Monday 11 December

Tuesday 12 December

Wednesday 13 December

Thursday 14 December

Friday 15 December

Saturday – Sunday, 16 – 17 December

 

Monday 11 December

• Time Magazine / plus summary by CNN
  
  
  • How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century [Cover Story: "18 December" edition]
    by Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe
    
    "American schools aren't exactly frozen in time, but considering the pace of change in other areas of life, our public schools tend to feel like throwbacks.

    "Kids spend much of the day as their great-grandparents once did: sitting in rows, listening to teachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading from textbooks that are out of date by the time they are printed.

    "A yawning chasm (with an emphasis on yawning) separates the world inside the schoolhouse from the world outside.

    "For the past five years, the national conversation on education has focused on reading scores, math tests and closing the "achievement gap" between social classes. This is not a story about that conversation...
    
    "Knowing more about the world. Kids are global citizens now, whether they know it or not, and they need to behave that way. Mike Eskew, CEO of UPS, talks about needing workers who are "global trade literate, sensitive to foreign cultures, conversant in different languages" -- not exactly strong points in the U.S., where fewer than half of high school students are enrolled in a foreign-language class and where the social-studies curriculum tends to fixate on U.S. history.

    "Thinking outside the box. Jobs in the new economy -- the ones that won't get outsourced or automated -- "put an enormous premium on creative and innovative skills, seeing patterns where other people see only chaos," says Marc Tucker, a lead author of the skills-commission report and president of the National Center on Education and the Economy. That's a problem for U.S. schools, which have become less daring in the back-to-basics climate of No Child Left Behind. Kids also must learn to think across disciplines, since that's where most new breakthroughs are made. It's interdisciplinary combinations -- design and technology, mathematics and art -- "that produce YouTube and Google," says Thomas Friedman, the best-selling author of The World Is Flat.

    "Becoming smarter about new sources of information. In an age of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what's coming at them and distinguish between what's reliable and what isn't. "It's important that students know how to manage it, interpret it, validate it, and how to act on it," says Dell executive Karen Bruett, who serves on the board of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a group of corporate and education leaders focused on upgrading American education.

    "Developing good people skills. EQ, or emotional intelligence, is as important as IQ for success in today's workplace. "Most innovations today involve large teams of people," says former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine. "We have to emphasize communication skills, the ability to work in teams and with people from different cultures..."
    
    Summary at CNN
    
    Original story at Time Magazine [LOTS of ads]
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Carpenter to rebuild cabinet
    by Nigel Wilson and Jo Prichard
    
    "The decision by Premier Alan Carpenter to move embattled Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich will spark a radical overhaul of the West Australian cabinet.

    "Only four of the current 16-member team appear likely to retain their current portfolios.

    "A parliamentary committee found last week that Ms Ravlich had probably misled parliament over the extent of her knowledge of a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against teachers. But the committee stopped short of recommending any action.

    "Mr Ravlich's problems are part of a compendium of issues facing Mr Carpenter relating to the under-performance of ministers and the relations of some of them to former West Australian premier Brian Burke and his lobbying partner, Julian Grill.

    "An early cabinet reshuffle is thought necessary to allow the team to be established before the CCC embarks on its promised investigation of matters arising from an inquiry into a property development which hired Mr Burke and Mr Grill.

    "It was evidence to this inquiry that led to the sacking from cabinet last month of Norm Marlborough when phone taps revealed he was receiving instructions from Mr Burke.

    "Mr Carpenter yesterday remained tight-lipped about the reshuffle, saying only that he would make an announcement before Christmas.

    "He reaffirmed that Ms Ravlich, the leader of the parliamentary Centre faction, would remain in cabinet despite the party's Left faction arguing she should be dropped.

    "Everybody's got their opinion," Mr Carpenter said when asked to confirm that he had been lobbied on the issue.

    "Lil Ravlich will be in the cabinet and that's the end of the matter." It is understood some members of the Centre threatened to unseat Sheila McHale, the Indigenous Affairs and Arts Minister, if Ms Ravlich was dumped. Ms McHale has also come under intense criticism for her handling of child abuse allegations while minister for community development..."

    "Environment Minister Mark McGowan, who is close to Mr Carpenter, is tipped to take over the troublesome education portfolio, a move representing a rapid rise for the one-time naval officer and lawyer who became a minister only last year." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Facts of science

    There's no Nobel Prize for rock and roll

    "It may come as a surprise to some Queensland teachers but neither Cat Stevens nor Midnight Oil have ever featured prominently in national or international awards for science. This year, for instance, the Prime Minister's science prize, and $300,000 cheque, went to Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan, whose study of the insect mind has helped redefine robotics. A $50,000 prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools went to Marjorie Colvill who, after 30 years in the business, has a clear view of the perfect science class. It is one in which students set up their own investigations and make their own discoveries. It goes to the heart of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Peter Doherty's complaint about the way science is being taught in Queensland schools, where the butterfly net and microscope have been swapped for a CD player and the Cat Stevens tune, Where Do The Children Play. Students are being asked to analyse song lyrics from the 1970s, 80s and 90s to explore "historical and cultural factors (that) influence the nature and direction of science which, in turn, affects the development of society". But as Professor Doherty says, science is not just another body of knowledge. It is about getting objective facts based on experiment and observation and repeating findings. It is a matter of looking for evidence, which is the difference between science and philosophy. With climate change hysteria upon us, the ability to understand cause and effect and tell the difference between fact and a good story is more important than ever, however you sing it."

    From The Australian at link [scroll down to third editorial]
    
    
    
    
  • Rudd in push to heal ALP wounds
    by Matthew Franklin
    
    Selected excerpts RE the education portfolio:
    
    "... the new Opposition Leader has taken a political punt by handing low-profile Victorian Nicola Roxon the crucial health portfolio, and shifting former industrial relations spokesman Stephen Smith to education..."
    
    "Mr Rudd said last week he wanted to end the "blame game" between the federal Government and the states in key areas such as health and education..."
    
    "Mr Smith, another of Mr Beazley's closest supporters, took on education after telling Mr Rudd he hoped for a change of portfolio..."
    
    "Former deputy leader and education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin will move to families, community services, indigenous affairs and reconciliation..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [Similar stories in most newspapers.]
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Rudd gives Labor economic frontline
    
    Selected excerpts RE the education portfolio:
    
    "... Mr Rudd has already reshaped Labor's industrial message away from rolling back Work Choices by equating the Government's IR laws to an attack on family values. This approach is more likely to strike a chord with voters, who -- as a report by social researcher Hugh Mackay shows -- are more concerned about their children's education and house renovations than the ACTU's scare campaign on Work Choices..."
    
    Full editorial in The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • First Byte
      
      "Why is it that political strategists always target first the teachers, then the unemployed? Get a life, Kevin."
      
      Sue Clennell, Nedlands, WA
      
      
      
    • Most Talked About: Rudd and Education
      
      Good education is more than a matter of the teaching
      
      "The reported comments on education from Kevin Rudd do not justify the accompanying headline (Rudd puts teachers on notice, 9-10/12). Rudd does not mention teachers. He simply asks for an education system that gives guarantees of quality outcomes for working families.

      "Perhaps he is putting education departments or school principals on notice. After all, teachers have not cut their own pay, introduced performance bonuses to divide their own profession, put themselves on short-term contracts, cut their own numbers, increased their own teaching loads or removed the expectation of high educational standards from their own students.
      
      "Rather, they have stood up for a decent education for Australian children in the face of constant denigration from the legions of fact-free teacher-bashers with guaranteed access to the press."
      
      Chris Curtis, Langwarrin, Vic
      
      

    • "Good one, Kevin Rudd! Put teachers on notice, while penny pinching politicians continue to rip the educational standards out from underneath our children by underfunding and under-resourcing our schools.

      "Take a break from vote winning for a minute. Hold our state politicians accountable for hijacking our kids’ education and holding teachers to ransom with a lack of physical and human resources they need to deliver a good education.

      "When will political leaders learn that properly resourced educational leaders make better decisions about quality control in schools than career-driven politicians?"
      
      Kim Brown, Indooroopilly, Qld
      
      

    • "Opposition leader Kevin Rudd says that a future Labor government would demand strong results from its investment in schools. Because it is funded by subsidises, government schooling has the potential to decline in quality all the way to the point where it becomes clear to most people that what it offers is no longer worth even a zero price.

      "Governmental schooling suffers from four basic ills: peddling moral relativism, teacher unionisation, denial of competition and denial of choice.

      "Under present conditions it is virtually impossible for government public schools to develop the momentum of progressive improvement that would promote education and guarantee the children of working families a good education."
      
      Victor Diskordia, McKellar, ACT
      
      

    • "It is very disappointing that the Queensland education system thinks that actual science is something that gets in the way in science classes and should be excluded (Pop songs are weird science, 9/12). It really needs to try a lot harder if it thinks analysing pop songs will make students take an interest in the subject. All that does is disappoint those who genuinely want to learn real science, and bore the rest who are probably sick of doing the same thing in their English class.

      "A basic understanding of science and the mathematics which underpins it is vital for everyone. Looking back on my own high school education I realise that chemistry and mathematics were two of the most useful and enlightening classes I’ve ever taken.

      "While it’s also important to understand how science affects society, and the social implications of scientific developments, it’s more important to have a fundamental understanding of what that science is, and how the world works, as a starting point.

      "The Queensland Government and others might like to try a bit harder to make scientific learning and knowledge fun, rather than using cop-out strategies such as pop songs."
      
      Brad Ruting, Castle Hill, NSW
      
      

    • "Kevin Rudd could do better in “putting teachers on notice” than to cave in to the Coalition’s persistent campaign to introduce UK-type school reform arrangements to improve the quality of Australian school education.

      "In light of the McGaw Report, a market economist with a social conscience, as Rudd professes to be, should sharply contrast his policies with Howard’s by deregulating the public sector to fully fund Catholic and other low-fee systemic schools so as to give parents genuine choice without making such a thing conditional on the payment of fees.

      "Schools that fail to attract enrolments would close and more than compensate for increased public investment in Australian schooling that McGaw proposes. This would also solve Cardinal Pell’s and other non-state school providers’ problems, reported in your paper recently, to make educational choice available to the poor."
      
      Mike Furtado, Toowoomba, Qld
      
      

    • "You can put Phar Lap on a racecourse with a bunch of nags, but he won’t win the race if he’s hobbled. Rudd is right to say that quality control in schools is essential to ensure quality outcomes, but those outcomes are not determined just by quality of teaching.

      "Teachers are subject to administrative policies of schools which are in turn influenced by society’s pressures.

      "Just one example is disruptive behaviour. Students continue to disrupt because administrative authorities in education fear legal consequences as they try to deal effectively with these students."
      
      Lorraine and Dennis Chester, Boonah, Qld
      
      

      
      
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Consider return to old system

      "Kevin Rudd's concern about making university education more affordable (The Age, 9/12) could be solved by re-introducing the Commonwealth scholarship system. It allotted a percentage of university scholarships to every school in proportion to the number of year 12 students in each one.This enabled the less well-off to attend university, and minimised the ability of private and elite government schools to skim off the best students from local high schools. The latter retained their higher achievers and hard workers, who in turn helped to maintain academic and behavioural standards.

      "The system also enabled families to identify with, and support, local schools. Parents did not need to sacrifice family time with the need to work longer hours in order to send children to private schools. If this system were introduced, it could be means-tested, with partial scholarships awarded when family income was just over the limit. Of course, citizenship and residency criteria would have to be addressed."
      
      Hilary Poad, Frankston
      
      
      

  • Out with the old, Mr Rudd
    by Tony Cutcliffe
    
    "... The Federal Opposition has to recognise that the electorate is intelligent and discerning enough to choose wisely, providing it is offered a genuine choice rather than Bananas in Pyjamas..."
    
    "Equally, Labor will need to share an outward, global perspective on other issues. Forget debates about school reports and deal with the archaic pedagogical methodologies produced by depleted public investment and the protectionist policies of Luddite teacher unions..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • "Monday Education Section" appears to be on holidays -- last updated was 27 November

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  

• Students' academic success can be a matter of principal
  by Anna Patty Education Editor
  
  "Students' performance can soar under the influence of a good teacher, but school principals are just as important in getting results, a study has found.

  "The research into 38 NSW high schools shows principals have a key responsibility in raising educational standards.

  "Those who played an active role as educational leaders, who were not simply bogged down in management and administration tasks, made all the difference.

  "Good principals were identified as those who were open to change, were informed risk takers, and were friendly and approachable. Their leadership was highly influential in the development of a positive school culture.

  "Stephen Dinham, of the education faculty at the University of Wollongong, who conducted the study, said he was surprised to discover how much of a role principals played in influencing student results.

  "The degree of influence of the principal was somewhat surprising, given that the project aim was to identify and investigate faculties and teams producing outstanding educational outcomes in years 7 to 10, rather than effective schools as a whole, or effective principals," the study concluded.

  "This finding could partly call into question the current concentration on the individual teacher as the major within-school factor in student accomplishment.

  "While there is little doubt as to the importance of the individual teacher, based on these findings, principals can play key roles in providing the conditions where teachers can operate effectively and students can learn." ...
  
  Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
  

  
  
  
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teens want lessons on love, not just the sex (page 3)
    Sydney
    
    "Sex education is set for a big shake-up in schools nationwide after a study for the Federal Government revealed teenagers are crying out for better advice on sexual intimacy and relationships.
    
    "The groundbreaking study, funded by the Australian Research Council, shows that while an increasing number of teenagers are sexually active under the age of 16, they feel they get little to no direction from parents or schools about the areas that matter most.
    
    "The research concludes that rather than the basic dos and don'ts of so-called "sexual mechanics", what teenagers crave is advice on the complexities of sexual intimacy, negotiating consent, handling peer pressure and the potential for violence..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Plan to divert school funds
    
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Language lessons for all primary pupils
    by Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
    
    Lord Dearing says dull lessons should be changed to overturn foreign languages crisis
    
    "Languages such as French, German and Spanish should be taught compulsorily in primary schools and made more interesting at secondary level, Lord Dearing is expected to say in his interim report on language teaching, to be published this week.

    "Dull lessons are causing pupils to switch off and have created a crisis in language teaching, with the UK performing dismally on a world scale, experts have told Dearing during his inquiry into the problem. On Thursday he is likely to say lessons need to be made more engaging to persuade pupils to take part..."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link [See following related story in The Independent]
    
    

• The Independent
  
  
  • Return of compulsory French and German lessons set to be rejected
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "A report on the future of language-teaching in Britain's schools is to rule out a return to compulsory lessons for all pupils up to 16.

    "The interim report from Lord Dearing's inquiry, due on Thursday, is likely to dismay academics who have called on the Government to turn the clock back.

    "But amid fierce debate, even some language teachers now acknowledge that a U-turn would be wrong..."
    
    Full story in The Independent at link

    
    
    
• The Times
  
  
  • No school, no work and little hope for 1.24m young Britons
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • You're a terrorist, student told
    Exclusive by Bruce McDougall
    
    "Racial tensions have erupted in the school system, with a teacher facing an anti-discrimination board complaint after branding a Muslim student a "terrorist"...
    
    "The clash exploded at Blakehurst High School when legal studies teacher Michael Seymour told Lebanese student Wagih "Zac" Fares "I don't want to negotiate with a terrorist" during a minor incident during lessons..."
    
    "Mr Seymour, a teacher for 20 years, was reprimanded and ordered to attend a multicultural sensitivity course..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link

 

Tuesday 12 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Worried teachers stall OBE course (page 4)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The head of the Curriculum Council has admitted he blocked a new outcomes-based literature course at the final hurdle partly because he was concerned that a sample exam paper did not clearly specify that students had to read more than one book.
    
    "Council chief executive David Wood said his "antennae" were raised when he received feedback from some teachers about the proposed exam. [Following his meeting with the new English Teachers Forum last week?   Web]
    
    "I asked that the examination and syllabus again be revised in light of this feedback," he said yesterday.
    
    "The literature course, due for final accreditation last week, was delayed for two weeks for more revision.
    
    "I think there was a need to be a bit more clear about certain things, like you have to read more than one book," Mr Wood said.
    
    "Teachers criticised the course after the release of the sample exam last month, saying students could sit the paper after having read just one text. They said it pushed cultural studies and creative writing at the expense of literary texts such as novels, plays and poems. Some teachers have said they would refuse to teach the course in its current form.
    
    "Notre Dame education dean Michael O'Neill agreed that the exam and the new course lacked emphasis on a rigorous study of literary texts compared with the current TEE course, which insisted students were exposed to a variety of literature.
    
    "You would expect to see some literature in the exam instead of comprehension and creative writing," he said. "The exam is a mirror of the course and if the exam says something like 'let's discuss what a literary text means', I worry about that. I think we should spend more time actually studying literature and less time debating what literature is."
    
    "The State Government delayed 13 OBE courses that were meant to apply to Year 11 next year after teachers threatened a boycott.
    
    "Eleven of those courses, including physics, chemistry and geography, have been revised and were accredited last week for implementation in 2008. History was also held back until December 19 for minor amendments.
    
    "The Geographical Association of WA said it was "gravely concerned" that a review of the geography course was not finished before it was accredited. It has informed members via its website that it has not endorsed the revised course and sample exam.
    
    "Association president Mike Fazio said in a letter to the council that although he welcomed changes that teachers had requested, he was disappointed that only part of the course had been scrutinised before accreditation. "Leaving the task partly completed can only lead to further cynicism among an already discontented teaching body," he wrote. "It is better to delay accreditation than again be faced with a teacher backlash."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times Online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Carpenter's clean sweep
    by Nigel Wilson and Jo Prichard
    
    "The decision by Premier Alan Carpenter to move embattled Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich will spark a radical overhaul of the West Australian cabinet.
    
    "Only four of the current 16-member team appear likely to retain their current portfolios.

    "A parliamentary committee found last week that Ms Ravlich had probably misled parliament over the extent of her knowledge of a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against teachers. But the committee stopped short of recommending any action.

    "Ms Ravlich's problems are part of a compendium of issues facing Mr Carpenter relating to the under-performance of ministers and the relations of some of them to former West Australian premier Brian Burke and his lobbying partner, Julian Grill.

    "An early cabinet reshuffle is thought necessary to allow the team to be established before the CCC embarks on its promised investigation of matters arising from an inquiry into a property development which hired Mr Burke and Mr Grill.

    "It was evidence to this inquiry that led to the sacking from cabinet last month of Norm Marlborough when phone taps revealed he was receiving instructions from Mr Burke.

    "Mr Carpenter yesterday remained tight-lipped about the reshuffle, saying only that he would make an announcement before Christmas.

    "He reaffirmed that Ms Ravlich, the leader of the parliamentary Centre faction, would remain in cabinet despite the party's Left faction arguing she should be dropped.

    "Everybody's got their opinion," Mr Carpenter said when asked to confirm that he had been lobbied on the issue.

    "Lil Ravlich will be in the cabinet and that's the end of the matter." It is understood some members of the Centre threatened to unseat Sheila McHale, the Indigenous Affairs and Arts Minister, if Ms Ravlich was dumped. Ms McHale has also come under intense criticism for her handling of child abuse allegations while minister for community development.

    "New cabinet responsibilities could be announced as soon as Wednesday, after a special sitting tomorrow of the Legislative Assembly to pass amendments to the state's liquor laws.

    "According to political sources, only Treasurer and Deputy Premier Eric Ripper, Attorney-General Jim McGinty, Planning Minister Alannah MacTiernan and Agriculture Minister Kim Chance will find their portfolio areas untouched.

    "Mr Carpenter will resist pressure from the state's Chamber of Commerce and Industry to cut the size of cabinet by two to 14.

    "Environment Minister Mark McGowan, who is close to Mr Carpenter, is tipped to take over the troublesome education portfolio, a move representing a rapid rise for the one-time naval officer and lawyer who became a minister only last year."

    From The Sunday Times Online at link
    
    Readers' Comments on this story
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers to get a report card
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Teachers should be marked on their performance in the classroom, according to Labor's newly appointed education spokesman, Stephen Smith.

    "The father of two, who sends his teenage children to Catholic schools, said yesterday he backed parents' right to choose a public or private school based on their children's needs.

    "Like his opposite number, Education Minister Julie Bishop, Mr Smith is a privately educated MP from Western Australia who has degrees in law and arts, and in his case, a masters degree from London University.

    "Mr Smith, who has previously held the portfolios of health and most recently industrial relations, said he believed teachers deserved more respect, but should also accept more assessment.

    "All of the studies show that one of the single most important factors in determining the quality of a child's education is the quality of the teacher in the classroom," he told The Australian yesterday.

    "Former Labor leader Kim Beazley had already flagged a form of performance pay for teachers, offering the best teachers up to $100,000 a year to work in the most difficult schools.

    "Mr Rudd said last week he would demand "quality control" from the nation's schools to guarantee the children of working families a good education.

    "Mr Smith said yesterday he was not concerned about the old divides between public and private schools. The ALP has previously pledged to guarantee a no-loser policy in its funding formula for education at the next election, after previously guaranteeing the overall level of funding to private schools at the 2004 election but redirecting cash from the richest private schools to poorer Catholic and independent schools.

    "I'm much less concerned about the label on the archway on the school when they walk in than I am about the quality of the education when they walk out," Mr Smith said.

    "I'm very strong believer in choice - whether kids go to private schools, religious schools or secular schools. My very strong view is that the commonwealth must fund schools on the basis of need and on the basis of fairness."

    "Mr Smith pledged to consider HECS relief for university students in targeted areas, an issue already flagged by Mr Rudd. "Individual students and the nation now have a massive HECS burden, and obviously that's going to be an area of focus for me," he said.

    "But I have a strong view that university is not the be-all and end-all of our education system. I want kids who complete secondary school to have not just the opportunity to go to university, but also tertiary education that helps them in a technical way.

    "Parents don't expect that all their sons and daughters will end up at university - what they do want is to make sure their kids have the chance to maximise their potential."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Give public schools the freedom to hire and fire
      
      "Kevin Rudd’s vow to raise the standard of schooling is music to my ears ("Rudd puts teachers on notice”, 9-10/12). I have long believed that the greatest defect of our commonwealth is that low-income children are forced into low-achieving schools.

      "But can we believe Rudd? Can Labor defy its own unions? Will Rudd have the stomach to replace weak teachers with strong teachers? We are not talking here about merely sacking the few teachers who abuse children. We are talking about replacing teachers who are not confident in literacy, numeracy or effective classroom performance.

      "Furthermore, it’s a fact of life that good teachers cannot be identified by qualifications alone, nor by any remote-control procedure operated by state education departments.

      "The only hope of raising teaching standards in poor suburbs is to give those schools the huge advantage that independent schools have long enjoyed – self-government, which enables them to employ the best teachers they can get to meet their students’ needs."
      
      Philip O’Carroll, North Fitzroy, Vic
      
      

    • "NSW can easily match Queensland when it comes to dumbing down science classes ("Pop songs are weird science”, 9-10/12). My Year 7 daughter may not be listening to pop lyrics just yet, but she and her friends are kept entertained during science classes with episodes of Futurama, the TV cartoon series by the creator of The Simpsons.

      "I’m impressed that the school managed to change her attitude towards science from fascination into boredom within the first term. How is this possible? Children are natural scientists – they love exploring and experimenting. Good schools and a good curriculum channel this natural aptitude and make the natural world a fascinating place. Mediocre schools don’t expect much from their students and find it easier to stick them in front of a TV screen to watch cartoons. I wonder how many of our potential organic chemists and medical researchers will wither under this inane teaching environment."
      
      Peter Gibson, Medowie, NSW
      
      

    • "It's high time a federal government demanded “quality control” from all education systems and not just public schools. A federal Labor government would of course see that this quality control is matched by a return to much-needed “quality funding” of public education by a federal government, will it not?"
      
      Narelle Grant, Dubbo, NSW
      
      

    • "Will the ALP’s Baldrick please own up. Whose cunning plan was it for Kevin Rudd to curry favour with swinging voters by getting stuck into public education? I mean, if a bloke wanted to vote for a short-arsed, dorky-voiced, teacher-bashing, God-bothering right-winger, don’t you think he’d choose the experienced one we’ve already got?"
      
      Clive Forster, Coromandel Valley, SA

      
      
      
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Editorial
    Making our schools more accountable
    
    "The teachers' union doesn't want public comparisons made between the performances of South Australian schools.
    
    "As part of Federal Government funding arrangements, schools are compelled to record student outcomes, satisfaction levels and teacher quality in next year's annual reports.
    
    "The statistics must include, for example, the number of students continuing in Year 12, student and teacher attendances, senior secondary subject results and what students do or intend to do once they leave school.
    
    "It also would include the proportion of students meeting national reading, writing, spelling and numeracy benchmarks.

    "But the Australian Education Union's state president, Andrew Gohl, has advised principals to limit their reports to general comments.

    "This will avoid the possibility of the public – taxpayers who pay for the schools and parents whose children are educated in the schools – being able to make direct comparisons between individual schools.

    "In reality, the union is avoiding the scrutiny and accountability of its members. Why shouldn't parents know where their schools rank? Why shouldn't they know that their children could receive a better education, a better start in life, at a neighbouring school or perhaps a private school?

    "If the statistics created some form of league table with the best at the top and the worst at the bottom, then public demand would force improved standards from poorly rated schools. By withholding the statistical details, rumours are certain to circulate about the suspected outcome of the performance comparisons. Schools, and teachers, could be harmed unfairly by innuendo.

    "Also there is a danger targeted or strategic sections of the restricted findings could be leaked to the education or the media, creating confusion and uncertainty.

    "The union should withdraw its opposition to the release of the statistical information and allow the schools to make it public."

    From The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • In Twist on Tuition Game, Popularity Rises With Price
    [Worth a look   Web]
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Public pupils excel in VCE results
    by Chee Chee Leung
    
    "A suburban public school has rocketed up the VCE tally board, with four of its year 12 graduates achieving the "perfect" tertiary ranking of 99.95.

    "The result puts Glen Waverley Secondary College second in the state for perfect ENTERs, behind Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School, where five students had the top ranking.

    "Glen Waverley's quartet of perfect ENTERs also places it ahead of elite private schools, including Xavier College, Ivanhoe Grammar and Melbourne Grammar..."

    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link [see related story in The Melbourne Herald Sun]
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Scholarships added bonus
    by Milanda Rout and Nikki Protyniak
    
    "Some of Victoria's top-scoring VCE students received an added bonus yesterday -- a university scholarship.
    
    "Melbourne and Monash announced their prestigious scholarships to this year's VCE brainiacs...."
    
    [Melbourne University continues to offer very generous scholarships [HECS PLUS cost of living] to the top students in ALL states – ensuring a "brain drain" east. WA universities appear to be totally uninterested...    Web]
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Student union's lurch to the left delights the right
    by Harriet Alexander Higher Education Reporter
    
    "University students have voted to topple Labor's dominance of their national union for the first time in its history, in the most significant demonstration that the party is losing its stranglehold on the student movement..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Praise for slammed teacher
    by Bruce McDougall and Henry Budd
    
    "Embattled high school teacher Michael Seymour, who sparked a race row by calling a Muslim student a "terrorist", received overwhelming support yester-day as he faced calls for his removal.

    "Parents, teachers and students rallied behind the Blakehurst High School teacher after The Daily Telegraph revealed that he faces investigation by the Anti-Discrimination Board. Mr Seymour, a legal studies teacher at the southern Sydney school, said he had been instructed by the education department not to comment.

    "But staff and parents said Mr Seymour, who has been teaching for 23 years, was highly dedicated and widely admired for his work with teenage students.

    "They said they were "distressed" that his positive contribution to the education of generations of students had been overlooked during the row..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
    
    

    • Op Ed on this story: A slip of the vulgar tongue
      
      
      

Wednesday 13 December

• The West Australian
  
  

Ravlich dumped


Photo © The West Australian

[from online edition, story posted at 12:00 noon]

"Ljiljanna Ravlich has been dumped as Education Minister after Premier Alan Carpenter announced a Cabinet re-shuffle.

"Mr Carpenter denied his embattled former Education Minister was being punished for her handling of the Outcomes Based Education issue, saying she was being given a new challenge.

"While acknowledging Ms Ravlich had had a "tough year", Mr Carpenter said he retained confidence in his Cabinet colleague and was sure she would do a good job in her new portfolio.



"Ms Ravlich remains in Cabinet, looking after Government Enterprises, Multicultural Interests and Citizenship, Youth and Minister Assisting the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure.

"Former Environment Minister Mark McGowan takes over the Education and Training portfolio."Losers in the revamped Cabinet include Sheila McHale, who lost Indigenous Affairs to Michelle Roberts and John Ford who lost Local Government to John Bowler.

"Riverton MLA Tony McRae will take on Environment and the new Climate Change portfolio."Mr Carpenter said the Climate Change portfolio was needed to manage a major challenge facing WA.



"Climate change is an emerging environmental, social and economic issue that now deserves a special focus in Government thinking," he said."



The new Cabinet

Alan Carpenter: Premier; Federal-State Relations; Trade; Innovation; Science; Public Sector Management.

Eric Ripper: Deputy Premier; Treasurer; State Development.

Kim Chance: Agriculture and Food; Forestry; the Mid-West and Wheatbelt.



Ljiljanna Ravlich: Government Enterprises; Multicultural Interests and Citizenship; Youth; Assisting the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure.



John Kobelke: Police and Emergency Services; Community Safety; Water Resources; Sport and Recreation.


Jim McGinty: Attorney General; Health; Electoral Affairs.

Michelle Roberts: Housing; Works; Heritage; Indigenous Affairs; Land Information.

Alannah MacTiernan: Planning and Infrastructure.

Sheila McHale: Tourism; Culture and the Arts; Consumer Protection.

Mark McGowan: Education and Training; South-West.

Francis Logan: Energy; Resources; Industry and Enterprises.



John Bowler: Local Government; Employment Protection; Racing and Gaming; Goldfields-Esperance and Great Southern.

Jon Ford: Regional Development; Fisheries; the Kimberley; Pilbara and Gascoyne.

Margaret Quirk: Corrective Services; Small Business; Women’s Interests; Assisting the Minister for Federal-State Relations.

David Templeman: Child Protection; Communities; Seniors and Volunteering; Peel.

Tony McRae: Environment; Climate Change; Disability Services.

From The West Australian Online at link

Similar story in The Sunday Times Online / PerthNow




• Labor's plan for a national curriculum [Front Page]
  by Rhianna King and Bethany Hiatt
  
  "Labor's new Federal shadow education minister Stephen Smith has put himself at odds with the WA Government just days after taking over the portfolio, taking a swipe at the State's handling of outcomes-based education and declaring his support for a national curriculum.
  
  "But Mr Smith said rather than "riding roughshod" over the States as the Federal Government had done, he wanted to work co-operatively with them to produce national consistency in education.
  
  "Outlining his early plans for the portfolio, Mr Smith also said he supported merit-based pay for teachers, wanted teachers to be assessed on their performance in the classroom and backed Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop's push for a national curriculum.
  
  "The Perth MHR also said there was serious concern in the community over OBE and he planned to meet Premier Alan Carpenter to have a "serious and sensible discussion" about it.
  
  "I know from speaking and listening to my own constituents over the last year that (OBE) has been an issue of considerable concern to parents, which frankly the WA Government detected far too late," he told The West Australian. [emphasis added]
  
  "The State Government was forced to delay introducing 13 OBE courses from next year until 1008 amid an outcry from teachers and parents.
  
  "Mr Smith said Australia's transient population, which meant children were often moved interstate during their school years, made it important to develop national standards.
  
  "In an ideal world, we would have common school years, a common curriculum, commonality to all our primary school and secondary school education so if mum and dad move from WA to Victoria.. there would be an almost seamless transition," he said.
  
  "Ms Bishop's push for a national curriculum has fallen flat with the States, which have accused her of using Federal funding to force a takeover of education.
  
  "Mr Smith's criticism of the WA Government's implementation of OBE came as a report prepared for the Department of Education and Training said the introduction of OBE courses in Years 11 and 12 in 2008 could push the number of teachers suffering stress to even higher levels.
  
  "The report by counselling services provider PrimePsych, a copy of which has been obtained by The West Australian, says the number of clients requiring help for work-related stress had reached unprecedented levels this year and that could increase with the extension of OBE.
  
  "It is unlikely that this situation will improve over the coming year with the introduction of OBE to Years 11 and 12 and the increased level of responsibility and accountability placed on teaching and administrative staff," the report says. [This report could prove to be very useful ammunition, in workers compensation claims and potential litigation.   Web]
  
  "But Education Department deputy director-general Peter McCaffrey said the number of people seeking help for work-related stress was still less than one per cent of all staff."
  
  From The West Australian
  
  




• ABC News
  
  
  • WA ministers sworn in after Cabinet reshuffle [4:49 pm; a bit slow off the mark compared to The West]
    
    "The new ministers in the Western Australian Government have been officially sworn in to their roles after Premier Alan Carpenter announced a major reshuffle earlier today.

    "Only five ministers out of 16 are unaffected by the changes.

    "As expected, Ljilianna Ravlich has lost the Education portfolio to Mark McGowan.

    "John Bowler has been stripped of the Resources portfolio and Sheila McHale has lost Indigenous Affairs to Michelle Roberts.

    "A new portfolio of Climate Change and the Environment has been filled by Tony McRae.

    "Despite demoting Ms Ravlich, Mr Carpenter says he still has confidence in her as a minister.

    "We've had a difficult year in education, I've acknowledged that previously and Ljilianna has acknowledged it," he said.

    "Ljilianna Ravlich has been given a new challenge, new challenges, and I am confident she has got the capacity to meet those challenges."

    "In a sign the Department for Community Development is about an undergo a major shake-up, the Minister responsible for the Department, David Templeman, has had his title changed.

    "Mr Templeman will now be known as the Minister for Child Protection."
    
    From ABC News Online at link
    

    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Wholesale rejection of student gradings
    by Anna Patty and Stephanie Peatling
    
    "Four out of five schools have rejected the new A to E grade format for school reports, a survey of 380 NSW schools shows.

    "The survey results, to be released today by the NSW Teachers Federation, show that 53 per cent of schools said they were using an alternative five-point scale and 47 per cent said they were not.

    "Asked if they used A to E grades, 80 per cent said "no" and 20 per cent said "yes".

    "The Federal Government has made it a condition of its $3.7 billion funding to NSW for all schools to use the A to E grades, or an equivalent scale, that describes each grade. In NSW, the grades are outstanding, high, sound, basic and limited.

    "In the NSW Industrial Relations Commission last month, the State Government failed to obtain a dispute order to force teachers to lift their ban on the new reports..."
    
    "The Federal Opposition's new education spokesman, Stephen Smith, said he was comfortable with a common school starting age and even the same curricula between the states and territories.

    "However, unlike the Federal Government's approach, Mr Smith said any attempt to bring the states into line would need to be done with their co-operation.

    "One of the things that we have to do much better is to try and get better symmetry in the way we deal with primary and secondary school education," Mr Smith said.

    "In an ideal world we would have common school years, common school terms, holidays, common starting ages and a common curriculum." [emphasis added]

    "Mr Smith's new portfolio (he was formerly the spokesman for industrial relations) will pit him head-to-head with a fellow West Australian, the Minister for Education, Julie Bishop.

    "Ms Bishop is already trying to make the states adopt a federally approved history curriculum and has hinted she will make schools' funding contingent upon it.

    "Mr Smith said he wanted to focus on primary school education as a way of helping children from low socioeconomic backgrounds get the best start in life. "Their educational outcome is often determined by the time they reach years 6 or 7." ...
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link [See Op Ed on this topic in The Sydney Daily Telegraph]
    
    
    

• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Op Ed
    D for a dunce of an idea
    by Maralyn Parker
    
    "There has been an interesting turn in the A to E reporting debacle.
    
    "According to an analysis by University of Newcastle academic Sharon Cooper, if the idea was to get some consistency between states then the whole thing is a failure.

    "Dr Cooper compared the meanings different states have given to the A to Es and she has found many anomalies.

    "For example, in NSW an E means "limited" but in Western Australia a D means "limited" and in the ACT an E is "very limited".

    "If that is confusing then you should try the meanings given to B. In NSW B is "high" while in SA it is "good" and in the NT it is "above."

    "Then comes C. In NSW and the ACT, C means "sound" but in WA and SA, C means "satisfactory"...
    
    Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Higher Education Supplement has 17 articles, including:
    
    
    • Smith has serious homework to do
      by Brendan O'Keefe
      
      ... "The beauty of education is it's the convergence of the social policy of opportunity and the chance of getting ahead, and the economics of retaining the prosperity we need to be internationally competitive," Mr Smith said.

      "But I don't hide from the fact that I've got a lot of work to do."

      "The tenets of the Labor white paper on education, released in July, will stand "until Kevin Rudd says something to the contrary". So no departure from pillars such as improved indexation of grants; no more full-fee degrees for domestic undergraduates; increased financial support for student services; and the removal of workplace relations and governance requirements for extra funding. Equity for poorer students is top priority.

      "Are we really making sure that young Australians, particularly from working families, are genuinely getting a chance to go to uni in an affordable way?" Mr Smith asked..."
      
      Full story in the Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      

    • Have we got a uni for you
      by Lisa Macnamara
      
      "The annual university race to grab the nation's top school leavers with scholarships has gone global as Australian campuses compete with overseas institutions.

      "As the University of Melbourne announced its 2007 scholarships for Victorian students this week, vice-chancellor Glyn Davis predicted Australia's subsidised study system would become more Americanised as the rivalry intensified..."
      
      "If you want to get a sense of how much the world's changed, this year a number of ivy league universities from the US turned up at schools in Sydney and Melbourne and pitched for students to go to Princeton or Yale," Professor Davis said. "The National University of Singapore has also run ads for students interested in going to NUS so we're now in a global competition for the very best students."... [emphasis added]
      
      Full story in the Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • "Congratulations to VCE students — particularly those who, regardless of ENTER scores, have learnt some of life's most valuable lessons from the experience. A note of caution, however, regarding the importance that so many place on a single number as an indication of achievement from 13 years of schooling.

      "I am reminded of a year 9 class I struggled with some years ago. My class showed little interest in my emphasis on learning for understanding, instead pleading with me to "just tell us the answer".

      "In frustration at some point, one student stood up, threw her chair against the wall and yelled: "School is not about learning. School is about working hard and getting good marks!" Sadly, I fear she was right."
      
      Chris Curnow, Mordialloc

      
      
      
• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Closed schools may go to court
    
    
    
    
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Editorial
    Superschool system must be open to all
    
    "The State Government is right to press ahead with plans to establish a series of superschools in the metropolitan area and close small schools which cannot provide the depth and variety of educational opportunities.
    
    "It is significant that since the proposals were outlined by the Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith earlier this year, parents involved in the existing schools and kindergartens have given strong support to the superschool concept.

    "The growing need for flexibility and multi-skilling in the workforce must be reflected in a more diversified education system.

    "Children educated in the narrow channels available at small local schools are being denied the choices which the superschools will be able to provide..."
    
    Full editorial in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    

Thursday 14 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Alston (page 16)
    
    


© The West Australian



• No new blood in Ravlich reshuffle [Front Page Headline]
  by Graham Mason and Ben Spencer
  
  "Alan Carpenter has avoided a bitter factional brawl by retaining poorly performing ministers Ljiljanna Ravlich and Sheila McHale in his revamped Cabinet at the expense of young up and comers Ben Wyatt and Jaye Radisich.
  

  "As widely expected, Ms Ravlich was sacked from the Education and Training portfolio after her handling of the outcomes-based education issue culminated in the State School Teachers Union demanding Mr Carpenter sack her last month.

  "Ms Ravlich will take on three junior portfolios of Government Enterprises, Multicultural Interests and Citizenship and Youth and will also assist Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan, a move which Mr Carpenter and Ms Ravlich denied was a demotion. [emphasis added]

  "Ms McHale was demoted for the second time in a year, yesterday losing the Indigenous Affairs portfolio after failing to respond adequately to the deplorable living conditions of Aboriginal children in the State’s north. She was sacked as community development minister in February.

  "John Bowler was stripped of the Resources portfolio with the Premier admitting there had been an increase in the level of “smear and innuendo” associated with Mr Bowler after he was forced to admit the extent of his close relationship with banned lobbyists Julian Grill and Brian Burke.

  "Michelle Roberts will take on Indigenous Affairs, a move she requested and one Mr Carpenter said would sit well with her Housing and Works portfolio, which will assume responsibility for services to 91 Aboriginal communities next year.

  "The big winners were Treasurer Eric Ripper, who adds State Development to his workload, Mark McGowan and Tony McRae.

  "Mr McGowan, the Premier’s golden-haired boy, now takes on the troubled Education portfolio after a successful year passing several key pieces of legislation, including the liquor licensing reforms, outlawing betting exchanges and navigating the Alcoa Wagerup expansion

  "Mr McRae, who became a minister in May after the demise of John D’Orazio, leap-frogged several colleagues to become Environment Minister. He also takes on the new portfolio of Climate Change.
  
  "Mr Carpenter was adamant he was not hiding Ms Ravlich in junior portfolios. “If I didn’t have confidence in Ljiljanna’s capacity as a Minister she would not be a Minister.”
  
  “We’ve had a difficult year in Education and I’ve acknowledged that previously. Ljiljanna has acknowledged it.”

  "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said Ms Ravlich’s removal was a “very good idea”.

  "Greg Williams, president of teachers’ group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, said much more would have to change if the Government was to reverse the fortunes of the education system.
  
  “All they have done is change the jockeys and unless they change the horse all the flogging in the world won’t bring it back to life,” he said. “It would be great if he is not the obstinate sort of person that Ljiljanna was and it would be great if he is prepared to talk to us.” [emphasis added]

  "Mr Bowler said he did not ask to have the Resources portfolio taken from him but acknowledged that the stigma of his relationship with Mr Burke and Mr Grill had attached to the Government.

  "Opposition Leader Paul Omodei said Mr Carpenter had backed incompetent ministers and should have rejuvenated his Cabinet by introducing backbenchers."
  
  From The West Australian at link
  

  
  
• Editorial (page 16)
  Cabinet shuffle underscores ministerial talent famine
  
  "It would be fair to say that there were sighs of profound relief among people across WA’s education community at the news that, at last, Ljiljanna Ravlich had been shifted out of their lives. The perpetually besieged minister who never quite got a handle on the key Education and Training portfolio moves on to a collection of lesser responsibilities, presumably to fill another set of bureaucrats with acute apprehension.
  

  "That Ms Ravlich was allowed to stay in the portfolio so long, though key bureaucrats fell in a series of amazing political and educational disasters, made the Government look as if it were intent on self-harm.
  
  "That she was allowed to stay in Cabinet after all that, albeit on just about its lowest rung, suggests that the tribal imperatives of Labor’s factions continue to defy reason.
  
  "Of course, it’s been generally expected for weeks that Ms Ravlich would be demoted from the key portfolio, basically because she made a hash of it. Therefore, Alan Carpenter’s facile attempt to camouflage this with the glib comment that nobody stayed with portfolios for ever was disingenuous and demeaned him.
  
  "Perhaps the Premier felt a measure of responsibility because he did not intervene until the outcomes-based education program had just about collapsed into a heap of ideological rubble — a failure of his leadership.
  
  "In any case, Mark McGowan inherits a mess of a portfolio. Though he might console himself with the thought that he could hardly do a worse job than his predecessor, he faces a formidable job in trying to rebuild public confidence in an education system that has lost its way. There have been so many shifts and changes in the planned introduction of OBE at upper high school level that it would be surprising if anyone has an overall grasp of precisely what is going on.
  
  "One of the lessons Mr McGowan should learn from his predecessor’s misadventures is that being a minister does not mean just occupying a position and rejoicing in a title: he must accept ministerial responsibility, keep himself fully informed about what his bureaucrats are up to and be guided by the public interest.
  
  "And if the ungainly OBE hybrid he inherits doesn’t make any sense to him, as it doesn’t to people generally, he must have the courage to stand up and tell Mr Carpenter that it should be abandoned. His first obligation is to the people, not to an ideological theory that has infested educational bureaucracies, and his job is to deliver a public system that offers proper education and can be understood by everyone. [emphasis added]
  
  "That Mr McGowan, who has relatively little ministerial experience, has emerged as a shining light of the Cabinet because of an ability to get things done serves to underscore the poverty of talent available to Mr Carpenter, given that he was apparently unable to promote promising backbenchers for factional reasons. Sadly the other side of politics is no better off.
  
  "The best Mr Carpenter could do was to build on the perceived strengths of competent ministers — most notably Treasurer Eric Ripper, who picks up State Development — and consign the others to relative political obscurity. The mysterious exception to this general rule is Tony McRae, who unaccountably has been promoted to Environment.
  
  "Only time will tell whether Mr Carpenter’s strategy for obscuring the talent famine can work."
  
  From The West Australian at link
  
  
  

• Carpenter rolls dice on his Cabinet duds (page 6)
  Robert Taylor: Political Sketch
  
  "Alan Carpenter took a gamble yesterday when he decided to hide his non-performing ministers rather than dump them altogether..."
  
  "Now he has... opted to keep Ljiljanna Ravlich and Sheila McHale in the tent rather than kick them out and bring on a fight with their factional backers.
  
  "Ms Ravlich, an abject failure in Education and largely responsible for a steady slide in the Government's fortunes over the past year, will pick up her $213,000-plus a year for one of the lightest workloads ever assigned to a minister.
  
  "If she sill does manage to find something to make a mess of, the Premier will not be able to escape blame, especially given he has bright young talents such as Ben Wyatt and Jaye Radisich at his disposal..."
  
  "Mark McGowan has been rewarded for succeeding on liquor reforms and shepherding through the Wagerup and Gorgon approvals. He is now clearly the Premier's go-to man and the next cab off the rank for the top job."
  
  Full story in The West Australian
  
  
  
  

• Op Ed
  Wild ride a steep curve of learning for Premier (page 17)
  by Robert Taylor: Inside State
  
  "Alan Carpenter's first year as WA Premier has been a rollercoaster ride for the former broadcast journalist who was catapulted into the State's top job when Geoff Gallop resigned suddenly last January.
  
  "... He's had major policy confrontations to deal with on outcomes-based education, failures within the community development area and a running pay battle with police and public servants generally..."
  
  Full story in The West Australian
  
  
  

• Private school fees outstrip inflation (page 3)
  by Bethany Hiatt
  
  "Private school fees are soaring at up to double the inflation rate, with Catholic schools ramping up next year's fees as much as 9 per cent and elite independent schools raising charges between 5 and 7 per cent.
  
  "The changes mean the cost of sending a child to high schools such as Christ Church Grammar and Presbyterian Ladies College will break the $14,000 mark – more than 50 times the cost of going to a State school..."
  
  Full story in The West Australian
  
  Similar story on ABC News
  
  
  

• Esperance school gets the go-ahead (page 6)
  by Suellen Jerrard
  
  "One of Ljiljanna Ravlich's last official duties as education minister was to approve a new private high school in Esperance, seven months after initially rejecting the project..."
  
  "Earthworks would start within two months and Year 8 students would be accepted from the start of 2008, expanding to Year 10 by 2010. The [Anglican Schools Commission] would have to continue to fight to include Year 11 and 12 students..."
  
  Full story in The West Australian
  
  
  
  

• The Australian
  
  
• Taint ministers shuffled
  by Amanda O'Brien, WA political reporter
  
  "Brian Burke and perceptions of ministerial incompetence have sparked the most extensive cabinet overhaul in Western Australian in years, with Premier Alan Carpenter reshuffling his besieged team after a disastrous year of end-to-end scandals.

  "Two-thirds of his 15 ministers were moved yesterday, with three big winners and three clear losers from the shuffle.

  "As predicted in The Australian, links to the disgraced former Labor premier proved insurmountable for resources minister John Bowler and education minister Ljiljanna Ravlich, who have each admitted contact with him and were relegated yesterday to low-profile safe portfolios.

  "At the other extreme, Deputy Premier and Treasurer Eric Ripper gained the tag of super minister after adding the massive state development portfolio to his responsibility for state finances. Up-and-comer Mark McGowan was given the task of fixing the crisis-ridden education portfolio vacated by Ms Ravlich after a solid performance as environment minister..."
  
  "Ms Ravlich lost education and training for a grab-bag of responsibilities in youth, multicultural interests and government enterprises. Her downfall came after a year of calamities ranging from the stalled introduction of outcomes-based curriculum changes to her links to Mr Burke and dramas arising from a Corruption and Crime Commission report into her department..." [emphasis added]
  
  "Mr Carpenter put on a brave face yesterday, describing his team as talented and capable.

  "But he warned them of challenges ahead to show the community that services in health, education and community safety were being delivered well. "We have got to deliver in those key service areas," he said..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Carpenter does some repairs
  Analysis by Amanda O'Brien
  
  "By anyone's reckoning, Alan Carpenter has had a shocking year.

  "The Premier has lost two ministers - John D'Orazio and Norm Marlborough - to sensational scandals.

  "He's watched the Department for Community Development implode over child protection and child death scandals.

  "There's been uproar in education, bitter attacks over native title and months of acrimony in a drawn-out police pay claim - now settled, but soon to be replaced by a nursing campaign.

  "And lurking everywhere is the dead hand of the Corruption and Crime Commission tapping telephones, lobbing bombshells and making headlines.

  "Carpenter's comment yesterday that "all governments strike trouble from time to time" was cheeky.

  "He's well aware of the damage sustained. The extent of his reshuffle shows this.

  "While no one was dropped from cabinet, no one thought they would be - it would have been a far too public admission of defeat.

  "But Carpenter did bite the bullet, serving up public humiliations to some ministers to jump-start his Government.

  "His demotions were expected, his promotions generally made sense..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Schools not Little Athletics, says academic
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "The architects of a revised South Australian Certificate of Education show "academic cringe" in arguing that subjects in years 11 and 12 are too abstract and academic.

  "Flinders University's Institute of International Education director, Kelvin Gregory, yesterday accused the review of the SACE, released last month, of adopting a "Little Athletics" approach to education. "Little Athletics has the idea that everyone is a winner," Dr Gregory said.

  "We need to move away from the Little Athletics approach in years 11 and 12, but that's what SACE is."

  "In an article to be published this month in the International Education Journal, Dr Gregory argues that the recommendations of the SACE review panel are based on flawed research. The review argues that the low retention rates in South Australia are in part caused by "academic creep" in the curriculum, with subjects becoming too abstract and the assessment too academic.

  "There was a widely held view that curriculum in (Year 12) in particular is content-driven rather than learning-focused and that, for many teachers and students, the amount of content that has to be covered in some subjects is unmanageable," the review says.

  "There was support for the emphasis of the curriculum, and therefore students learning, to be oriented more towards an understanding of concepts and the application of what is learned, and less towards detailed content." Dr Gregory argues that the review fails to present any statistical evidence that the SACE is responsible for students leaving school early.

  "Research shows that schools with academically challenging curriculums have higher retention rates, he says.

  "He cites a study which found that Year 12 dropout rates were about 28 per cent in schools with a strong vocational education focus, compared with 9 per cent in schools without any vocational subjects. In addition, Dr Gregory says South Australia has the smallest proportion of students applying for university -- about 59 per cent compared with 70 per cent or more in NSW, Victoria and Queensland -- and also the second lowest proportion of the population holding a bachelor degree or higher, only 15.7 per cent of the state compared with more than 20 per cent in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

  "Given that ... surely an argument could be made to increase the academic thrust of the SACE?" he says in the article.

  "But one of the authors of the review, University of South Australia professor of education Alan Reid, said the SACE recommendations would better prepare students for university study."

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
• Op Ed
  Peter Holbrook: Literary paradise may soon be lost
  
  But our educators and leaders can help revive imaginative writing
  
  "News that the University of Sydney will soon possess the sole remaining chair in Australian literature signals a genuine crisis in our literary culture.

  "In Australia we seem to be witnessing a disinheriting of the national mind - the alternately rapid and gradual, wilful and accidental disappearing of our literary heritage, from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf. I say "our" advisedly, for this heritage, which stretches back to medieval times, is certainly ours, as much as Henry Lawson or Patrick White is..."
  
  Peter Holbrook, a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, teaches English literature at the University of Queensland.
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • NSW likely to escape report card penalty
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "The Federal Government is unlikely to strip NSW of up to $3.7 billion in funding, despite its failure to force all schools to comply with mandatory student reporting requirements.

    "The former education minister, Brendan Nelson, made it a condition of federal funding for all schools to grade student subjects from A to E or with an equivalent five-band scale.

    "But his replacement, Julie Bishop, has signalled a softening of that position in response to indications that states including NSW and South Australia have failed to meet complete compliance from all schools.

    "The NSW Government failed in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission last month to overturn teacher bans on the new reports.

    "The NSW Teachers Federation released results yesterday of a phone poll of 380 schools that showed 80 per cent were not using the strict A to E grading system. Just over half the schools said they were using the alternative scale that describes grades as outstanding, high, sound, basic and limited.

    "Ms Bishop told the Herald she would not comment on the teacher poll. She said she would base her decision on whether NSW had met its funding requirements after she received a formal report from the NSW Government in mid-February.

    "It seems that the Teachers Federation is determined to withhold information from parents," she said.,,"
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Schools: win some, lose some
    Campaigners to fight on despite Government plans to shut up shop [Lead story]
    by Elizabeth Bellamy
    
    The ACT Government has scaled back dramatically a plan to shut 39 Canberra schools, announcing yesterday 23 would close.

    "But parents, teachers and anti-closure campaigners have accused the Government of game playing, saying its original "ambit claim" was excessive and had put too many families through unnecessary pain, as some schools vowed to fight on.

    "The plan, which comes after six months of consultation ended last week, will save the Government $21.3million over four years, less than the $34 million anticipated, and shrink the number of public schools to 157 a 14 per cent reduction.

    "It remains unclear how many jobs will be lost, primarily through voluntary redundancies and mostly school management and administrative positions. But the figure could be at least 23.

    "Citing poor enrolments, the territory's higher-than-average costs on education, a drift to the private sector, and a budget black hole, of about $80 million next year, the Government announced in June plans to shut 39 schools, including 22 preschools, 15 primary schools, Kambah High and Dickson College.

    "Now, 23 will close, comprising 11 primary schools, 11 preschools and Kambah High.

    "The closures will affect an estimated 1367 students, however, the Government has promised one-off cash grants of $750 to pupils who re-enrol at a public school..."

    Full story in The Canberra Times at link
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Primary pupils must study languages
    by Donald MacLeod
    
    "Languages will become compulsory in primary schools but pupils will still be able to drop them at the age of 14, Lord Dearing's review of language teaching in schools in England said today.

    "Commissioned in response to concerns over a drastic fall in the number of young people taking a modern language at GCSE after the government dropped the requirement for all pupils to take a language to 16, the review has backed that decision and pinned its hopes on catching children at a young age. Although one in five pupils did not take a language at GCSE when it was compulsory this rose to almost half (49%) when the requirement was dropped.

    "Announcing his interim findings, which now go out to consultation, Lord Dearing said: "For languages: the earlier the better. We like the way they are being taught in primaries as they are introduced through cross-curricular work, and the way they draw on the young children's sense of fun. We propose that they should be embedded in the primary curriculum at the next review."

    "But Lord Dearing, author of a series of reports for ministers on politically awkward education issues, conceded that secondary schools might have to return to compulsion if the situation did not improve.

    "He said: "Of course the issue of a return to a mandatory curriculum has come up during the review. There are divided opinions. If other proposals prove insufficient then it may be that we should need to go for that in a substantially modified form. But that is not our preferred option. We want to find a middle way between freedom and prescription, and one that appeals to pupils of all abilities and aptitudes." Lord Dearing added that the education secretary, Alan Johnson, might consider requiring schools to set targets for the number of pupils taking a language..."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    

• The Times
  
  
  • Teach 'useful Mandarin', schools told
    by Alexandra Frean
    
    * Dearing report pushes languages
    * Opt-out policy blamed for decline
    
    "State schools should be encouraged to teach economically useful languages such as Mandarin, a government report will recommend today.

    "The report, by Lord Dearing, the Government’s troubleshooter, is also expected to recommend that language teaching be offered in all primary schools. It will also call for language classes in secondary schools to be made more engaging to persuade greater numbers of pupils to take part.

    "The report is unlikely, however, to recommend that ministers reverse the decision to make foreign languages optional at age 14. That decision in September 2004 caused an outcry and led to accusations that the young would miss out on good jobs, either overseas or at home, and was followed by a steep decline in language learning in secondary school..."
    
    Full story in The Times at link
    
    

Friday 15 December

• The New York Times
  
  
  • Expert Panel Proposes Far-Reaching Redesign of the American Education System
    by David M Herszenhorn
    
    "Warning that Americans face a grave risk of losing their prosperity and high quality of life to better educated workers overseas, a panel of education, labor and other public policy experts yesterday proposed a far-reaching redesign of the United States education system that would include having schools operated by independent contractors and giving states, rather than local districts, control over school financing.

    "The panel, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, included two former federal education secretaries, Rod Paige, a Republican, and Richard W. Riley, a Democrat; two former labor secretaries, William E. Brock, a Republican, and Ray Marshall, a Democrat; and an array of other luminaries, including former Gov. John Engler of Michigan, and the New York City schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein.

    "The commission’s report, released at a news conference in Washington, rethinks American schooling from top to bottom, going beyond the achievement goals of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, and farther than many initiatives being pursued by the Bush administration or by experimental state and local school authorities. Among other things, the report proposes starting school for most children at age 3, and requiring all students to pass board exams to graduate from high school, which for many would end after 10th grade. Students could then go to a community or technical college, or spend two years preparing for selective colleges and universities.

    “We have run out the string on a whole series of initiatives that were viewed as hopeful,” said Lewis H. Spence, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services and a member of the panel. “This puts a whole new set of ideas on the table.”...
    
    "The commission’s work was quickly hailed by some as a potentially groundbreaking document. “This report has the potential to change the debate on education at the national level,” said Jack Jennings, the president of the Center on Education Policy, who is a Democrat and prominent expert on the federal education law..."
    
    "In its report, the commission warned of dire consequences should the country not adopt a strikingly bold approach. “If we continue on our current course, and the number of nations outpacing us in the education race continues to grow at its current rate,” it said, “the American standard of living will steadily fall relative to those nations, rich and poor, that are doing a better job.”...
    
    “High productivity investments in education are one of the most universally supported and effective policies that governments have ever undertaken,” Paul Romer [an economist at Stanford University] said. “The left and the right are both on board for high payoffs in education.” [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The New York TImes at link
    
    Similar story in The Washington Post -- the story is in most US daily newspapers

    "The United States has one of the highest costs of education but produces mediocre results," added [Charles Knapp, chairman of the commission], former president of the University of Georgia. "The recommendations are absolutely necessary if we want America to maintain its standard of living."
    
    "Boosting teacher pay would draw better candidates to the profession, commission members said. They recommend that schools increase teacher pay by at least $20,000 [A$27,000] -- to $45,000 [A$60,000] for beginners and $95,000 [A$127,000] for experienced ones working a regular school calendar. Teachers who work year-round, they said, would be paid $110,000. [A$147,000]" [The Washington Post]
    
    

• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
• Rudd wants more quality in education
  by Paul Starick
  
  "Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd wants to give education a harder edge by introducing tougher scrutiny of quality.
  
  "In an interview with The Advertiser yesterday, Mr Rudd said a Labor government would pump more money into the education system.

  "That, however, would be coupled with "rigour in quality standards to make sure these funds are being properly invested with outcomes we can measure".

  "I don't think people like a whole lot of money being thrown at a project, particularly an important national project like this, without having a guarantee it makes a difference at the end," Mr Rudd said.

  "I'm for a huge increase in the effort that we make by way of the investment amount but I'm also equally concerned about how the money is spent and whether that's measurable."

  "Mr Rudd's comments signalled Labor would demand greater measurement of education standards, an approach opposed by teachers' unions and many educators.

  "He declined to specify if that would include support for A-E grades on report cards or other Coalition initiatives.

  "Mr Rudd did not rule that out, instead saying he needed time to work through policy. "I just believe in quality and rigour. Whether that's the best way forward or not, I'd rather be better briefed," he said.

  "He said education was a "central passion for everything that I'm on about it public life".

  "We need to lift our sights. We need to lift our vision and start to imagine an Australia where we turn ourselves into the most educated economy, the most educated society in the western world," he said. "That requires better investment right across the system." ...
  
  Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
  
  
  

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Labor back bench sore at block to ambitions (page 14)
    by Graham Mason and Amanda Banks
    
    

  Ljiljanna Ravlich: Before and After
  Before	After
  Education and Training	Government Enterprises; Multicultural Interests and Citizenship; Youth
  35,000 employees	900 employees
  $ 3,600 million budget	$ 16 million budget
  $ 213,000 + salary	$ 213,000 + salary



"Alan Carpenter's decision to keep under-performing ministers Ljiljanna Ravlich and Sheila McHale in Cabinet has infuriated ambitious ALP backbenchers, who believe their chances have been quashed.

"The Premier avoided a factional brawl on Wednesday by reshuffling portfolios between existing Cabinet ministers.

"But the move has generated resentment and disappointment among his backbenchers, with many bemoaning their lack of chances before the 2009 State poll..."

"It is very frustrating that there are ministers struggling still in Cabinet," one prominent Labor backbencher said.

"It's not a very fair and equitable distribution and reward for real merit. In fact, people who do show promise are often sidelined because they might be a threat to the ministers." ... [emphasis added]

Full story in The West Australian



• The Australian
  
  
• No change five years after school science 'crisis' alert
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "A report that described as disappointing the teaching of science in Australian schools and recommended moves towards a national curriculum is yet to be implemented, five years after it was handed to the federal Government.

  "Instead, the federal Education Department has commissioned a second report by the same academics to identify how to improve the teaching of science in schools.

  "The lead author of both reports, Denis Goodrum, head of education at the University of Canberra, said that while the 2001 report on the status and quality of teaching and learning of science in Australian schools had prompted improvements in primary school science, there had been little impact in high schools.

  "The issues are still the same as they were five years ago," Professor Goodrum said.

  "The 2001 report says the standard of science teaching and learning is "one of great variability but, on average, the picture is disappointing". "In some primary schools, often science is not taught at all," it says.

  "In secondary schools, the report criticises the emphasis on "chalk-and-talk" teaching, which offers little challenge or excitement to students and is reflected in the declining number of science students.

  "There is wasteful duplication (among the states and territories) of effort in preparing curriculum resources and resources for the professional development of teachers," it says.

  "University science teacher education is under-resourced and close to crisis, with faculty staffing profiles much smaller and older than 10 years ago."

  "Education Minister Julie Bishop said the second report was intended to provide an action plan of measures the federal Government could implement, with many of the original recommendations requiring the co-operation of the states and territories. She is considering introducing incentives in the form of scholarships or bursaries for students studying to become science and maths teachers.

  "The department is also examining options for the creation of adjunct teaching positions for retiring scientists, engineers and other scientific professions to harness their skills.

  "Ms Bishop said the slow progress in addressing problems in science and maths teaching reflected the difficulty of getting state and territory governments to agree."
  
  From The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Counting the cost of poor funding for mathematics
  by Selina Mitchell
  
  "An ageing and ever-dwindling group of isolated mathematicians is propping up the nation's precarious reputation in statistics and mathematical research.

  "The Academy of Science warned in a report released yesterday that unless there was a significant boost to university funding, Australia would not be able to compete for projects in fields ranging from drugs research to mining logistics.

  "Maths and science studies in Australia have been run down to the point where research in key areas such as climate change, national security and public health is likely to be compromised, says the report.

  "It says the number of maths and statistics students and teachers is critically low. "If Australia is to maintain its place in the technological world, it needs greater investment in its fundamental mathematical sciences infrastructure," it says.

  "A key part of the problem was the poor funding of university mathematical sciences relative to other sciences.

  "All up, mathematics and statistics receive 60 per cent of the funding per student of nearly all other sciences," review chairman and University of Melbourne academic Hyam Rubinstein said. "This is killing our departments - we can't run our programs on the available funding and Australia will be the loser."

  "The academy has called for an immediate capital injection of $20 million to rebuild university maths and statistics departments.

  "Professor Rubinstein said Australia's reputation in the field of maths and statistics research relied on a handful of scientists nearing retirement..."
  
  From The Australian at link
  
  Similar story in The Melbourne Age
  
  
  

• Editorial
  Phone tap shuffle
  Rearranging the WA cabinet has not defused the bomb

  "West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter has pinned his hopes on a reorganisation of the carriages to limit the damage from the slowly unfolding Brian Burke-inspired train wreck that has crippled his Government. What started as a minor reshuffle to reassign two underperforming junior ministers has ended in a clean sweep that gives little confidence in the competence of the Carpenter team. Two thirds of the original Carpenter ministry, sworn in in February, were this week reassigned to new jobs. Mr Carpenter was forced to fall back onto his deputy and Treasurer, Eric Ripper for a steady hand to take up the State Development portfolio, an admission of a lack of talent from which to choose or that state development no longer matters. Mr Carpenter's biggest problem, however, remains the time bomb ticking within the Corruption and Crime Commission that has mounted a telephone-tapping operation on disgraced former premier Mr Burke. That operation has already claimed the scalp of Mr Carpenter's small business minister, Norm Marlborough. Mr Burke was recorded instructing Mr Marlborough to keep the telephone link between the two men secret, providing the minister with answers to questions in parliament to disguise their relationship and demanding the appointment of former Busselton shire president Beryle Morgan to the South West Development Commission. Mr Carpenter sacked Mr Marlborough and forced Mr Burke to resign from the ALP. The CCC has since confirmed that it has monitored calls to and from the private homes and mobile telephones of at least 79 West Australians, including public servants, politicians and police. Commissioner Kevin Hammond has said the CCC had collected information that "supports the proposition that serious misconduct by public officers has, may have or is occurring". The CCC's exposure of Mr Burke's political links has scandalised the Carpenter Government and no one knows how far it may run. The main event is still to come when, armed with the telephone intercepts, the CCC begins a new hearing in February.

  "Mr Carpenter had asked his ministers to disclose their links and this week's reshuffle is designed to minimise the risks of the CCC hearing. But it remains unclear how deep Mr Burke's tentacles have penetrated the Carpenter Government. The demotion of accident-prone education minister Lijiljanna (sic) Ravlich is sensible but the reshuffle does not inspire confidence that all the issues that have bedevilled the Carpenter Government in its first year have been addressed. [emphasis added] Nor will it shield the Premier from having to act should the CCC expose deep links between his ministers and Mr Burke. The big question remains: why was Mr Carpenter's first act as premier-elect to lift the ban on government members speaking to the former premier and lobbyist of last resort, Mr Burke?"
  
  From The Australian at link [scroll down to second editorial]

  
  
  
• Change risks uni's credit rating
  by Lisa Macnamara
  
  "Melbourne University's radical plan to introduce a US-style curriculum may put its reputation and credit rating at risk, the international agency Standard & Poor's has warned..."
  
  "The new curriculum will result in Melbourne replacing hundreds of its undergraduate courses with six new generalist degrees and a series of US-style graduate schools. The number of undergraduate students will gradually be reduced, while extra revenue will be raised through fee-paying courses..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • 'Tis not a season to be jolly for schools [Lead story]
    by Elizabeth Bellamy
    
    "Opposition to the ACT Government's plan to shut 23 schools gained momentum yesterday, as private schools queried their ability to cope with a potential influx of students and the NSW Government ruled out paying for its students, most of whom will remain at ACT schools.

    "The Government's backdown on Wednesday to shut nearly half of the 39 schools initially targeted has prompted an intense reaction from the Canberra community.

    "While some are glad their schools have been saved, others say they will hold fast to their threats of legal action, with a legal academic lending support to their cause yesterday.

    "Meanwhile, ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr drew fire in the Legislative Assembly yesterday, surviving a censure motion after he was accused of failing to explain his school reforms and bribing the electorate..."
    
    Full story in The Canberra Times at link
    
    
    

• The Independent
  
  
  • Language lessons must be made relevant to teenagers, report says
    by Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
    
    "A comprehensive overhaul of language teaching is needed to reverse the dramatic decline in pupils taking French, German and other languages, a report commissioned by the Government has said. "Urgent" changes should be made to GCSE courses to make them more relevant to teenagers, while foreign languages should be a standard part of primary school lessons, Lord Dearing said..."
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    Similar story in The Guardian
    
    

Saturday – Sunday, 16 – 17 December

• ABC News Online [Sunday 3:42 pm]
  
  
  • Unions will block Labor's uniform education reform, Govt says

    "The Federal Government says the Labor Party will never be able to implement national consistency in education because teachers' unions oppose such reforms.

    "The Federal Opposition says Australia should be working towards nationally consistent school curricula and term dates.

    "Labor's new education spokesman Stephen Smith says the Commonwealth needs to work cooperatively with state and territory governments on the issue.

    "But Education Minister Julie Bishop says national consistency in education is longstanding government policy and only the government could implement it.

    "I'm pleased that Labor is now adopting our policy position, but Labor will never be able to deliver on this because they are captive to the teachers' unions and teachers unions oppose such reforms," she said."
    

    From ABC News Online at link
    
    
    
    
  • Opposition flags uniform school terms [Sunday 1:12 pm]
    
    "The Federal Opposition wants to see uniform school terms across the country.

    "Labor also wants the curriculum of state and territory education systems to be uniform, with only some regional variations.

    "Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd and education spokesman Stephen Smith outlined Labor's vision for education in Perth this morning.

    "Mr Smith says he does not believe in imposing changes on the states in the area of education, but says it is clear there needs to be some changes.

    "If a kid now has to go from a West Australian school to a Victorian school because mum or dad have to move for employment or family reasons, then you'll be lucky if they get into the same primary school year, let alone be in the same term at the same age," he said.

    "Mr Smith also highlighted HECS debt and income support for tertiary students as top priorities for Labor.

    "He argues a more seamless education system is needed, but says there would have to be regional variations in what students are taught.

    "I'm not suggesting that we have precisely the same thing taught in every school in the country, but we can do much better with national consistent standards, national consistent curriculum and with national consistency, when it comes to simple things like when you start and finish school," he said."

    From ABC News Online at link
  
  
  
  The Adelaide Sunday Mail
  
  
  • Editorial
    Give parents full picture
    
    "The stand-off between the teachers' union and the federal and state governments over plans for an A-to-E reporting system for primary school children is perplexing.
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop wanted the system implemented this year, and it came with an $250 million incentive that won over the SA Government.

    "The rationale was straightforward – it would give parents a clear idea of how their children were performing in relation to their peers.

    "The Australian Education Union sees it differently – it warns that "labelling" children at such tender ages can have a long-term detrimental effect.

    "As such it has told members to ignore the directive (and the cash carrot).

    "The issue now is in the Industrial Relations Commission as the State Education Department seeks to have the system implemented.

    "While the AEU's position has a certain amount of merit, let's not kid ourselves.

    "We live in a competitive world where there are high achievers, those who do their best and those who fail to live up to their potential.

    "No one wants to brand a child a loser, but failure to recognise underachievement – and ram that message home to parents – sets up a child for failures.

    "Parents need to know how their children are performing in school in unambiguous terms.

    "Systems now in place where report cards list performances in language such as "high achievement", "above satisfactory", "satisfactory" and "developing" may lull parents into a false sense of security – under such a system virtually everyone is a winner.

    "It will do little to wake up some parents to the need to help their children at home, either by spurring them on, helping them with homework, arranging a tutor or speaking to the school to see if there is a problem.

    "It also gives parents no clue as to how their children are faring in relation to their peers."

    From The Adelaide Sunday Mail at link
    
    
    
  • Principals 'bullied' over cuts
    
    "Principals from 21 schools crippled by funding cuts say they are being gagged and intimidated by Education Department officers.
    
    "The principals say they have been told to keep their mouths shut about the $30,000 funding cuts to their schools..."
    
    "Another principal said: "I can't tell you who I got the call from, but it was someone at the top. I was basically told it was my job if I said anything." ...   [Sound familiar? Has Paul A moved to Adelaide?   Web]
    
    Full story in The Adelaide Sunday Mail at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Clash of ministers complicates plea for 'basic learning'
    by Paul Heinrichs
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has accused state education authorities across Australia of resisting and slowing crucial reforms aimed at improving literacy for struggling students.

    "Ms Bishop said it was taking too long for states to implement the recommendations of the Federal Government's Teaching Reading report, which urged teachers to go back to basics in teaching children to read, especially in the early primary school years. Research shows that up to a third of primary students may be missing out on elementary reading skills under the literacy methods used in almost all schools.

    "But change may be difficult, with research showing more than half of beginning primary teachers feel ill-equipped to teach reading using phonics — the technique of breaking words into sound sections.

    "The states have deferred until May 2008 the beginning of national literacy testing for all students in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9, which is intended to be the new foundation of Australian standards.

    "Ms Bishop said the states were "hiding behind" international benchmarks that they claimed showed Australian students compared favourably to overseas counterparts.

    "But more recent research showed that the results, from the OECD, masked serious concerns about the bottom third of students, especially in rural and regional areas.

    "Ms Bishop said the Federal Government believed the issue was so important that it was referred to the education ministers' council and directly to the next meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in April for a unified response.

    "However, there is nothing to stop individual state and territory authorities taking up recommendations that can be implemented by the states," she said.

    "They don't have to wait for the process of COAG to give literacy the priority it deserves. I am disappointed, as I know the author Ken Rowe is, that state education authorities haven't embraced the recommendations that individual states can implement." ...
    
    "Ms Bishop's comments come as the so-called "literacy wars", fought in the US and Britain, are hotting up in Australia, with university education faculties likely to fight against changing the way they train teachers."

    "A teaching guide

    • The 'back-to-basics' style involves teaching children to read by linking sounds with the letters, and to break the 'code' of reading by proceeding in small steps.
      
      
    • Constructivism' in education is a cognitive theory about how children learn, as opposed to how they are taught. It emphasises a whole-language or whole-word approach, by which children learn to read by responding to visual clues, such as the word's context in a sentence, or by memorising unfamiliar words."
      
      

    Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Don't level ivory towers
    Too much uniformity does not make for interesting or excellent universities, writes Glyn Davis
    
    "... If Australia's public universities are to survive and flourish in a global market, change is vital. Our universities need to be able to specialise, to find distinct local identities, to emphasise their most promising research and teaching strengths. They need to become famous for distinctive subject matter, innovative curriculum and delivery, campus life or international reach.

    "This striving for difference has recently gained political consensus. Education Minister Julie Bishop has accepted the case for loosened Federal Government controls. She has argued that diversity of institutions gives students greater choice, increases competition and excellence, and encourages innovation.

    "The ALP has expressed similar views. An ALP White Paper criticises the funding system at the heart of federal regulation: "The Government's insistence on funding every university at the same rate per student is the basic constraint on diversity in the system," it argues.

    "Encouraging signs, but it is hard to create diversity within a system designed to be uniform, consistent and closely regulated from Canberra. At least five big changes are needed if Australia's public university system is to embrace real diversity..."
    
    Glyn Davis is vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne.
    
    Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
• McGowan opens door to OBE talks (page 14)
  by Bethany Hiatt
  
  "WA's new Education Minister has raised the hopes of teachers' and parents' groups that he is prepared to make changes to the State's contentious outcomes-based education system.
  
  "Mark McGowan, handed the $3.6 billion portfolio on Wednesday after former minister Ljiljanna Ravlich was sacked partly because of her poor handling of the OBE controversy, said he would not rush to judgement on the system. "I'm going to have a look at it, I'm going to listen and learn," he said.
  
  "He planned to consult widely, starting with the teachers' union next week. "I'm not going to act like I know everything. I'm going to listen and formulate views based on that listening," he said.
  
  "Teachers' and parents' groups have called on Mr McGowan to put OBE assessment under the spotlight because of the enormous workload it imposes on teachers and because it is difficult for parents to understand.
  
  "The Parents and Friends Federation of WA, which represents parents of children at Catholic schools, said OBE might as well be scrapped if the Minister could not win support from teachers and parents.
  
  "I think he needs to sit down and examine all the input from parents' and teachers' groups and decide whether it should proceed or not," executive director Laurie Eastwood said.
  
  "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said Mr McGowan needed to recognise that stress and heavy workloads caused by the current focus on assessment would push more teachers out of the profession.
  
  "Greg William, head of the teachers' group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, called on Mr McGowan to ditch OBE assessment that requires teachers to assess students' performance against eight "levels" of achievement.
  
  "Although Mr McGowan refused to comment directly on OBE, he hinted that he would leave the door open to discuss concerns about assessment. "I'm very keen to ensure that teachers are teaching," he said. "There is a lot of debate around about them doing other things and so forth but my focus is going to be on teachers teaching."
  
  "However, he made it clear that reform was still firmly on the agenda. "Reform is important and you have to do it – you work with people and you take them with you as best you can," he said. "Society moves on and we have to continually improve."
  
  "The former naval officer and deputy mayor of Rockingham is married to a teacher and has two small sons, whom he plans to send to State schools. His mother taught for more than 40 years and his brother also used to teach.
  
  "Mr McGowan also refused to be drawn on whether he would support a national curriculum. He said WA had a strong tradition of independence but he understood that a common school program would help families who moved between States."
  
  From The West Australian
  
  
  
• Labor backbencher calls for annual literacy, maths tests (page 14)
  by Bethany Hiatt
  
  "All WA children should be tested on their reading, writing, spelling and maths skills every year because school reports produced under WA's outcomes-based education system are meaningless, a Labor backbencher said yesterday.
  
  "Bassendean MLA Martin Whitely, a member of the Lower House parliamentary committee that investigated the introduction of OBE to Years 11 and 12, has called for students to sit the WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessment annually after Year 3 instead of every two years.
  
  "Putting himself at odds with the Carpenter Government's handling of OBE implementation, he also called for the scrapping of the use of OBE "levels" between one and eight on lower school reports, saying they were "virtually meaningless".

  "I was angry when I got my son's Year 10 school report this week, not because he had done badly, but simply because I had no idea of how he had done," he said.

  "Most of the controversy surrounding OBE has centred on its implementation in Years 11 and 12, but many teachers have also called for the system to be scrapped in Years 8 to 10. Mr Whitely said that using eight levels of achievement across 12 years was "hopelessly inadequate".
  
  "You end up with the vast majority of kids in a year group achieving the same number level. There is little capacity to recognise improvement and the levels themselves are described in such vague language as to be virtually meaningless," he said.
  
  "But State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said that pushing students to do more tests was "educational lunacy".
  
  "Education Minister Mark McGowan refused to comment."
  
  From The West Australian
  
  
  

• The Sunday Times Online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Parents read the riot act [Saturday 2:00 pm]
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Parents should stop watching television and start reading to their children and helping them with their homework, says new Education Minister Mark McGowan.
    
    "I expect to make it a theme of my time as minister to try to get that across to people that they have to assume some responsibility for their children's basic education," he said.

    "Mr McGowan said he was not handballing schools' responsibilities for education to parents.

    "And I'm not saying that parents should be telling teachers what to do," he said. "What I mean is, parents assuming some responsibility for their children's education when the children are not at school.

    "So at night, reading to them, assisting them with their homework, doing sums with them, talking to them about the value of education – particularly when they're young, to get those fundamentals right.

    "I actually think that is probably the most important thing that you can do to really support your child.
    
    "And all the studies I'm aware of, all the things that I've read about education, show that parents who do that, their kids normally do very well.

    "I was the beneficiary of a mother who sat and read with me every night because I had some difficulty with reading as a boy and she sorted that out."

    "Mr McGowan, who took over the portfolio from besieged minister Ljiljanna Ravlich after Wednesday's Cabinet reshuffle, said he would look for ways to communicate his message and advertising would be one tool.

    "Why are you sitting here watching TV when you should be reading to your children", could be one theme.

    "I'm a Labor minister and I want to see kids from working families families that don't have much ... have all the opportunities that other kids have," he said.

    "And getting them engaged in education is the best way of achieving that."

    "Mr McGowan said negative perceptions of WA's education system, spread by media and others, caused many of the problems that led to his predecessor's demise, rather than the content of what he saw as a "world-class" system.

    "Ms Ravlich was dumped as Education Minister partly because of her handling of implementing Outcomes-Based Education in Years 11 and 12.

    "I think we have a very good teaching profession, I have a lot of respect for teachers," he said.

    "I think our education system is one of the best things that this country built over the last 200 or so years, and in this state, especially.

    "And I'm not going to get into the whole argument of private versus public. I'm not going to be a class warrior. I think parents have a right to choose.

    "My role as State Education Minister is supporting both systems, but I have a special responsibility to the public system, to make sure that when parents choose, they have an excellent option in the state system.''

    "It was too early for him to decide on the future of OBE, but he would listen to teachers' and parents' views.

    "He had not decided whether he would support a national curriculum because he believed a lot of WA's success hinged on its independence, but he saw some merit in having a standardised system.

    "However, he saw the best way to improve the system was to continue reforming it."
    
    From The Sunday Times Online at link
    
    Readers' Comments on this story, including:
    

    • Don't worry about preaching to parents Mr McGowan, a much higher priority of the education minister should be to dump OBE from state schools.
      Posted by: P. Jackman of WA
      
      
      
    • Yes, P Jackman, it is a bit like trying to spread the "blame", isn't it? When parents aren't happy with the Education deal they are getting, the boss turns round and blames THEM for the kiddies not getting a sound education. NOT the best way to start. Still, now they are hearing it from ALL angles, OBE sucks, take it from Kevin Rudd or Business, if you won't take it from expert educators or the teachers and families having to endure it.
      Posted by: proud parent of perth
      
      
      
    • Mr McGowan said negative perceptions of WA's education system, spread by media and others, caused many of the problems that led to his predecessor's demise, rather than the content of what he saw as a ``world-class'' system. " ABSOLUTE BULL McGowan! Negative 'perceptions' of WA's education are accurate and the inevitable result of the dumbing down of education in this state by the universally disgredited and abandoned OBE, which has been pushed blindly by Ravlich and her protected coterie of pole-climbing non-teaching educrats. We're sick to death of politicians blaming the media for revealing their scandalous and abject failure to handle their portfolios with any degree of competence, honesty, transparency, or responsiveness to the advice from those with a lifetime of experience in the fields over which these factionally appointed and totally unqualified 'johnny-come -latelys' are given overall control. It hardly bodes well that your first squawks are of the same ilk, McGowan - ill-founded defenses of the indefensible for some kind of party political advantage, to the detriment of the state's students and the state's education system which will continue to implode so long as you refuse to face facts and deal with them. Abolish OBE or rack off!
      Posted by: Peter of Perth
      
      
      
    • If Mr McGowan wants to provide opportunities for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, he needs to get rid of the NCOS as soon as possible. If there is anything that is going to increase the gap between the haves and the have-nots, it is this. Private tutoring will go through the roof to prepare Year 12 students for the waffling types of response needed. Students with high literacy levels (usually those with access to books, tutoring and from academically inclined households) are the ones who will flourish under this regime. And at the end of it all, when the levels don't come out right, there will be law suits, and we all know who can afford those!!!
      Posted by: Greg Williams of Bicton
      
      
      
    • The first thing McGowan has to fix is the Report system. When you read you rchild's report and it is so contradictory, how are you expected to deal with it. For instance, my daughter received a "C" for Speaking and Listening in English, classified as Satisfactory, yet the Comments at the end of the Report claim she is an excellent speaker and listener. How are you expected to determine what areas your child needs assistance with, when the Report does not provide this information. I advise McGowan to take some responsibility for our kids education also and make it easier for parents to work with their children in areas where they may be struggling. On the subject of manners and attitiude, I agree with the comments so far and if parents did focus on more on teaching manners and attitude, then the spoiled brats and disruptive types would be more prone to listen and learn.
      Posted by: Tony of Coolup
      
      
      
    • Concerned mum of Perth is right on, back to basics, respect and parents is taking back the discipline of their children. Teach your kids manners, or are they as rude as you are? I deal with kids every day, and I'm the one that has to stop the class to address a few kids, every time, why should I do this, because I care, don't some parents?, and believe me, I get tired of doing this, time after time. Another point is, are the kids of today losing spelling and reading skills, the answer is yes. I am now living in Japan and I wouldn't bring my niece to one of my kids classes (10 year olds) due to the fact that the Japanese kids can write, read and understand grammar a lot better than she can, they study everyday, go to school everyday except Sunday and do night classes for English, math, science, Japanese kanji (writing) and we think our kids have it bad, sure we have more family time, but what do we teach kids in that time, ANSWER, manners and respect for your elders. The new Education Minister Mark McGowan is on the right track and telling us what we should already know.
      Posted by: johnny kabulla of japan
      
      
      
    • It's a sad situation when an Education Minister has to say parents should assume some responsibility for their children's education when the children are not at school. It's a bit like saying they should also feed and clothe them. Sadly, it's easier to give them a few dollars and send them to the mall, rather than spend time with them. My wife, a high school teacher, commented that she'd settle for parents teaching them basic manners, so she didn't have to deal with spoiled "princesses" in class.
      Posted by: Steve Kessell of Willetton
      
      
      
    • Bang on Steve. I trained as a teacher in the UK, and for a variety of reasons I no longer teach full time. One of those reasons is that more than anything else, you are having to spend over half the lesson time teaching simple manners to children who simply haven't got a clue. In today's consumerist society where most parents are working more than ever, I can see why there's less contact between parents and their children but this can be no excuse. First and foremost, parents are and always will be the best teachers and role models that children can have. Schools exist to help extend this learning process so that children can achieve their potential, not to play the parent, and teacher combined. At the end of the day, you can spend thousands of dollars sending your kids to private schools and have after school tutoring etc, but it does not take away the fact that your kids are a product of you. If you cannot find the time or effort to sit down with your children and be a good parent, then we will continue to have kids lacking in basic skills. Simple.
      Posted by: Craig
      
      
      
    • Kids don't all have mums who are teachers and can fix the problems left undetected by the OBE system! Class content needs to get "back to basics" so that kids are properly assessed and problems can be dealt with, unlike the situation now, where everybody gets the same "levels" and nobody knows how they are really going. My child's reports (pages of them!) told me nothing! I dread what happens when her levels have to decide whether or not she gets a uni place!
      Posted by: concerned mum of perth
      
      
    • I hope the new Ed minister doesn't expect parents to fill too many gaps. Reading to your kids is great, but we parents can't be expected to cope with all the new maths and science subjects in upper school, and even the best intentions can't replace quality teaching. Our schools have been losing fantastic teachers, because they haven't been listened to, while bureaucrats have gone ahead with impractical change for change's sake. It's time to listen to the teachers, and get the quality back into WA education.
      Posted by: penny of perth
      
      
      
      
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Science courses mystify teachers
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "School science curriculums are poorly written, unnecessarily complex and so laden with jargon that experienced science teachers and academics struggle to understand the intent of the courses.

    "Education researchers from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia argue that science curriculums are overwhelming for newly qualified science teachers and the growing numbers of non-specialist teachers forced to teach science because of the shortage in expert teachers.

    "In an article published in Science Teacher, the journal of the Australian Science Teachers Association, Grady Venville and Vaille Dawson compared science curriculums for Years K to 10 in every state and territory.

    "Professor Venville and Dr Dawson say the benefits of having tailor-made curriculums for each state and territory "were not immediately apparent".

    "They were surprised by the complexity of the curriculum documents.

    "Although we are both experienced science teachers and academics in science education, some of the documents were extremely long (over 200 pages), the language dense, jargon-laden and exclusive," they said.

    "The documents were complex and difficult to interpret without assistance."

    "Dr Dawson said yesterday the language used to describe the science to be taught was understandable; the problem was the jargon associated with education that was difficult to understand.

    "There's a need for a single national curriculum, but not in the sense that we want all schools to teach the same thing because that's unrealistic," she said.

    "But a national curriculum would be easier to work with."

    "The comparison says that all curriculums are structured around discipline-based learning areas, including science, except Tasmania, which lists essential learnings as desired outcomes of education in a "distinct move away from disciplines".

    "The Tasmanian Government is in the process of revising its essential learnings curriculum, and Education Minister David Bartlett has said disciplines with syllabuses for specific subjects, including science, will form the basis of the new curriculum framework.

    "The NSW curriculum was also substantially different from the other states and territories, particularly in the K-6 syllabus, which includes technology in the science curriculum.

    "The researchers remarked that while the curriculum documents gave guidance to teachers, "the nature of the document cannot guarantee good teaching".

    "Professor of education at the University of Canberra, Denis Goodrum, who is heading a report for the federal Government to identify the key issues facing science education, said 90 per cent of science curriculums across the states and territories were the same.

    "Professor Goodrum said the main differences were within states rather than between states.

    "The differences between a school in Killara on Sydney's north shore and City Beach in Perth is less than the difference between a school in Killara and one in Wilcannia in western NSW," he said."
    
    From The Weekend Australian at link

    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Comrade Rudd is a closet leftie: Election 2007
    Kevin Donnelly examines the new federal Opposition Leader's record in the battle of ideas on education

    "Who are the authors of the following quotations?
    
    1. "I have a plan ... a national crusade for education standards representing what all our students must know to succeed in the knowledge economy of the 21st century."
    
    2. "Our goal: to make Britain the best educated and skilled country in the world ... education, education education."
    
    3. "We [need to] turbo-charge our national education system to create the knowledge base for the future of the Australian economy" and "We need to lift our vision and start to imagine an Australia where we turn ourselves into the most educated economy, the most educated society in the Western world."
    
    "The answers are: former US president Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and new federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd. It's significant that Blair and Clinton saw education as vitally important in their quest for power and as a powerful weapon in the policy arsenal of their governments.
    
    "Rudd, in signalling education as a key issue in what he terms the "battle of ideas for Australia's future", is doing nothing new. As demonstrated by Blair and Clinton, concerns about education are central to aspirational voters. And calling for higher standards, accountability and a curriculum based on core knowledge resonates with the broader public.
    
    "As illustrated by the response to Mark Latham's hit list of non-government schools, taken to the last federal election, the old-style politics of envy and class war has outlived its usefulness and an essential element of the Third Way is for social democratic parties to seek the middle ground. Coupled with the destructive impact of ALP-inspired experiments such as outcomes-based education at the state level -- witness the demise of Paula Wriedt as Tasmania's education minister and the slow political death of Ljiljanna Ravlich in Western Australia -- it's understandable why Rudd and Stephen Smith, Labor's education spokesman, are so eager to mimic a conservative agenda on this issue.
    
    "Will Rudd be able to win the battle of ideas in education? One obstacle in copying the Howard Government's agenda on issues such as teacher accountability, defining educational success by measuring outcomes and supporting parents' right to choose non-government schools is that the ALP will antagonise its traditional supporters such as the Australian Education Union.
    
    "At the 2004 federal election the AEU mounted a campaign, costing $1.5 million and targeting 28 marginal seats, to unseat the Howard Government. The AEU, evidenced by a series of speeches by the union's president, Pat Byrne, favours a cultural Left agenda in education and is opposed to the types of initiatives being put forward by team Labor.
    
    "Rudd's new-won adherence to a socially conservative view of education is also very much at odds with his track record as chief of staff to former Queensland premier Wayne Goss and his role as director-general of the state cabinet office.
    
    "While it is true that during the Goss-Rudd partnership the premier argued against using the term "invasion" in relation to the arrival of the First Fleet, the period under the Goss government saw education in Queensland gain the reputation of being a bastion of the dumbed-down and politically correct approach to curriculum represented by outcomes-based education.
    
    "During the early 1990s, Queensland was given the task of writing the Keating government's national studies of society and the environment syllabus. In the words of Bill Hannan, a Victorian educationalist close to the ALP, the Queensland material was little more than a "subject of satire" and "a case of political correctness gone wild".
    
    "In 1996, after Goss lost government, I undertook a review of the Queensland Education Department for Bob Quinn, the incoming minister. The report concluded that during the Goss-Rudd partnership education in Queensland suffered from "provider capture", a situation where unions ran the agenda and schools were stifled by a rigid and insensitive centralised bureaucracy.
    
    "The curriculum, as a result of educational experiments such as the new basics, critical literacy and drowning history and geography in studies of society and the environment, led to falling standards and to students becoming culturally illiterate.
    
    "While Rudd seeks to re-badge himself and the ALP, recently stating "I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist and I never will be a socialist", three years ago he declared himself "an old-fashioned Christian socialist".
    
    "On reading his first parliamentary speech as Opposition Leader, there are elements of this socialist vision for all to see. He argues that "families are such a basic social institution that they deserve special protections" and that they should be "protected from the market".
    
    "Rudd argues, as does Byrne, that education is a public good.
    
    "Those familiar with the campaign being waged against parental choice in education will understand that statist expressions such as public good, that families deserve special protections and should be protected from the market, are left-wing code for maintaining government control and denying families choice.
    
    "Ignored is the overseas evidence that charter schools, where local communities manage their schools and vouchers, where the money follows the child and more families are in a position to choose, lead to increased equity and social justice, especially among those less fortunate.
    
    "While Rudd, in his parliamentary speech, seeks to differentiate himself from old-style Labor politics, the danger is that beneath the rhetoric about equity, sustainability and compassion and the argument that Labor has a monopoly over "a fair go for all, not just for some" beats the heart of Comrade Rudd.
    
    "In relation to education, this means that the initiatives guaranteed to turbo-charge the system -- benchmarking curriculum to ensure that it is world's best, freeing schools from provider capture and giving more parents the right to choosen -- will be ignored and, while on the level of rhetoric the arguments are appealing, little of substance will change."
    
    Kevin Donnelly is author of the forthcoming Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books). In 2004 he worked as an adviser to Kevin Andrews, federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.
    
    From The Weekend Australian

    
    
    
  • Rudd follows mentor's mantra
    by Matthew Franklin and Dennis Shanahan
    
    "... Rudd says that beyond looking credible, his Labor team must convince people it has a program to lay the foundations for future economic prosperity, chiefly through developing good policies in education and training..."
    
    "An awful lot of Goss rubbed off on Rudd," [Goss government attorney-general Dean] Wells says. "They're out of the same mould. They were both boys from economically challenged backgrounds who went to ordinary local schools. They both made up their minds that education would get them somewhere and that they were going to do something about the social disadvantage they saw around them." ...
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Carpenter puts faith in polished cabinet
    by Amanda O'Brien
    
    "With paintbrush and polishing cloth in hand, Premier Alan Carpenter revealed hidden talents this week as he scrubbed and polished a year's worth of grime off his cabinet to reveal a shiny new set of old ministers.

    "Tarnish was buffed and polished away. New spots were painted on. Gone were the stains and splotches of months of misadventure.

    "Some ministers emerged almost unrecognisable as Carpenter sang their praises and predicted good things. There were new clothes, new labels and hope for a new start for the much troubled but well-liked Premier.

    "For a government rolling in wealth from the economic boom and led by an astute former journalist, it's astonishing how much bad press it has faced this year.

    "Carpenter's capacity to draw a line under problems so that everyone can "move on" has been well tested but is beginning to feel like Groundhog Day. He can't afford to have his team let him down again.

    "Losing two ministers seems careless; to lose a third would be devastating. Losing two directors-general amid department implosions is disturbing; losing one more would be debilitating. And that's without mentioning the other ministerial muck-ups, which were all too evident this year.

    "The message Carpenter drummed into his shiny new ministers this week was: hard work and no complacency. He'd probably like to see innovation and vision too, so the community and the media can start looking ahead..."
    
    "But also on the horizon is a February by-election for sacked minister and Brian Burke buddy Norm Marlborough's seat of Peel, which will dredge up this year's scandals. And hard on its heels, the new Corruption and Crime Commission hearing ordered as a flow-on from this year's investigations will begin."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link

    
    
    
• The Sunday Washington Post
  
  
  • Educators, Parents Eager for an Edge Opt for IB Classes In Grade Schools
    by Ian Shapira
    
    "Hunting for the best education for her three young children, Traci Pietra fretted about low test scores at her Arlington neighborhood school. Then the principal told her about Randolph Elementary's affiliation with one of the most prestigious and rapidly growing brands in education: IB.

    "International Baccalaureate is best known for a high school diploma program geared to the university-bound academic elite. But Pietra and her husband, Peter, were sold on the lesser-known elementary version of IB. Both were attracted to the IB emphasis on global understanding, Pietra said, and added: "He was like, 'Our kids are going to an Ivy League school, and we need an education that's going to get them on the right track.' "
    
    "The Primary Years Programme, designed by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization, is becoming a hit in the United States with the Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary set. It's now in 72 U.S. schools, up from six in 2000. Driving the growth is a desire among education officials to ramp up the rigor, the earlier the better.

    "The program seeks to mold students, from preschool age on, into "transdisciplinary" and bilingual scholars who can deliver a major academic project by fifth grade and then move into deeper studies in secondary schools and beyond. (IB middle schools also exist.) Critics wonder whether it's all a bit much for a student demographic that still receives scratch-and-sniff stickers on written work.

    "We initially hear from parents that they're a little worried about the amount of work," said Sandra Coyle, a regional marketing and communications manager for the IB organization. "But they do realize the way it expands their children's minds and teaches them how to learn and how it helps them to manage their schedules. We like to say that IB prepares kids for success in college but also for success in life." ...
    
    Full story in The Sunday Washington Post at link

    
    
    
• The Sunday Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Schools in sign of times
    by Kate Adamson
    
    "Schools are teaching sign language because of a shortage of foreign-language teachers.
    
    "More than 20 primary schools across Victoria are teaching Auslan sign language.

    "It is compulsory for Victorian government schools to teach students a language other than English..."
    
    "Victorian Education Union president Mary Bluett has called on the Victorian Government to fix the teacher shortages.

    "An Education Department spokeswoman said there was an Australia-wide shortage of language teachers."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Herald Sun at link
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald Online
  
  
  • Costly lessons: private school fees soar again
    by Hannah Edwards
    
    "Private school fees will soar in NSW next year, with some institutions charging close to 10 per cent more than in 2006.

    "A survey by the The Sun-Herald found more schools would breach the $20,000 threshold for tuition, which excludes boarding costs or extracurricular activities..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald Online at link

    
    
    
• The Hobart Mercury
  
  
  • Bid to lift literacy in Tasmania
    by Sue Neales
    
    "The Tasmanian Government yesterday pledged $3 million to tackle literacy and numeracy problems in state schools.

    "Education Minister David Bartlett said he was determined to lift the literacy and numeracy level in Tasmania, which was among the worst in Australia..."
    
    "The focus on literacy is part of Mr Bartlett's "back-to-basics" approach to education..."
    
    "Independent Education Union president Dick Shearman said increased wages for teachers was the major factor.

    "The Independent Schools Association (ISA) said rising copyright costs, information technology expenses and the growing costs associated with government reporting and compliance requirements were other factors.

    "In recent years, schools are required to spend increasing amounts on security measures," ISA executive director Dr Geoff Newcombe said. "Independent schools get relatively little government funding for capital development. The cost of classrooms, libraries, school halls and other facilities must be paid for out of parents' pockets." ...

    Full story in The Hobart Mercury at link

    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Poverty 'forces students into black market'
    by Adam Morton
    
    "Student poverty has an image problem. According to Educational Policy Institute director Ian Dobson, it is a battle persuading people that it exists.

    "Nobody really gives a stuff about students because they are not perceived as victims," he says.
    
    "Yet the National Union of Students cites research suggesting that 60 per cent of Australian university students live below the poverty line — $17,339 a year for a single person without children..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

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This page last updated 14 August, 2008 1:43 AM