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Breaking
News: Week of 5 February 2007
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Saturday – Sunday, 10 – 11 February
- The Australian
- Trainees locked out of class
by Paige Taylor
"A leaked report by a state government working party says West Australian schools are increasingly reluctant to allow undergraduates into classrooms for the work experience they need to get a teaching degree.
"As the Carpenter Government battles to fill a record shortfall of more than 200 teachers this year, the report warns that some student teachers may not be able to graduate due to a lack of work experience places in the state's schools. The trend has universities worried about the next generation of teachers.
"In 2005, some Victorian student teachers were unable to graduate because of a lack of work experience placements, the report says. The report, Teacher Supply and Demand and Student Placements in Western Australia, was completed late last year. It includes claims by Murdoch University that it struggled to place student teachers in schools despite using small gifts to try to entice teachers to take them."Murdoch tries to do PR and gives small gifts and certificates, but it is stressful having to go to the same teachers time and again and fewer want to be involved," the report stated.
"The severe teacher shortage facing government schools in Western Australia -- the shortfall had dropped yesterday to 166 full-time and 44 part-time teachers following an urgent recruitment drive -- has reached some independent schools.
"Independent schools told the authors of the report that it was increasingly difficult to fill positions in rural Western Australia. And it was extremely difficult to place teachers in Aboriginal communities. Those who went rarely stayed more than a year. "This staff turnover compounds the disadvantage experienced by the schools," the report says."
From The Australian at link
Also at The Sunday Times / PerthNow website, including reader feedback
Editorial
Credit where it's due
Teachers who want to be teachers deserve our backing
"Schoolteachers as a group should be paid more, and the best teachers should receive the best pay to attract and motivate true professionals -- that much the Coalition and Labor agree on, even if they can't agree on "best". Both want to enhance teaching as a career and support a national curriculum as ways to raise standards of learning. But in this election year, we're headed for conflict over what happens next."Teachers' pay as an issue is right on the faultline of a cultural divide in education that badly needs to be resolved in favour of a return to solid knowledge and a restoration of professional confidence and authority in the teaching service. The community yearns for more confidence, too, in schools' contribution to our competitiveness through a smart workforce.
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop refused last week to back away from her demand last July for merit pay as an incentive for teachers. Ms Bishop now says she is "developing options for greater consistency in professional development of teachers, as well as calling on the states to provide higher salaries, and with an element of performance or merit-based pay". Far from being confrontational, this is almost a plea to the states. So what's wrong with slinging teachers extra cash for trying harder with their students, and succeeding? Why don't state Labor governments and their patrons, the Australian Education Union and other teaching associations, rush to agree? We know teachers' salaries are too flat, capped at about $69,000 a year in NSW and $67,000 in Queensland last year, for example, unless the teacher rose to become subject head or principal.
"The answer lies in the Coalition's goal of instilling more accountability in school and teacher performance, especially for the information of parents. Comparisons are particularly needed, however odious they may be to the old-time union mentality, to identify teachers who are making a difference. The most recent Opposition policy, enunciated by former Labor leader Kim Beazley only weeks before his defeat by Kevin Rudd, favours more pay for teachers who study further courses, face accreditation tests and accept responsibility for mentoring other teachers. All potentially helpful in schools, and especially helpful for individuals who want to rise in the broader labour market -- but not enough for children's future.
"Labor and the AEU claim fair and reliable comparisons of teachers' and schools' performance can't be made. They say comparisons of students' performance ignore differences in student background. They are wrong -- they forget such fundamental concepts as opportunity and improvement. There's more needed, of course, such as wider devolvement to principals of hiring, and yes, even firing, and a stronger curriculum. But the Government's modest proposal is likely to reward teachers whose students respond to that old report card advice, "can do better".
From The Australian at link [scroll down to second Editorial]
- School heads unable to pick best teachers [Leading National Story]
by Lisa Macnamara
"Incompetent teachers are being shuffled between schools rather than being sacked while many new graduates are being put in charge of the most difficult students.
"And principals have little say in fixing the problem because they have little control over who they can hire and fire, according to Teachers and the Waiting Game, a new paper that argues for deregulation of teacher appointments in the public system.
"Principals in NSW and other states have no say over who is dismissed from the school. They're not the person who decides whether a teacher is incompetent or whether they are guilty of misconduct," said the report's author, Jennifer Buckingham, from the Centre for Independent Studies."Teachers who failed to prepare lessons or did not understand a syllabus were difficult to discipline or dismiss because a principal's "hands were often tied" by state education departments that were in the grip of teacher unions, Ms Buckingham said.
"The process of examining a teacher's performance can take up to 12 months and it can happen in a couple of schools before eventually the teacher is dismissed."
"Apart from Victoria, state and territory education departments often decide by whom and where teachers are recruited, often based on length of service at a school or seniority. Unlike Victoria, where principals can immediately advertise jobs, other state principals must choose from a department list of eligible teachers before advertising externally.
"For example (in NSW) if a school needs a maths teacher, rather than advertising or selecting candidates from an employment list, the school will contact the department and they are sent a teacher, most of the time with no consultation," Ms Buckingham said.
"The result had been a trend to send new graduate teachers to the most disadvantaged schools.
"In order to work your way up to the top of the (school transfer) queue to be offered other jobs throughout the state, you have to put in time in a school that is hard to staff -- and the reason those schools are hard to staff are because the kids are hard to teach," Ms Buckingham said.
"In NSW, 30 per cent of graduate teachers were concentrated in 3 per cent of schools that were difficult to staff either because a high proportion of students had behavioural problems or were from non-English speaking backgrounds, she said.
"NSW Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt rejected Ms Buckingham's thesis.
"In 2005 we reformed staffing procedures to give local school communities more opportunities to choose their principals and, for the first time, their classroom teachers. In 2006, we introduced legislation to streamline the process of identifying, assisting, and if necessary, removing poor performing teachers."
"Australian Education Union president Pat Byrne said the teacher shortage was not related to centralised recruitment processes. "The issue is not whether the school has the say or the selection, the issue is whether or not people perceive the position to be worthwhile in terms of the salary, conditions and accommodation," Ms Byrne said."
From The Australian at link
Similar story on ABC News
- The West Australian
- Letter to the Editor (page 20)
- In short
"Congratulations to Bethany Hiatt and The West Australian for keeping the pressure on the education goons. Exposing the garbage of OBE has had a terrific positive impact for our children.
"My child has suffered under OBE long enough and I am happy that she will not have meaningless levels in Years 11 and 12. Thanks again."
Jenny Balson, Carine
- Major curriculum changes in the UK
- The Guardian
- What do the curriculum changes mean? [plus links to related articles]
- ETAWA Media Release [Sunday 4 February]
English teachers call on Education Minister to clean up the mess!
In the absence of any official communication from the Minister for Education and Training and the Curriculum Council in response to our 25th January press release, the English Teachers Association WA (ETAWA) is compelled to make the following statement:
ETAWA call on the Minister and the Curriculum Council, led by Professor Bill Louden, to clean up the mess they have created for English teachers.
We have been contacted by many members who fear their marks will be challenged when they use an assessment method that the Minister has publicly discredited.
As the situation currently stands, parents and students can have no confidence in the 2007 Tertiary Entrance process.
Wendy Cody
President
On behalf of Council
- The West Australian
- Teachers reject Year 12 English OBE marking (page 5)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Year 12 students might challenge their university entrance exam results if the State Government pushes ahead with its plan to force English teachers to use the outcomes-based education "levels" system or marking, teachers claim.
"The English Teachers Forum, a splinter group that sprang from teachers' concerns they were not being represented adequately by their professional association, says that teachers cannot guarantee the accuracy of Year 12 results this year unless all teachers use traditional percentages to assess students' achievements.
"Students are required to pass English to get into university and graduate from high school.
"Education Minister Mark McGowan recently announced that the levels system, which had been at the heart of the bitter OBE debate, would be abandoned for Year 11 and most Year 12 courses because it was inadequate for ranking students for university.
"But levels of achievement between four and eight would still be used in Year 12 English this year after the Curriculum Council decided that was less likely to disrupt students and teachers.
"The English Teachers Association, the official body representing English teachers, said parents and students could not have any confidence in the 2007 tertiary entrance process.
"Marko Vojkovic, president of teachers group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, said students would be disadvantaged if teachers used a mathematically unsound system.
"Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said that arrangements were in place to ensure that no student doing Year 12 English this year would be disadvantaged." [Pie in the sky, empty words, David, with no basis in reality. Web]
From The West Australian
- State schools close gap on colleges (page 5)
by Bethany Hiatt
"State school students are closing the gap on their private school counterparts in university entrance rankings, new figures show.
"Tertiary entrance ranking data for students from public, independent and Catholic schools, obtained from the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre under freedom of information laws, show that independent schools have kept their median tertiary entrance rank at about 86 for the past four years, six points higher than the 80.10 median TER that the government school sector achieved in 2006.
"But public school performance has jumped 4.05 points since 2003. The median TER at Catholic schools has risen 1.2 points since 2003 to 81.40 .
"The figures provide the first real proof that measures by a TEE "flying squad" established in 2004 to lift academic performance in State schools are working.
"However, the data also shows that the number of State school students with a TER has plunged by nearly 1000 in three years, adding weight to allegation that the Education Department has tried to window-dress results by eliminating weaker students from sitting the TEE..."
"Studies have consistently shown that although students at independent and Catholic schools have a better chance of getting into university, students from State schools are more likely to outperform their private school counterparts in their first year of tertiary study." [emphasis added]
Full story in The West Australian
- Sidebar: Tertiary Rankings: How They Compare
Tertiary Rankings How They Compare Type of school
TER
TER
TER
TERGovernment Catholic Independent Statewide Figures based on normal school leavers (excluding mature age, repeaters and international students)
Source: Tertiary Institutions Service Centre
From The West Australian
- Letter to the Editor (page 17)
- Raise the status of our teachers
"We are faced with a crisis in terms of maintaining the thin blue line as well as providing teachers for our most precious resource in the State (our children), but it should come as no surprise.
"Although the police were given a generous pay rise, resources are still stretched, possibly because police officers are no longer respected in our community.
"Teachers and the public education system seem to be continually under siege from a relentless media and from parents who are always asking more of them (in fact, in many cases asking them to be accountable for what used to be traditional parenting duties).
"The young people in our community are often demonised in the press when each year cash-strapped State schools are pitched in competition with the privileged private schools, so it is no wonder that prospective teachers drift towards the safety of the private system where troublesome or troubled students can be cast aside.
"The status of teachers in the community needs to be raised. They need to be paid rates commensurate with their importance to our society and our public schools need to be supported.
"If we fail to invest a significant amount in the economic boom into the public education system we will suffer as a society in the not-too-distant future.
"Prevention of social ills caused by lack of education will cost a lot more to remedy in the future."
Andrew Bell, Woodvale
- Bad parent fines back on agenda
by Ben Spencer
Parents who fail to control their antisocial children could still face fines of up to $2000 with the State Government vowing to resurrect controversial proposed laws..."
Full story in The West Australian at link
- ABC News
- Nationals seek more incentives for northern teachers
"The Western Australian Nationals are calling for higher pay and better accommodation to attract teachers to schools in the north of the state."The party has called on the State Government to use some of its massive royalty flow from the Pilbara to attract school teachers to mining towns.
"Nationals' leader Brendon Grylls says the few thousand dollars offered to teachers to go to country schools is not enough.
"Mr Grylls says the Government needs to address the shortage by giving people incentives to go north.
""I think what they do need to do is take away some of the impediments and I know that access to housing is always a problem and quality housing as well - to move someone from good housing in Perth and put them in a three by one fibro number in the country that's got an airconditioner that works intermittently," he said."
From ABC News Online at link
ABC "CounterPoint": Outcomes-Based Education
Interview with Kevin Donnelly
"Author and educational expert Dr Kevin Donnelly argues that outcomes-based education, the philosophy that underpins our basic approach to education, has failed and that there should be a return to a traditional or conservative method of teaching in Australian classrooms."
Online audio available at this link
- The Post Newspaper [ 3 February]
- The OBE works, says Barnett
"Liberal MP Colin Barnett, who was Education Minister when the Outcomes Based Education policy was launched, backed it again this week - and criticised the federal government and the West Australian newspaper for attacking it."His attack is a swipe at fellow Liberal and federal Education Minister Julie Bishop.
"Mr Barnett said the introduction of OBE had become a mess in recent years, but the concept remained good.
"He said the content needed to be more clearly defined and a more traditional way of examining applied.
"He was confident the OBE for this year's TEE students could be managed.
"He said: "The West has run a long and hard campaign against the OBE, but it has not been dropped and it should remain.
"The last thing we want is the old unit curriculum. Children need to be learning to be more analytical.
"Children learn at different rates and the basis of OBE is still there. The assessment needs to be ironed out."
"He said OBE had been driven by classroom teachers through the Curriculum Council.
"It had been developed by government, independent and catholic school educators working together; it had not been forced on to teachers.
"He said: "At least 10,000 teachers contributed to the process, but it has to be said that for Years 11 and 12 it has been badly handled.
"The tragedy in all of this has been the campaign by the federal government for the past two years and The West.
"Just rubbishing it has damaged the state school system and left it unfairly carrying the burden."He said government schools in the western suburbs - Shenton College, Perth Modern School and Churchlands - were doing very well.
"But in other areas, some well-meaning parents were being frightened into making ill-judged decisions to desperately enrol their children into private schools.
"He said: "This trend will hurt enrolments at some schools in lower income areas. It has unfairly damaged the confidence and standing of schools.
"The attack at federal level and in parts of the media has been misplaced and unfair.
"It will be a big job to restore credibility. Outer urban areas will be hurt. It is sad that the most vulnerable are the most damaged.
"If it is allowed to continue, it will undermine the vitally important concept of a universal, free quality education for all. Enrolments will drop."
"He said the league tables of TEE scores did not reveal much that was useful.
"He said: "Government schools are outstanding in the higher income areas."
"He did a survey last year which confirmed the move for high schools to use Year 7 as their first year.
"He said: "All the private schools are moving to Year 7 as their entry year.
"It is a change flowing from the change to the starting age, which I brought in, and it is not a bad thing with the move to set up middle schools.
"I expect Shenton College and Churchlands will go this way in the near future."
From The Post Newspaper at link
- The Adelaide Advertiser
- Bonus for country teaching graduates
by Xanthe Kleinig, Education Reporter
"University maths and science graduates are being offered scholarships to train as teachers and work in country areas.
"The bonded scholarship scheme aims to boost the number of specialist teachers in hard-to-staff schools."The program offers graduates $14,000 - including tuition fees and a $10,000 bonus - to teach in Adelaide's northern suburbs or country areas including the Eyre Peninsula, Flinders Ranges, Riverland or Mt Gambier.
"We have a record number of registered teachers in South Australia, but many of our country schools find it difficult to recruit qualified science and mathematics teachers," Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said.
"Teachers who accepted country postings could earn up to an extra $32,000 over five years, depending on their location, she said..."
Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
- The Melbourne Age
- End school differences: business
by Jewel Topsfield, Canberra
"Business groups have backed a Federal Government push for a core national education curriculum, saying it is impossible for employers to hire on the basis of current school reports."The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Business Council of Australia said yesterday a common curriculum in key senior school subjects would help employers compare students' results across state borders.
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has stepped up her push for national consistency after a study found 27 differ- ent senior secondary maths courses were taught across Australia.
"Her proposal has been supported by Macquarie University vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz, who said larger countries already had a national curriculum in state schools. "It is hardly a novel and reactionary idea."
"He said different state curriculums and assessments made it harder for universities to know what students had learned before they began higher education.
"The chamber's director of education and training, Mary Hicks, said comparing school reports was meaningless because there were different curriculums and methods of assessment.
"If an employer in Victoria gets a a student who comes from Queensland, the report is going to be gobbledegook," she said. "If you've got a national curriculum, the reports will make a lot more sense."
"The Business Council of Australia said there was a range of inconsistencies between states in education, including five different school starting ages.
"Policy director Patrick Coleman said making students' results comparable would help employers choose staff. "Obviously national exams are one way of doing that," he said.Mr Coleman also said schools needed to improve the teaching of "employability skills" such as problem solving, communication and teamwork..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Op Ed
A vote and a voice for those education overlooks
by William McKeith
"We are shaping up for a school year dominated by state and federal elections. With our children back in the classroom we, parents and teachers, can expect four school terms of disagreement, argument and proselytising. Politicians trying to score points off one another; lobby groups seeking to maximise opportunity; government school supporters; private school interests; national curriculum interests, represented by a federal Education Minister who expresses unconvincing commitment to the advantages, confronting states rights; the place of the study of history in our secondary curriculum. The list goes on."What are those of us in the trenches hoping for in the next 12 months? As parents and teachers concerned for our children, what is it that we want to see our politicians support or change? Are there party divisions, maybe even fields of potential commonality, that we don't want them to miss?
"All of us need more money, and the issue of funding of government and private schools will occupy political positions, justifiably so. We will hear the usual arguments of the funding pie not being large enough and of unfair allocations. All private schools will be like The King's School and all government schools will have leaking and mouldy demountables. We will hear talk about "values" and the importance of posters on school noticeboards displaying common values.
"But will we hear about the funding for those who are the most disadvantaged? Will we hear politicians talking up the urgent and enormous needs of our disabled young people, the financial support for the schooling integration of mild and moderately intellectually disabled students, the emotionally and physically abused kids living on the street, the schooling of autistic children or those with multiple and severe disabilities. A vote winner? I doubt it.
"Similarly, the interests of our indigenous children will be forgotten as we argue over degrees of responsibility, state and commonwealth, and relegate these children to the too-hard basket. There aren't many votes in that one.
"Preschool education seems to draw votes and it appears that politicians are on to this. At state and national levels we are seeing early commitments and generous promises of funding support. But what about science education and the loss of our great scientific thinkers abroad, and the difficulty of attracting young minds to deep study of the discipline? Solving big problems is all about great minds and national commitment. Our great scientific minds are earning good incomes trying to solve the problems of distant lands.
"It is a little like language study. For some unaccountable reason, preschool study is deemed to be more important than the sciences and the understanding of the cultural world around us gained through familiarity with a foreign language. At least that must be what our politicians are hearing. Funding and supporting foreign language study, as well as Asian and Middle Eastern studies, will be like the study of religions in school: ignored by politicians in these elections. The divisions in society are those surrounding differences in faith practice.
"It is all very well to tell our young people about the values that supposedly bind us as one, but what about the values of those on our borders or those who are coming to our country from abroad?
"This is a time when we should be learning about those values that bind us as global citizens, and addressing and eradicating extremism in our schools, whatever the religious or cultural foundations. Just as NSW public policy confronted the rise of Christian extremism in schools of the Accelerated Christian Schools' movement in the 1980s, so we should be getting in among what appears to be a new wave of schools that represent small and extreme interest groups. And we should be developing courses in comparative religion, teaching understanding and knowledge of what it means to be a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, an atheist. This doesn't just happen. It requires government support.
"At the chalkface, there is an urgent need for more government funding and a greater public recognition of the importance of children. Teachers and children deserve a better deal. Politicians pick at and demoralise the education profession. It is most evident in the tertiary sector, but primary and secondary schools do not escape free of insult.
"Our children have great needs, some more so than others. Politicians need to identify the big problems, not necessarily those that draw the most media grabs. Elections are times of opportunity and we should do what we can to influence politicians to give leadership in the big issues that will affect our children's futures."
Dr William McKeith is principal of Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney, at Croydon.
From The Australian at link
- The Brisbane Courier Mail
- What (if anything) are we teaching children?
by Paul Williams"A new book suggests the state education system has been "dumbed-down" by education departments and teachers unions to the detriment of students.
"Education commentator and academic Kevin Donnelly stirred the education debate in 2004 with his first book, Why Our Schools Are Failing. Now he has raised the stakes with an equally thought-provoking second volume, Dumbing Down.
"Donnelly's starting point is that Australian schoolchildren have fallen substantially below their international peers in language, science and mathematics learning and now constitute a poor "second intellectual 11".
"Donnelly, citing examples from state education policy documents to demonstrate how school curricula during the past couple of decades have been substantially reduced in academic rigour and, in effect, "dumbed down", puts the blame on a "politically correct clique" of teaching unions and state education departments.
"He argues that curricula and teaching methods have been hijacked by a group sharing few values with middle Australia.
"The principal culprit, he says, is a methodology known as Outcomes-Based Education (OBE), a learning strategy that downplays the traditional roles of teachers, knowledge and facts, and plays up the roles of learners, "fuzzy" skills and, more controversially, particular social attitudes and values.
"Thus, Donnelly argues that OBE is a strategy by the Left to capture school curricula and win the so-called culture wars that, in the words of Prime Minister John Howard, include a "black armband" view of Australian history.
"Indeed, such labels are critical, and "edubabble" -- Donnelly's term for OBE jargon -- appears a key part of the problem. Teachers are now "learning facilitators" and students are "life-long learners".
But it seems that post-modernism -- the intellectual approach that says no knowledge is absolute and that everything is relative according to the context of class, gender and race relations -- also drives OBE philosophy.
"In the study of literature, for example, post-modernism has been dominant in universities for years where, most would argue, it's more appropriate, given tertiary students are intellectually better equipped to handle obscure concepts.
"More recently, the post-modern approach has been used in schools where children are expected to deconstruct literature, history and other subjects in complex ways, even before they have mastered the educational basics.
"Donnelly argues that this is inappropriate for school-aged children, as they miss out on core building blocks in reading, spelling, punctuation, multiplication tables and history.
"Such concerns strike a chord with Queensland parents.
It has been the norm in schools since the 1980s to teach reading in the "Whole Language" approach that encourages children to decode the meaning and pronunciation of words through the context of the whole sentence and story, rather than the more traditional method of phonic ("sound-it-out") reading.
"Similarly, mathematics teaching has seen the decline of pencil-and-paper algorithms and, instead, the rise of "real life" activity-based learning. The reciting of "times tables", too, is out, and even the nomenclature has changed. Tables are now "number facts"; division is now "sharing".
"As a result, many employers and university teachers are seeing Year 12 graduates who remain functionally illiterate and innumerate.
"To be fair, there's evidence that such modern student-centred strategies work. Equally critically, it's clear they don't succeed for all children and unmotivated students are often left behind without the drill, repetition and structure of teacher-directed lessons.
"Second, Donnelly also suggests that schoolchildren are being imbued with politically biased, Left-leaning agendas.
"It's no surprise, then, that Prime Minister John Howard and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie have responded to parental pressure and promised to ensure the basics are covered in schools, and to mandate "plain language" report cards to parents -- with A to E grading systems -- that indicate exactly where their children are succeeding and failing.
It's the concept of success and failure that, Donnelly says, is most perilous in OBE approaches. In a politically correct but misguided attempt to bolster underachieving students' self-esteem, Donnelly argues that OBE has created a "tyranny of relevance". If there are no concrete truths, as post-modernism might suggest, then there are no wrong answers and, intuitively, no failing students.
"But if there are no failing students, there are also no genuinely successful ones.
"Fierce opponents of OBE and other "fuzzy" practices say parents are voting with their feet, with the result that 30 per cent of all children are now enrolled in non-government schools, where parents expect higher standards of student behaviour and a focus on the basics.
"But it seems some private schools also embrace the OBE mantra. One prestigious private Sydney girls' school last year required students to deconstruct Shakespeare's Othello through the post-modern prisms of gender, race and class power.
"And it seems that OBE approaches to literature rankle Donnelly the most. He argues that "critical literacy" approaches -- that rate all media from Australian Idol to Shakespeare as of equal merit -- is a sterile exercise that robs children of the joy of reading.
"Not everyone will agree with Donnelly's critique and, if nothing else, he's likely to be singled out for his own unabashed conservatism and his former life as chief of staff of Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews.
"While compelling, his argument is weakened by several key flaws.
"First, he fails to answer why our public school systems still mange to turn out star performers. Do these children learn despite the system, or are schools at least doing something right?
"Second, one must question if teachers really do push a predominantly Left-leaning agenda, and if they really do care about the so-called "culture wars".
"Third, Donnelly offers many criticisms but no solution, except to suggest a unilateral abandonment of OBE approaches.
"Virtually all teachers will attest that children come to the classroom with an array of individual needs. Some will respond to traditional methods, others to more modern approaches. Since Donnelly rejects the "one size fits all" mantra, surely he too would concede that teachers should be allowed a mix of methods to draw out student potential."
Dumbing Down, by Kevin Donnelly (Hardie Grant, $24.95).
From The Brisbane Courier Mail
- The Washington Post
- Middle Schools Seek Fixes as Scores Lag [February 4]
by Daniel de Vise
Grades 6-8 Are Viewed as a Weak Link
"One student in three attending a middle school in Maryland lacks proficiency on the Maryland School Assessment, a standard all students are supposed to meet by 2014..."
"Only 14 of 124 middle schools in the D.C. suburbs achieved at least 90 percent proficiency in reading and math on the 2006 MSA, according to an analysis of data for grades 6 through 8..."
"Education leaders offer many theories for the comparatively poor performance of middle schools, which frequently produce strikingly lower test scores than the elementary schools that feed into them. There's talk of reforms and innovations that have lifted performance at the front and back ends of the K-12 system but have somehow failed to reach the middle grades. Middle schools tend to have comparatively scattershot bell schedules and few advanced programs compared with elementary and high schools."Everywhere, talk of reform is afoot..."
Full story in The Washington Post at link
- The Independent
- Meera supplants Milton in revamp of school reading list
by Richard Garner, Education Editor
"A new generation of writers has usurped some of literature's most venerable ancients as part of a revamp of the recommended reading lists for schools."A review of what should be taught to 11 to 14-year-olds has added household names like Alan Bennett, Carol Ann Duffy, Alan Garner and Philip Pullman to the list of recommended writers to be studied.
"Their arrival is at the expense of, among others, John Milton, Lord Byron and James Joyce - although their works will still be on the timetable for older pupils studying for GCSEs and A-levels.
"In addition, the curriculum planners have for the first time come up with a list of writers from other cultures to help give pupils a better insight into the world.
"This includes Meera Syal, the writer and performer who appeared in the TV comedy, Goodness Gracious Me, Benjamin Zephaniah, Athol Fugard and Maya Angelou.
"Yesterday, at the launch of the proposed curriculum, Sir Alan Greener, chairman of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority - the guardian of the national curriculum - made it clear the new timetable was drawn up to meet the needs of the 21st century. "The curriculum must respond to these changes," he added.
"The list of contemporary authors has been compiled because "pupils should be encouraged to experiment with new texts - particularly in their own reading", the review document said.
"The geography guidelines have also been redrafted to give more weight to issues like climate change while "economically useful" languages, such as Mandarin and Urdu, have been added to the list of languages . The history of slavery will also be taught to give pupils an understanding of the country's ethnic history.
"The new modern curriculum will have three themes at its heart - creating successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens..."
Full story in The Independent at link
Leading article: Homework does benefit children
"The debate over whether schools should set homework has resurfaced with the imminent publication of a book by the American academic Alfie Kohn, which suggests that homework turns children off education and provokes family rows. He suggests there should be none. "Kids should have the chance to relax after a full day at school," he argues. It is nearly nine years since the Department for Education and Skills - then under David Blunkett - produced its first ever guidelines on homework for schools."It is a good time to take stock. The DfES recommended 20 minutes per day for four and five-year-olds (10 minutes of parents reading to them and 10 minutes reading on their own or practising sums) and up to two hours for young people taking GCSEs. These guidelines have increased the amount of homework from a low where only 5 per cent of schools set maths homework for nine and 10-year-olds three days a week (compared with more than 80 per cent in most other Western countries). However, the level set by the guidelines still falls way below the amount of homework done before the Second World War when 11-year-olds were spending up to 12 hours a week swotting at home..."
Full story in The Independent at link
- The West Australian
- Op Ed
Power to the people who run the schools (page 19)
by Tony Rutherford
When bureaucrats can’t find enough teachers to fill our classes, isn’t it time for some direct, local control?"Hardly a day goes by without some major problem emerging in the delivery of one service or another in this State. We discovered some time ago that our parole system was more or less dysfunctional, and then that we could not trust the system to provide protection for children at risk.
"The problems with our public health system seem to go on for ever. Public hospital emergency departments seem to be in a perpetual state of crisis, with repeated calls for more money to help the system cope. Those who should know, on the other hand, argue that the system is more at fault than the funding, and that a better system would be more efficient with much the same financial resources. Clearly that key argument will go on for some time.
"But even against this background of maladministration and general incompetence, last week’s blunder by the Education Department still managed to come as pretty astounding. Only a few days before the school year was to begin, it was discovered that the department simply did not have enough teachers to go around.
"It’s worth pointing out that no one expects the department to be absolutely spot on in its calculations.
"Its system requires that a whole range of factors needs to be estimated. It can’t know how many teachers are going to resign; it can’t know how many students will not be going on to Year 12 (a significant number these days); and it doesn’t know how many will be leaving the public system to go to a private school.
"It’s true, of course, that a better public system would have fewer teachers resigning, a better Year 12 retention rate and fewer students seeking refuge in the private system.
"But put that aside for the moment. The fact that the department found itself more than 250 teachers short, only two days before term began, is not much less than astounding.
"This is, of course, a system which has shown itself to be not very good at anything much over the past few years, not least at curriculum and assessment issues. [emphasis added]
"But there are some things that it should be able to get more or less right, especially the routines — such as assessing student and teacher numbers — that do not change much from year to year.
"Perhaps there is a solution to hand.
"The department’s staffing procedures are complex and bureaucratic.
"Teachers find increasingly that apparently simple matters such as checking leave entitlements, taking long-service leave, applying for a transfer, and so on, are both lengthy and awkward. The transfer process, for instance, takes six or seven months. Many procedures are subject to pointless intervention, such as appeals by disappointed parties.
"It would be far more simple, and almost certainly far more practical, if all this were simply handed over to the schools. Each school knows its staffing budget with a fairly high degree of accuracy.
"There seems to be no reason why that budget should not be handed over to the school along with all the relevant decisions. Schools could then advertise for staff members when the need arises, and, yes, tell non-performing teachers that they are no longer needed.
"Principals (and, perhaps even more so, their deputies) would need to be relieved of some of the burdens imposed upon them by the bureaucracy, so that they could actually spend time managing, and trying to get the best possible school with the money at hand.
"The only outside intervention needed would be a simple way of shifting principals who were not up to the job, not least the ones who enjoy power without responsibility.
"Every private school works this way (although there is more centralisation in the Catholic system) and the results in terms of excellence are clear enough.
"For that reason, as revolutions go, it would actually be quite a small one, involving no perilous leaps into the darkness of uncertainty.
"It’s hard to see why such a system would not work as well as, or than, the present one.
"Of course, from the industrial relations point of view, it would be anathema to the union, and it does have to be acknowledged that bureaucrats are always reluctant to give up functions.
"In fact, something like this has been suggested by Jennifer Buckingham in a paper published this week by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney.
"Ms Buckingham, perhaps with the situation in NSW uppermost in her mind, is perhaps stronger on the destructive role of teacher unions than some might be.
"But her points remain perfectly valid. The interventionist mechanisms so beloved of the unions do protect incompetent teachers —and are, thus, against the interests of the students — and, worse, work against the autonomy of schools.
"On this last point, Ms Buckingham observes that: “Evidence from the largest and most credible international studies indicates that one of the hallmarks of effective schools is the ability to self-govern and to make important decisions that impact on the quality of the education they can offer.”
"Good teachers would, of course, do better: “Many teachers want flexibility and self-determination in their career paths and to be rewarded for hard work. — Decentralising teacher employment allows teachers to make professional career choices. It allows schools to employ the teachers most suitable for their students, rewarding excellence over patience.”
"Ms Buckingham is not directly concerned with the particular kind of bureaucratic incompetence which produced last week’s embarrassing farce.
"But that farce served to underline the more serious problems which beset our public systems. It also gives to a clear-thinking minister the ideal opportunity to do something really useful about the whole system.
From The West Australian at link
- Researchers warn of major maths crisis (page 5)
by Rhianna King
"The head of an international maths body will warn the Federal Government today that Australia's research capability faces major collapse if it does not address the "failing health" of the country's mathematical sciences.
"International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics president Rolf Jeltsch will tell a forum in Canberra today that more investment is needed to ensure Australia remained globally competitive.
"The forum of government and industry leaders was called in the wake of a damning report released by Melbourne University in December which found the next generation of Australian students would not have an understanding of basic maths concepts.
"It also found the number of Australian Year 12 students taking higher level maths fell from 41 per cent in 1995 to 34 per cent in 2004. It called for more resources to go into the study of mathematics, particularly at universities, because the supply of mathematicians was falling desperately sort of national needs.
"Professor Jeltsch said the mathematical sciences were vital to research, development, national security and public health.
"Australian Academy of Science Professor Hyam Rubinstein said the Government needed to pay attention before it was too late. "We're not just talking about a bunch of ageing boffins wringing their hands over losing their jobs, we're talking about the potential collapse of Australia's technological capability," he said." [emphasis added]
From The West Australian
- ABC News
- WA country schools begin to fill teacher gaps
"New school teachers are trickling into country schools as the Department of Education moves to fill a high number of positions left vacant at the start of the school year.
"There were dozens of teachers missing from the hardest hit schools in remote parts of Western Australia.
"Staff from the Department of Education have been conducting classes where there have been no teachers since last week.
"Pilbara district director Vicki Jack says the isolation of some schools means it is taking a while to get new teachers into the classrooms.
"Teachers are being appointed, it's the rate at which we can get them transported to the Pilbara," she said.
"District director Julie Woodhouse says a school in the mid-west is waiting for teachers from interstate.
"We're expecting them to be at Cue in the next week or so," she said.
"The department says it expects to fill all positions soon."
From ABC News Online at link
- The Australian
- Op Ed
Power (and cash) to the principals
Break the nexus between teacher unions and state governments, says Jennifer Buckingham
"Although much has been made about the poverty of educational standards in Australian schools lately, it is surprising that things are not a good deal worse. On many important aspects of education policy state governments are in the grip of teacher unions, creating a situation where public school systems are not being run first and foremost for the benefit of students.
"Public school teachers in all states and territories except Victoria are appointed by centralised teacher allocation systems which give public school principals and school communities very little say over who is hired to teach in their school, who stays, who goes and how they are paid. These decisions are made by government bureaucrats and merit is typically at the bottom of the list.
"Ironically, in centralised staffing systems aggressively defended by teacher unions, teachers themselves have little control over the terms of their employment. They cannot apply directly to a public school with a vacancy and be hired on their ability and suitability for the position. Instead they languish in a queue until the people ahead of them resign or retire. A career in teaching is a waiting game."Patience is rewarded over excellence. Teachers earn "transfer points" for working in hard-to-staff schools. Transfer points are used as currency to get a more appealing teaching position and are supposedly the only way to ensure a supply of teachers to hard-to-staff schools.
"In reality, transfer point systems deliver neither quality nor equality in teaching. It is well known that the least experienced teachers are concentrated in the most challenging schools, creating the added problem of high turnover. Many teachers who do not leave teaching because of the difficulty of beginning their career in hard-to-staff schools stay there just long enough to accumulate sufficient points to transfer to a more desirable school.
"The children who most need quality and consistency are least likely to get it.
"Principals and teachers are unhappy with the system, as survey data and commissioned reports show. A 2004 report for the Ministerial Council for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, for instance, found that "many teachers feel that they are being marshalled and not treated like individuals" and are also "unconvinced that the system works equitably". Teachers in focus groups said it was at odds with their self-perception as autonomous professionals and denied them the freedom to make choices.
"In centralised staffing systems, not only are public school principals unable to appoint teachers on merit, it is extremely difficult to get rid of incompetent teachers. Teachers are more likely to be shuffled between schools than disciplined or dismissed, with obvious detrimental effects on students, and serious repercussions for the teaching profession.
"Sheltering poor teachers affects morale and reflects badly on the teaching profession as a whole.
"If public schools are to flourish into the future, the nexus between the teacher unions and state governments must be broken.
"Teachers whose careers are determined by a remote and faceless state government department understandably feel as if they need the security of a strong and politically active union. The union, in turn, uses its clout to aggressively and publicly pursue its agenda against the government, blurring the line between professional and industrial matters.
"The vital first step in a decentralisation process that would reduce both union and government bureaucratic influence over public schools is to give greater staffing autonomy to schools. Schools should be given their entire personnel budget to select the mix of staff they require.
"Schools that have traditionally had difficulty recruiting and keeping staff should be given budgets proportionate to their needs so that they can offer the types of incentive packages they believe to be most effective.
"International evidence from the largest and most credible studies indicates that one of the hallmarks of effective schools is the ability to make important decisions that have an impact on the quality of education they can offer. For example, an analysis of results from the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment shows that schools with greater autonomy, particularly in relation to staffing and school budgets, tend to have higher performance
"For teaching to be seriously considered a profession, teachers must be given more freedom and responsibility for their career paths. Public school principals, who are increasingly being held accountable for the performance of their schools, need to have authority over their school's most important resource: teachers. Policies that prevent principals from hiring the best and removing the worst teachers do students, and, ultimately, public education, no service."
Jennifer Buckingham is a research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney and author of a paper Teachers and the Waiting Game, out this week.
From The Australian at link
- Higher Education Supplement has 20 articles, including:
- Cap 'hasn't raised demand'
by Dorothy Illing
"The cap on HECS for nursing and teaching has not increased demand from students to study in those fields, academics say.
But the jury is still out on the overall deterrent effect of higher university fees."Last week Labor vowed to almost halve the cost of getting science and maths degrees by slashing HECS in those courses if it won government. This, it said, would lure more students into those fields.
"Its $111 million package would reduce HECS for science and maths from $7118 a year to $3998, the rate for teaching and nursing. And graduates who then took up jobs in maths and science fields - particularly teaching - would get a 50 per cent HECS remission for up to five years after graduation..."
- Blueprint for student fee relief
Uni funding must be thought through, writes Geoff Sharrock
"... But at what point do HECS prices make too many people give study a miss? Or HECS debts make them wish they had? We don't know. On average, HECS funds 40 per cent of course delivery costs (the balance made up by public funds and full fees) and HECS debts are repaid in seven years. But more than $2 billion of student debt may never be repaid. Many graduates don't earn enough; many work offshore and escape our tax system..."
- Let's hear the detail of Rudd's revolution
Labor's education paper is welcome but it's not the whole answer, writes Natasha Stott Despoja
- Rudd pins his faith on remissions
- Union canes maths staffing
Similar story in The Melbourne Age
- Minister's snap audit under attack
- The Melbourne Age
- Principals say foreigners add culture, not just cash
by Carolyn Webb
"Victorian state primary schools are admitting full-fee-paying foreign students as young as six..."
"Several principals told The Age the foreign students provided their schools with much-needed cash to supplement government funding..."
"All the principals said the fee income was not a motivation in taking the pupils. They said they were happy to meet the needs of non-resident families in their areas, provided it did not cost the school and the scheme culturally enriched their schools..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Op Ed
Where no child is sent into uncharted territory
by Mark Coultan
"Anyone with children who has ever moved between cities, suburbs or countries knows that one of the most important considerations is schooling. In fact, as parents who sent their children to school for the first time last week know, you don't have to be new to a neighbourhood to worry about schools."You want to find a good one, especially when you are moving to the US and you've heard all those stories about metal detectors and school massacres, and seen all of those films with bullies bashing people into lockers. But how do you pick the good from the bad? In New York, no problem.
"Thanks to America's culture of openness and an emphasis on standardised testing, you can get all sorts of information about local schools. You can go to a number of independent websites that rate the schools and include unalloyed views of parents and students. There are even sites that rate - gulp - teachers. But you don't have to rely on anecdotal evidence. The Department of Education website carries each school's annual report. It gives the usual information that schools like to brag about, such as electives, after-school programs, sports, parents' organisations and community partnerships, but it also gives much more..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Flag falls short as new star is born
Image © The Sydney Morning Herald
- Media Release from shadow education minister Peter Collier
Labor treats new teachers with contempt Media Release : Thursday 8th February 2007
"Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier says the teacher shortage gripping the State is not surprising, given the Carpenter Government’s approach to newly graduated teachers.
“I have received several complaints from new graduates that there is a lack of Government Employees Housing Authority housing in country towns,” Mr Collier said.
“In one instance, a newly graduated female teacher posted to a major regional town without GEHA availability was told to refuse her placement if she couldn’t find her own accommodation.
“In another example, a newly graduated female teacher has been living in what equates to a broom cupboard in the local hotel.
“In both instances, the Department of Education and Training has been unsympathetic to the natural concerns of these teachers.
“Is it any wonder the Government is having difficulty attracting students to the teaching profession?
“The Carpenter Government must reassess their approach to newly graduated teachers and I have written to the Minister for Education specifically with regard to this issue. (see attached letter)
“One new initiative would be an early allocation of new graduate placements. This would help overcome the situation where newly graduated teachers are employed by private schools before they even graduate.”
"Mr Collier said the fact there was still a shortage of 117 teachers almost three weeks into the school year highlighted the contempt the Carpenter Government had towards the education portfolio.
"He said one of the most fundamental tenants of any education system was that there would be a teacher for every classroom.
"Unfortunately, the Carpenter Government had been found wanting in this regard.
“The response of the Government to this crisis has been ad hoc and totally unsatisfactory,” Mr Collier said.
“The fact that they have had to resort to removing principals, deputy principals and other support staff from their vital managerial roles is testimony to the fact that the Government has completely mismanaged the situation.
“Inevitably, we now have a situation where non specialist teachers are taking senior secondary classes, including TEE courses, and administrators already under extreme pressure are reluctantly being forced back into the classrooms.
“The level of motivation of these ‘temporary teachers’ must seriously be in doubt which puts a question mark over the quality of education that dozens of classes are currently receiving.
“Reports of a dearth of science teachers in Port Hedland are being replicated in other subject areas across the state.
“In Kalgoorlie, the year 11 and year 12 politics classes have been combined because of a lack of a teacher.
“The department and the Curriculum Council have said that this is satisfactory and that the year 11 students will be given counselling to determine whether or not they sit the TEE at the end of 2007.
“This shows an appalling lack of understanding of the reality of the situation. The year 11 and year 12 Politics courses are dramatically diverse in terms of their content. Those students in year 11 will definitely be disadvantaged by this situation.
“There has definitely been a lack of adequate planning by the Government with regard to the demand for teachers.
“The Opposition and the State School Teachers Union have told the Government constantly for the past 12 months that there was an impending crisis. These concerns have been ignored.
“A long-term strategy needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The Government must look at issues such as salaries, earlier placement of newly graduating student teachers, guaranteed accommodation in rural and remote schools, conditions and teacher scholarships if the situation is to be rectified.”
From Peter Collier's website at this link
- The West Australian
- Students turn away from hard subjects (front page)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Year 12 students are deserting harder subjects such as English literature and advanced maths in droves, the latest analysis of high school enrolments has revealed.
"Figures supplied by the Curriculum Council also show many State schools no longer offer some of the more difficult TEE subjects, narrowing the options available to students in the public system.
"The number of Year 12s enrolled to study English literature has plunged by more than a third in the past six years, from 2798 in 2001 to 1837 last year.
"There has been a corresponding drop in schools offering the subject, from 133 in 2000 to 106 in 2005. The number of State schools offering English literature as a subject choice has nearly halved, from 74 six years ago to 42 in 2005, while the number of private schools teaching it increased from 59 to 64.
"Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said fewer students chose English literature because universities changed entry requirements in 2004 to allow pupils to include English as their one compulsory humanities subject.
"Also, the English literature exam has historically been exclusive. It required students to formulate answers in a specific way," he said. "Under the new course, students will be able to study at different degrees of difficulty. [Easy graffiti vs. difficult graffiti? Web] This will attract more students in 2008 and beyond."
"The English Teachers Association said many schools had stopped offering the old English literature course because it was seen as elitist. "It was better suited to kids from higher middle-class backgrounds," spokeswoman Karren Philp said. [That is, it helps to be able to read if you want to do English Lit, Karren? Web]
"Applicable maths and calculus have also shed students, with the former dropping from 4785 pupils in 2001 to 3929 in 2006. Eleven State schools dropped calculus and six stopped offering applicable maths between 2000 and 2005.
"A federal Government-sponsored report on mathematics and statistics has shown how the subject's unpopularity has left WA with the least number of Year 12 students in advanced maths courses of any mainland State.
"In WA, just 8.2 per cent of Year 12 students tackled advanced maths in 2004, down from 12.6 per cent in 1995. Only 13.4 per cent studied intermediate maths, down from 18.8 per cent in 1995."
From The West Australian
- No science teacher to be found so students learn by correspondence (page 7)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Port Hedland high school students will study a core subject by correspondence in a desperate stop-gap measure to cope with a shortage of teachers.
"The Department of Education and Training said yesterday that students in Years 8, 9 and 10 at Hedland Senior High School would learn science through the Schools of Isolated and District Education because it could not get a local science teacher.
"SIDE usually provides education for students in remote areas of WA or in schools where a small number of students want to study a specialist course.
"Its website said it offers customised written and audio-visual materials for distance learning students.
"Printed materials form a big part of the program. Hedland school council chairman Rob Fry estimated that about 400 students would learn science via correspondence.
"Mr Fry — who is also president of peak parents’ group the WA Council of State School Organisations — said it was not an ideal solution because younger students needed face-to-face contact with a teacher.
"He said that until the SIDE lessons start, the students will not study any science — they are getting extra tuition in other areas such as maths and English, that would later be traded for more science time.
"WA Secondary School Executives Association president Alison Woodman, who visited the school last week, said science labs were unusable because the school was in the middle of a building program.
“They are having to teach in ordinary classrooms,” Ms Woodman said. “They are 17 classrooms short so they are making an absolutely amazing job of coping with fewer staff and fewer classrooms.
“They’ve made sure they are following a SIDE package so that there’s consistency because they might not be able to have the same teacher for every science lesson.”
"Hedland is the most understaffed school in the State, starting the year nine teachers short.
"The department said that as of yesterday, teaching vacancies across WA had dropped from 267 a week ago to 117. State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said teaching students by correspondence was better than nothing but it was still an unsatisfactory short-term response and an indictment of the Government’s lack of planning.
“It’s the Government’s responsibility to make sure there are enough teachers,” Mr Keely said."
From The West Australian at link
- Performance checks for schools, staff: Bishop (page 7)
by Rhianna King, Canberra
See very similar stories in The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Melbourne Age, plus the full text of Bishop's speech to The National Press Club, immediately below.
WA issues highlighted in The West Australian:"... The State Government said Ms Bishop was arrogant and aggressive..."
"Shadow education minister Stephen Smith supported parents getting as much information as possible but State Education Minister Mark McGowan and unions attacked Ms Bishop's proposals.
"Mr McGowan said it would create another level of unnecessary bureaucracy when schools already had to publish TEE tables, and literacy and numeracy results.
"He said paying teachers on performance would disadvantage low socioeconomic schools.
"To pay teachers according to the performance of the schools, would merely mean that teachers at the wealthier schools – in Julie Bishop's electorate – would receive the highest rates of pay," he said..."
"Mr McGowan said principals in WA had been able to hire staff since 2004."Full story in The West Australian
- The Australian
- Bishop targets school performance
by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
"Principals would have the right to hire and fire, and schools would be forced to offer teachers performance pay and publish student results under a government blueprint to make schools more accountable.
"Education Minister Julie Bishop has proposed a new performance element for teachers' pay and refused to rule out withholding funding to the states unless the plan is implemented."In a move that could put the Labor Opposition on a collision course with unions, the proposal to publish more information on performance and grant principals greater autonomy yesterday won bipartisan support.
"Pledging she would also support parents' "right to know" the performance of schools, Ms Bishop also backed de facto league tables for schools, publishing detailed information about attendance and performance. Ms Bishop said she would take her proposals to the next meeting of state and federal education ministers in April.
"Under Ms Bishop's plans, schools would be forced to publish information about staff qualifications and turnover, the number of suspensions and expulsions, attendance and retention rates, academic results, post-school destinations for students, and feedback on parent, teacher and student satisfaction.
"Making this type of information public gives parents informed choice when deciding which school their child will attend, and also creates an incentive for the school to continuously improve," Ms Bishop told the National Press Club in Canberra. "We can't hide the fact that some schools aren't performing well."
"Ms Bishop's proposal represents another move by the Howard Government to increase its influence over sectors traditionally run by the states, such as schools, hospitals and water.
"Ms Bishop has demanded that teachers should be paid on merit rather than seniority, with state teachers unions strongly resisting the Government's call for the states to link higher teacher salaries to performance.
"Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith, who has warned the unions that teacher performance should be rated in the classroom, yesterday backed the plan to publish more information on school performance.
"I know, and this is a matter of historic regret, that many people involved in education initially objected to the release of test information," Mr Smith said. "I think that was a mistake, because whenever the results are published, it gives us an aid to make better public policy decisions."
"However, Ms Bishop was unable to say yesterday whether the commonwealth would make any funding contribution to the goal of a pay rise for high-performing teachers in disadvantaged schools. "We can no longer expect to attract and retain the very best people in teaching if we don't recognise the fundamental fact that they are professionals, they ought to be treated as professionals and they deserve an element of performance-based pay," she said.
"Ms Bishop backed greater autonomy for school principals.
"If they could hire the people that would add value to their school, if they could fire the people who are detrimental to their school, then they would be in a better position to assure parents and the community that they're delivering a quality education for the children," she said.
"However, the Australian Education Union's Angelo Gavrielatos rejected the plan to allow greater autonomy and said he was concerned about Ms Bishop's ideas for allowing alternative career paths for potential teachers who did not hold a Bachelor of Education.
"She has introduced the notion of unqualified teachers in our schools -- well, so much for standards," he said.
"In parliament, Mr Smith challenged Ms Bishop to say whether the commonwealth would make a funding contribution to performance pay or merely urge the states to do so. The Labor Party has previously outlined a performance-based pay plan that offers top teachers up to $100,000 a year to work in the most difficult schools..."
From The Australian at link
Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald: Bishop shows hand on teachers' pay
Similar story in The Melbourne Age: Minister pushes school league tables
- Full text of Julie Bishop's speech to The National Press Club
- Your Say: A question of power and principals
Reader Comments on the above article
Education Minister Julie Bishop says school principals at state schools need more power to hire and fire teachers (Heads need power to sack teachers, says Bishop).Education is too important to be left to the mercy of state parochialism and union self-interest, she says.
Should Canberra be telling the states what to do in education? Or should it butt out?
Have your say… read / add comments
- Web words weightier than Bard's
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"Studying the content of websites is considered more important in a senior school English curriculum than learning about Shakespeare's plays.
"An expert group of English academics, teachers and professionals rated prose fiction, Australian writers and contemporary literature as the three most essential elements of an English curriculum for Year 12 students."But as part of a report on Year 12 curriculums conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research, Shakespearean drama was rated ninth in terms of the number of reviewers who considered it essential; and less important than film, poetry, other plays and prose non-fiction. [emphasis added]
"Shakespeare's plays are considered to represent the pinnacle of literary achievement," the report says. "Their (the reviewers') comments make the point that the way in which Shakespeare is taught is of fundamental importance, as well as the fact that his plays might prove too great a challenge for students of some backgrounds." ..."The president of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, Karren Philp, agreed with the consensus in the report that it was desirable rather than essential that students study Shakespeare, saying it depended on the ability and circumstances of the students. [emphasis added]
"The curriculum reviewers were asked to rate components of an English curriculum as essential, desirable, possible or not desirable as part of the report, Year 12 Curriculum Content and Achievement Standards, which compared curriculums across the nation and was commissioned by the federal Government.
"One teacher who rated Shakespearean drama as desirable said the plays were appreciated by many students. "However, equally, he can turn some students off," the teacher said.
"One educator of teachers said "less able students (are) not able to cope with a full Shakespeare".
Full story in The Australian at link
- Letter to the Editor
- The 'nexus' does not exist
"Jennifer Buckingham’s claim of a nexus between the teacher unions and state governments ("Power (and cash) to the principals”, 7/2) is a claim that has gained a life of its own as it is passed from right-wing commentator to right-wing commentator with never a shred of evidence."If such a nexus existed, teachers’ pay and conditions would not have deteriorated so dramatically. Victorian teachers need a 25 per cent pay increase just to catch up with their relative earnings of 30 years ago. Secondary schools need about another 2000 teachers to reach the staffing levels of more than 25 years ago. Secondary teachers need a two-hour reduction in the current maximum teaching load of 20 hours a week to get back to where they were 20 years ago. They need the restoration of the time allowance pool of 90 minutes per teacher for organisational duties, which has been cut to zero.
"Victoria does have local staffing appointments, and what a failure it has been. Private schools appoint their own staff because they are independent small businesses. The government school system used to have the advantage of economies of scale, which was lost when every school was forced to write its own job description, wade through applications, conduct interviews and make appointments. At the same time, the applicants have been made to produce different applications for different schools because the criteria are worded slightly differently. It is massively time-consuming and inefficient, and at the end of it all, not one student is better taught."
Chris Curtis, Langwarrin, Vic
- Healthy food a hard sell for school canteens
by Verity Edwards
"School canteens are struggling to break even after banning the sale of high-fat and pre-packaged foods in order to comply with state government guidelines on healthy eating..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- ABC News
- Educators to meet to consider national curriculum push
"The Australian Curriculum Studies Association (ACSA) says any national approach to curriculums would only strengthen the performance of Australian school students.
"It has organised a conference in Melbourne today so associations representing teachers, principals and education academics can develop their thoughts on the issue ahead of this year's federal election.
"The ACSA says there will inevitably be a stronger national approach to what is taught in schools, but not necessarily one national curriculum.
"The Federal Education Minister is pushing for a national curriculum and the Opposition likes the idea too.
"ACSA president Tony Mackay says a national approach is the best way to ensure all young Australian's have the knowledge, skills and understanding they need in an international context.
"Mr Mackay says no state or territory would have to "dumb down" their curriculum because all educators are conscious of the need for high standards and internationally comparative outcomes.
"We're particularly conscious I think that levels of performance are vital in terms of skill acquisition, preparing young people for the future and we're not just operating within the Australian context, we're equally conscious that we're operating within a region where high standards are called for," he said.
"But he says it must not restrict educators freedom to make changes for their local context.
"To be able to interpret, apply, adjust the curriculum for the needs of the particular cohorts of young people, their interest levels," he said."
From ABC News Online at link
- The Melbourne Age
- Numbers fall short in maths [similar to the article in yesterday's West Australian]
"... Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said the solution to the problem was to get more high school students to study maths and science." [No kidding, Minister? What a brilliant and novel solution! Web]
- The West Australian
- Trainee teachers no longer need TEE [Front Page Headline]
by Bethany Hiatt
"High school students who did not qualify for university entrance will be trained as teachers at Edith Cowan University from next month, triggering concerns about the standards of tomorrow's teachers. [What concern? A cynic might suggest: OBE = Dumbed-down teachers, teaching dumbed-down students, from a dumbed-down curriculum ... Web]
"Greg Robson, head of ECU's school of education, said the university would accept 34 high school students this year who had not obtained a tertiary entrance rank, which is used to gain entry into other universities.
"But Professor Robson denied ECU was dumbing down its courses or that the program was a ploy to recruit more students to a university that has suffered a big drop in enrolments in recent years. He wrote to about 40 schools last year asking them to identify students who were outside the TEE scheme but who had good communications, organisational and leadership skills.
"The students had to pass an ECU interview and have an A in non-TEE English. ECU also considered their performance in subjects such as cooking, dance or physical education.
"Professor Robson said most of the students who entered ECU under its "direct entry pathway" this year would study primary and early childhood education, though five chose secondary teaching.
"In the past, students who focused on non-TEE subjects did vocational courses at TAFE.
"Professor Robson said the ability to teach should not be confined to a narrow academic benchmark. "What we are trying to consider here is several bits of evidence, not just one," he said.
"We do want capable academic performers but that's not just confined to the top decile in the TEE ranks."
"Curtin and Notre Dame universities require a minimum TER of 70 and Murdoch requires 65 for teaching. They offer bridging courses for students without a TER. The UWA minimum is 80.
"Education Minister Mark McGowan was unavailable for comment.
"Shadow education minister Peter Collier said that if universities lowered standards it would diminish teaching in the eyes of the community and as a viable career option. "I don't know how far we have to drop the bar before we acknowledge that we've got to do more to attract quality candidates," he said. "It's become a third rate alternative."
"WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said parents should be concerned if ECU produced teachers that were not up to the top standard. "If these kids haven't done TEE they are already behind the eight ball," he said. "I'd rather see some genuine bridging course before... university."
"State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said he was not concerned whether a student had a TER, provided they performed well in their university studies and assessment."
From The West Australian
- State school students taught sludge: Howard (page 6)
by Rhianna King, Canberra
See very similar stories in The Australian and The Melbourne Age
Local content: "... Upping the ante in the State-Federal tussle over academic standards, the Prime Minister made particular reference to history and geography subjects taught in WA, describing them as "deadening and saccharin"...
"But State Education Minister Mark McGowan said Mr Howard was behind the times because the recent overhaul of outcomes-based education had addressed concerns about standards..." [What a CROC, Mr McGowan. Web]
Full story in The West Australian
- Comment
PM under fire goes back to attack easy targets (page 6)
Andrew Probyn, Federal Political Editor
"This is classic John Howard.
"He's taking a battering in the polls... SO what does he do? Returns to one of his favourite hunting grounds, the culture wars.
"In a world of Google, Wikipedia and YouTube addicts there's much fertile ground for the Prime Minister to exercise his distaste for what he calls "incomprehensible sludge".
"And if teacher unions, State education departments and lefty ideologists get in the firing line during his onslaught on the politically correct, he's more than happy to spread the love..."
"Schools have changed since Mr Howard wore short pants. Kids are cleverer and more informed. Information is at their fingertips, not just in Aunt Bertha's Britannica.
"Teaching them how to filter the gunk from the gold, the fact from fiction, is now vital. How you learn has become nearly as important as what you learn.
"WA's outcomes-based education is a plonker of a system and it was correctly overhauled in response to teachers' concerns.
[There has been NO "overhaul". Web]
"Mr Howard is right to rail against OBE and systems of its kind. He is right to call for higher standards. He is right to demand plain English report cards. His call for nationally consistent curriculums has clear merit.
"But he should be cautious assuming that education was much better when great literature was read without context and history taught without question."
Full story in The West Australian
- Letters to the Editor (page 20)
- It's too good...
"In response to Tony Rutherford (When bureaucrats can't find enough teachers to fill our classes, isn't it time for some direct, local control? 7/2) I have these points to make."As an ex-teacher I would agree that classroom teachers generally feel isolated from decision making and to resent the personal freedom of administration staff (who can make the odd personal phone call or waste sometime on the internet). Teachers are accountable for every minute of their contact time and it is wearing.
"But I think the teacher shortage has more to do with vigorous international advertising for teachers in many Asian countries. Our graduates are doing what they need to do - getting out there and experiencing life. Nothing is worse than a teacher who has been isolated in the classroom for many years and knows nothing of the realities of the real world, or teachers going from school to uni and back to the classroom.
"Teachers have had it too good for too long - they are not the privileged class they once were. The masses have become education too. There are many people with degrees working in low-paid, dead-end occupations. Teaching in primary school isn't brain surgery. Introduce graduate learn-on-the-job appointments.
"A shortage of teachers has nothing to do with low salaries. They have many extra weeks holiday a year, incredibly good job security and most are out the door right on 3:15pm. If we want to pour money into the system (and, let's face it, we always think extra money cures everything) let the money be spent on providing a student dining room in every school. Then we may be able to supply children with nutritious food in an environment where they will eat it under supervision. Every worker in the smallest government department is provided with a lunch room, fitted with a microwave and fridge. Our children sit outside in all weather, eating from a lunch box that has been left in the heat and breeding bacteria.
"As for giving more power to principals, come on, many shouldn't be there in the first place. They are a result of a system which has promoted teachers through length of service, not ability.
"We need a total shake-up, not a handout of more money."
J Calendar, Kardinya
- ... it's too tough
"The following scenario disturbs me greatly. My daughter was posted to the country, given lots of responsibility, a tough environment and tough students."After a very short time she has been made deputy head and is not supposed to teach classes as part of her load. Several teachers short, she teaches two classes as well as seeing to her other responsibilities. She is at school from 6am to 6pm. Heat is extreme (average 40C at this time of year) and her air-conditioner in her department house has been broken since December.
"She is currently at a hotel, hardly convenient. She is quite stressed, being idealistic and extremely conscientious (and an outstanding young teacher).
"It leaves me concerned as a parent and with a strong sense of injustices, but my hands are tied. Surely the Education Department can do better than this for their young teachers in remote area?
Name and address supplied
- The Australian
- National curriculum would drive out sludge: Howard
by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
"John Howard has accused public schools of allowing "incomprehensible sludge" to infect the curriculum and declared that the need for a national system was a "no brainer".
"Describing himself as an unabashed supporter of a conservative approach to curriculum and competitive examinations, the Prime Minister yesterday warned that new-age fads were short-changing children."Speaking after the launch of Dumbing Down, a book by Kevin Donnelly, an education consultant and regular contributor to The Australian, Mr Howard also revealed that his wife Janette, a former school teacher, had "very strong views" on the issue, having taught in both the public and private systems.
"He strongly backed Dr Donnelly's thesis on the dangers of "progressive theories and education fads".
"Where Big Brother or a text message jostles with Shakespeare and classical literature for a place in the English curriculum, we are robbing children of their cultural heritage," Mr Howard said.
"By obfuscating the need for teachers to impart specific knowledge and for rigorous testing of student achievement, we are robbing children, especially disadvantaged children, of the one proven path to individual achievement and social mobility.
"And by denying parents clear statements of their child's performance in the classroom, we are letting new-age fads getin the way of genuine accountability."
"Education Minister Julie Bishop has flagged a new push to force the states to publish information they hold on schools' performance, attendance rates and staff turnover. She also wants principals to have the right to hire and fire in public schools and introduce performance pay for teachers.
"The Prime Minister indicated yesterday his Government would first attempt to negotiate with the states before the commonwealth threatened to tie funding. He warned that teachers were also overwhelmed by jargon-ridden waffle in curriculum guides written by education bureaucrats.
"Mr Howard said he was concerned that the teaching of English had been allowed in some cases "to drift into a relativist wasteland, where students are asked to deconstruct texts using politically correct theories in contrast with the traditional view that great literature has something profound to say about the human condition".
"Few debates are as vital as those over education, whether it be in upholding basic standards on literacy or numeracy, promoting diversity and choice or challenging the incomprehensible sludge that can find its way into some curriculum material," he said.
"Our goal is simple. We don't want uniformity, but we do want nationwide high standards in schools to ensure every Australian student receives the best possible foundation in core subjects."
From The Australian at link
Similar story in The Melbourne Age: Howard attacks 'fad' schooling
- Editorial
Answers in education
Julie Bishop's plan is good politics and better policy"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop wants school principals to have the power to select, and sack, their staff. She supports higher pay for the best teachers and advocates publishing statistics on the performance of individual schools. None of these are new ideas, but they are still good ones. For years, people who believe in the right of all Australian children to an education that allows them to make the most of their abilities have demanded reforms to make schools, and individual teachers, accountable for their performance. As with the push by Ms Bishop's portfolio predecessor, Brendan Nelson, for plain English report cards, anything that provides parents, and the community in general, with more information on what is happening in the school system is sound policy.
"Inevitably, the education establishment – state ministers, administrators and union leaders – will hate Ms Bishop's ideas. The possibility of parents comparing the performance of individual institutions, not against abstract averages, but the school in the next suburb, is unpopular with the bureaucrats who run the public systems. And teacher unions, who argue all their members are equally excellent, loathe the idea of treating the best teachers as autonomous professionals. But families who use public schools will love Ms Bishop's plans.
"Performance pay will show parents that their children's teachers have a reason to improve their performance. And more information on the successes and failures of specific schools will empower parents, giving them the information they need to praise, blame – or change – their child's school. If there is one way to stop the drift of disgruntled parents to the non- government school sector this is it. And Labor knows it. Education spokesman Stephen Smith supports more public information on school performance. He says the classroom performance of teachers should be rated. If Labor signs on for national education reform, Ms Bishop may not score election-year points. But she will have done families who rely on public education a great service."
From The Australian at link [scroll down to third editorial]
- The Melbourne Age
- Editorial
Do the maths: neglect plus shortages equals crisis
The Federal Government needs to urgently plug the brain drain in maths and science."Will the last one to leave the classroom or lecture hall please turn out the lights? The subjects that are being taught are maths and science, and the remark is not a joke. The situation is reaching critical mass. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, if there are any left, to work it out. Funding shortfalls + decline in teachers = fewer graduates. This is not a linear equation; it feeds back on itself as a vicious circle. The result is that Australia is going to be the big loser.
"This week two news reports in The Age highlighted the crisis. The International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, one of the world's leading maths organisations, warned that there was an acute shortage of qualified maths teachers, university lecturers and professionals. The shortage was harming this country's research reputation and competitiveness worldwide. The warning followed the disclosure that RMIT University was to axe a quarter of its maths academics. The university said it had to do so because of a declining demand for maths and statistics courses and low government funding.
"Two months ago, a report by the Australian Academy of Science found that the maths departments of the top eight universities had lost a third of their academics in the past decade. The level of maths lecturers was "critically low", the report said. Teaching was being left to non-specialists — and a similar situation was occurring in high schools.
"It requires little vision, for anyone willing to look, to recognise that there is a train wreck on the horizon. If Australia cannot supply qualified people to these professions in the future it will send waves through the community as the shortage chokes research and development projects, which then impinge on the country's infrastructure. If Australia wants to be at the leading edge in research and development then it needs a federal government that will put the money into the areas that will maintain that sharpness.
"On the evidence of past years, this is not that government. In April 2005, a report entitled Who's Teaching Science? found that nationally 75 per cent of schools had difficulty finding suitably qualified teachers; 40 per cent had trouble finding senior physics teachers. It is axiomatic that if there are not enough teachers, then of course there will be a corresponding decline in students willing to take up the subject, similarly with maths. One year after that report, The Age commented that Australia was the only country in the OECD in which public spending per student in tertiary education had fallen. This paper also noted that the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council had warned of an erosion of Australia's position in education, science and innovation. A Department of Education and Science audit says that in a few years there will be a shortage of 20,000 scientists and engineers. It is all very well for the federal Education Minister Julie Bishop to issue warnings about the dire straits in which we find ourselves, but a pro-active approach from government is urgently needed to not only stem the drain but encourage people to take up the teaching and study of science and maths.
"Education matters. The political parties can adopt whatever slogans they like to give the appearance of action, but the shortages in skills and teaching are too manifestly evident to cover over the cracks. To neglect research and development is to rob the future. Scientists are often portrayed as the unsung heroes. This is a disservice to the profession and a condemnation of the one making the pronouncement. They are also the undervalued. The CSIRO, one of Australia's premier research organisations, has received only a 1.9 per cent increase in funding for the next four years. As well, it has to cope with ongoing staff redundancies and a sense of insecurity among those staff still working there. Increasingly the organisation has had to seek money from external sources.
"In a highly competitive world, if a country is not going forward, then it is going backwards. Hello Australia."
From The Melbourne Age at link
- Letters to the Editor
- Time to make state schools accountable
"Thank God for Julie Bishop ("Minister pushes school tables", The Age, 8/2)! Finally, at the last gasp, someone is standing up to the Labor-backed teachers' unions that have crippled Australia's educational outcomes for more than 30 years. Thanks to the so-called protection of teachers behind a cloak of no accountability and no performance-based pay, Australia now has one of the worst educational standards in the developed world.
"For the sake of our children, it is essential that public school teachers are treated like those in private schools, with generous performance pay for teachers before they all leave for overseas. Issue public reports on the standards of every public school, including staff qualifications and turnover, suspension and expulsion statistics, attendance and retention rates, academic results, post-school destinations for students, and feedback on parent, teacher and student satisfaction.
"Schools should never have been allowed to hide these vital statistics from parents who have to make informed choices about the best schools for their children.
"As for national tests on literacy and numeracy, these are essential for all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Otherwise, how can we possibly have accountability for the billions of dollars of our taxes being spent on education or be able to measure the effectiveness of our education and thereby remain competitive internationally."
David Bernard, Hoppers Crossing
Recipe for disaster
"Having spent the past six years working across the education sector in the US, I have witnessed the devastating effect of publishing "data" that ranks students and schools.
"Publishing results based on high-stakes testing is an absolute disaster for school communities. Teachers and students are punished for their efforts, morale plummets and failure becomes more entrenched as the school and its community becomes further demoralised. Rather than fix the problem, it exacerbates it.
"Using scores such as these as the sole measure of success provides a narrow vision of a school's efforts to educate the child. The starting point is not the same for all schools. It is the value-added component of education that matters most, not random test data used in isolation to shame and blame schools.
"Julie Bishop seems hell-bent on taking Australian schools on another disastrous American adventure. In the US, real estate agents have an absolute ball with these league tables, using them to label and discriminate against communities perceived as educationally undesirable on the basis of questionable test results."
Alan Wright, Mornington
Pollie table
"What I'd dearly love to see is a league table for politicians. Something that shows number of days spent in their electorate office, number of members of their electorate they help during a year, number of days they sat in parliament, number of committees they serve on, number and type of functions attended, number and cost of trips taken, etc, etc. Where would Julie Bishop sit in such a league table, I wonder? Would it accurately reflect the amount of time, energy and effort she puts into her job? I doubt it. And neither would league tables for schools."
Peter Murphy, North Caulfield
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Letters to the Editor
- Paying by results victimises kids who struggle to learn
"I am concerned that Julie Bishop's proposal ("Bishop shows hand on teachers' pay", February 9) to reward teachers based on students' academic results will penalise some of the best teachers with whom I was privileged to teach in my 41 years in the profession.
"These dedicated teachers worked in support units or other areas of special needs with students who would never achieve "good academic results" as measured by any of the usual criteria.
"It will take unbelievable levels of dedication for these teachers to accept lower pay rates to teach the least academic."
Frank Catt South, West Rocks
- "Anyone who teaches knows that it is much more challenging to teach a class of lower achieving students and that the (non-monetary) rewards are as good or better than in teaching students who achieve brilliant results in the HSC.
"Yet teachers also have to live and pay mortgages, so this policy would have them jostling to teach the more able classes, to transfer out of local comprehensive schools and into selective schools, and join the exodus to the private schools. Others will simply leave in disgust. So much for the public school system."
Margaret Grove, Abbotsford
- "Payment by results was a process used to determine the salary of a teacher in England in the 19th century. It was abandoned because teachers made students cram to pass examinations rather than providing them with a good all-round education.
"Perhaps Julie Bishop is due for a history lesson from the Prime Minister."
Brian Jeffrey, Gunnedah
"Julie Bishop should also be presenting options for performance-based pay for politicians. As electorates across Australia vary little, a wellbeing index could measure performance."
Alison Coates, Cambewarra
"On Julie Bishop's guidelines, my year 5 and 6 teacher would have been due for a pay rise. That teacher presided over a class which has been extremely successful in later life, simply because it was an opportunity class. I learnt nothing during those two years.
"At the same time, there were dedicated teachers of basic literacy and numeracy to intellectually disadvantaged kids, often with a dysfunctional family background.
"Anyone can teach smart kids, because they essentially teach themselves. Teaching some other kids is a hard slog requiring patience, and the people who do it deserve our admiration."
S.E.P. James, Edgecliff
"As the academic achievements of students are almost always an accumulation of the work of all their teachers, (and, no doubt, innumerable other factors), will the bonuses be paid all the way back to their kindergarten teachers?"
Kathleen Chivers, Vincentia
- USA Today
- Companies mine growth of MP3 homework
by Madlen Read, The Associated Press
New York: "... Students are using MP3 players more to listen to downloaded books, textbook study guides and language labs on-the-go. Books and personal stereos have always been portable, of course, but audio books are easier to carry around in MP3 form. A typical 300-page novel might take up 12 CDs, but only a tiny portion of an MP3 player's memory and prices for audiobook downloads are mostly comparable to audio CDs..."
Full story in USA Today at link
- CNN
- States hopeful that mentoring will retain new teachers
"States from Oregon to Georgia are considering pouring millions of dollars into mentoring programs for new teachers, aiming to stop educators from spending just a few years in the classroom before leaving the field.Researchers estimate as many as 50 percent of teachers nationwide will leave the profession within their first five years on the job, fed up and frustrated..."
Full story at CNN at link
- The Independent
- Secondary schools setting own tests
by Richard Garner, Education Editor
"Secondary schools are testing 11-year-old students themselves because they lack confidence in national curriculum test results."Headteachers believe too many pupils are being coached for maths and English tests throughout their last year at primary school to improve the school's league table position.
"They may reach the required standard in the national curriculum tests but lack the necessary comprehension to improve their standards - and are forced to sit new tests three months later..."
Full story in The Independent at link
- The Guardian
- Pupils should get after-school sex education tailored to their experiences, say academics
by Polly Curtis, health correspondent
* Whole-class teaching is not enough, says study
* Most teenagers 'do not use condom the first time'
"Pupils should be taught sex education based on their sexual experience, academics suggest in a radical departure from current methods. Their survey of the sex lives of 13 to 16-year-olds concludes that the range of sexual experience among teenagers is so varied that safer sex cannot be encouraged with one standard model of sex education."Some boys are still playing with Lego while others are already having sex, think they know it all but say that contraception is the girl's problem", said Louise Wallace of Coventry University.
"The study published in the Journal of Health Psychology concludes that while streaming in schools might be too difficult because of "ethical" considerations - and resistance from pupils who might not offer an honest assessment of their sexual experience - it could happen in after-school youth groups. They are also suggesting sex education with CD-roms, which pupils could also use privately..."
Full story in The Guardian at link
Saturday – Sunday, 10 – 11 February
- The Sunday Melbourne Age
- Editorial
Let's give education a fair and balanced assessment
Politics aside, a national school curriculum is worth exploring.
"Can your children quote from Hamlet? Or figure out 12 times 12? Do they know the capital of Sweden, or the year of Australian Federation? And even if they can't answer these questions, what would that say about the state of our schools and how well students are taught? It's a complex issue, but expect to hear a lot more about it this election year, with eduction shaping up as one of the federal poll's primary battlegrounds."With facets of education under the Federal Government's command and others controlled by the states, schooling has long suffered from bickering and blame-shifting between levels of government. Recently, the Howard Government has moved to increase its control of state schools, a battle that fired up again last week with Education Minister Julie Bishop again calling for a national curriculum, while Prime Minister John Howard railed against what he calls the "incomprehensible sludge" that has entered the curriculum.
"It would be a pity if politicking were to stand in the way of a useful, intelligent and badly needed national debate on what children should be taught, and how we can best assess their academic progress.
"A national curriculum is an idea at least worth investigating — it makes sense to have certain developmental milestones outlined for each stage of a child's schooling, combined with a fair way of assessing whether they meet it (and if not, why not?). Whether that is best achieved through a national curriculum — and exactly what the curriculum would contain — is a matter of debate, but one we must have.
"However, a league table approach to the publication of schools' results — a crude ranking of student performance — is an unfair and potentially damaging way of assessing school performance. The problem is that not all schools are the same, and league tables do not take into account variables such as socio-economic status, what proportion of students are from English-speaking families, and the extent of social problems a school may have to deal with in teaching its students. The risk is that schools at the bottom of such a table would have their reputations damaged, when they may in fact be performing well for the students they teach. There needs to be a more sophisticated and fair way of measuring teacher and student skill.
"The fear that some schools are "dumbing down" by allowing the study of pop culture to replace classic literature is an old debate, but one that shows little sign of going away. What our young people need to learn — the intellectual equipment they need to make sense of the world — is an intensely political matter, and one on which people tend to have entrenched views.
"It is absurd to argue that popular culture and academic pursuit are somehow mutually exclusive, and a broad curriculum ought to be able to accommodate the poems of William Blake and the lyrics of Paul Kelly; The Simpsons and Charles Dickens; textbooks and newspapers; novels and films.
"Children are growing up in a complex, exciting, challenging world. We need to ensure that their school years engage, confront, stretch and inspire them. Let's have a debate, and make sure they do just that."
From The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
- The West Australian
- Principals’ woes: few teachers, big classes (page 48)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Too few teachers, overflowing classes and run-down schools top the list of concerns cited by State school principals in a new survey.
"The Australian Education Union survey of 1052 public school principals across Australia found that more than 60 per cent had experienced problems getting enough teachers in the past year and nearly half said the problem was worse than the previous year.
"WA State schools have struggled to fill teaching vacancies this year, with some schools forced to combine classes or run courses by correspondence.
"More than 40 per cent of principals surveyed said their greatest area of difficulty was finding teachers for casual relief teaching.
"Nearly 17 per cent of principals who responded said they had been unable to fill fixed term or contract positions and 8 per cent reported they could not fill permanent positions.
"A third of principals surveyed said they had classes with more than 30 students in their schools.
"More than 70 per cent reported their schools needed a major upgrade of facilities such as new toilets and classrooms.
"Key priorities were extra help for individual students, school maintenance and improvements, more teachers and support staff.
"State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said the Federal Government’s failure to adequately fund public schools was making things harder for students.
“State school principals are telling us that they don’t have enough resources to maintain facilities properly or to give students with special needs the attention they deserve,” he said.
“This is creating an unequal and unfair system for Australian public school students.”
From The West Australian at link
- Letters to the Editor (page 20)
- All at sea on the basics
"As a TAFE teacher in marine navigation to Year 12 graduates (with a minimum C grade in maths, English and two other accredited subjects), I initially thought their knowledge of the relationship between distance, speed and time used in basic navigation could be assumed. That is, a knowledge of multiplication, division and that there are 60 minutes in a hour.
"I soon found out this was not the case and because it was interfering with their learning I now devote a whole make-up lesson on this maths topic before proceeding with the navigation lessons they are there for.
"For the past two years I have used the following simple calculation to gauge the entry level of these Year 12 graduates after an explanation of the terms involved:if a vessel travels four nautical miles in 20 minutes, how fast is the vessel travelling?
"Anonymously they are first asked to give the answer without a calculator and then a second time using their calculators. In 2006 three out of the 20 Year 12 graduates gave the correct answer without a calculator, and then eight correctly when allowed to use their calculators.
"This year no student was able to give the correct answer without a calculator and only three correct answers with one.
"I think no further comment on my part is required. I could also provide similar comments with regard to their poor skills in constructing written answers to knowledge-based subjects."
Derek Stone, Leeming
No motivation
"I have read and heard recently about some politicians talking about how important it is for Australia to encourage pupils and students to study science subjects. However, where is the motivation for these students to do so?
"Many scientists have been warning governments for years about the issue but governments, particularly those like the Australian Government, do not like the conclusions of these scientists so they choose to ignore them. This must be demoralising for scientists to have their serious hard work ignored because politicians do not like the results.
"Then the CSIRO looks like it is dumping successful scientists (who have made important discoveries) for economic reasons when these scientists are in the middle of their working lives. Not a particularly secure career being a successful scientist.
"It is much better for students to aspire to be a chief executive of a big company where you get paid millions of dollars a year to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, while expecting scientists on about $50,000 a year to solve that problem for you. If they cannot succeed, sack them and try to recruit some other suckers to be scientists."
David Corcoran, Leschenault
- Unis get the blame for 'dumb' teachers (page 8)
by Bethany Hiatt and Rhianna King
"Standards are declining in schools because universities are lowering the bar for teaching graduates, according to education consultant Kevin Donnelly.
"Following a report in The West Australian which revealed that Edith Cowan University was deliberately recruiting non-TEE students to train as teachers, Mr (sic) Donnelly said teacher education at the tertiary level was not accountable.
"Evidence also showed that new teachers were not getting enough training and were not equipped properly to teach basic skills.
"It's not the problem of the schools, the responsibility should really go back to teacher education departments at university level," he said.
"Dr Donnelly, a vocal opponent of outcomes-based education and the author of the book Dumbing Down, launched this week by Prime Minister John Howard, said that standards in schools were intertwined with standards of teacher training. "It's no good addressing one if you don't address the other," he said.
"He claimed that it was a waste of resources to enrol students who had not studied enough TEE subjects to make them eligible for university entrance by the usual route, because of the time and effort it took to bring them up to the same level as other students.
"University of WA education dean Bill Louden said there was no evidence that standards were sliding in schools – in fact they had remained constant for a decade. And all that really mattered was whether they achieved a high standard on graduation.
"He backed a proposal by Teaching Australia to set up a national accreditation agency to rate the quality of teacher preparation courses. Professor Louden said it had become more difficult to recruit academically able students as many people chose careers other than teaching because the status of teachers had plummeted in recent years.
"Education Minister Mark McGowan said that any decline in standards at universities was a matter for the Federal Government.
"Julie Bishop (Federal Education Minister) delights in attacking the State education system. I would be interested to hear what answers she now has in relation to her education system," he said. "We may now need to have a debate about the quality and standards of the Federal education system."
"Ms Bishop said that universities accepted applications from many students who did not qualify through the TEE system, such as mature-age students or students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
"The critical factor is for universities to be satisfied that any student accepted into a course has a reasonable prospect of successfully completing their studies," she said."
From The West Australian
- Curtin Uni's $80m surplus a 'scandal' after courses dumped (page 8)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Students and staff at Curtin University have labelled an $80 million budget surplus as "scandalous"...
"Guild president Len Bailey questioned the anomaly, citing recent course reviews and subsequent closures as part of a number of belt-tightening measures in the past two years.
"Senior academic Gavin Mooney said the announcement was "disconcerting". He said changes to the estimated size of the surplus raised questions about the financial management of the university.
"How is it possible to have got it so wrong over such a short period of time?" he said. "Staff have made great efforts to make the university more efficient but to discover that the surplus is so large is concerning.
"The surplus amounts to nearly 20 per cent of the total operating budget of the university."
"Professor Mooney said staff had made the savings, so senior management should open discussions with staff as to how best to use the money..."
Full story in The West Australian
- The Canberra Times
- Rudd gives left his poll insight [11 Feb]
by Paul Maley"Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd gave the Labor Party's left wing a personal insight yesterday into the challenges facing the party in an election year.
"Addressing about 150 delegates at the Australian National University, Mr Rudd identified climate change, education, reforming federalism and ensuring Australia's economic prosperity endured beyond the resource boom as his key priorities.
"Australia's most pressing economic challenge is to be prepared for the time when the resources boom finally comes to an end," he said.
"There is great evidence that the easy ride we've had in the past few years has given policymakers a false confidence about our future prospects."
"Mr Rudd said greater investment in education was necessary although he emphasised it would involve a "contract" between government and the education sector, which must provide "measurable curriculum outcomes for our young people".
"He said this might result in resistance from teacher unions.
"Our teachers are dedicated professionals ... but I am deeply concerned about how we go about in practical terms lifting curriculum standards, curriculum outcomes and the resources necessary to achieve those ends." ...
Full story in The Sunday Canberra Times at link
- Senate to test schools' calibre [9 Feb]
by Megan Doherty
"A Senate inquiry is to examine academic standards in Australian schools and investigate whether they are preparing young people for the workforce, further study and training."The move came as Prime Minister John Howard upped the ante in his campaign to reform school education and improve standards.
"Mr Howard blasted sections of state school curriculums yesterday as containing "incomprehensible sludge".
"Liberal senator Judith Troeth, who chairs the Senate's Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee, moved yesterday in Parliament to set up the inquiry.
"It will examine whether students in all year levels are getting the knowledge and skills they need to go to the next stage, be it work, university or technical education.
"Also under the microscope will be the standards of academic achievement required of students vying for the senior school certificate in each state and territory.
"Finally, the probe will compare academic standards in schools across state borders and the standards in Australian schools with those abroad.
"Education Minister Julie Bishop said this week she wanted to give principals power to hire and fire teachers.
"The inquiry is due to report by August 15.
"The timing of the report, almost certain to come out just weeks before the next election, would allow the Government to capitalise on its push to overhaul school education and attack state education bureaucracies.
"Mr Howard, in comments sure to anger teachers' unions and state governments, stepped up his education campaign yesterday, deriding denounced parts of the curriculum as politically correct, jargon-ridden waffle.
"The Prime Minister made the remarks while launching a book by Kevin Donnelly a former chief of staff to Howard Government minister Kevin Andrews that accuses state-based education hierarchies of dumbing down learning.
"Mr Howard told the launch, "Few debates are as vital as those over education, whether it be in upholding basic standards on literacy or numeracy, promoting diversity and choice or challenging the incomprehensible sludge that can find its way into some curriculum material."
From The Canberra Times at link
- The Sunday Times
- Letters to the Editor (page 57)
- Deliver on teachers
"I am in full agreement with the editor's criticism about the abysmal teachers shortage ("State to blame for teacher crisis," TST, February 4).
"At least somebody is calling a spade a spade.
"This Government started amateurishly by blaming any shortfall on the previous administration and, it seems, it is not making any progress in self-enlightenment.
"Surely any industry, household or government doesn't wait until it runs out of goods before doing something about it.
"The core promises at election time of education, health and law and order are still in dire straits with no sing of improving, but our coffers are overflowing."
Mario Rapanaro, Dianella
- "Unfortunately, your timely editorial ("State to blame for teacher crisis," TST, February 4) misses the target. As part of the ageing workforce, the current cohort of teachers will begin to retire, taking advantage of recent superannuation changes. But enrolments in teacher-education faculties are declining around the nation in response to escalating increases in HECS fees. Alternative careers are more rewarding, and many with a lesser HECS debt."
Duncan MacPhail, Bateman
- The Melbourne Age
- PM to have his way on education
by Jewel Topsfield and David Rood
"The states will be forced to introduce more nationally consistent curriculums as a condition of federal funding, Prime Minister John Howard has revealed."The announcement came as 14 leading education organisations, including the Australian College of Educators, education deans, the Australian Education Union and principals' groups, released a joint statement criticising the education debate sparked by the Howard Government as "simplistic, ill-informed and about the past".
"In a blistering attack on the states, Mr Howard this week claimed some curriculum material contained "incomprehensible sludge" and the need for nationally consistent curriculums was a "no brainer" when 80,000 school students move interstate each year.
"Yesterday, Mr Howard said he believed education was being dumbed down, with a drift away from the proper study of English literature, a "retreat" from examinations and a move away from the narrative approach to teaching Australian history.
"When asked on radio 3AW if he would ever link funding to this, Mr Howard said: "We have in certain respects and we'll certainly link funding to an increasing harmonisation of curricula."
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop first called for a core national curriculum last year, claiming left-wing ideologues in state governments had hijacked what was being taught.
"She has increased her push in the past fortnight after a report found that 27 different maths courses were taught to senior secondary students across Australia.
"In a country of 20 million people, why do we need to have eight different curricula in eight jurisdictions?" she said.
"(The states) expect to receive increased Commonwealth funding but they don't expect to be accountable, and I am told not so politely to butt out. Education is a national priority and it is too important to be left at the mercy of state parochialism and union self-interest."
"The 14 education groups' joint statement said: "The Australian community deserved better than a debate hijacked by partisan political views and media commentators pushing their own barrows."
"The Independent Education Union said yesterday the back-to-basics agenda strongly supported by the Prime Minister was not appropriate for a 21st century schooling system.
"It is backward looking and reflects this Government's failure to prepare Australia's young people for the creative and competitive needs of the 21st century," federal secretary Lynne Rolley said.
"This Government's ongoing criticism of teachers and schools is not the leadership we need. It is divisive and destructive."
"Under the four-year funding agreement from 2004, the $33 billion in federal funding to the states was conditional on the implementation of plain-English report cards, every state school flying the Australian flag and national literacy and numeracy tests. Negotiations for the next agreement start this year."
From The Melbourne Age at link
- Letters to the Editor
- Quick fix won't work
"As a secondary principal for 16 years and a teacher for 40, I agree there are issues to be faced in education. But they are complex and not likely to be resolved by quick-fix league tables, standardised testing and performance-based pay, especially using simplistic criteria. These measures have been tried elsewhere, and failed. Can we have a serious debate on national education which involves people who actually work in it, who are passionate about improving standards, and based on serious research. Teachers are committed to improving the product but are sick of being used as footballs for political point-scoring."
Les Littleford, Portland
- Flawed analysis
"There are several problems with Julie Bishop's analysis that high rates of student failure indicate declining standards of education. In the context of comparing schools, comparative figures say something worthwhile only if they deal with comparable student populations. Will Bishop's department adjust figures to take account of different populations? In absolute terms, the easiest way to get rid of high failure rates is to lower standards further. The lower the bar, the higher the pass rate. Education ministers need to be careful that their actions are not counterproductive."
Mary Lush, Surrey Hills
- Vanishing values
"For me, three years of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Keats at school was boring, irrelevant and certainly not part of my "cultural heritage". A good grounding in the three R's and the ability to think critically and creatively for myself were. Why do education experts think that most cultural knowledge has to be learnt at school before the age of 17? Forget teaching values, because family and social values have been destroyed by the banks, media and governments, all of whom support us in buying now and paying later if you can."
John Langrehr (PhD, education), Hazelwood Park, SA
- Unfit to judge
"Julie Bishop's plan to give principals the power to sack teachers is based on the assumption that all principals know enough about teaching to fairly assess teachers' competence. Unfortunately, some principals got into administration simply because they were hopeless teachers. My 30-plus years of involvement in secondary education has shown me such situations are uncommon, thankfully, but do occur. Besides being ignorant of effective classroom practice, failed-teacher principals are unsuitable for judging a teacher's ability because they can too easily focus on personality issues rather than professional considerations. Victoria's current system may be cumbersome in its dealing with poor teachers, but it protects the rights of all teachers much better than Bishop's would."
B. Wiglesworth, Buln Buln
- Leave it to parents
"Julie Bishop advocates putting all sorts of statistics in the public domain to help me choose the best education for my children: benchmarks, attendance, staff qualifications, student destinations, expulsion rates. But what is best for my kids? I want them to enjoy reading, be passionate learners, enjoy challenges, debate issues and be able to appreciate and evaluate others people's views. These attributes will be developed in an environment in which teachers are passionate about education, students come from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds, and the culture is built on an acceptance of the individual. I implore parents to visit their local school to find out what it can offer their child. Ignore Bishop's statistical approach."
Peter Burridge, Hesket
- PM pushes the wrong barrow
"Has John Howard followed Machiavellian dictum that the ends justify the means in his extraordinary decision to launch Kevin Donnelly's book, Dumbing Down ( The Age, 9/2)?
"It is no small statement to use the status of his office to push this latest iteration of Dr Donnelly's ideological barrow.
"The book rests upon the premise that education standards are low and falling. Let's look at the facts.
"If we examine results from then OECD's Program for International Student Assessment, we find that Australian 15-year-olds are, on average, among the world's best in reading, logical thinking and the application of reading skills and mathematical and scientific understandings. We rank fourth among 41 countries in reading literacy, with only Finland significantly outperforming us, and 11th in mathematical literacy, with only four countries significantly outperforming us.
"In scientific literacy, we rank sixth, significantly below only three countries. In the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the data show that Australian year 4 and year 8 students in 2002-03 performed at much the same levels in these subjects as they had a decade earlier.
"Both studies suggest Australian education is falling behind in the comparatively large gaps between high and low-performing students.
"Howard, Donnelly and Julie Bishop are silent on this matter. Dr Donnelly's media release states: "Australian students (are) consistently outperformed in international maths and science tests."
"It must be inconceivable that a prime minister would endorse false statements that undermine Australian education's reputation and one of its largest export industries for the purpose of the political wedge."
Jack Keating, professorial fellow, University of Melbourne, Parkville
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Letters to the Editor
- If schooling today is politically correct, you should have seen it in the '50s
"The Prime Minister is worried about "politically correct" education ("Fads, sludge eroding education, PM says", February 9). Surely he remembers how bad it was when he and I were at school in the 1950s, when we were fed a constant diet of what was then politically correct.
"It was based on a triumphalist view of imperialism. It was subtly based on the superiority of white races. Our history classes were focused on England far more than Australia. The foreign languages we were offered were European. Teachers led us to believe in the primacy of agricultural business. Male power was the unstated assumption. War was celebrated rather than taught as a tragedy. Authoritarian ways underpinned everything in our schools and we were supposed to pledge our obedience every week.
"Mr Howard should remember that the stultifying system of the 1950s produced the rebellious 1960s generation."
Rolf Jester, Lane Cove
- "To be an English teacher is a special calling. You are responsible for introducing children to the great journey and cultural heritage of language. The power of understanding can also empower students in the wider world to find ways of living more healthily, to cope with or avoid situations where they might be exploited by loan sharks, rip-off merchants and unscrupulous employers.
"But in a democratic society you are responsible, too, for helping children engage with issues that they need to grapple with to take their place in the world. As I listen daily to the cant and hubris presented as reasoned argument by politicians, the task becomes more important.
"But as an HSC marker for the last 10 years, I can't help observing that the standards have gone up, not down.
"And I can't help wondering how politicians would cope with the level of sophistication that my students succeed with each day. Not just the 19th-century texts that extension English students study, but the documentaries junior students explore, the structure of news and advertising, all of which go beyond the narrow focus of my days as a student to helping people become literate.
"But perhaps that is Mr Howard's agenda?"
Tony Auhl, Narrabundah (ACT)
- "I am a parent and, like the Prime Minister, I value choice in education. And I choose for my children an education that will engage them, teach them values and require them to be sceptical and inquiring and not take on plain faith traditions or the word of authority, which is why my children go to public schools.
"And if given the choice I will choose an education system run by educators over one run by interfering politicians with political axes to grind. Especially politicians who look backwards and not forwards."
Paul Gittings, Russell Lea
All Alston cartoons are © The West Australian Newspaper
All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers
This page last updated 13 August, 2008 0:35 AM
