Teachers who have the temerity to write a report that describes a student as "at the top of the class" will be counselled to use a phrase like "performed creditably".

      "As Australians we sometimes wonder why we aren't able to translate our sporting success into other areas of endeavour. When was the last time that a principal announced to a school assembly that the school football team "performed creditably" when it actually won?

      "The fact is that sporting champions in schools are feted by the entire spectrum of students, whereas the prevailing ethic in relation to academic success is one that encourages self-deprecation.

      "Just as to defend everything is to defend nothing, so it is with praise. I fear that Tony Thompson wants to praise all his students. Well, good luck to him. Just don't let him near the football team."
      
      Geoff Hjorth, Albert Park
      
      

    • The ranking game
      
      "I am surprised to read that teacher Tony Thompson cannot distinguish between the overall individual performance of his students without being offered some kind of formal extension program; I'm sure that most of them would have a pretty good idea of how they would each rank in their class. Since much of modern life involves decisions that require an assessment of comparative qualities or performance, it is a skill that teachers, of all people, should know how to apply and, one would hope, be able to impart."
      
      Dermot Coleman, Oakleigh
      
      

    • A testing challenge
      
      "Tony Thompson correctly highlights the difficulties faced by teachers as they implement the Federal Government's new reporting system and the Victorian State Government's Essential Learning Standards. The work needed to ensure a smooth transition from the old approach to the new has, up to now, been given little acknowledgement by either government.

      "For any grade or rating to be meaningful, a genuinely common understanding of its scope is needed. Documents in the form of definitions, progression points and assessment maps can only go so far. What teachers need to do the job properly is time to talk to each other. That is not going to happen while more and more expectations are placed on teachers and none are taken away.

      "Teachers need time to engage in widespread professional dialogue if major changes of this sort are to be successful."
      
      Andrew Hill, Carrum
      
      

    Complete Letters to the Editor of The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Higher Education Supplement
    
    
    
  • ALP tax plan for training
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Tax incentives would be offered by a federal Labor government to encourage parents and businesses to invest in training for "underpaid" apprentices.

    "Warning that apprentices must be given "real work to do instead of just sweeping the floor", Deputy Opposition Leader Jenny Macklin said a Labor government might also offer matched funds for training programs..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Siege engulfs schools
    by Milanda Rout, education reporter
    
    "More disturbing examples of parental violence have emerged amid calls for new laws to protect the state's schools.
    
    "The Herald Sun yesterday revealed that more and more schools had been forced to use intervention and trespass orders against aggressive and abusive parents.

    "The Opposition has called for separate laws carrying tougher penalties for offences committed on school grounds..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
    
    
    

• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Unis go for fees to cover union's demise
    by Laura Anderson, Political Editor
    
    "Voluntary student unionism has increased financial pressure on universities, forcing them to take on more full-fee paying students, the head of the state's most prestigious university believes..."
    
    Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Bullying is no game
    by Bruce McDougall
    
    "A shocking computer game about playground bullying is about to be unleashed on thousands of children around Australia.

    "Anti-bullying campaigners have slammed the "action adventure game" Bully, in which students settle their differences with a baseball bat.

    "In the US and in Britain Bully has provoked protest demonstrations, with critics labelling it a "Columbine simulator" after the 1999 high school massacre and demanding it be banned.

    "The game, produced by the makers of Grand Theft Auto and due for release next month, is promoted as an "action adventure in which you can rip your school apart"...
    
    Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
    
    
    
    

Thursday 21 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Push to test kindy kids on literacy (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt and Gabrielle Knowles
    
    "Four-year-olds should be tested on their language skills in preschool to identify children who may develop reading problems before they start Year 1, a crucial report prepared by one of WA’s top education experts says.
    
    "The Statewide review of literacy and numeracy also recommends that children at schools which perform poorly, who are usually from disadvantaged backgrounds, spend twice as long at kindergarten each week to make sure they do not fall behind. The proposals were contained in a preliminary report released for consultation yesterday. After 10 public meetings across the State, the task force will prepare a final report by the end of the year.
    
    "The review, chaired by University of WA education dean Bill Louden, lends weight to recent calls by the WA Primary Principals Association for full-time kindergarten classes but stops short of recommending that they be compulsory.
    
    "Professor Louden said pre-primary children who could not pick out sounds in words or had a limited vocabulary should be identified and given extra help.
    
    “We believe we could actually catch them before they fall if we know which kids don’t have the oral language that they’re going to need to learn to read,” he said. “It’s just a matter of giving teachers some extra tools, tools for screening, and then to know what to do.”
    
    "He recommended increasing the number of kindergarten and preprimary places in schools that had low participation and achievement in literacy and numeracy and boosting kindergarten provision from 11 to 25 hours a week in those schools.
    
    "Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich said she was open to all suggestions that would improve children’s literacy. She was not ideologically opposed to early assessment of children’s ability to sound out words.
    
    “The first lot of national testing occurs when the children are in Year 3,” she said. “By that time it can be too late for some children.”
    
    "Other recommendations included making sure graduate teachers had highly developed literacy and numeracy standards before they were employed.
    
    "Shadow minister for children Barbara Scott, who initiated WA’s fouryear-old kindergarten program, said the review’s focus on early literacy development should not be to the detriment of other important aspects of early childhood."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Off to a head start on early music (page 5)
    by Torrance Mendez
    
    Similar to story in today's Australian
    
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • State schools should 'pay more to good teachers'
    by Jewel Topsfield
    
    "State school principals should be given the power to attract and retain talented teachers by offering cash incentives that reward performance rather than years of service, according to federal Education Minister Julie Bishop.

    "Ms Bishop warned of an exodus of young, high-quality teachers to private schools, which have already started to embrace performance-based pay, unless state governments began to reward excellence rather than seniority.

    "She said other professions, such as law, attracted higher rates of pay based on merit, while teachers' career progress and pay was based almost exclusively on years in the job..."
    
    "I think artificial salary limits that don't recognise good teacher performance are damaging the profession by discouraging able people from entering or staying in the profession," Ms Bishop told The Age.

    "About one-quarter of teachers quit the profession within the first five years of working in schools, according to Federal Government figures.

    "I'd like to see greater autonomy on behalf of principals to have the opportunity to pay teachers they want to recruit or retain at their school," Ms Bishop said.

    "She said a system similar to that in the US could be adopted, where the Federal Government offered an incentive fund to particular schools that then identified the best teachers who deserved an increase in pay.

    "There are a range of options, from a bonus paid to salary packages, to teachers being employed under AWAs, which provide flexibility for performance-based incentives," Ms Bishop said

    "She said performance could be measured against a large set of criteria, including peer review, quality of lessons, professional development, mentoring of other teachers, contribution to the school outside the classroom and student performance.

    "I'm talking about relative improvements," Ms Bishop said. "If you had students performing below the state average in literacy and numeracy and you raised standards to the state average you could be rewarded."

    "Ms Bishop said she had raised the idea of performance-based pay in the media and would discuss it with the states and territories during negotiations for the next four-year funding agreement, which begins at the end of 2008..."
    
    "When asked if she would insist on performance-based pay as a condition of federal funding, Ms Bishop said: "Clearly that always is an option."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • Reading skills are in the genes, study shows
    by Chee Chee Leung
    
    "... A study of twins has found different genes influence whether a child can learn to read by phonics — the sounding out of words — or by recognising words visually.

    "Researchers say this will inform the debate about how children learn to read, following last year's national inquiry that recommended a greater emphasis on phonics.

    "This study gives valuable insights into these two reading processes that policymakers might like to use in developing policy about how reading is taught to children," said researcher Anne Castles, from the University of Melbourne..."

    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Catholic resignation results in gender row
    by David Rood
    
    "The resignation of a respected Catholic education leader has sparked accusations that her sex was one of the reasons she was pushed from her job.

    "Last month the director of Catholic Education, Susan Pascoe, resigned following a controversial restructure of Catholic education in Victoria.

    "Father Eric Hodgens, an eastern Melbourne suburbs parish priest, said Ms Pascoe had been given no alternative but to resign.

    "She was at a disadvantage as a woman in the patriarchal structure of the church," he said..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • We can all see this is spin
    by Paul Austin
    
    [The story is set in Victoria, but it could just as well be here.    Web]
    
    "They are on your TV, they are in your letterbox, they're at the bus shelter, they're splashed across the billboards you drive past on your way to work. Government-funded advertisements — some of which seem designed at least in part to remind us of what a great place Victoria is under the benign rule of Steve Bracks — are everywhere..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    



© The Melbourne Age



• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Students get lost in transition - Vinson
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Children moving from primary school to high school can face such difficulties adjusting to the change in culture that a specialist teacher should be appointed to each high school to help with the transition, an educational expert says.

    "Professor Tony Vinson, from the University of Sydney's faculty of education and social work, surveyed 457 primary and secondary school principals and found most agreed that the transition process was vitally important.

    "However, many principals complained that limited resources meant teachers did not have enough time to help pupils prepare for, and adjust to, the high-school environment.

    "Professor Vinson will present his findings at a public education conference this weekend. He will recommend that an extra teacher, or their salary equivalent, be assigned to each of the state's 397 high schools and 67 central schools..."
    
    "A closer collaboration could help prevent the loss of educational gains made in primary school. "So much of what has been learnt about students, such as how to bring out the best in students, is lost in a black hole between primary and secondary school," Professor Vinson said..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

    
    
    
• The Australian
  

• Lessons music to kids' brains
  by Mark Henderson
  
  "Music lessons may improve memory and learning ability in young children by promoting different patterns of brain development.

  "Researchers involved in a new study claim that after a year of musical training, children aged between four and six performed better at a standard memory test than children who were not taught music..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Rann plan for 'super schools'
  by Michelle Wiese Bockmann
  
  "The [South Australian] Rann Government will use public-private partnerships to fund six new "super schools" to open by 2011 in Adelaide's western and northern suburbs.

  "The schools, which the private sector would help finance at a cost of $134million, would replace 14 "poorly located" schools and three preschools that are now targeted for closure, saving up to $82 million..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  Editorial on this story in The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  

• USA Today
  

  • Harvard's endowment grows to $29.2 billion
    
    "BOSTON (AP) — Harvard University said Tuesday its endowment rose by 16.7% to US $29.2 billion [A $ 39.4 billion] in its latest fiscal year, extending its longtime growth despite recent changes in management..."
    
    Full story in USA Today at link
    
    
    
    

Friday 22 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • OBE blamed as State pays $50m relief teachers bill (page 5)
    by Keyrn McKinnon
    
    "Government schools spend nearly $50 million a year on relief teachers and the education union says the figure will go up as staff struggle to cope with outcomes-based education curriculum changes.
    
    "Figures released by the Education Department reveal primary schools had to cover for 115,202 relief teaching days last year, costing taxpayers $29.9 million. In high schools, relief teachers were called in for 70,192 days, costing $18.5 million. The total cost would cover at least one extra teacher working full-time at every State school..."
    
    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said more relief staff were needed because teachers were taking more sock leave as increasing workloads were putting them under stress.
    
    "They also were needed to cover for staff taking extra professional development days to try to understand outcomes-based education.
    
    "He warned that the situation would worsen as teacher shortages began to bite and schools found it increasingly difficult to find relief workers.
    
    "It is a double whammy effect because it means that teachers and administrators who are at the school are then required to have more face-to-face teaching time," Mr Keely said. "It means no internal planning time, stress levels increase, and they end up taking work home. There is a whole series of cascading effects once you get to a particular point of pressure on the system."
    
    "The Education Department has started refusing requests for leave without pay and asked some teachers to change long service leave dates to try to retain enough qualified staff in schools as a result of teacher shortages..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Schools ban ‘sexy’ exam (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    Two Catholic girls’ schools have slapped a ban on a Year 11 English exam paper because it contained an “explicitly sexual” image.
    
    The image, an advertisement for a men’s underwear brand, shows a man wearing underpants watching a young girl on television.
    
    Behind the TV another young girl sits at a kitchen table with her legs wide apart.
    
    The exam was put together by the South-West English Teachers Association for Year 11s studying the new outcomes-based education English course.
    
    Several schools bought copies of the paper. One has demanded its money back and another planned to do the same. It is understood that besides the sexual imagery, the schools objected because they believed the questions were vague.
    
    “There is a clear link between the scantily clad man, sexual arousal and the two young female images,” the head of English at one of the schools said.
    
    “We found the explicitly sexual nature of the ad quite disturbing for the intended audience of 16-year-old students of either gender.”
    
    SWETA president Mike McGann said he could not talk about specific exam questions without jeopardising students’ performance.
    
    Teachers from private and government schools who designed the paper had not seen anything wrong with the image. “It’s actually the sort of image you would see in a magazine any day,” he said.
    
    Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard confirmed one girls’ school had contacted them concerned about the image.
    
    Mr Dullard said individual principals could decide whether to use the exam.
    
    “You have to make a judgment to suit your students,” he said.
    
    “It might be more appropriate in a co-educational school. These things are in the eye of the beholder.”
    
    From The West Australian at link

 


Hop topic: The advert for men's underware as it appeared in the exam.
Original image at http://www.aussiebum.com/gallery/evolution/aussiebum_underwear_classic_red.htm



Marko's interpretation: The young girl is grieving for her pet hamster Fluffy who has mysteriously gone missing. Little does she know that her nasty big brother has hidden it in his underwear. But Rusty the dog knows where it is and is pointing at it trying to alert her. Fortunately this story has a happy ending when Fluffy mistakes big brother's wedding tackle for the carrot she left behind in her cage.





• The Geraldton Guardian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 6)
    
    
    • "The State Govt must start to create an educational environment that staff and students want to be a part of.

      "If it continues down its current path, many of WA's senior high schools will be ineffective, inefficient and highly unattractive to both teachers and students in just a few years time.

      "Premier Alan Carpenter has told me the Government will speak to the principal of Geraldton Senior College in an attempt to overcome major staff shortages.

      "But it might be too late.

      "The Government should be aware of the crises in many schools, yet it continues to ignore the dangerous warning signs of teachers resigning and taking stress leave.

      "It's an admission that this Government is not providing the teachers, subjects and resources needed to fulfil the requirements of running a senior high school.

      "I have had phone calls, letters and conversations with teachers, parents and students who are expressing continuing frustration at the Government's lack of planning, which has little regard to the personal consequences of the people at Geraldton Senior College.

      "I know that this problem is not exclusive to Geraldton. It is a major dilemma facing many regional and metropolitan Senior High Schools. I have been made aware that many students are not getting the appropriate preparation for their TEE exams because of the shortage of qualified and experienced teachers.

      "The National Party is calling on the Carpenter Government to rebuild the teaching profession. We want the Government to recognise that many teachers across the state have few career rewards and are poorly paid for the important work they do."

      Grant Woodhams MLA
      Member for Greenough
      
      
      

• The Hobart Mercury
  
  
• The need for literacy
  by Christopher Bantick
  
  "Concern voiced recently by the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce over school leavers who can't spell bears closer examination.
  
  "According to TCC employment education and training spokeswoman Jodie Stevenson, employers are frustrated by school leavers who present themselves for work but cannot spell, let alone show broader literacy and numeracy competence. Evidence suggests the TCC has a point. [emphasis added]

  "It is true employers are the end users of the education system, as Ms Stevenson pithily observed. It is also consistent that poor educational standards equate with unemployment. Is it reasonable that an employer will put on a young person who cannot spell, write clearly and correctly, read fluently and perform basic mathematical functions?

  "Spelling ability in today's children can in large part be traced to the way they are taught. In one sense that is not the fault of the teachers, because they were not taught spelling either. In the 1960s and 70s, spelling was not seen as an educational priority, something traceable to the influential philosophy of American educator John Dewey.

  "Deweyism emphasised the child-centred approach to education and was a reaction to what was seen as the mind-numbing rote learning that had dominated the English-speaking world since the 1930s. The result was a generation of teachers who were not taught grammar or spelling. They are teachers in Tasmanian classrooms today. [emphasis added]

  "Research undertaken by Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan, economists in the research school of social sciences at the Australian National University, and released last month showed that teachers who did their training 20 years ago were more literate than those undertaking study two decades later..."
  
  "In a spelling test undertaken by Educational Assessment Australia on 110,000 New South Wales children, the results were clear. When compared to Singaporean children who learn English as a second language, Singaporean children significantly outstripped Australian children..."
  
  "Why Singaporean children spell better comes down to the way they have been taught -- at least, that is the view of EAA director Professor Peter Knapp. Singaporean children are taught more formal phonetic spelling and drilled in words, whereas in Australia the "wallpaper" method is preferred. That is when words are stuck on walls and the children are expected to absorb them by sight.

  "I think it's definitely an issue of pedagogy and the absence of anything explicit in our syllabus documents," Professor Knapp said.

  "Nationally, the decline in spelling is even more marked. In a study published last month in the Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist it was noted that South Australian children, who are not taught phonics but the wallpaper method, have declined 14 per cent in spelling proficiency over 15 years..."
  
  "In the Tasmanian context, is it time to return to formal spelling lists and formal spelling instruction? That was something former NSW premier Bob Carr saw as a necessity in 1998. In the back-to-basics push Carr instituted, a gazetted time was allocated every day for school children to practise spelling from set lists.

  "Tasmanian Education Minister David Bartlett has won wide community approval and support from within the education community for his revising of Essential Learnings. That has been evident in the release of the Tasmanian Curriculum, which has traditional subjects such as English, maths and science as its foundation principles..." [emphasis added]

  Full story in The Hobart Mercury at link
  
  
  

• The New York Times
  
  
  • N.Y. English Scores Drop Sharply in 6th Grade
    by David M Herszenhorn
    
    "The share of students in New York State who are reading and writing at grade level drops sharply between the fifth and sixth grades and keeps declining through middle school, according to the first results of a new state testing system adopted to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind law’s requirements for tracking year-to-year progress.
    
    "The scores for the 2005-6 school year, which were released yesterday by the state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills, also showed an increase in the proportion of students in the state performing at the lowest level..."
    
    "The scores offered a sobering portrait for virtually all types of school districts in the state. Although wealthy suburban districts continued to far outperform poor urban ones, the decline in performance from the fifth through eighth grades was equally apparent in the richer locales, with the trend holding across Westchester and Nassau Counties as surely as in the Bronx or Buffalo and rural counties like Allegany.

    Statewide, yesterday’s results showed 69 percent of third graders meeting reading and writing standards, compared with 68.6 percent of fourth graders, 67.1 percent of fifth graders, 60.4 percent of sixth graders, 56.4 percent of seventh graders, and 49.3 percent of eighth graders. Across all grades, 61.5 percent of students met the standards..."
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link
    
    
    

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Report Calls for Improvement in K-8 Science Education
    by Valerie Strauss
    
    "A report released yesterday by a committee on science education says K-8 classes are in "urgent need" of improvement, just as schools must for the first time assess students on the subject under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

    The report by the National Research Council, the main operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, said that the past 15 years of reform have produced few positive results and that science education too often is based on faulty notions of how children learn.

    ""We are underestimating what young children are capable of as students of science -- the bar is almost always set too low," the report said. "Moreover, the current organization of science curriculum and instruction does not provide the kind of support for science learning that results in deep understanding of scientific ideas and an ability to engage in the practices of science."

    "The report, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Merck Institute for Science Education, reiterates concerns that have been expressed for years by business leaders and educators who fear the country is in danger of losing its scientific superiority because of a poorly trained workforce. It also cites the continuing achievement gap between white and Asian students and economically disadvantaged black and Latino students.
    
    "Current teaching approaches are insufficient to launch students on a path to participation in a society infused with job opportunities in scientific and technical fields," said Richard A. Duschl, professor of science education at Rutgers University and chairman of a 14-person committee that wrote the report..."
    
    "To provide a more comprehensive science education, the committee on science education said that educators should concentrate on core concepts central to the understanding of science rather than the many strands that now exist in school systems around the country.

    "Science standards that have driven reforms for the past 15 years are too broad, the report said, and science education fails to link concepts within a single year and from grade to grade...
    
    "I think [the report] should be required reading for anyone who cares about our kids and how they learn science," said Gerald F. Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association. "There are too many ideas in the [science] standards. That just throws a monkey wrench in the system. If we have some core ideas, we can really invest in the system."

    "One longtime battle about science education involves method: direct versus self-inquiry and hands-on learning. The report comes down on both sides, saying that one does not work without the other.
    

    "Teaching content alone is not likely to lead to proficiency in science, nor is engaging in inquiry experiences devoid of science content," the report said..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    Similar story at CNN.com
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Expert warns of colonial divide in education
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Australia is repeating the mistakes of the American and British education systems by adopting a class-based model in which public schooling is treated as a charity for the poor, a leading international social commentator warns.

    "John Ralston Smith, an award-winning Canadian author who will address a public education forum in Sydney today, says Australia is in danger of dismantling the public education system which has underpinned its economic success.

    "With a third of high school students in private schools, Australia was in danger of returning to a colonial-style education model, in which the elite are primarily buying social class, as opposed to a better education.

    "What you are seeing at 32 per cent [participation rate in private schools] is a critical mass of people who are in the elite or who wish to be in the elite, pulling themselves out of participation in the public good. And that is a problem," Mr Saul said.

    "The relatively minor benefits of networking and status had come at a sacrifice to a broader experience with all sections of society.

    "There was no evidence that the public school system had failed, according to Mr Saul, the author of The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World. "You hear that public education is failing and that we need more choice - which is code for we need more private education," he said.

    "If you get to a critical mass level of people in the private system, the public system starts not working for the simple reason that the elite are absent.

    "Once the elite aren't there, you are into a 19th century class- and charity-based model in which the elite say, 'Wouldn't it be nice if the poorer people had a better public education system?', but I'm sure not sending my kid there."..
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    

• The Independent
  
  
  • Testing blamed for rise in primary school truancy
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "Truancy rates have soared to a record level, government figures show. A total of 1,399,197 pupils, one in five of all state school children, skipped lessons last year ­ a rise of 433,797 in 10 years..."
    
    "This is despite nearly £1bn being spent on government initiatives to tackle the problem ­ including threats to jail the parents of persistent offenders..."
    
    "Teachers' leaders and opposition MPs claimed pupils were being " disenfranchised" from school by the Government's insistence on sticking to its current testing regime. "Pupil disaffection is certainly part of the issue," said Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers.

    "Primary school pupils as well as secondary are extremely stressed and some quite disenfranchised from their school because of the high stakes testing the Government is insisting upon."...
    
    Full story in The Independent at link

    
    
  • Advisers censured over timing of results
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    [Poor primary results were issued on the same day as improved GCSE results, apparently in an attempt to "bury them": see article in Tuesday's Guardian.]
    

    "Special advisers to the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, were censured yesterday for putting pressure on senior civil servants to publish poor national curriculum test results on the same day as GCSEs.

    "The Statistics Commission told the education department (DfES) it must protect civil servants from interference. Professor David Rhind, chairman of the Statistics Commission, said departmental e-mails indicated "some senior officials and advisers believed that their own views on the date of release for the statistics were relevant".

    "This followed an e-mail from Andrew McCully, DfES director of school standards, to a press officer, saying special advisers "positively wanted" the results to be released together..."

    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    
  • Parents need to fight this 'dumb-ass' culture
    by Fran Abrams
    
    "The drama teacher eyed them quizzically. "What is this thing...?" he asked. "Why is it cool to be dumb?.."
    
    "Pressed by their teacher, they were quite explicit about their reasons. If you were clever, you did not hang out with the best people. In the tight social hierarchy within each classroom, those in the top stratum were not brainy..."
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Failing schools face permanent takeover by trusts
    by Debbie Andalo
    
    "New trust schools will have the power to permanently take over failing schools and appoint a new headteacher and other staff under the government's latest education reforms, it has emerged..."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    
    
  • Online register to name poor school inspectors
    by Debbie Andalo
    
    "Headteachers are hitting back at school inspectors by naming and shaming them if they fail to come up to scratch..."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    
    
    
    
• The Telegraph
  
  
  • Grading change 'lowered bar for a first'
    by Liz Lightfoot, Education Editor
    
    Students were given first- class degrees for work that would have merited an upper second in the past, according to a report into this year's grading.

    The proportion of firsts awarded in history at Liverpool University more than doubled to 37 students instead of the 14 who would have gained the degree under the former classification system.

    Across the university, the proportion of students receiving first- or upper-second class degrees rose from 63 per cent last year to 72 per cent. Prof Alan Smithers, a former professor of education at the university, said the increase was "firm evidence of lowering the bar and reducing the value of a first"...
    
    Full story in The Telegraph at link
    
    
    

• CNN
  
  
  • Yale University to post courses on Web for free
    
    "BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Yale University said on Wednesday it will offer digital videos of some courses on the Internet for free, along with transcripts in several languages, in an effort to make the elite private school more accessible.

    "While Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others already offer course material online without charge, Yale is the first to focus on free video lectures, the New Haven, Connecticut-based school said.

    "The 18-month pilot project will provide videos, syllabi and transcripts for seven courses beginning in the 2007 academic year. They include "Introduction to the Old Testament," "Fundamentals of Physics" and "Introduction to Political Philosophy."..
    
    Full story at CNN Online at link

 

Saturday – Sunday, 23 – 24 September

• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Editorial: Deconstructing the loony fringe
    
    A real education is the right of every Australian child
    
    "Over the past few years, The Weekend Australian has argued unashamedly that when it comes to the teaching of English, every school student deserves the best. We believe that to develop aspirations and to achieve them, young Australians must be taught how to think and write, not what to think and write. Yet, instead of learning to value great literature, the infection of schools with postmodernist theory sees many pupils wasting their time "deconstructing" children's picture books, movie posters or television sitcoms to "unpack" concealed ideology. Jewels of Western literature such as Shakespeare are dissected under Marxist, feminist or racial analysis rather than according to the universal truths such as love, hate, pride, ambition and jealousy they represent. The Australian Association for the Teaching of English apparently disagrees with our stand. The current issue of the association's journal, English in Australia, carries a six-page critique by David Freesmith, an English master in his first teaching assignment at Prince Alfred College, an exclusive Adelaide private school. Mr Freesmith, himself a product of the critical literacy approach to education - postmodernist analysis in another cloak - "deconstructs" our arguments for a politically neutral classroom environment that places knowledge and objective truth above outdated and imprisoning ideology. Mr Freesmith argues that our campaign for a "neutral" curriculum and a "commonsense" return to a classical pedagogy, including the politically neutral teaching of canonical authors from Greek tragedy to Shakespeare and from Jane Austen to David Malouf, masks an ideological motive of "promoting conservative, Eurocentric and nationalistic agendas". We applaud the fact that our stand is allied with the paradigm endorsed by the vast majority of thinking Australians rather than with the lunatic fringe. We think that zone is occupied by the theorists driving English syllabuses designed in some cases to allow students to pass final-year English without reading a single masterpiece. We are unabashed fans of the modern Western liberal democracy, the literary canon and Judeo-Christian values.

    "According to Mr Freesmith, this newspaper's "tactic" of ridiculing examples of absurd postmodernist jargon lacks critical rigour. Nonsense. We believe all parents will agree that prominent teacher-educator Wayne Martino's argument for the conceptualisation of the classroom as a sociopolitical site where alternative readings to oppressive gender hierarchies may be made available to students is one that has no place in our education system. We also think parents will be discomfited by Mr Freesmith's reiteration of the "well established" idea - with which we disagree strongly - that the teaching of reading and writing is inevitably ideological. We are similarly unperturbed by his unease at our belief that introducing young minds to Western civilisation's imaginative inheritance through its greatest authors is fundamental to their education. And we reject his charge that in "post-stolen-generation Australia" support for the study of a Western literary canon amounts to cultural exclusivity. Shakespeare, for instance, is an author with universal relevance and is studied throughout the world.

    "The Weekend Australian invited the respected Queensland educationist Kenneth Wiltshire to respond to Mr Freesmith's assault on this newspaper and his defence of cultural literacy. Professor Wiltshire, whose comments are published alongside Mr Freesmith's in today's Inquirer section, observes that schooling in Australia in 2006 is suffering, with information replacing knowledge, no effective monitoring of teacher or curriculum standards, generations of Labor and Coalition state governments in the grip of reform-resistant teachers' unions and low morale among the government school teachers who educate two-thirds of Australian children. This dismal combination is seeing public schooling hemorrhaging as a constant stream of parents march their offspring to private schools. Unhappily, Mr Freesmith's intervention indicates that edu-babble has infected the private school sector as well. Professor Wiltshire also questions the attack on this newspaper's supposed political motivation in exposing the unacceptable state of schooling across the country, arguing that Australians are richer for the insights provided.

    "What role, then, for cultural literacy - with its mantra of deconstructing texts, no longer considering texts to be timeless, universal or unbiased, focusing on the beliefs of the author and working for "social equity" and change rather than understanding - in schooling in 2006? A largely negative one, according to Professor Wiltshire. He is concerned that the morbid rigour of constantly criticising, questioning and dissecting works in a framework in which all is relative and there are no absolutes is inappropriate for intellectually immature school students. If you go on deconstructing long enough, he writes, "you will become a marshmallow". And he describes as a recipe for laziness, indifference and an unwillingness to identify common values an approach that insists Shakespeare can only be understood through a prism of gender or racism.

    "Professor Wiltshire points out that, as a robust member of the fourth estate, The Australian does a fair share of critiquing so must expect to receive the same treatment. We endorse this view, as we do his conclusion that on this issue the reality of our education systems backs this newspaper's stand. And we look forward to the inevitable passing of critical literacy into the large well of dumped educational fads."
    
    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • States failing the nation's schools [lead article]
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "State Labor governments have ceded control of curriculum to individual schools and have failed to monitor the quality of teaching because they are captives of the teachers' unions.

    "In a vigorous attack on the state of the nation's education system, Australia's representative on the executive of the UN education body UNESCO, Kenneth Wiltshire, said the states had relinquished any effective system of measuring the standard of what is taught in schools and the performance of teachers.

    "Professor Wiltshire, the architect of the Queensland school curriculum under the Goss government, said school inspectors were abolished long ago but an alternative way of monitoring schools had not been introduced.

    "Current Labor state governments are usually under the influence of the teachers' unions so it is no wonder that teachers remain one of the very few professions who do not have external reviews," he said.

    "He said Western Australia "with its failed experiment on outcomes-based education, and Queensland, with absolutely no external assessment in the entire P-12 spectrum, have no real way of knowing what standards their schools are achieving".

    "Professor Wiltshire also supported The Weekend Australian's stance against teaching school students critical literacy in English, saying deconstruction belonged at honours level in university. "If you go on deconstructing for long enough you will become a marshmallow or a jelly," he said. "School is for basics and knowledge."
    
    "He said Shakespeare was studied by "just about every other Western country and many eastern ones as well, despite the claims of the critical literacy movement that he goes in and out of fashion and is 'censored' by curriculum authorities".

    "If Shakespeare is too difficult for most students in an English subject, would we perhaps create an alternative subject so students could study the comedies in the 'easier' subject and the tragedies in another," he writes in an article in The Weekend Australian today. "Should the Diaries of Anne Frank be replaced with the Emails of Tom Cruise or the Text Messages of Shane Warne?"
    
    "Professor Wiltshire said school curriculums failed to detail the key knowledge students should learn, instead listing competencies called outcomes. This was largely responsible for the exodus of students out of government schools into the independent system. "Our school curriculums have strayed far from being knowledge-based," he said. "Indeed, 'knowledge' has been replaced by 'information'. It is little wonder that the Howard Government's attempted reforms of schooling have gained traction with the Australian public."... [emphasis added]
    
    "The Weekend Australian's support for neutral, apolitical teaching of English is criticised in the current journal of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, by high school English teacher David Freesmith. He accuses the newspaper of mounting a "political and ideological" attack on critical literacy and of failing to properly understand it..."
    
    "In his article, Mr Freesmith argues that teaching reading and writing is "inevitably ideological at some level and (has) significant political implications". He refers to writers who argue that "a skills approach to literacy can 'generate failure' among minority and working-class students", can "entrench prejudices" and so is inherently political..."
    
    "But Professor Wiltshire said the critical literacy movement was "at best negative and at worst nihilistic".

    "This sort of thinking is a recipe for laziness, indifference and unwillingness to identify standards and common values," he said. "It inevitably leads to a dumbing down of curriculum and therefore the students themselves ... School is for basics and knowledge, certainly accompanied by critical thinking but not in a milieu where all is relative and there are no absolutes."

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday the states and territories should listen to the experts and develop "more soundly based" curriculums. She said literacy and numeracy tests revealed an alarming number of students completed their schooling without strong skills in these areas.

    "There's a need for a greater focus on the fundamentals of subjects like English before students can be expected to deal with more advanced concepts," she said.

    "Professor Wiltshire said it was not only governments but also the community, including parents and industry, that decided curriculum and the challenge ahead was to define the core knowledge all students should learn.

    "That's the core curriculum, that's what we should agree upon as core curriculum, certainly the basis of knowledge, what a person needs to function in society, to be a citizen," he said."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Subject for complaint
    Kevin Donnelly says many educationists remain in denial about falling standards
    
    "Is the campaign against political correctness in education and the destructive influence of critical literacy and postmodern theory on subjects such as history, literature and science justified?

    "In the past two years, The Australian has provided example after example of the way the cultural Left has taken the long march through the education system in its attempt to change society by overthrowing the traditional academic curriculum.

    "As revealed early last year, Wayne Sawyer, then editor of the national English teachers journal English in Australia, argued the re-election of the Howard Government was evidence that teachers had failed to properly teach students how to think, since many young people, according to Sawyer, made the wrong decision by voting for John Howard. The solution? Sawyer argued that English teachers must redouble their efforts to teach critical literacy, an approach to reading that analyses texts in terms of power relationships, especially through the politically correct prism of sex, ethnicity and class. [emphasis added]

    "As a result, instead of valuing the moral and aesthetic quality of literary greats, students are instructed, in the words of the Queensland curriculum, to deconstruct Wordsworth's poetry from an "eco-critical" perspective and Shakespeare's Macbeth in terms of "patriarchal concerns with order and gender". With history, students are told that interpretation is subjective and relative to one's cultural and social position, and the subject is reduced to studying issues or themes.

    "No wonder many students leave school with a fragmented and disjointed understanding, knowing more about feminism, peace studies and multiculturalism than they do about the narrative associated with Australia's birth as a nation.

    "Even the hard sciences have fallen victim to postmodern claptrap. Advocates of outcomes-based education say that Western science cannot be privileged, as science - you guessed it - is a socio-cultural product, putting faith healing and astrology on the same footing as Euclidean geometry and Pythagoras's theorem.

    "Given the public's right to know and the billions invested in education, one may think the debate about curriculum is one we have to have. Not so, according to the cultural Left brigade controlling Australian education..."
    
    "The first stage in remedying a problem is to admit there is something wrong. Not only are the so-called experts in control of Australia's education system in denial but - given many are responsible for the mess - without further public scrutiny and action there appears little likelihood that anything will change."

    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • In defence of the true values of learning
    Our students are being taught English with a hollowed-out core, argues Kenneth Wiltshire
    
    "The Australian newspaper, its stable of education writers and its editor come in for a full-frontal assault in a recent article in the journal English in Australia. Leading the charge is the critical literacy movement whose representative, David Freesmith, says the national broadsheet has accused the movement of crimes that are political and pedagogical. It has attacked the movement through texts that are conservative, Eurocentric and nationalistic, using ideologically driven arguments that pretend to be neutral and objective views of common sense.

    "More specifically the newspaper is charged with accusing critical literacy of indoctrinating children to the political agenda of the cultural Left, leaving schools in dereliction of their duty to foster a love of reading and causing a decline in basic literacy standards. The editor and his team are ideologically motivated and culturally laden in this mission; as, for example, when they identify what is good literature, mentioning the jewels of Western civilisation as revealed in the works of Shakespeare and Dickens, which the newspaper dares to call canons of our culture.

    "What are we to make of these criticisms? They have to be analysed against a number of benchmarks, the most relevant being the principles for development of sound school curriculum as espoused and practised in most developed democracies.

    "The common international starting point is that schools have a duality of purpose: the personal social and intellectual development of individuals to fulfil their potential; and the meeting of societal needs and aspirations.

    "Education exists for the benefit of the individual, society and the economy. School is compulsory, reflecting the belief of even a consummate liberal, such as John Stuart Mill, that individuals cannot make a choice about the desirability of education until they have a minimum level of education. Then there are the benefits to security, tolerance and social cohesion that should flow from having a nation of educated, as opposed to uneducated, citizens. It is the curriculum that is central to these goals, and especially literacy, which is the key that unlocks all the compartments of the curriculum treasure chest.

    "In almost all developed democracies the school curriculum is anchored in a set of shared values. There is a centrality of knowledge in which content is not subordinate to process. A core curriculum is defined that is compulsory for all teaching and learning, but flexibility is provided for teaching to difference in geographical, cultural and capability circumstances. Comprehensive mandatory syllabuses are provided, plus a range of resource material to augment knowledge and enhance the learning experience. The curriculum content has much that remains immutable but it is dynamic and responsive to change.

    "Teachers are the crucial factor in the curriculum teaching and learning process, as is the magical relationship between teacher and student throughout the pathways of lifelong learning. Methods of assessment that allow full evaluation and accountability of teaching and learning are essential and are viewed not as a threat but positively, as an aid to improvement, and the generation of trust between educators and students and their families and supporters.

    "The accused team at The Australian would score well on advocacy of these basic principles, which appear to have underpinned their critique of education in recent years.

    "The focus of the debate is really the core curriculum and who decides its content. In federal systems, school education is the constitutional responsibility of the states, but national governments play a key role in setting national standards in a range of measures, including core curriculum, if only to achieve adherence to national values and goals (and generally to provide much of the resourcing)..."
    
    "The attack on The Australian also needs to be seen in the context of the contemporary situation of schooling in Australia. That in itself is not a pretty sight. Our school curriculums have strayed far from being knowledge-based. We have schoolteachers who themselves represent a cohort of almost three generations of this situation. The younger ones recognise their deficiencies and plead for good resource materials to allow them to compensate for failings they acknowledge. Indeed, knowledge has been replaced by information and it is just too easy for a teacher to teach by setting a weekly assignment and herding students on to the internet in a process that passes for research.

    "Lower pay and falling status of teaching as a career compound the situation, as reflected in the substantial lowering of the tertiary entrance scores to enter teaching degrees. Many members of the community each day load more of their responsibilities and problems on to the schools.

    "School principals have been forced to become managers rather than curriculum leaders, which used to be their calling. State governments have lost their critical central mass of expert curriculum developers and, to get by and keep the peace, have decentralised much curriculum choice and development to schools while weakening their curriculum accountability. School inspectors were abolished long ago and there are no alternative methods of providing the effective monitoring and positive reinforcement and advice to schools they used to provide.

    "Western Australia, with its failed experiment in outcomes-based education, and Queensland, with absolutely no external assessment in the entire preparatory year to Year 12 spectrum, have no way of knowing what standards their schools are achieving..." [emphasis added]

    Kenneth Wiltshire is the J.D. Story professor of public administration at the University of Queensland business school. He is a former special adviser to the Australian National Training Authority, chairman of the review of the Queensland School Curriculum and the reviewer of the National Board of Employment, Education and Training.
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Critics have loaded agenda
    Teacher David Freesmith responds to criticism in The Australian of teaching practice
    
    "Since a shift towards critical literacy emerged in school English curriculums in the 1980s, there has been a strong dissenting voice in Australia and overseas accusing critical literacy of crimes both political and pedagogical. In 2005 The Australian renewed this attack through a series of declamatory articles that would benefit greatly from a critical literacy approach. Through a discursive analysis of these texts, conservative, Eurocentric and nationalistic ideologies and consequences may be identified within the arguments of these ostensibly neutral and objective voices of "common sense"...
    
    [The article is an edited extract from The Politics of the English Curriculum: Ideology in the Campaign Against Critical Literacy in The Australian, by David Freesmith of Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, published in the latest issue of English in Australia, the journal of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English: http://www.aate.org.au/ ]
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Teachers take merit pay
    by James Madden
    
    "Teachers at an exclusive Sydney school have become the first to vote in favour of a merit-based pay scheme, which will reward them for professional competency rather than years in the job.

    "Under the terms of the industrial agreement, which will come into effect next year at Abbotsleigh, a private girls' school at Wahroonga on Sydney's north shore, teachers must meet "professional standards" before being considered for a salary increase.

    "The new pay structure, which replaces the current 13-step wage scale with a three-band system, was drafted by the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, which represents about 300 independent schools employing more than 12,000 teachers..."

    "The agreement will see graduate teachers on a band-1 rate earn a salary of $54,652. They would spend a minimum of one year and a maximum of three years before being elevated to band 2, and a salary of $65,897. After five years, band-2 teachers can seek an upgrade to band 3, and a salary of $76,729.

    "Additional bonuses can be paid to band-3 teachers who demonstrate further levels of classroom excellence.

    "It is believed that before the end of the year, teachers at dozens of other independent schools in NSW will vote on whether to adopt the new industrial agreement."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Parents without perks
    Australian mothers can look enviously at Europe's publicly funded maternity leave and child care, but is it economically viable? Natasha Bita reports
    
    "Juggling two small children and an equally demanding career, Chiara Brigante appreciates the perks of Italian mamma-hood. Now based in Florence, the Melbourne-born fashion manager was obliged by Italian law to stop work two months before her children were born and to stay home with them for another five months, all on full pay..."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Valuing early childhood
      
      "Australians should be concerned that their state governments spend less on preschool education than 19 other OECD countries ("Preschool spending lowest in OECD”, 18/9) – but not because we’re losing some sort of competition with Norway, Denmark, France and Mexico (the top four) or South Korea and Italy (18th and 19th). Instead, we should be concerned because we risk losing a better future for Australia (ie, our children and grandchildren).

      "The evidence is now overwhelming: investment in early childhood health and education yields impressive returns. For example, in a recent article in Science (30/6), Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman, with empirical evidence from long-term studies of child development, estimates that for every $1 invested in early childhood health and education, there is a future return of $8 in the form of reduced costs of crime, welfare and child abuse and neglect. Countries at the top of the OECD league are there because they know this."
      
      Professor James Chisholm, School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia

    Complete Letters to the Editor of The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Catholic schools deal
    
    "Catholic school teachers have lifted a ban on before and after-school activities imposed two weeks ago after accepting a pay offer of up to 13.5 per cent over two years.
    
    "The Catholic Education Office has also agreed to negotiate on limits to class sizes and workloads."
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Stop doing the homework, overzealous parents warned [lead story]
    by Adele Horin and Anna Patty
    
    "As exam season looms, parents risk damaging their children and robbing their self-esteem by rewriting their essays or trying to do their study for them, education experts have warned.

    "Some Sydney schools are sending notes home to warn parents off their children's homework, and at least one high school is requiring students to complete assignments in class time, to ensure they are doing their own work.

    "Parents who rewrite the history essay, polish the English assignment, and say "We got a good mark for science," are in danger of undermining their children's confidence and causing long-term psychological problems, child psychologists warn.

    "Unless the children are geniuses, their work is hardly ever going to be as good as an educated parent's, and so they grow up feeling whatever they produce is never going to hit the mark," said Beverley Thirkell, an educational psychologist on the northern beaches.

    "In a highly competitive world, the rise of the overinvolved "parachute" parent who rescues their children from difficulties is receiving widespread attention in Australia, Britain and the US..."
    
    "Schools are culpable for putting pressure on parents to get involved, according to one school principal, Bob Heath. They set too much homework, and work that is too difficult. Mr Heath's school, Eastern Fleurieu, on Adelaide's fringe, has a "no homework" policy for years 5 to 9. The research shows little educational benefit of homework, he says. "But homework is a significant contributor to conflict in a lot of homes; children are either banished to their rooms with homework they struggle to do; or parents help them. Help is a good thing but when parents take over the homework it achieves nothing for the child."

    "Alfie Kohn, the author of a new book, The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, says American children spend 50 per cent more time on homework than in 1981. Yet research shows in high school the benefits start to decline after two hours a night, while there is little benefit in primary school..."

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Ask those who judge best: students
    by Adele Horin
    
    "If you want to know which teachers in a school deserve merit pay, ask the students. By middle primary school, they are reliable judges of who is a competent teacher. And they do not confuse popularity with skill, though the two often go hand in hand.

    "Merit pay for teachers is hugely contentious and bitterly opposed by the teacher unions, but the Federal Government is continuing to push the idea. This week the federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, said state school principals should be given the power to attract and retain talented teachers by offering cash incentives that reward performance rather than years of service. "I think artificial salary limits that don't recognise good teacher performance are damaging the profession," Ms Bishop said.

    "The critics have raised many persuasive arguments against merit pay - it will sow jealousy in the staffroom, foster unhealthy competition and wreck teacher camaraderie and the school ethos. It also puts undue emphasis on money as a motivator of performance and the funds could best be spent elsewhere.

    "But the argument relied on by most critics is the one I find least persuasive: that it is too difficult to measure teacher performance. We can't give extra rewards to good teachers because there is no fair way of determining who good teachers are. We will measure the wrong things - like exam results - and miss the important contribution teachers make in the other dimensions of a child's life.

    "Well, maybe if the Federal Government determines the dreaded key performance indicators, and puts undue emphasis on measurable outcomes such as exam results, the process will turn out to be divisive and unfair. But I don't buy the argument that it is too difficult to judge teacher performance, not if you agree to seek the views of those who are the best judges: the students.

    "Before you throw up your hands in horror, imagining that students given power to evaluate teacher performance will be vindictive, abusive and misguided, the procedure is used in at least one school, SCEGGS Darlinghurst, with none of these outcomes.

    "Student evaluation of teachers is not linked to merit pay at SCEGGS - indeed the principal, Jenny Allum, is still grappling with the broader arguments for and against merit pay, and, like a lot of us, has not yet made up her mind.

    "But when it comes to using student evaluations as a tool in judging the effectiveness of teachers, she has no doubt.

    "She says it is a "fantastic" tool. Students have proven to be "absolutely good judges". They are perceptive and constructive in what they write. In their evaluation many use techniques learnt from good teachers, commenting on a teacher's strengths and on aspects that could be improved.

    "Brought in about eight years ago over some staff opposition and anxiety, the student evaluations have been retained because they provide on average an accurate insight into what goes on in the classroom. Teachers feared that the colleague who brought cakes to class and played guitar would win a popularity contest over the teacher who brought discipline to an unruly class and expected a lot.

    "It was not borne out; kids are smarter than that," Allum says. She cannot recall an occasion when a student abused the system, for example, by assigning a teacher the lowest rating on all 18 criteria, and then writing in the comment section the equivalent of "Ms Smith sucks"...
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • A vibrant public system will safeguard values

      "John Ralston Saul's observations of where our education system is headed should be heeded by state and federal governments ("Expert warns of colonial divide in education", September 22). Australia has managed to be a relatively inclusive and classless society for many years, avoiding the pitfalls of class divisions based on birth (as in Britain) and on race or urban location (as in the US).

      "Although not all public schools may be up to the standard some wealthy parents expect, the Federal Government should not be putting the money we all pay in tax into subsidising already well-off private schools at the expense of their public counterparts. Isn't the role of government to ensure public needs such as free education are equitably provided to all, to the best of its ability?

      "We need more investment in public schools and less wasteful promotion of "choice" for an exclusive segment of the population if we are to remain a classless, liberal society in future generations. They may only be children now, but in a few decades they will be running our nation."

      Brad Ruting Castle Hill
      
      

    • "Robert Menzies, John Howard's hero, supported our world-class public education system and used it to equip Australians with the skills to get to where we are today. Yet the continued message from the Federal Government is: don't risk your children's education in the valueless public school system. Meanwhile, the State Government continues to underfund public education.

      "All too often, chickens come home to roost for those educated in over-privileged circumstances, as they cannot draw on the kinds of skills that public school kids pick up early, such as resourcefulness, resilience and an acceptance of others from all backgrounds.

      "It's time Howard, Morris Iemma and others stop rabbiting on about Australian values and be brought to account for their own set of values. No matter where children go to school, a healthy public education system is crucial to Australia's continuing development. The community needs to start recognising this and vote accordingly."

      Deborah Hurst Lindfield
      

    Complete Letters to the Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• The Sunday Washington Post
  
  
  • Audit Finds Ethical Lapses In U.S. Reading Program
    by Ben Feller, Associated Press
    
    "A scorching internal review of the Bush administration's billion-dollar-a-year reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted.

    "The government audit is unsparing in its view that the Reading First program has been beset by conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests that the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use. It also says that program review panels were stacked with people who shared the director's views and that only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money..."
    
    "Reading First aims to help young children read through scientifically proven programs, and the department considers it a jewel of No Child Left Behind, Bush's education law..."
    
    "But from the start, the program has been dogged by accusations of impropriety, leading to several ongoing audits. The new report from the Office of Inspector General -- an independent arm of the Education Department -- calls into question the program's credibility.

    "The ranking Democrat on the House education committee was furious. "They should fire everyone who was involved in this," said Rep. George Miller (Calif.). ". . . This was an intentional effort to corrupt the process..."

    "The report does not name [program director] Doherty, referring to him as the Reading First director. It says he repeatedly used his influence to steer money toward states that used a reading approach he favored called Direct Instruction (DI)..."

    Full report in The Sunday Washington Post at link
    
    
    
  • Montgomery Grading System Gets Mixed Marks
    by Lori Aratani
    
    Surveys Show New Policy's Emphasis on 'Reteach/Reassess' Confuses Teachers and Students
    
    "More than three years after the Montgomery County public school system unveiled a method for grading students that was designed to eliminate grade inflation and ensure consistency across the county, officials are still trying to fine-tune their standards..."
    
    "The surveys found that students and teachers have had difficulty understanding the "reteach/reassess" component of the policy, which allows students to retake certain tests and exams. Teachers said they are not always certain when to give students the chance to redo an assignment or retake a test. Students said not all teachers let them redo assignments.
    
    "Most striking in the student surveys was the proportion of students who said their grades fell as a result of the policy: more than 40 percent. Forty-six percent did not think the grades on their report cards reflected the quality of their work.
    
    "In March 2003, the Board of Education approved a new policy for grading students. The move came amid concerns about grade inflation and inconsistencies in how students were evaluated. Standards varied so much across the system that work receiving an A at one school might get a D at another campus.

    "Educators also found that grades reflected more than academic achievement. In some instances, students were able to boost their marks with extra credit earned by covering their textbooks or contributing canned goods to the holiday food drive.

    "Superintendent Jerry D. Weast pushed for a system that would maintain high standards, be consistent and ensure that the grades students receive measure academic achievement only..."

    Full report in The Sunday Washington Post at link
    
    
    
    
• The Wall Street Journal
  
  
  • Review & Outlook
    No Teacher Left Behind
    
    A new report shows educators to be woefully unqualified.
    
    "Schools of education have gotten bad grades before. Yet there are some truly shocking statistics about teacher training in this week's report from the Education Schools Project. According to "Educating School Teachers," three-quarters of the country's 1,206 university-level schools of education don't have the capacity to produce excellent teachers. More than half of teachers are educated in programs with the lowest admission standards (often accepting 100% of applicants) and with "the least accomplished professors." When school principals were asked to rate the skills and preparedness of new teachers, only 40% on average thought education schools were doing even a moderately good job.

    "The Education Schools Project was begun in 2001, with foundation funding, to analyze how America trains its educators and to offer constructive criticism. Its report card this week is significant for two reasons. First, it is based on four years of broad and methodical research, including surveys of school principals and of the deans, faculty members and graduates of education schools. In addition, researchers studied programs and practices at 28 institutions. No matter how many establishment feathers get ruffled by the results of these inquiries, miffed educators can't easily brush off the basic findings: There are glaring flaws and gaps in our teacher-training system.

    "The study also comes at a uniquely challenging moment in American education. The final report was written by ESP director Arthur Levine, a former president of Columbia's Teacher's College. Mr. Levine notes that we're currently facing a national shortage of nearly 200,000 teachers--at the same time that, "to compete in a global marketplace and sustain a democratic society, the United States requires the most educated population in history." Society now demands that teaching success be measured no longer by what children have studied but by what they have actually learned. (A copy of "Educating Teachers" is at www.edschools.org.)
    
    "The report's most stunning revelation--to outsiders at least--is that nobody knows what makes a good teacher today. Mr. Levine compares the training universe to "Dodge City." There is an "unruly" mix of approaches, chiefly because there is no consensus on how long teachers should study, for instance, or whether they should concentrate on teaching theory or mastering subject matter. Wide variations in curricula, and fads--like the one that produced the now-discredited "fuzzy math"--make things worse. Compare such chaos with the training for professions such as law or medicine, where, Mr. Levine reminds us, nobody is unleashed on the public without meeting a universally acknowledged requisite body of knowledge and set of skills..."
    
    Full story in The Wall Street Journal at link
    
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • 'Widespread interest' in A-level alternative
    by Debbie Andalo
    
    "State schools have expressed "widespread interest" in an alternative A-level qualification expected to be available to sixth formers next year, the body developing the Cambridge Pre-U said today..."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    Similar story in The Independent: Independent schools may sign up for new exam in A-level revolt
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Sunday Telegraph
  
  
  • School pay time
    by Sharri Markson
    
    "Parents have been forced to raise more than $10.5 million for electrical upgrades, seating, basic items of stationery and textbooks at schools in the past three years.

    "New Freedom of Information data reveals parents and community groups associated with almost 400 NSW public schools had to fund thousands of dollars each for minor capital works, a government responsibility, in the 12 months to 2005..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Sunday Telegraph at link
    
    
    

• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Student chief counts cost of the HECS debt
    
    "Rising HECS debts are deterring young South Australians from pursuing a university degree, the University of Adelaide's Students Association has warned.

    "President John Pezy has supported calls by Vice Chancellor Professor James McWha for improved scholarship schemes and safety nets for young people.

    "We recognise there are still people who are unable, or feel they are unable, to access higher education," he said.

    "People are not going to come to university because they don't want to start off life with such a huge HECS debt."...
    
    Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link

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This page last updated 29 May, 2008 9:34 PM