Monday 19 February

Tuesday 20 February

Wednesday 21 February

Thursday 22 February

Friday 23 February

Saturday – Sunday, 24 – 25 February

 

Monday 19 February

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Principals query Minister's three Rs rules for teachers (page 14)
    by Anne Buggins
    
    "Primary school principals have questioned a State Government plan to compel teachers to spend at least half their time on basic literacy and numeracy, saying it is already being applied in classrooms.

    "The plan, outlined by Education Minister Mark McGowan and to be formalised later this year, would see teachers spending a minimum 50 per cent of their teaching hours on the three Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic. There is now no formal requirement which stipulates how much time these subjects should take up.

    "Yesterday, WA Primary Principals Association president Colin Pettit said he was not opposed to the idea but believed it would not make much difference because it was already happening.

    "He said a recent Federally funded study of resources across all primary school sectors - government, Catholic and independent - found that most primary schools, including those in WA, devoted more than 50 per cent of their time to teaching literacy and numeracy.

    "What we would really like to see is that the time allocated is allocated to quality programs supported by resources so that schools can achieve that," he said.

    "If we are going to have mandated programs they need to be well supported financially and teachers need to have the right training."

    "Mr McGowan said: "If you don't get literacy and numeracy when you are at primary school, it puts you at a disadvantage for the rest of your life."

    "I'm happy that principals are saying that most teachers are doing it. What I want to do is make sure all teachers are doing it."

    "Mr McGowan said that the 50 per cent rule would apply to all students but teaching would be modified to suit the needs of students.

    "A northern suburbs school principal said Mr McGowan had taken a simplistic stand on a complex issue but debate was welcome in the face of opposition from many early childhood specialists.

    "He said parents and teachers were looking for clear direction and realistic targets on literacy and numeracy, rather than an unstructured approach.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said people would say they were already doing it but the literacy results suggested it was not being done adequately.

    "We do need to make sure teachers are provided with comprehensive and specific tasks and exercises which are generated toward improving the literacy and numeracy standards of our students," he said."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Howard brings his Cabinet to WA with fistful of dollars for schools (page 6)
    by Ben Ruse
    
    "John Howard will use his visit to Perth today to announce an extra $181 million for improving schools..."
    
    "The Federal Government is at odds with the State Government over education, with Mr Howard having described some courses taught in WA as sludge..."
    
    "He will bring his entire Cabinet to Perth for a meeting, a rare event which shows the importance of WA in his re-election bid, and is expected to make several other funding announcements..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    See similar stories from The Australian and at Nine MSN for more details
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor (pages 18-19)
    
    
    • Another Letter on pre-kindy, plus:
      
      "Well done, Jessica Strutt, for encapsulating so precisely what many of us feel about the Premier (Sneering Premier carps on regardless, 15/2). When he took over as Premier, we thought we might have a man more sympathetic to the needs of the governed rather than the Government. We had hoped, as an ex-journalist, he would resist the spin and deception that had become endemic. How wrong we were."

      Ann Ousey, Two Rocks
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Plan to wipe out HECS for teachers
    by Gary Hughes
    
    "HECS debts for graduates taking up teaching should be progressively wiped out as a way of lifting standards, solving teacher shortages and improving literacy and numeracy levels in schools.
    
    "Victorian Premier Steve Bracks will make this call today as part of a $900 million proposal to improve literacy and numeracy skills in primary and secondary schools and tackle the shortage of mathematics and science teachers.

    "Under the proposal made under its new policy, titled the National Reform Agenda, newly trained teachers would have a typical HECS debt of $15,000-$20,000 reduced in stages until it had been completely forgiven.

    "Such a staged remission of HECS debts, if agreed to by the federal Government, would lift entry standards to teaching courses by making it more competitive and stop young teachers leaving the profession after only a short time in the classroom, the Victorian Government argues.

    "At the moment, many university graduates are rejecting teaching as a career because it is seen as a low-status job, which has led to a fall in entry standards, a state government consultation paper says.

    "The lower tertiary entrance score required to become a teacher "has undermined the status of the profession and the standing of teachers in the eyes of parents and the community".

    "A staged HECS debt remission scheme would provide a powerful national signal from the commonwealth about the value of teaching, and the importance of the profession to our future prosperity," says the paper to be released by Mr Bracks today at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia forum in Melbourne.

    "This approach would increase the incentives to choose teaching as a career, thus making it more attractive to more people. This increased competition to gain entry to teaching courses will drive up admission score.

    "A staged debt remission system would also provide an incentive for young teachers to stay in the profession longer, resulting in less attrition, greater staff stability for schools and concomitant savings."

    "The Howard Government capped HECS fees at about $4000 a year for tertiary teaching courses in 2005 in an attempt to address the shortage of teachers, but those completing other degrees before entering teaching still pay full HECS.

    "The proposal is one of a range of steps costing $580 million over fours years that the Victorian Government wants the federal Government to adopt to improve literacy and numeracy and lift teaching standards.

    "Other measures include improving teacher training at universities and funding new programs to teach English to young migrants.

    "About $400 million would go to funding programs to be provided by the Victorian Government and $180 million in direct spending, including the staged remission of HECS debts.

    "The Victorian Government says it is already committed to spending $312 million over four years to improve literacy and numeracy levels, including $99million for extra computers, better internet access and additional science and mathematics equipment.

    "Failure to undertake reform in this area will leave us unprepared to face the challenges ahead, such as managing the impacts of our ageing population and globalisation," the paper says.

    "Victoria is expected to put its National Reform Agenda to the premiers, chief ministers and Prime Minister at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in April."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • $181m more for schools
    by Patricia Karvelas
    
    "Cash-strapped public schools and some of their private counterparts have won a funding boost from a special fund set up by John Howard two years ago.
    
    "The Prime Minister will today announce an extra $181million for projects identified by school communities under a new round of funding for the Investing in Our Schools Program.

    "Of this figure, $127 million will be for government schools and $54 million for the non-government sector..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    Similar story at Nine MSN at link
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Survey reveals rising levels of stress among teachers
    by Alexandra L Smith
    
    "Half of teachers in England have considered quitting the profession because of the stress of working with disrespectful pupils, a new survey has found.

    "Two-thirds of the 823 teachers polled by the channel Teachers' TV said they felt stressed by teaching - half of them during lessons - and one of the biggest causes was the behaviour of pupils.

    "More than 60% said they felt stressed as a result of teaching, even when not in school, and there were many complaints of long working hours. One in 10 told researchers for Teachers' TV they worked longer hours than EU rules permit - and 60% blamed the amount of paperwork required.

    "Nearly half of the secondary school teachers said stress was caused by verbal abuse from pupils and 14% said it was due to physical abuse from pupils during lessons. When asked specifically about what caused stress, 71% of teachers cited a lack of respect from pupils and three-quarters said they felt inadequately supported by their headteacher or senior management..."

    Full story in The Guardian at link [plus a podcast from "Teachers' TV"]
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Replenishing teachers is education's most pressing task
    by Lyndsay Connors
    
    "If re-elected, [NSW] Labor has promised $2 billion on improving public schools' infrastructure, spending that needs to be accompanied by investment in human infrastructure - in the teachers who will educate this and future generations.

    "The NSW public school system is facing an exodus of older, experienced teachers that will peak about 2012. As well, the Department of Education and Training expects about 15,000 teachers will reach retirement age between 2012 and 2021.

    "The heavy round of looming retirements follows the rapid rise of teacher numbers in the 1960s and '70s, when an army of new teachers had to be raised for school systems that were bulging because of the postwar baby boom and immigration. Between 1963 and 1972 the number of teachers rose by more than one half, from 84,700 to 130,500.

    "As these teachers begin to retire, over the next few years parents will find that their children are far more likely to have a beginning teacher than has been the case in recent decades.

    "These newcomers will be the backbone of the teaching force for all schools in the state for years to come. We need a government with the backbone to invest in the conditions most likely to make them effective from their earliest days in the classroom. Governments have known for years that a generational change in the teaching force was looming.

    "After more than a decade of alarm and denial about the likelihood of a critical shortage of recruits to replace those retiring, it now appears that supply will be sufficient to meet demand.

    "This does not, however, justify complacency since this masks serious shortages of secondary school teachers in important subject areas, notably science and mathematics - a shortage further masked by positions being filled with teachers moving outside their subject areas in numbers of schools. The situation with mathematics, according to reports from experts, is entering a "downward spiral".

    "This is compounded for those schools in the persistently hard-to-staff areas of the state, the schools that serve the poorest communities, including those in rural and remote areas.

    "The NSW public system will be competing for teachers within a national and global market affected by similar demand for teachers. Teaching will be competing with other professions to attract its share of talented newcomers. It will also be competing against a growing private school sector in which many schools will use their financial muscle to their own advantage..." [emphasis added]
    
    Lyndsay Connors chaired the former NSW Public Education Council. She was commissioned by the NSW Public Education Alliance to analyse the steps needed to support beginning teachers.
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Student study centres part of $900m plan
    by Ellen Whinnett and Milanda Rout
    
    "Homework centres would be established across Victoria under a $900 million plan being touted by Premier Steve Bracks.
    
    "The proposal would allow students to complete school assignments under the supervision of a tutor, and would focus on struggling students whose reading, writing and mathematical skills were below the state average.

    "The proposal is similar to successful homework centres that already operate in Aboriginal communities interstate, and in Arabic-speaking communities in western Sydney.

    "The ambitious plan will be outlined by the Premier in a speech today to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

    "The proposal is contingent on federal funding and its final shape will be determined through public consultation. The Government has not yet decided how many centres should be opened, or in which towns and suburbs they would be placed.

    "However, they would aim at children who do not get adequate homework help in the family home, and assist disadvantaged and marginalised community groups..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
    
    

  • Unborn children enrolled
    
    Parents are trying to enrol unborn children in a desperate attempt to score a place at the state's most exclusive private schools.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Miami Herald
  
  
  • Colleges review ethics of textbook selection [16 Feb]
    by Noah Bierman
    
    Colleges are grappling with how to balance conflict-of-interest policy with professors' authority to choose textbooks. Prices have tripled in 20 years.
    
    "A Miami Dade College professor took a trip to San Francisco, paid for by a textbook publisher.
    
    "Weeks later, his three-member committee selected the publisher's book as required reading for all anatomy students at MDC's Kendall campus and the department chairman approved.

    "Retail cost at the college bookstore: [US]$178.50. [A$ 235.]

    "A recent state ethics finding on the trip two years ago has raised questions about MDC's ambiguous rules for choosing textbooks. And it has opened a window into the nation's $6 billion textbook industry, whose prices have tripled in the past two decades..."
    
    Full story in The Miami Herald at link
    
    
    

• Spiked Online
  
  
  • Corrupting the curriculum [5 Feb]
    by Frank Furedi
    
    "So what’s the difference between subjecting children to the zealous propaganda of their elders in a faith school and in a secular school? According to today’s cultural commentators, it is ‘brainwashing’ when carried out in a faith school, but ‘raising awareness’ when conducted in a so-called secular environment.

    "The current wave of hysteria about the apocalyptic consequences of climate change, following most recently the publication of the IPCC summary on 2 February, is being harnessed towards ‘re-educating’ schoolchildren. According to proposals due to be published this week, cautionary tales about global warming will become integral to the British school curriculum. This instruction about global warming will masquerade under the title ‘geography lessons’, but in truth it constitutes a new kind of behaviour management.

    "This was clear when UK education secretary Alan Johnson announced his new moralising enterprise last week. Johnson said he wants children to alter their behaviour. ‘We need the next generation to think about their impact on the environment in a different way’, he declared. This project, aimed at manipulating how children lead their lives, is justified through appealing to a higher truth. Johnson claims that ‘if we can instill in the next generation an understanding of how our actions can mitigate or cause global warming, then we lock in a culture change that could, quite literally, save the world’. Literally save the world! That looks like a price worth paying for making some changes to the geography curriculum. In truth, the moralisation of education will only nurture ignorance..."
    
    "And they will learn in geography that we face human extinction, but will not be able to name the highest mountain in Europe. In other words they will be values-rich but uneducated."
    
    Frank Furedi is the author of Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right
    
    Full story at spiked.online.com at link

Tuesday 20 February

• Liberals condemn WACOT election delay
  
  
  • Media Statement: Peter Collier MLC, Shadow Minister for Education and Training
    
    Another delay for teacher representation

    "Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier has slammed an announcement by the WA College of Teaching Board that the election of 10 teacher representatives will potentially be delayed until the end of the year.

    "The announcement has been posted on WACOT's website:

    Following its Board of Management meeting on 14 February, the Western Australian College of Teaching made a request to the Minister of Education and Training that regulations to govern the election of ten teacher members to the Board be prepared.

    While is it very difficult to predict the timing of parliamentary processes, it is hoped that a fresh election can be held by the end of the year. The College will keep members informed of the progress being made and when a new election is likely.

    "Mr Collier said teachers would now potentially not have a say on the body, created in 2004 to represent the teaching profession, until the end of 2007.

    "Unfortunately, after two and a half years, teachers still don't have any elected representatives on the board," he said.

    "WACOT's inaugural election of teacher representatives had been scheduled for November 2006, but was postponed at the last minute when a problem with the rules was discovered.

    "In addition, in a letter obtained by the Opposition under FOI, it was blatantly evident that the former Education Minister sought to prevent education lobby group PLATO from gaining significant representation on the board.

    "The former Minister clearly changed the voting system to ensure that the election of members of PLATO would be minimal.

    "Teachers have felt completely disengaged from the decision making process over recent years.

    "In what has been a period of unparalleled change in education in terms of curriculum and additional pressures with the raising of the school leaving age, working with children legislation and the teacher shortage, it is imperative that the profession be heard.
    
    "The fact that there is little likelihood of a fresh election for teacher representation on the WACOT board until the end of the year will do little to remove the negativity and cynicism that currently permeates the profession.

    "The Opposition will provide full support and cooperation with the government to ensure that the election of the WACOT board be conducted as a matter of urgency.
    
    "There is absolutely no reason that regulations can't be formulated and the election be conducted within a matter of months." [emphasis added]
    
    From Peter Collier's website at link
    

    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Substance must prevail over spin in politics of schooling (page 14)

    "It would be fair to say that Education Minister Mark McGowan's best political asset, for the time being, is his predecessor. Whatever he does in the key portfolio is likely to look impressive compared with the dismal non-performance of Ljiljanna Ravlich, from whom he inherited it.

    "That, of course, will fade over time as people judge him on what he achieves, rather than by comparison to an inadequate predecessor.

    "The judgment people will ultimately make is whether he is a minister of substantial accomplishment or merely one of the Carpenter Government's spin masters.

    "There is no question that education is a critical issue of political consequences for the State Government. People are worried about standards of education offered to their children by the State school system.

    "One measure of this has been the movement of students from State to private schools. Another has been increasing interest in and criticism of State school systems by the election-bound Howard Government, which clearly has picked up on a politically significant level of disaffection among parents.

    "John Howard and his Education Minister Julie Bishop have been carrying the standards debate to the State with rare persistence. The Prime Minister has said that students are being taught "incomprehensible sludge" and describes outcomes-based education as "gobbledegook".

    "There is more going on here than can be attributed to the usual Commonwealth-State or Liberal-Labor antipathies. There is a general sense abroad of inadequacies in State schools and anxiety about what appears to be officially endorsed dumbing down.

    "To his credit, Mr McGowan has shown that he is sensitive to community concerns about this. He made a good start by announcing that one of the most controversial parts of OBE, the levels system used to mark students in Years 11 and 12, would be abolished, though there is confusion about how and whether this is being carried out in schools. Ultimately, OBE will have to be purged from the school system as a failed experiment in social engineering. That is a challenge for Mr McGowan in the face of resistance by elements of the education bureaucracy. [emphasis added]

    Ultimately, OBE will have to be purged from the school system as a failed experiment in social engineering. That is a challenge for Mr McGowan in the face of resistance by elements of the education bureaucracy.

    "So is the need to improve basic literacy and number skills learning in primary schools. His plan for teachers to spend at least 50 per cent of their teaching time on reading, writing and arithmetic responds to public disquiet about unacceptably high numbers of children failing to achieve minimum standards in basic skills.

    "But principals say this is already the case in most schools - so the McGowan plan looks unlikely to provide the solution it seems to offer. Though the focus on basic skills is to be welcomed, the real remedy is to be found in making sure teaching programs are effective and that children who struggle are identified early and given the special help they need.

    "At least Mr McGowan has shown that he understands that there are pressing problems in education, and that is the first step towards finding solutions. But the solutions are not to be found in trying to manipulate public perceptions, as is evidently the case with the continuing practice of rebadging public schools with new names or logos. [see following article]

    "Schools will be judged on the substance of their results, not on appearances. So will Mr McGowan."

    From The West Australian

     

  • Schools lift image to become 'colleges' (page 11)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Public schools are being rebadged with posh names or having image makeovers in a bid to boost community perceptions of State school education standards.

    "As the popularity of public schools increases, name changes and school logo makeovers are seen as ways to counter negative perceptions and boost enrolments..."

    "And recently upgraded schools in suburbs with rough reputations - such as Gosnells and Kwinana senior high schools - have also been rebadged. Kwinana will be know as Gilmore College and Gosnells changed its name to Southern River College last year.

    "The Education Department's marketing branch is also encouraging schools with dated logos or crests to smarten their image..." [emphasis added]

    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said colleges were usually associated with vocational and paraprofessional learning and that could confuse parents. [Clearly Mr Fry has never heard of the university colleges in Australian universities, the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge or the American liberal arts colleges.   Web]

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said State schools were trying to add credibility and meet the competitive edge provided by private schools, most of which were called colleges."

    Full story in The West Australian
    

    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Education Dept up-beat about filling regional teaching spots

    "The Education Department says it expects most regional teaching positions to be filled in the next few weeks, despite there still being more than 100 vacancies throughout Western Australia.

    "The director-general of the Education Department, Sharon O'Neil, says there are 117 teaching vacancies, with the Pilbara, Kimberley and Goldfields worst affected.

    "But she insists no classroom is without a teacher.

    "In a number of locations contingency plans have been put in place, largely in relation to timetabling activities, so teachers are provided with additional time," she said.

    "However, the president of the State School Teachers Union, Mike Keely, says some schools are at crisis point as they have only 80 per cent of required teachers.

    "The union will meet the director-general of education later this week."
    
    From ABC News Online at link
    
    
    

• Channel 9 Evening News
  
  
  • OBE music course hits a sour note

    Dixie Marshall: The Perth musician who helped get musical instrument lessons in Government schools is worried that the new OBE music course for Years 11 and 12 will hit a sour note. As Kristen Taylor reports, students who can’t read or write music will still be able to pass the subject in their TEE.

    Kristen Taylor: Respected musician Neil Boon was the first teacher to bring instrument playing lessons into an Australian Government School classroom. He’s appalled the Curriculum Council is planning to make reading music an optional part of learning to play, and is convinced standards will fall.

    Neil Boon (Musician): When you take music seriously, you have to read music- there’s no getting away from that.

    Kristen Taylor: But the Curriculum Council says both those who read music and those who don’t will be expected to meet high standards, and the course is aimed to more inclusive, catering for indigenous, jazz and music theatre musicians.

    David Wood, (Curriculum Council): By restricting the course to those that [sic] read conventional music notation would limit it because in a number of other music forms, other forms of notation are used.

    Marko Vojkovic, PLATO spokesman: With a subject at TEE level are we really looking for inclusivity? Why only have one course- why not have two or three music courses?

    Kristen Taylor: Teacher Les Peirce who has trialled OBE Music Courses and says students become more creative because they are free to explore music that interests them.

    Les Peirce: The classicists, if you like, will maintain their integrity. The universities will still get their high-level performers, but we’ll have more students in school just doing music because they love it.

    Kristen Taylor: The course will go before an independent teacher jury for approval and is due to be introduced into Year 11 next year. Kristen Taylor, Channel Nine News.

    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Labor risks the ire of teachers by putting failure back into school report cards
    by Matthew Franklin and Samantha Maiden
    
    "Kevin Rudd has risked enraging teachers' unions by rejecting their opposition to fail marks in school assessments.
    
    "The Opposition Leader has also backed the push for a national school curriculum.

    "Teachers' unions have long opposed handing students pass or fail marks, arguing that a fail mark could damage pupils' self-esteem.

    "But Mr Rudd said yesterday it was wrong to give children a false view about their ability.

    "You may be serving them a temporary comfort at school only to throw them into the cold, hard reality of the workforce," Mr Rudd said in a radio interview.

    "I end up having a brawl with some of the teachers' unions but that's life. I agree with us moving towards a national curriculum in areas of critical need across the country."

    "Mr Rudd said a national curriculum in key areas would recognise the reality that many parents moved around the country in a highly mobile workforce.

    "He also stressed he had no criticism of teachers.

    "My concern is this: Do we have enough absolute rigour in our national approach to curriculum to give our teachers the best resources to do the job?" [emphasis added]

    "Earlier yesterday, Mr Rudd refused to guarantee that a popular schools funding program for classroom upgrades will continue beyond 2008 if the party wins the next federal election.

    "John Howard yesterday announced a $181 million funding boost to an existing program to improve facilities at public and private schools, after a campaign by Coalition backbenchers.

    "The Investing In Our Schools program has proved popular with Coalition MPs because it has allowed the Government to play "white knight" on projects that state governments have failed to fund - such as installing new toilets, new carpets, airconditioning and shadecloths.

    "The scheme is also designed to blunt political attacks that the lion's share of federal funding for schools is provided to the private schools, not public schools, which are largely funded by state governments.

    "While the Opposition Leader backed the funding boost yesterday and suggested the program would continue, his education spokesman was less emphatic.

    "Do I think that program solves all the problems of our schools across the country? Of course not," Mr Rudd said.

    "But do I think that it's a useful program worthy of bipartisan support, you bet."

    "But Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith would only guarantee the program until next year. "Improving the infrastructure of our schools is very important," he said.

    "I note that the program is due to expire in 2008 and the Government is yet to commit to its continuation."

    "In principle I believe funding for school infrastructure should be continued and I am having discussions with interested parties about that."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Cutting HECS fees 'not the solution'
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Slashing HECS fees for student teachers will not solve the recruitment crisis, education experts say.
    
    "Victorian Premier Steve Bracks's suggestion to tackle the shortage of mathematics and science teachers has sparked warnings that lower HECS fees do not always guarantee increased student demand.

    "Labor leader Kevin Rudd has also proposed limited HECS relief to encourage students to become maths and science teachers.

    "However, deans of education warned yesterday that many graduates drop out of teaching within five years of entering the profession and finding enough teacher training places in schools for students to complete practical training also remained a problem.

    "Bill Louden, dean of education at the University of Western Australia, said yesterday a HECS reduction or waiver may not significantly increase demand for teaching degrees.

    "No, I don't think so. Talking to our students, many don't know how big their HECS debt is," he said. "The underlining problem is the status of teaching as a profession and starting salaries." [emphasis added]

    "The Howard Government has previously declared teaching and nursing degrees a priority, ensuring the HECS fees did not rise by up to 30 per cent in 2005 when universities were allowed to set their own fees. However, education faculties later complained the decision starved institutions of funding, arguing the decision had backfired.

    "It has not led to a flood of applicants. There's also incentives of thousands of dollars to encourage students to teach maths and science in Western Australia, more than HECS, and that has had little effect," Professor Louden said. Finding enough teacher training places in schools for practical experience before graduation also remained a problem, he warned."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Grateful authors honour Jolley
    
    Author Elizabeth Jolley, whose skilful meditations on family endeared her to book clubs and academics, has been farewelled in a private ceremony befitting her modesty. She died last Tuesday, aged 83.
    
    
    
  • Principals scold Premier over toilet mess
    
    School principals have criticised the NSW Labor Government for allowing toilet blocks and other school facilities to fall into such disrepair they have had to be made part of Premier Morris Iemma's election platform.
    
    
    
  • Government to pump in unsniffable petrol
    
    An unsniffable fuel will replace all regular unleaded petrol at service stations in Alice Springs by the end of the month.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed, by Matt Price: Contender heads west to shadow leader
    
    "... The PM whipped through a Stirling school yesterday, promising federal money for building projects and accepting the adulation of students. Unfortunately the local Liberal MP forgot the name of the school; Michael Keenan mistakenly welcomed Howard to nearby Balga High rather than Balcatta, which round these parts is akin to turning up at a Collingwood function barracking for Carlton..."
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Plague of phones in school
      
      "Your editorial ("Roaming charges”, 19/2) is out of touch with the reality of children and mobile phones. Ask any primary school teacher about how many 10-year-olds have phones and you will be surprised. In high school, they are in epidemic proportions and, as a teacher, I’ve constantly asked myself how parents can continue to pay for them.

      "Clive Hamilton is right: the mobile phone ensures a cradle-to-grave marketing mentality from which most people will be unable to extricate themselves. The simplistic response of saying no is not within the repertoire of skills of a vast number of modern parents. The idea that children need to be “checked up on” by their parents during lessons is appalling.

      "Certainly today’s students spend a lot of time on the phone when they should be concentrating on their lessons. Perhaps the lesson of consumer-worship is a more valid one these days – even if some phone users come to school without books or pencils."
      
      Susan Leembruggen, East Maitland, NSW
      
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    Generation HECS should not be cursed by poor politics
    
    "The Higher Education Contribution Scheme was set up in 1989 by the Hawke Labor government. It followed the recommendations of an inquiry, which was chaired by former NSW premier Neville Wran. Since its inception there have been myriad changes brought about by both sides of politics.

    "In recent weeks, HECS has again surfaced, this time as part of the phoney federal election campaign. The Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, has announced another instalment in his so-called "education revolution". Mr Rudd has vowed to cut the accumulated HECS debt of a science and maths graduate from more than $21,000 to $12,000, or the annual rate of about $7000 to $4000, from 2009. The HECS repayments of those graduates would be halved if they worked in a relevant occupation, in particular teaching.

    "Mr Rudd's move is driven by the critical shortage in Australia of qualified people in the science and maths disciplines who can then use their skills in other research, industry and teaching fields. The Opposition claims that almost 50 per cent of senior physics teachers and 25 per cent of senior chemistry teachers have not majored in those areas and that a quarter of science teachers do not have a science qualification. The claims are supported by a Department of Education and Science audit, which predicts that in six years there will be a shortage of 20,000 scientists and engineers.

    "Clearly something has to be done to stop this trend if Australia is not to become denuded in the technical fields. Prosperity cannot flourish, and Australia cannot keep up with the world, if there is no one willing to teach nor anyone to learn. It is the responsibility of government through its funding priorities to tackle the problem. However, it is at this point the remedies diverge..."
    
    Full editorial in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • State seeks fast move on teaching
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Victorian teachers could have their pay and career structures overhauled within a year, with the State Government conceding the profession is not as "flexible" as it should be and may be deterring some people from taking up teaching jobs.

    "Premier Steve Bracks has urged the Federal Government to review teachers' pay, qualifications and career opportunities as part of a plan to boost literacy and numeracy rates by 25 per cent over 10 years.

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop hit back last night, saying that if Victoria was serious it would support Canberra's push for performance pay for teachers.

    "Performance pay or having incentives in the pay structure for teachers is commonplace around the world … There's nothing to stop state governments now putting in place sensible changes to the career structures for teachers," Ms Bishop said.

    "In a 50-page discussion paper that will be presented to the Council of Australian Governments meeting in April, Mr Bracks admitted teachers' status had been undermined in recent years, and perceptions of the job had deterred some from enrolling in teaching degrees.

    "He challenged Prime Minister John Howard to work with Victoria, calling for a new career "framework" to be in place by next year. This, he argued, would significantly help boost literacy and numeracy standards..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • The "Monday" Education Supplement [finally updated] contains 16 articles, including:
    
    
    • Students feel guilt over future
      
      School leavers fret about a lack of goals, but should they be worried?
      
      
      
    • Helping square pegs fit better
      
      Unconventional students can slip through the cracks, reports Leigh Parry. A new school sees itself as a safety net.
      
      
      
    • League table 'inflates' Australian universities
      
      Professor warns of possible damage to standings.
      
      
      
    • Put trust in early warnings
      
      Teachers are being trained to tackle students' mental health problems.
      
      
      
    • Op Ed: Just wake me when it's all over
      
      Students accused of not showing adequate effort might just be saying something eloquent about the teacher.
      
      
      
      
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • And now for A Tale of One City

      "So, they are rewriting Tolstoy's classic War and Peace ( The Age, 19/2), not only shortening it but changing the ending to make it happier — and boom goes that adorable line, "Your darling Prince Bolkonsky has had his head shot off!"

      "HarperCollins is doing to literature what Hollywood and Disney have been doing for years. One wonders now where this might lead. Dickens' immortal A Tale of One City could be much shorter and end with Sydney Carton's cry, "It is a far, far better thing that I do — escape!" Victor Hugo's Les Miserables could be halved, both in length and horror, by calling it Le Miserable. Let's make Ethel Turner's classic Six Little Australians and get rid of Judy altogether (that was the first book that made me weep; I don't want to feel sad any more, or have to read too much and anyway they are all dead, so we can do what we like, can't we?).

      "And let's face it, if we can shorten War, even at the price of Peace, I'd vote for that."

      Suzanne G. Ingleton, Castlemaine
      
      
      

Wednesday 21 February

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Students to help set pay rises for best teachers (page 7)
    See very similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
  • Teacher training cut back to fill schools (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Relief teachers are being allowed into WA classrooms with just three years of training rather than four under a desperate plan to tackle an acute shortage of teachers.

    "The State's teacher registration body, the WA College of Teaching, told schools this week that three-year trained teachers - who normally would not qualify for registration - could be granted an exemption for relief teaching.

    "Schools struggled last year to find enough teachers to cover classes when a teacher was absent, with some making up to 70 phone calls to fill the gap at short notice.

    "Relief teacher agencies laid part of the blame on restrictions the college introduced last year. But the college now says a "limited authority to teach for the purpose of relief teaching may be granted to three-year trained teachers". [If WACOT exhibits its usual efficiency, it will be 2008 or beyond before it gets them registered.   Web]

    "Under WACOT rules, all teachers must be four-year trained unless they joined the college by March last year. Three-year training degrees were phased out of universities in the 1990s.

    "New WACOT director Suzanne Parry denied the college was dropping standards, saying the exemption would be valid only until the end of next year when the policy would be reviewed.

    "We're not lowering standards in that these limited authorities to teach only have a short life," she said. [Translation: "We're just lowering standards for a little while..."   Web]

    "And during that time we would be encouraging everybody to upgrade their qualifications."

    "Strict conditions would apply, with limited authority teachers not permitted to replace an absent teacher for more than 20 consecutive days.

    "Employers would be expected to provide mentoring support.

    "State and independent school teachers' unions said the decision was e necessary compromise to obtain much-needed help.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan refused to comment on the drop in relief teaching standards. He said department officers would leave today to recruit British teachers for next year at migration expos and universities in Birmingham, London, Edinburgh and Belfast to avoid a repeat of this year's huge shortfall of regular classroom teachers.

    "With school now into their third week of term, the teacher shortfall has dropped from 264 at the start of the year to 95 this week. About 400 Port Hedland students are studying science by correspondence because no teacher is available." [If it's 400 students, they're short more than one teacher.   Web]

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Tough life for teachers, says inquiry chief (page 50)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Life can be tough for teachers, according to the chairman of a new task force set up to examine solutions to the shortage of teachers in WA.

    "Lance Twomey, former Curtin University vice-chancellor, is expected to hand a report to Education Minister Mark McGowan by the end of this year.

    "The task force was set up after a strategic study commissioned by former education minister Ljiljanna Ravlich into teacher supply and demand warned that the teacher shortage was likely to worsen.

    "Mr McGowan has also employed an independent consultant to examine ways to make country positions more attractive to teachers.

    "Professor Twomey said he had agreed to chair the task force just last week so he was still unsure what tack it would take.

    "But he said it would have to look at both short and long-term solutions to getting more people into the profession and keeping them there.

    "It's not always the money, it's the conditions under which people work," he said. "I think it's a pretty tough life for teachers. [emphasis added]

    "I don't know a lot about it but I would expect to be on a very steep learning curve and get a lot of information rapidly."

    "The preliminary report said that problems with getting reliable data made it almost impossible to monitor teacher supply and demand variables.

    "Professor Twomey said one of his priorities would be to track data.

    "I think all these things have to be data driven," he said. "If they're not you can never be sure of what you're doing and unless you measure things as you go you can't be sure whether you're having an effect or not."

    "This year public schools started back with more than 260 teaching positions unfilled, which by last week had dropped to 100 across the State."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Premier told to come home in wake of CCC probe

    "Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter is facing a backlash over his decision to continue a trade mission in India even though two of his ministers are facing serious allegations at a corruption inquiry.

    "The Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) heard a secretly taped telephone conversation yesterday in which the lobbyist and former premier Brian Burke claimed he could get anything he wanted out of at least two ministers.

    "Their identities were suppressed by the CCC.

    "Mr Burke was heard speaking to the former minister Norm Malborough, who the commission heard leaked Cabinet information to the lobbyist.

    "Mr Carpenter is due to return from India on Sunday.

    "A spokeswoman says he will not cut his trip short.

    "Opposition Leader Paul Omodei says that is not good enough.

    "If the Premier wants to stay in India and allow the reputation and the integrity of the Cabinet of Western Australia to continue to be tarnished then he should bear the brunt of any criticism over that," he said.

    "Acting Premier Eric Ripper will not comment about the CCC."
    
    From ABC News Online at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Families get say in teachers' pay rises [lead national story]
    by John Garnaut
    
    "Students and parents will help allocate large pay rises to the best teachers in a Federal Government plan to raise academic standards in public schools.

    "The performance-based shake-up is likely to start from 2009, and the Government is prepared to "strike out on its own" if the states refuse to co-operate.

    "The federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, wants teachers to be assessed on the improvement of their students over the year. The aim is for the best teachers to benefit most, especially at disadvantaged schools.

    "Ms Bishop will present three performance pay models for state education ministers to consider in April. The first would assess teachers by the improvement of their students, as measured by annual statewide exam scores.

    "A second model would rank teachers by the subjective assessments of peers, principals, parents and students. The third would reward a smaller number of teachers with large bonuses paid out of a "federal merit pay bonus fund".

    "Ms Bishop favours combining the student-improvement and peer-assessment models in teachers' wage agreements.

    "She told the Herald: "For example, some form of assessment model that would include classroom performance, references from colleagues and supervisors, views of parents and students, involvement in professional learning [and] contributions to the development of other teachers and school well-being." [emphasis added]

    "Ms Bishop could hold back funding or bypass the states altogether if they do not agree to include performance pay in the next four-year, $40 billion education funding agreement.

    "It is possible to make a component of [funding] dependent on the states embracing a performance pay model," she said. Alternatively, "the Commonwealth can always strike out on its own".

    "Her plans are likely to spark a showdown with teacher unions and state education ministers, who mostly refuse to consider any form of merit-based pay and say there is no fair way to assess who the good teachers are.

    "I think it's virtually impossible to compare the performance of teachers who are teaching students with different levels of aptitude," said the NSW Education Minister, Carmel Tebbutt. "The other fear I have is it will undermine the congeniality that exists within schools."

    "NSW has already developed data systems that can match individual teachers with changes in their students' exam scores. As well as using this information to reward good teachers, Ms Bishop wants it to be published and scrutinised by the wider community."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    Similar story on ABC News
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Teachers push Bracks for more
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Premier Steve Bracks is headed for a showdown with Victoria's powerful teacher union, which has refused to rule out the prospect of statewide strikes as it pushes for a 30 per cent wage rise.

    "Only days after Mr Bracks challenged Prime Minister John Howard to boost teaching quality, the Australian Education Union has mounted a push for better pay, fewer teachers on contract employment, and improved career paths in schools.

    "In a pre-budget submission obtained by The Age, teachers argue that a pay rise is warranted given that Victorian teachers are paid $7040 less than their NSW counterparts at the top of the scale, and $2933 less at the bottom of the scale.

    "But the union's wage claim — 10 per cent a year for three years — is significantly higher than the Government's public sector wage policy, which generally limits increases to 3 per cent a year, with anything above that to be met by productivity trade-offs.

    "Clearly no framework in or around 3 per cent is going to address a situation where you've got a national teaching shortage and you've problems attracting and retaining teachers here in Victoria," AEU state president Mary Bluett told The Age..."
    
    "Ms Bluett said she hoped industrial action would not be necessary this year, but could not rule it out. The union's pre-budget submission, which focuses on making schools more "equitable" for families, also calls on the Treasury to:

    • Set up "early warning systems" in schools, whereby parents are immediately notified when a child has problems with disruptive behaviour, bullying and absenteeism.
    • Create special centres for students with behavioural or learning difficulties.
    • Make kindergarten free for all four-year-olds and disadvantaged three-year-olds.
    • Reduce contract employment...
      
      

  "The proposed pay rise would mean that Victorian teachers, who currently receive a starting salary of $46,127 with $65,414 at the top of the scale, would, within three years, have a starting salary of $61,395, going up to $87,066." [emphasis added]
  
  Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

  
  
  
• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    What's driving the Rudd phenomenon
    
    The Labor leader is closing John Howard's lead in national security and economic management, writes editor-at-large Paul Kelly
    
    "The Rudd phenomenon that dominates Australia's politics has penetrated all elements of Newspoll, signalling a pervasive goodwill factor for the new Labor leader - with John Howard's political foundations intact but eroding..."
    
    "Newspoll tested eight issues - water, health, education, environment, economy, welfare, national security and industrial relations..."
    
    "Rudd's lead on health is 12 points, on education 22 points, on welfare 23 points and on industrial relations 24 points..."
    
    "Newspoll also documents the changing political agenda that assists Labor. It shows the four most important issues in order are water, health, education and the environment. [emphasis added] This suggests a possible shift towards softer pro-Labor issues at the expense of harder pro-Coalition issues..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • The Higher Education Supplement has 16 articles today, including:
    
    
    • Drop-outs not a problem, say unis
      
      Of the 300,000 or so first-year students who will arrive on Australian campuses this week, just under 100,000 will be gone by the end of the year.
      
      
      
    • US college shows sway students
      
      Some prospective students get their ideas about university life mainly from US television shows.
      
      
      
    • Rising costs change student lifestyles
      
      It was almost a rite of passage: half a dozen university students paying low rent for a rambling old house where they learned much more about life than in the lecture theatre.
      
      
      
    • Labor to scrap 'flawed' RQF
      
      A Labor Government would scrap the controversial Research Quality Framework and replace it with a new scheme to measure the quality of Australia's publicly-funded research.
      
      
      
    • Delicate state of the nation

      There is a renewed danger of territorial self-interest overtaking progress on federal issues writes Geoff Gallop.
      
      

    • In pursuit of status and sexier labels [Sounds familiar   Web]
      
      Students base their choice of university on prestige and well-named programs writes Gavin Moodie.
      
      
      
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Farce in the classroom
      
      "The demise of standards in public education is almost as discouraging as the decline in student behaviour.

      "I recently taught a class of 33 Year-6 students at an inner city school as a relief teacher. I spent an amusing day scorned by impudent children who complained their way through a variety of lessons while talking incessantly, ignoring instructions, bickering, teasing, fighting, openly swearing and walking around or out of the room.

      "It was an absolute farce reflecting the worst of much of public education."
      
      Cameron Goozeff, Dulwich Hill. NSW
      
      
      

• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Literature loses heroine
    
    English-born, German-speaking, Quaker-educated Australian author Elizabeth Jolley hated fuss – disliked being the centre of attention. And fawning.
    
    
    
    
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Teach your children on finances [20 Feb]
    
    Parents should teach their children about money management from the time they can talk, South Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi says. Senator Bernardi has written a booklet on financial planning to be distributed free through Liberal MPs' offices. Designed to be read to children, it uses fictional family characters to demonstrate the virtues of saving and financial planning.
    
    
    

Thursday 22 February

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Bishop's teacher pay plan under fire (page 7)
    by Rhianna King and Bethany Hiatt
    
    See more detailed articles in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Melbourne Age, below.
    
    "Julie Bishop is on a collision course with the State Government, teachers' unions and parents' groups over her plan for performance-based pay, which was described yesterday as insulting, unworkable and having no educational credibility..."
    
    "State Education Minister Mark McGowan said while he supported the concept of merit-based pay, it should reward teachers prepared to move to rural, remote and low socio-economic areas and do extra training..."
    
    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said there was no research to prove performance-based pay worked.
    
    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry attacked Ms Bishop for failing to consult parents on the plan and said it would make teaching a popularity contest..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 17)
    
    
    • I disagree
      
      "The WA College of Teaching (WACOT) is now accrediting three-year-trained teachers to meet the shortage of relief teachers (report, 21/2). The utter lack of logic in their new policy is truly astounding.

      "The exemptions for three-year teachers, which are valid until the end of 2008, means standards are dropping for just a little while, says director Suzanne Parry.

      "That’s two years – kind of a long "little while".

      "The report states that strict conditions would apply, with limited authority teachers not permitted to replace an absent teacher for more than 20 consecutive days.

      "Let me guess: 20 days on, one day off, then back again for another 20 days. What is the point?

      "It is stated that employers would be expected to provide mentoring support. Yes, schools have so many extra teachers floating around, doing nothing, that every relief teacher will get proper mentoring. That’s why we need relief teachers – there are so many spare teachers available to mentor. What utter nonsense.

      "But this is precisely what we have come of expect of WACOT, the “teacher representative body” that has no elected teacher representatives on its board of management."
      
      Steve Kessell, Willetton
      
      
      

• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • Kids to learn plain English
    by Tess Livingstone
    
    "Queensland students from Year 1 to Year 10 will have a new plain English syllabus from the middle of next year.

    "It will emphasise the teaching of reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation and the importance of literature.

    "Curriculum waffle is out, clear English is in," Education Minister Rod Welford said.

    "He said the new syllabus would take a "nuts-and-bolts" approach to help children write well and speak clearly while encouraging them to read and think.

    "The syllabus is being drawn up by the Queensland Studies Authority after a review of the preschool to Year 10 syllabus last year. The review was conducted by Sunshine Coast-based education consultant Ray Land, a former teacher and education official.

    "Part of the draft syllabus will be available on the authority's website from next month for public scrutiny and feedback, and the full syllabus is to be ready for approval by the authority's board by October.

    "This will allow support materials and teacher training to be provided ahead of the introduction of the syllabus from the start of Semester 2 next year.

    "The new syllabus was welcomed by Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens Associations executive officer Greg Donaldson.

    "If this new QSA syllabus is going to improve the literacy levels of our kids we would support it," he said.

    "Queensland Teachers Union president Steve Ryan said teachers had been heavily involved in the process and were satisfied with the new syllabus.

    "The redeveloped syllabus would be organised in three strands: speaking and listening, reading and viewing, and writing and shaping.

    "There will be greater emphasis on correct spelling, grammar and punctuation," said QSA assistant director (syllabus services) Bob Dudley.

    "He said the syllabus would be more balanced in terms of the texts studied with wide range of books, poetry and plays to be read. Continued

    "He said material from the internet, films and television programs would also be included.

    "The syllabus will be much more specific than it is at present. For example, it is envisaged that by the end of Year 3 students will be able to:

    • Identify and record main ideas and make simple inferences.

    • Organise and sequence one or two main ideas with some supporting detail.

    • Create texts that tell stories, recount, report on, explain, give opinions or transact.

    • Use punctuation to signal the meaning boundaries of simple sentences.

    • Create and play with representations of people, places, events and things for an audience by selecting descriptive words, images, facial expressions and gestures.

    "The syllabus requires teachers to use a range of measures, including phonics and whole word recognition, to teach reading to young children.

    "Students' progress will also be tightly monitored under the new syllabus.

    "The syllabus is being drawn up by a team of QSA staff with input from a panel of 20 teachers.

    "Focus groups of parents have also been consulted."
    
    From The Brisbane Courier Mail at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Family say in teachers' pay faces all-round ridicule
    by Anna Patty Education Editor
    
    "A proposal that students and parents have a say in teacher pay rises has been universally ridiculed. Teachers, academics and the NSW Government all favour pay rises founded on performance, but said basing them on parent views and student results was absurd.

    "The federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, said she would introduce performance-based pay to all public schools and would present three models to the states in April.

    "One would be based on student results and a second would use the assessments of principals, parents and students. The third is similar to one already operating in NSW private schools, which measures teacher performance against standards set by the NSW Institute of Teachers.

    "The State Government favours a model for public school teachers based on set standards, but has ruled out bonuses based on student results or parent reviews.

    "The NSW Minister for Education, Carmel Tebbutt, said the federal proposal would lead to teachers leaving the profession in droves.

    "She said it would be unfair to compare the performance of a teacher of disadvantaged students with that of a teacher at a selective school.

    "We do not support any proposal that would link teacher salaries to student performance," she said.

    "The idea that you could have teachers' salaries established by a panel of peers, principals, parents and students would be a recipe for disruption in schools."

    "However, Ms Tebbutt has welcomed a federal Labor proposal to reward top-performing teachers with bonuses of up to $10,000 a year if they met rigorous standards not limited to student results.

    "The NSW Institute of Teachers is developing two new standards of professional competence and leadership for experienced teachers.

    "Teachers would be assessed on teaching plans, classroom performance, student outcomes and work samples, along with references from colleagues and supervisors.

    "The Association of Independent Schools of NSW last year introduced performance pay for teachers in private schools and has used the institute's standards framework to measure teacher performance.

    "The association's executive director, Geoff Newcombe, said he was pleased Ms Bishop had moved beyond her earlier proposal to measure teacher performance simply on student performance.

    "I think anyone administering schools now could see that the community is looking to teacher payments based on some sort of assessment of professionalism," he said.

    "I'm delighted the independent sector is leading the way in this."

    "The deputy president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, rejected Ms Bishop's proposals as absurd. He said teachers were not opposed to the Labor proposal announced last year that proposed bonuses for quality teaching.

    "The ALP's proposal … is not a proposal that threatens us, given that it was described as a system designed to recognise quality teaching, based on the assessment of teachers against objective standards," he said.

    "[Ms Bishop's proposals] are ostensibly about forcing the Government's industrial relations agenda on schools by placing individual teachers on contracts, forcing teachers to pit themselves against each other."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Don't pit teachers against each other
      
      "The Federal Government's plan to introduce performance-based pay for teachers ("Families get say in teachers' pay rises", February 21) ignores the relational process of teaching.

      "Teachers do not work in isolation. Professional collaboration is critical to quality learning and teaching. Individual incentives for improving students' results have the potential to discourage teachers from sharing their knowledge, ideas and experience by pitting them against one another.

      "If we are to reward teachers for good performance then incentives need to be team-based and should not focus primarily on financial gain. Present organisational thinking indicates that money is not the prime motivator for improved performance. People perform best when they understand the purpose and values of an organisation, are recognised professionally and have continuing opportunities for professional growth.

      "If the Minister for Education is serious about improving student outcomes, the Government needs to support greater collaboration, not promote competition."

      Greg Whitby, executive director of schools, Catholic Diocese of Parramatta
      
      

    • "Ms Bishop, the delightful students in my class, in south-western Sydney, have severe and multiple intellectual, physical and sensory disabilities and fluctuating health and come from families where the home language is not English.

      "If you have devised a truly objective assessment to determine each child's yearly progress and hence my salary, could you please let me know? I am just not sure you've thought this through."

      Jane Truswell, Surry Hills
      
      

    • "Our children, their families and our teachers deserve better from the Education Minister than a stream of populist stunts accompanied by financial bullying.

      "As a parent of four children and now a grandparent, I cannot imagine that most parents would have the time or be willing to take part in decisions about what particular teachers should be paid.

      "What is needed is a more modern and realistic career structure for teaching in which the range of teaching positions is expanded to recognise the more complex aspects of teachers' work and to reward those who do the most complex work. This is the way to allow teachers to go on improving and to be rewarded."

      Lyndsay Connors, Edgecliff

      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Many have say on teacher pay
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Good teachers will receive extra pay judged on their classroom practice, programming of lessons, mentoring of beginner teachers and contribution to the school, as well as their students' academic achievements.
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday that any system of paying teachers extra based on their performance would take into account a range of factors, including standards developed by the profession and input from the principal, colleagues, parents and the student community.

    "The Australian understands the planned system might include weighting some factors in specific cases, so teachers of students with learning difficulties might have greater weight put on peer and parent review, while for teachers in rural schools, more weight might be put on academic achievements.

    "The system could be adjusted to target issues such as schools in disadvantaged areas that might be difficult to staff.

    "There are a number of models that could be incorporated to take into account professional standards, classroom performance, evidence of student learning or achievements, the contribution to the development of other teachers or the contribution to the school and student wellbeing beyond the classroom," Ms Bishop said on radio yesterday. "It could include an element of peer review from colleagues and supervisors, but also I think the view of parents and students should be canvassed. It's not the determinant, but it's an element that should be taken into account."

    "Ms Bishop said the Howard Government would consider withholding funding for schools in the Labor-governed states and territories if they refused at a meeting of education ministers in April to adopt performance pay for teachers. [emphasis added]

    "But Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said the state already had a system to pay high-performing teachers more, while Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford said the plan could not be seriously considered without knowing the extent of planned commonwealth funding.

    "Federal Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said judging teacher quality on the basis of student outcomes in standardised tests was simplistic. Labor preferred to use professional standards developed with the states and teachers as a basis for performance pay.

    "Australian Education Union deputy federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said teachers were willing to negotiate a system that assessed teachers on a wider range of factors than student test scores, including teaching practice, programming and contributions to the school and students.

    "We believe there could be developed a set of criteria by the profession for the profession against which teachers can be assessed and rewarded for quality teaching, skills and practice," he said. [emphasis added]

    "The Australian reported in July that Ms Bishop was planning a system of performance pay for teachers as a way of keeping good teachers in the public system and attracting them to disadvantaged schools, where good teaching can make the biggest difference.

    "A spokesman for Ms Bishop said yesterday teachers in well-resourced schools with already high standards would find it harder to prove they had added value than would teachers in low socio-economic schools, where poor standards had been lifted astronomically."
    
    From The Australian at link

    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • More to lifting standards than higher pay for teachers
      
      "Cameron Goozeff’s account (Letters, 21/2) of the less than gentle reception he received as a relief teacher highlights the tenacity, resourcefulness and pluck that permanent teachers must demonstrate day after day. Although one day’s rough treatment was enough for Mr Goozeff, we should be thankful that the rest of his full-time colleagues will be back at work while he licks his wounds and writes letters to the paper.

      "Still, relief teachers have always occupied a special place in the hearts of school students, since there are so many novel opportunities to create chaos when the regular teacher is away. I know we certainly did so in my day."
      
      Mercurius Goldstein, Ashfield, NSW
      
      

    • "Teaching is a vocation. The monetary rewards to be gained from this noble profession can’t begin to approach the intrinsic rewards to be had from contributing to the nation’s future by helping our youth realise their potential.

      "Beyond the contentiousness of her suggestion that Australian teachers are not of sufficient quality, this is why federal Education Minister Julie Bishop’s call for merit pay for teachers makes no sense. Teaching is a collective enterprise. Recent research in NSW has confirmed that highly effective teachers, as measured by HSC results, typically enact a strong subject department culture. Good teachers are part of a good team.

      "The social Darwinism of merit pay can only divide teachers, destroying the sense of community that makes good schools and good teachers."
      
      Mark Howie, Lawson, NSW
      
      

    • "If federal Education Minister Julie Bishop is serious about lifting standards in public schools, how about diverting some of the private school funds back to public schools so that schools in lower socio-economic areas can have better resources. With all that cash flowing back, there could even be a general pay rise for teachers in the public system which should enhance performance.

      "We know education is a big voting issue but please, Ms Bishop, don’t pretend to care about the welfare of public schools. The reality is that with performance pay, the teachers of students from the more affluent classes are going to benefit because those students have the means and greater parent involvement to guarantee good grades for their kids."
      
      A. Khat, Ryde, NSW
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  

  • Op Ed
    Tinkering with HECS won't change students' choices
    by Bruce Chapman
    
    Dr Chapman is professor of economics in the Research School of Social Sciences, ANU. He devised the original HECS proposal for the Wran review of higher education.
    
    "The education policy debate is now embracing the issue of skill shortages. In particular, HECS debt has been raised as a possible instrument to address an alleged shortage of science and maths teachers. The ALP is promoting two aspects of the proposals, and what follows considers the economic and behavioural aspects of these ideas.

    "The first suggestion, as reported in The Age on Monday, is to cut the accumulated HECS debt of a science or maths graduate from more than $21,000 to about $12,000. Let us call this idea A. The second aspect, idea B, is to reduce HECS repayment obligations in those years in which a maths or science graduate chooses to be employed as a teacher, perhaps for a period sufficient to diminish the HECS debt to zero.

    "Ideas A and B provide the opportunity to explain how and why HECS charge levels have been set in the past. We can start with the beginnings of the scheme in 1989, after recommendations by a committee chaired by former NSW Labor premier Neville Wran in 1988.

    "When HECS was introduced, there was a flat charge of $1800 in 1989 terms per full-time student. Those enrolled in medicine incurred the same debt as students enrolled in history, even though the costs per year of providing these educational services are very different (medicine costs much more to teach per year than history).

    "However, it is apposite to record that a uniform price was not recommended by the Wran committee. Instead it proposed a three-tier approach, reflecting the cost of course provision. High-cost courses, such as medicine and dentistry, were accorded the top charge of $3000 in 1989 terms, with low-cost courses, such as law, economics and history having the lowest charge of $1500 per year. The Labor government apparently chose the uniform charge for reasons of simplicity.

    "In 1997 the new Coalition government changed the prices to a three-tier system similar to the Wran committee's suggestions. With two important exceptions the new charges reflected course costs. But law, a cheap course, was accorded the highest charge, and nursing, a relatively expensive course, was put in the lowest charge tier. At the same time, all the charges increased substantially. The significant changes to HECS in 1997 provide some evidence as to the effect of changes in HECS debts and the associated level of commencements, and the results are as follows.

    "In general there was very little change in the composition by course of commencements even after the radical relative price changes of 1997. This does not auger well for the likelihood of Idea A being an effective instrument in the short-term to increase the supply of maths and science students.

    "A critical point is that the composition of enrolments is essentially agreed between the government and individual universities, and there is not a lot of change between years. Moreover, a significant amount of research has consistently found that changes to HECS, even large ones, have only tiny effects on the private financial return to having a degree. Labor must be hoping that cuts to maths and science education charges will send a signal to high school students concerning the government's valuation of the teaching profession. Whether or not this will be the case remains to be seen.

    "An interesting and related issue is that cuts to HECS have the potential to reduce enrolments in the areas of the charge reductions. This is because universities receive funding for courses, the level of which is related to the HECS charge. To maintain the number of places in a situation in which the charge is reduced, the financing gap between the old and the new charge needs to be plugged by the government. From the costings reported in Monday's Age, this is apparently understood by the ALP higher education advisers.

    "Idea B, to decrease HECS repayments for maths and science graduates for each year they spend as teachers, is more likely to help correct shortages in these areas. One reason is that this approach effectively increases the take-home pay for new teachers by up to several thousand dollars per year for the time that the HECS repayments are instead covered by the government. Even so, it is difficult to believe that the idea, sensible as it seems, will radically change the stream of young professionals entering into and remaining in teaching. While the directions of this proposal are correct on the basis of economic theory, more radical surgery is likely to be required."

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
  • Getting an 'A' grade just got easier
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Victorian students will find it easier to achieve an "A" grading after the Bracks Government bowed to public pressure and revised controversial new report cards for schools.

    "Education Minister John Lenders yesterday said the new A to E report cards had been modified, making the grading system clearer for parents.

    "The move comes after principals raised concerns that the controversial "Plain English" reports could contribute to the drift of students to private schools. Under the changes:

    • Rankings will no longer be compulsory for prep students. They remain compulsory for years 1 to 10.
      
      
    • An "A" grade will be easier to obtain, because it will refer to students who are 12 months ahead of the agreed standard — rather than 18 months, as originally proposed.
      
      
    • Instead of having one rating in maths, the subject will be graded in five different areas (space; number; measurement, chance and data; working mathematically; and structure).
      
      

  "The new report cards, which were used in about half of government schools last year, are compulsory from this year. Education department documents say that "a top 'B' rating will now become an 'A', with about 2 per cent more students expected to receive an 'A' rating this year".

  "Schools and parents welcomed the changes, in particular the move to abolish compulsory grading of prep students.

  "How is rating prep students from A to E relevant, given they've been at school for such a short period? It's meaningless," said Victorian Principals Association president Fred Ackerman.

  "But Australian Education Union state secretary president Mary Bluett said she would have liked the exemption extended to grade 1 and 2 students.

  "Parents Victoria president Elaine Crowle welcomed the system, particularly the expanded rankings for maths, "a subject where you could be good in one area, but weak in another".

  "The new report cards were introduced following an ultimatum from the Federal Government, which said the previous system did not provide parents with enough information about how their children were performing.

  "Victoria risked half a billion dollars in federal funding by defying demands that all students be ranked against their classmates. The state instead developed the A to E system, with reports based on statewide standards issued twice a year.

  "But the new system was not without its problems. An Education Department report last year found principals were worried more students could drift to private schools because the new reporting standards resulted in fewer "A" grades for government school students."

  The New System
  
  A Student is well above standard for their year level.

  B Above the standard expected.
  C At the standard expected.
  D Below the standard expected.
  E Well below the standard expected.

  Source: Victoria Department of Education
  
  From The Melbourne Age at link
  
  
  

  • Merit pay in Bracks plan for teachers
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "The Bracks Government is considering new ways of rewarding teachers for their performance, and has not ruled out the prospect of signing up to contentious federal plans for performance pay.

    "As the education debate heats up before this year's election, documents from Victoria's Department of Premier and Cabinet show the issue has been on the Bracks Government's agenda for some time as part of a broader plan to improve teaching quality and students' results.

    "A 2005 discussion paper by Premier Steve Bracks called for state and federal governments to work together to examine "greater differentiation of rewards and recognition for teachers based on performance".

    "Well-placed Government sources have told The Age that performance pay — traditionally the subject of fierce union opposition — could form part of the enterprise bargaining talks with teachers later this year.

    "Meanwhile, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop stepped up her push for the states to agree to performance-based pay measures or risk losing federal funding. Ms Bishop will take state education ministers three models to consider at a ministerial meeting in April..."
    
    "Victoria has repeatedly argued that teachers are already rewarded through a "performance based-career progression system".

    "But we are always happy to look at ways to lift teaching standards," Education Minister John Lenders said yesterday.

    "The current structure has three levels of teaching standards: graduate, accomplished and expert. Teachers have to meet higher standards to move from one level to the next..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • School pays HECS fees to recruit male staff
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "A school in Melbourne's west is offering to pay its former students' HECS debts and guarantee employment to graduating male primary school teachers, as it tries to recruit male teachers and tackle gender imbalance in the staffroom.

    At Westbourne Grammar School in the outer western suburb of Truganina, male students who go on to study primary teaching at tertiary level will have their HECS fees paid by the school in full. This figure amounts to about $5000 per student per year.

    The school also provides up to 40 days of work each year, paying the student about $120 a day. At the end of tertiary study, Westbourne guarantees a teaching position, with the student required to stay for at least three years.

    Principal Geoffrey Ryan said the scheme was a win-win for the school and students.

    "It's a reaction to a situation where two-thirds of the teaching profession are female and if you look at the new entrants, it's three to one females to males," Mr Ryan said. "We're just trying to redress the balance of this."...
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Carpenter cuts short trade mission after CCC revelations

    The Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter is cutting short his trade mission to India, after another one of his ministers was caught up in a corruption inquiry.

    Mr Carpenter has already lost two ministers and the future of a third, Tony McRae, is now in serious doubt..."
    
    Mr Carpenter was due to fly back to Perth on Sunday, but that has now been brought forward to tomorrow..."
    
    Full story at ABC Nes Online at link
    
    

    • Liberal MP stripped of portfolios after CCC revelations
      
      
      
      
      
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Education staff 'work unpaid longer'
    
    Teachers and lecturers typically work more than 11 hours of unpaid overtime every week - more than any other professional group, according to a survey.
    
    
    
    
• Back to the Future
  
  
  • The Debate Over OBE
    
    Adapted from an article written by Adam Blust, which appeared in News & Views, March 1995
    
    "For every definition of OBE, there is a prediction of how much it will change education in the long run. Not surprisingly, Mueller is skeptical. "I think it's a fad. In another five or 10 years, it will be labeled another failure in education and all the fingers will be pointing at the teachers," he said.
    
    "But for local district officials who have ventured into the murky waters of OBE, it's been worth the struggle. "I don't think the goals for our future have ever been more central to the community," Christensen said of Verona."
    
    "The good news is that we have a better plan because of the scrutiny." I've been teaching for 33 years. I've seen a lot of things coming and going new math, things like that," said Leeds' Goerke. "To me, this is the best thing we've ever done for kids."
    
    Full article at the Wisconsin Education Assoc Council website at link
    
    
    
    
• Recent ABC Radio and Television Interviews on OBE
  
  
  • Kevin Donnelly keeps pounding the "OBE is a failure" message

    Recent appearance by Kevin condemning OBE [and, fair enough, plugging his book (which does exactly the same thing)]:
    

    • ABC Australia Talks [15 Feb]

      Hijacking The School Curriculum
      
      "On Australia Talks....politicising education. In this election year we look at the debate between the States and the Commonwealth over a national school curriculum. Is it the politicians or children who will benefit from this discussion?"
      
      

    • ABC Counterpoint [5 Feb]
      
      Outcomes-based Education
      
      "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 [above link].
      
      

    • Coming Up:
      
      Next Monday night, 26th February, on ABC television, the new current affairs show, Difference of Opinion, is on education – Kevin is one of the panelists.

      Coming up on Difference of Opinion
      
      "Next week we put education to the test. We'll examine the state of our national schooling system, the funding of private and public schools, and ask 'are our teachers as good as they could be' . The merits of merit pay and the federal governments move into education through the push for a national curriculum, a rethink of values and the way subjects like history are taught. Also the introduction of chaplains in schools, are these the right people to be providing counselling to our kids?"
      
      
      

• Media Release, Stephen Smith MP, Shadow Minister for Education and Training, Member for Perth
  
  
  • Teacher Performance Pay
    [Transcript of "Doorstop" press conference at WA Parliament House, 21 Feb]

    Smith: Well just some remarks today on teacher performance and teacher pay.

    Firstly when it comes to the educational outcome of our children, the single most important factor that’s relevant to that is the quality of the teacher actually in the classroom. So we can’t turn a public policy blind eye to the quality of a teacher in the classroom.

    The second question is how do we assess that and how do we reward that?

    Obviously we need to and we want to reward quality teaching. But there are a whole range of comprehensive factors that need to be looked at when it comes to rewarding quality teaching.

    Firstly, we’ve got to encourage young Australians to teach and we have to encourage young Australians to stay in the profession. So the raft of measures include accreditation programs, induction programs, mentoring programs for young teachers, ongoing professional development and objective assessment of how a teacher is performing in the classroom. Getting that objective assessment is in very many respects the hardest thing to do.

    I reject the approach that Minister Bishop is taking. Why is that? Firstly, we’ve seen this suggestion from the Government before. It seems to come along about six months before every election. The narrow approach that the Government takes seems to have the requirement that you judge teacher quality on the basis of student outcomes in standardised tests. That is much too narrow an approach.

    I see the Minister referring to a draft report by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). As coincidence would have it, I’m actually meeting with the Council in Perth today. So just as I’ve been having sensible and intelligent conversations with my State colleagues about teacher quality and rewarding quality teaching, I look forward to having a conversation today with the Australian Council of Educational Research about its views on this matter.

    Can I just make a final point about the politics of this? There’s a difference between the merit, which is, is having a quality teacher in the classroom essential? Yes it is. Should public policy be in a position to objectively assess that and reward that? Yes it should.

    Now let’s look at the politics of the Government’s approach. Every six months in the run up to an election, the Government comes out, pretends that it’s serious and interested about this matter, tries to score some cheap political points against State Governments and thinks that it’s done the job.

    The only way we can make progress here is to work cooperatively with the States and to do that in a sensible, intelligent, comprehensive way.

    That’s what you’ll get from Kevin Rudd and from me, but you won’t get that from the Government. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Julie Bishop or Brendan Nelson. They trot this one out every three years in the run up to an election. If you want to make progress here, you’ve got to do it in a comprehensive, intelligent, sensible, cooperative way, dealing with the State colleagues appropriately.

    Journalist: Should parents have an input in these assessments?

    Smith: Well, I think one of the things that is key to teacher performance in the classroom is firstly leadership from the principal at the school. I have made that point previously. All of the evidence shows that just as the quality of the teacher in the classroom is perhaps the single most important factor when it comes to the quality of an educational outcome, so all the evidence shows, particularly in primary schools, that leadership from the principal is important.

    So leadership from the principal, leadership from the school community and input by the school community, I think is one of the factors that we can look at. But Julie Bishop in another thought bubble today says maybe we can have student assessment. I’m not sure that year 5 or 6 student assessment of teachers is what we actually have in my mind to ensure that we get quality teacher outcomes in the classroom.

    Journalist: Does the school community include parents?

    Smith: Of course it does.

    Journalist: So in theory are you saying that you support the overall plan?

    Smith: No, what I have said today and what I have said earlier is I believe that the quality of the teacher actually in the classroom is perhaps the single most important factor when it comes to guaranteeing a quality educational outcome. As a consequence of that, public policy has to be in a position to judge the quality of the teacher in the classroom.

    But you can’t do that in a simplistic or a narrow way. You can’t make that judgement simply by drawing some conclusion from student outcomes in standardised tests. You’ve got have a comprehensive approach to it.

    So you’ve got to think through very carefully how objectively you might judge the quality of the teacher in the classroom. But also, you’ve got to do a whole range of things to ensure that young Australians want to teach and teach effectively. That’s why it can’t just be a simplistic attempt by the current Government to score some cheap political points against State Ministers for Education or State Governments.

    We’ve got to sit down and say how do we attract young Australians into the teaching profession? How do we make sure that young teachers have an induction program, have a mentoring program, have ongoing professional development to make sure that the standard of the teacher in the classroom is the highest we can possibly make it? Now we need to do that, but you’ve got to do it in a comprehensive way. You have to do it in conjunction with the State colleagues and there’s no point pretending that you can do it by scoring cheap political points against the State Governments every three years in the six month run up to an election.

    Journalist: So do you support linking teachers’ performance to their salary?

    Smith: I support quality teaching and I support rewarding quality teaching, whether that’s by pay or incentives. I think it’s absolutely essential that we’re in a position to judge objectively and comprehensively the quality of the teacher performance in the classroom.

    We should reward quality teaching, we should encourage quality teaching. But I reject the narrow, simplistic, superficial and politically motivated approach which Julie Bishop and the Government is taking now. It’s the same approach they take every three years in the run up to an election.

    When they talk about standards, just bear one thing in mind. After more than ten long years of the Howard Government, they have their responsibility for what occurs in our classrooms. They can’t just trot up with six months to go before an election and pretend that they’re interested or serious about doing something about it.

    Journalist: Inaudible.

    Smith: Well, it’s exactly the same thought bubble that we’ve seen Howard Government Ministers for Education trot out in the run up to an election. Whether it’s Julie Bishop or Brendan Nelson or David Kemp. This sort of thought bubble is trotted out. What you actually need and want, what you have to have, is a Government that’s committed to working sensibly and cooperatively with the States in a comprehensive way to make sure that quality teaching is valued and rewarded.

    Historically as a society, Australia has undervalued teachers. We haven’t paid them enough respect, we haven’t paid them enough regard, and we haven’t paid them enough. If we continue to allow that to occur, it will be to our social and economic cost. But you can’t solve that problem in the simplistic and politically motivated way that the Howard Government is doing today.

    Journalist: How can we do it?

    Smith: Well, you do exactly what I’ve been doing. I’ve been sitting down with my State colleagues raising these issues and saying that the quality of the teacher actually in the classroom is important and working through how that can be addressed.

    My State colleagues say a couple of things to me. They say that they are happy for that issue to be progressed, they are happy to speak to me about that matter provided a couple of things occur. Firstly, that they’re not treated as some sort of political whipping boy or girl against whom someone scores cheap political points. And secondly, provided that their standards aren’t reduced. The exercise has to be about raising the quality of teachers and raising the quality of educational outcomes.

    That’s the very sensible way to proceed and that’s the way Kevin Rudd and I are preceding both in opposition and subsequently in Government.
    
    
    
    

Friday 23 February

• The West Australian

  Education News

• Teachers want delay for OBE literature (page 8)
  by Bethany Hiatt
  
  "More trouble is brewing for the embattled Curriculum Council and Education Minister Mark McGowan, with burnt-out English teachers calling for the postponement of a new outcomes-based education literature course because it is not ready and they are exhausted.
  
  "Nearly 100 teachers from Catholic and independent schools who attended a Curriculum Council "awareness session" for the new course this week voted in favour of a 12-month delay.

  "OBE literature is due to be introduced to Year 11 next year, just two years after most literature teachers started teaching the new OBE English course.

  "Many English teachers are furious that implementation of most other OBE subjects was delayed to 2008, leaving them to bear the brunt of the curriculum changes.

  "They say they compliantly wore most of the implementation problems but will not be duped again.

  "We're in such a mess with English, we don't want the same mess with literature," a head of English who took part in the vote said yesterday.

  "Teachers are not prepared to put up with the same thing with literature as we've put up with in English."

  "She said teachers were still struggling with the botched implementation of the new OBE English course, which was introduced to Year 12 this year, and they did not want another half-ready course to be imposed on them.

  "Their call was echoed by the English Teachers Association, formerly staunch supporters of OBE.

  "Association president Wendy Cody said she would write to Mr McGowan and the Curriculum Council to call for the literature course to be postponed until it had a proper trial in a small group of schools. [emphasis added]

  "When you have that many people in one venue trying to have it delayed, it's time to have a good deep breath, take stock of the situation and get it right," she said.

  "Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood, who attended the awareness session, said teachers were happy with the literature course but were jaded by the rate of change and would appreciate a year's break. [Funny Dave, they don't sound real happy to us!   Web]

  "Mr McGowan said all new courses would be subject to consideration by a jury of randomly selected teachers before going ahead next year."

  From The West Australian
  

  
  
• McGowan scraps plan to shift Year 7 to high school (page 8)
  by Bethany Hiatt
  
  "A plan to bring WA schools into line with their Eastern States counterparts by moving all Year 7 students from primary schools to high schools has been abandoned, the State Government will reveal today.
  
  "Education Minister Mark McGowan will not introduce a blanket policy of transferring Year 7 public students to secondary schools after an internal Education Department report found it was too expensive and had no benefit..."

  "Evidence from WA literacy and numeracy tests showed Year 7 students attending high school did not perform as well as those who remained in primary school..."

  "Costs of restructuring the school system to house al Year 7s in high schools between 2009 and 2015 were estimated at $835 million. The report said it could be impossible to recruit the extra 700 high school teachers needed."

  Full story in The West Australian
  
  Similar story on ABC News
  
  
  

• Letter to the Editor (page 19)
  
  
  • "Pupils (children) to be consulted about teachers' remuneration? What a good idea. While we're about it, let's have them advise on the incomes of plumbers, lawyers, politicians, CEOs and journalists as well. Better still, let's lower the voting age to five."
    
    Les Watson, Albany

Carpenter's Crisis

• Premier forced home to face new Cabinet crisis [Front Page Headline]
  
  
  
• Carpenter flies into his version of WA Inc [Front Page]
  
  
  
• Sidebar: Photos of Four Disgraced Ministers [Front Page]
  

John D'Orazio, Norm Marlborough, John Bowler and our very own Ljiljanna Ravlich


• CCC must name all or none: MP (page 7)

Labor MP Shelley Archer [aka Mrs Kevin Reynolds] is upset that she got dragged before the CCC inquiry but her colleagues remain anonymous.


• Omodei sacks Lib MP for using NCB speech (page 6)
  
  
  See below for similar stories in The Australian, The Melbourne Age and other news media. [I'll add links to the above stories, if available, when The West Australian's website updates.   Web]
  
  
  

• The Australian
  
  
  • Burke scandal cripples WA cabinet [National Headline]
    by Tony Barrass and Amanda O'Brien
    Additional reporting: Elizabeth Gosch, Nigel Wilson, Paige Taylor

  
  

  The Australian understands some Liberal MPs feel there are now grounds to approach state Governor Ken Michael to have the Carpenter Government removed... Mr Omodei said the crisis had reached a point where he would seek legal advice on whether the Government could continue.

  "A fourth West Australian cabinet minister was snared yesterday in the corruption probe exposing Brian Burke's malign influence on government, a year after Premier Alan Carpenter lifted a ban on ministerial dealings with the disgraced former premier.
  
  "Mr Carpenter was forced last night to cut short his 10-day trade mission to India and return "on the first available flight" to deal with a crisis crippling his Government and sparking concerns it is unfit to govern.
  
  "Opposition Leader Paul Omodei said he would seek constitutional legal advice after more damning evidence to the state's Corruption and Crime Commission revealed Environment Minister Tony McRae may have manipulated the announcement of a planning decision to gain a financial benefit from Julian Grill, Mr Burke's business partner.

  "The Australian understands some Liberal MPs feel there are now grounds to approach state Governor Ken Michael to have the Carpenter Government removed..."
  
  "Business leaders are dismayed and angry that the state's reputation, sullied after the WA Inc era when Mr Burke was premier in the late 1980s, is again being tarnished by allegations of serious misconduct involving a Labor government. "I think it enables people to point the finger at WA again as a place that is perhaps a bit rough around the edges (and) I find that a bit sad," said David Robb, chief executive of miner Iluka Resources.

  "Political analyst Peter van Onselen, of Edith Cowan University, said the crisis went to the heart of the Labor organisation and it would damage federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd's plan to pick up West Australian seats at this year's federal election.

  "Mr Omodei said the crisis had reached a point where he would seek legal advice on whether the Government could continue.
  
  "He said the Government was "paralysed" and questions were now being asked about the validity of all cabinet decisions.

  "However, earlier yesterday, Mr Omodei was forced to sack his shadow minister Anthony Fels after the upper house MP was exposed by the CCC on Wednesday as a pawn of disgraced Liberal powerbroker Noel Crichton-Browne..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link [audio tapes also avilable at that link]
  
  Similar stories in The Melbourne Age, The West Australian, virtually all daily newspapers and radio / TV networks.
  
  

  • Op Ed
    Premier flies into perfect political storm
    by Tony Barrass
    
    "Flying into political turbulence is nothing new for Alan Carpenter. He did it in January last year when he flew home from a London family holiday to take the controls after the shock resignation of a depressed Geoff Gallop.
    
    "But when he lands in Perth today after cutting short a 10-day trade mission to India, he'll find himself thrust into the centre of the perfect political storm.

  "His Government is, yet again, caught in a twister of substantial ferocity.

  "Carpenter keeps on demanding that his ministers come clean and, it seems on evidence so far put to the Corruption and Crime Commission, that they keep on lying to him.
  
  "The bodies are starting to pile up on the footpath; four cabinet ministers - Norm Marlborough, Tony McRae and two others whose identities have been suppressed (but which everyone in Western Australia knows) - as well as a Labor MP who leaks confidential ministerial letters on Brian Burke's behest..."
  
  "The body count doesn't include sacked police minister John D'Orazio (Carpenter's "rising star") and former education minister Ljiljana Ravlich, both victims of CCC probes and their own poor political judgment.
  
  "So how many blown cabinet ministers does it take to change a government? Two? Four? Burke boasted that he could get six cabinet ministers behind a plan to force the Government to the negotiating table on behalf of a client, litigation funder IMF. That's more than a third of cabinet.

  "Some political observers are now suggesting Opposition Leader Paul Omodei has enough ammunition to approach state Governor Ken Michael and demand some sort of constitutional action, such as fresh elections.
  
  "This seems unlikely, given the electoral popularity of Omodei, an ex-farmer whose political nous is on par with the spuds he used to pluck out of Mother Earth..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  Similar story in The West Australian [late website update] and most other daily newspapers
  
  Also on The West Australian website [more late updates]:
  Liberals dump Fels over Crichton-Browne links and
  I wrote key speech for Liberal MP, says NCB
  
  

  • Editorial
    The way of the west
    Pants down and shirtless thanks to Brian Burke

    "Machiavelli would be proud. While jailed and disgraced former West Australian premier turned lobbyist Brian Burke was snaring both sides of politics to unwittingly do his clients' bidding, state MPs were allegedly turning the tables for a little double crossing of their own. As a consequence, the worst nightmares of Premier Alan Carpenter about just how deep Mr Burke's tentacles had penetrated his Government are being realised. In ribald comments on secret tapes played to the state's Corruption and Crime Commission this week, Mr Burke has boasted of having six cabinet ministers in his pocket, giving him privileged, and illegal, access to cabinet deliberations. Pants down and almost shirtless is how Mr Burke described one minister. That pretty much sums up the West Australian Government..." [emphasis added]

    Full Editorial in The Australian at link [scroll down to second editorial]

    
    
    
  • West may take corruption anger out on federal Labor
    by Paige Taylor
    
    "... [Political analyst Peter] van Onselen said that because voters would not have a chance to vote in a state election until 2009, and because the state Liberal Opposition was not seen as a viable alternative, it was likely the West Australian public could take out its disappointment at the federal poll later this year.

    "At a federal level, they would be able to penalise Labor sooner and more securely," he said.

    "Political analyst David Black said the crisis for the state Government had deepened because the Premier could do nothing to avert it.

    "The Corruption and Crime Commission is delving into things that have already happened," he said. "The Government is at the stage where they're holding their breath and hoping there's not much more to come ... but nobody ever knows what is coming up on a daily basis.

    "The extent of the crisis is yet to be determined and obviously you can't keep on losing ministers at this rate."

    "Constitutional expert Greg Craven said the state Opposition had few options if it wanted to try to have Labor kicked out of office.

    "Professor Craven said Opposition Leader Paul Omodei was prohibited by constitutional convention from approaching state Governor Ken Michael to ask for an early election or for the Government to be sacked.

    "In any case, Dr Michael's reserve powers would not allow him to take such an action.

    "If the Opposition wanted to force an early election by blocking supply in the upper house, it would need the support of two state Greens MPs - an unlikely scenario. "Their only option is to make the most of it during parliament," he said..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • English syllabus fails sense formula
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Primary school teachers in Queensland found the state's science syllabus more clearly written and easier to understand than a draft English syllabus, which will now be reworked to have a greater focus on literature and language basics such as grammar.
    
    "An independent review of the new English syllabus for years 1 to 10 concluded teachers had difficulty implementing the new course and had found its language often impenetrable.

    "The syllabus will be reworked and written in plain English, with clear advice on the content of English courses and the assessment of students.

    "A spokeswoman for the state's curriculum body, the Queensland Studies Authority, said the new syllabus, to be released next month, would focus more on the teaching of reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation.

    "Although students will continue to study a variety of traditional and contemporary texts, the syllabus will emphasise the special place of literature," she said.

    "It will promote an integrated approach to the teaching of reading that uses phonics as well as knowledge of vocabulary and recognition of whole words. The redeveloped syllabus will have three strands: speaking and listening, reading and viewing, and writing and shaping, which will study different texts and language.

    "The independent reviewer of the draft syllabus, Ray Land, yesterday said teachers found the draft syllabus difficult to implement and the language was incomprehensible to many.

    "Mr Land, who developed curriculum at QSA and now runs an educational consultancy, said that in an open trial conducted in 2005 and last year, teachers struggled with the terminology and jargon in the syllabus, which failed to define terms or used the same word to mean different things.

    "Mr Land said the syllabus failed to provide teachers with instruction and advice to teach the content and assess students.

    "You know you're in trouble when teachers in primary schools pull out the science syllabus and say, 'that's explicit and clear and I understand it'. Primary teachers usually are not comfortable teaching science," Mr Land said. [emphasis added]

    "English Teachers Association of Queensland president Garry Collins said most teachers gave literature a central role in their classes but said it was important to teach a range of texts."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Measuring teachers
      
      "Former West Australian premier Richard Court once commented that while the federal Education Department may be a useful organisation, it was not directly responsible for teaching any child anything. This should be kept in mind when assessing Education Minister Julie Bishop’s views on righting the supposed ills of education.

      "I realise this question may seem heretical in view of ideological correctness, with everybody supposedly believing in the normative effect of the market, but where is the evidence that performance pay in a field such as education actually has any significant effect on quality of performance? Maybe it seems obvious, but is it true?

      "Academic studies show that piecework has an effect on performance, which means that performance pay is useful if you are employing people to pick apples. So it may be useful to convince teachers to teach extra classes, but can it make them better teachers?

      "This quick fix of the education system brings to mind the old adage – to every complex problem there is a simple solution, and it is usually wrong."
      
      David Markham, Latham, ACT

 

• ABC News
  
  
  • Corruption revelations prompt renewed call for commissioner
    
    Continuing allegations against Western Australian MPs in Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) hearings have prompted a renewed push for a parliamentary standards commissioner.
    
    
    
  • WA Opposition calls for McRae's resignation
    
    The Western Australian Opposition Leader says the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) allegations against Environment Minister Tony McRae puts a cloud over all of the State Government's decisions.
    
    
    
  • No decision on McRae today, Ripper says
    
    Western Australia's Acting Premier Eric Ripper says the Premier, Alan Carpenter, will not be making a decision on the future of Environment Minister Tony McRae today.
    
    
    
  • Carpenter back in Perth to deal with Minister
    
    Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter has arrived back in Perth to deal with damaging allegations against his Environment Minister made at the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) yesterday.
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  

• Door opens for teacher merit system
  by Farrah Tomazin
  
  "Victorian teachers could soon be given greater rewards for top performance, with the Bracks Government opening the door to a new national deal for merit-based pay.

  "In an interview with The Age, State Education Minister John Lenders also confirmed the potentially divisive issue would form part of enterprise bargaining talks with teachers, who are seeking a 30 per cent wage rise over three years.

  "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has been threatening to withhold funding from the states unless they sign up to new performance-based pay measures at an education ministers' meeting in April.

  "In a move likely to fuel tensions between the states and Canberra, Mr Lenders yesterday accused Ms Bishop of being "out of touch" on education. But in his strongest signal yet that Victoria could come to some agreement with the Federal Government, he said Victoria was "open to other forms of performance pay — provided it's done scientifically and it's a measure that actually works".

  "Under the Victorian wage structure for teachers, there are three levels of professional teaching standards — graduate, accomplished and expert. Teachers have to meet higher standards to move from one level to another.

  "The federal proposal, however, would go beyond the performance pay rises offered under the state system. The key sticking point to any deal will be how teachers' performance is measured.

  "Ms Bishop will ask the states to consider three models at the ministerial meeting in April. The first would assess teachers by how much their students improve academically (looking at exam results). The second would rank teachers according to the views of their peers, principals, students and parents. And the third would allow bonuses through a merit pool.

  "But Mr Lenders yesterday questioned the proposals, arguing they did not take into account socio-economic and cultural differences between schools.

  "He accused Ms Bishop of "damaging the national interest" by talking down the profession and imposing her will on the states.

  "If she wants to improve the Victorian model, then she should start answering questions on performance pay, and her three models don't do this," he said.

  "How do you measure, for instance, a teacher in a special school that has children with intellectual disabilities, compared with a teacher at Melbourne High? Do you give performance pay on the basis of their VCE results?"

  "Ms Bishop hit back last night, saying she was consistent in her praise for teachers.

  "Mr Lenders confirmed that the State Government had for months been considering new ways of rewarding teachers for improving students' results, and would discuss the issue with Victoria's teachers' union when enterprise bargaining talks begin next month.

  "While the NSW teachers' union has traditionally taken a hardline stance against performance pay, Victorian teachers have signalled a softer approach.

  "Australian Education Union branch president Mary Bluett said: "We're about to commence our negotiations where we have called for a significant improvement at the top end of the incremental scale. So we're open to looking at this issue provided the outcome is negotiated with the profession." [emphasis added]

  From The Melbourne Age at link
  
  
  
  
• School uncomfortable grading years 1 and 2
  by Farrah Tomazin
  
  "An primary school may boycott the Bracks Government's controversial new report card system, which makes it compulsory to rank students from "A to E".

  "Education Minister John Lenders this week announced preps would be spared the new report cards, but the ratings would be compulsory for all students in years 1 to 10.

  "However, Princes Hill Primary School principal Gillian Collins said rating students in grades 1 and 2 "doesn't sit comfortably with our teaching staff".

  From The Melbourne Age at link
  
  
  
  
• Push for probe on foreign student 'rip-off'
  by Nick McKenzie
  
  "Australia's elite crime fighting body has recommended an investigation into an alleged rip-off of foreign students at a private education provider in Melbourne, amid claims that regulation of the industry is failing.

  "The intervention of the Australian Crime Commission in the case raises fears that the thousands of international students in the booming education market are vulnerable to exploitation by bodgey operators..."
  
  Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

  
  
• Letters to the Editor
  
  
  • Why we should look to Finland, not America

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop asserts that the cure-all for low standards, based on international evidence, is the introduction of performance pay for teachers (The Age, 20/2). She is quite wrong.

    "First, our standards are not low. Australia ranks among the highest-performing countries as indicated by the testing regime called the Program for International Student Assessment, in which 15-year-olds' reading, mathematics and science skills are tested.

    "Out of 40 countries, Australia ranked 5th, 9th and 5th respectively in the latest round of tests. Overall, few countries did better collectively than Australia.

    "However, one did: Finland. Yet Ms Bishop goes to the US (ranked 20th), to look for performance-pay models, in places such as Denver, where the performance-pay regime is largely a top-up component paid by the school principal, very similar to that which operated in Victoria under the Kennett government (referred to by teachers as "the mates-rates component"), not some wacky notion of pay being determined by student results or popularity polls, as suggested by the minister.

    "So why not look at Finland? In that country, 98 per cent of students attend government schools, private schools receive no government funding and the teachers have a career structure similar to Victoria's, except salary levels are up to 50 per cent higher.

    "Oh, and Finland had a socialist government for most of the past 50 years, turning a resource-dependent economy into a knowledge-based boomer — as revealed by Tim Colebatch this week ("The new forgotten people", Opinion, 20/2)."

    Paul Kennelly, Caulfield North
    
    

  • Chomp on this, Minister

    "I think Julie Bishop's intention to introduce performance pay for teachers should be extended to child dentistry.

    "It wouldn't be difficult to count the number of cavities each child has at grades 3, 5, 7 and 9, and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists can then be rated on a five-point A-E scale as excellent, good, average, below average and unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which dental practices are the best.

    "Such a plan would also encourage less effective dentists to get better. Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licences. Those dental practices that receive a poor rating can be sent a dentist who is rated excellent to help straighten out those who are not getting results.

    "I know that some failing dentists will bleat about how they work in rural areas that don't have fluoridation, or in disadvantaged city areas where their clients live on junk food. They need to understand that complaining, excuse-making and stonewalling about things over which they have no control won't improve dental health in this country.

    "They'll just have to accept that when it comes to dental health, cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure. Those latte-quaffing, bleeding-heart dentists who want to argue that a better way of assessing their skills would be to "come watch them work" will have to accept that this option is just too complicated, expensive and time-consuming.

    "Ultimately, a Dentistry Oversight Committee made up of parents and other laypersons could be set up to ensure dentistry in Australia improves."

    Dr Brian Cambourne, principal honorary fellow, faculty of education, University of Wollongong
    
    
    

• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • Trade backs English plan
    by Tess Livingstone
    
    "Queensland's new plain English syllabus for Years 1-10 should be adopted nationally, a major employer organisation said yesterday.
    
    "Commerce Queensland president Beatrice Booth said the organisation's 25,000 employers would be "absolutely ecstatic" to hear of the new emphasis on spelling, grammar and punctuation.

    "This is especially important for students who leave school after Year 10 and go into apprenticeships and trades," Mrs Booth said.

    "As Queensland has taken the lead on this the syllabus should be adopted nationally to ensure that all prospective employees leaving school from 2009 onwards, in an increasingly mobile workforce, are competent at reading and writing."

    "She said employers would keenly await publication of the syllabus, which will be rolled out in stages on the Queensland Studies Authority website from next month.

    "It will be finished by October and in classrooms by July, 2008.

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has invited the states to bring their best practices to a meeting of education ministers in April to help draw up a more uniform national approach to English, maths and science teaching.

    "Education consultant Ray Land, whose investigation into the current teaching of English led to the new syllabus, said he was delighted the Queensland Studies Authority was moving so quickly.

    "But Mr Land cautioned that current Education Queensland cutbacks on special education for students with learning difficulties would hamper improvements in literacy if more resources were not made available.

    "As well as emphasising the basics of correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, the QSA has promised the syllabus will be "more balanced" in terms of what "texts" would be studied.

    "Parents could expect a good range of books, poetry and plays to be read and critiqued for their literary value in addition to material on the internet, films, television programs and advertisements.

    "The old syllabus was silent on literature," Mr Land said.

    "Education Minister Rod Welford said he wanted to see the finished product before he put it on the table nationally."
    
    From The Brisbane Courier Mail at link
    
    
    

• The Hobart Mercury
  
  
  • Bartlett call for better teachers
    by Michelle Paine
    
    "Tasmania needed fewer but better teachers, Education Minister David Bartlett said yesterday.

    "His blunt assessment came as he announced a proposal for a literacy excellence scheme for teachers.

    "Mr Bartlett said he wanted to see student teachers spend more time in the classroom.

    "He said a federal proposal of performance-based pay would be less effective than better training for teachers.

    "If we have 400 graduates a year when there clearly aren't positions for them that's a question for (Federal Education Minister) Julie Bishop.

    "We want quality, not quantity."

    "Fewer than 20 of last year's 380 teaching graduates have positions in Tasmanian state schools so far this year.

    "But University of Tasmania Vice-Chancellor Daryl Le Grew said it was completely unrealistic to simply ask for fewer graduates.

    "We get these comments in cycles. Some years there is a glut, other years people are yelling because there aren't enough," Professor Le Grew said.

    "Many graduates enter the private system, they enter other fields, they don't want to be a teacher, or they go overseas and volunteer and when they come back they're hot property," Professor Le Grew said.

    "One graduate didn't find teaching to her liking and became a firefighter. But I'll bet that in five years she'll be in a training role in the fire service.

    "Many education graduates enter corporations, and they may work in human resources. We do surveys in about April or May and by then there are many more graduates placed." ...
    
    Full story in The Hobart Mercury at link

    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    A broader view of a teacher's worth
    by Geoff Newcombe
    
    "The Federal Government stirred the pot on teaching standards this week, calling for parents to be consulted when setting teachers' pay. The response has been immediate, with vested interests in the school system raising the issue of the difficulty of measuring and recognising teacher performance in a bid to head the proposal off at the pass. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of these groups have cavilled at government pressure to improve teacher standards.

    "The central concern of the debate should be what is best for our children's education. For many teachers, the profession has been comfortably collegial, but students need more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Achieving this depends on attracting and retaining the best teachers in all sectors.

    "Teaching for the love of it is admirable and desirable, but remuneration and professional standards are important vehicles for achieving quality education.

    "Most teacher awards tie salaries to the length of time spent in the job, befitting the public service model which dominated the field of teaching, thanks to the historical role of public schools in the education system.

    "Yet pay based on length of service fails to differentiate between the most or the least effective teacher, nor does it provide any incentive to improve teaching practices. In fact, it may have the opposite effect as excellent teachers become disillusioned by the lack of professional recognition for their efforts or ability, and thus leave the profession. [emphasis added]

    "For the good of the profession and children we need to find a way to introduce some form of merit pay, or we will keep losing teachers to other industries or, worse, not even attracting the best candidates to teaching. Governments and education authorities must work on this issue even if the difficulties or differences of opinion are hard to overcome.

    "Basing remuneration on student outcomes alone, or through subjective assessment by non-professionals, is fraught with difficulty. It may be possible to use a combination of methods but the likely result will be a complex assessment method needing constant adjustment.

    "Further complicating the debate is the reality that the goals of schools and their teachers extend far beyond assisting students to achieve good academic results or to develop their problem-solving abilities.

    "Judging teacher performance purely on academic results does not take into account the role that schools have in the social and emotional development of students.

    "A wealth of research shows that quality classroom teaching practices, combined with extra-curricular, and other, contributions by teachers, lead to better results by their students.

    "The independent schools sector in NSW has developed its professional standards based on classroom practice that take into account the contribution by teachers to school life as the basis for remuneration, and developed an industrial agreement that reflects this.

    "Central to the agreement are standards developed by the NSW Institute of Teachers, the body established by the NSW Government that oversees teaching standards. To this, the independent schools sector has added further requirements focusing on classroom practice and the role of more senior teachers in mentoring other teachers, and the like.

    "Teachers willing to commit themselves to this higher level of teaching can be awarded salaries above salaries that would apply otherwise, up to about 20 per cent for department heads. For teachers who have demonstrated clearly higher levels of teaching, salary increases of nearly 10 per cent are available.

    "By shifting the focus in the teaching profession to rewarding good classroom practice rather than time served, this will hopefully keep more good teachers in the profession, as well as ensure better results for their students.

    "For schools that have adopted our approach, assessment is made by the school head and teacher peers, with external assessment by the Independent Schools Teacher Accreditation Authority. This level of independence is critical in maintaining objectivity and consistency in the evaluation process. [emphasis added] [I suspect that most independent school heads are better qualified to do this than are their typical public school counterparts.  Web]

    "Teachers in many NSW independent schools have voted overwhelmingly to adopt these workplace agreements.

    "With students at the heart of this approach, and teachers able to determine for themselves the effort they are prepared to put in to advance their development, their career and their level of remuneration, this approach will help to raise teaching and education standards."

    Dr Geoff Newcombe is the executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW.
    

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Comparative studies on pay

      "Did other readers notice the irony that on the same page as the report about teachers getting their pay allocated by parents and students because they have reached the top of their modest salaries by the time they are 30 ("Families get say in teachers' pay rises", February 21), it was reported that Qantas executives will receive $91 million in payouts despite not having met all their performance hurdles. On page three, the James Hardie boss receives a million-dollar handshake after quitting the job? Core values?"

      John Oakley, Mystery Bay
      
      

    • "I don't understand why assessment of teachers is proving so difficult. Yearly appraisals and audits are a fact of life in public hospitals, where I have worked for most of my life.

      "Surgeons are subject to auditing and nurses are assessed annually. Hospitals must satisfy certain standards on a regular basis to continue as accredited facilities. Sonographers must attain a required number of points each year with evidence of continued skill updating.

      "Not only is it incredible to read of financial incentives being offered to teachers, it is astonishing that regular assessments are not already in place.

      "Teacher performance should be assessed by other appropriately appointed teachers, as is the case with medical workers. Patients and their families do not contribute to these independent medical assessments."

      Elizabeth Maher, Bangor

 

• The Adelaide Avertiser
  

• Teachers slam preschool decision
  
  Teachers will rally today for the reversal of a staffing decision that puts preschool directors under the management of high school principals.
  
  
  

Saturday – Sunday, 24 – 25 February

• The West Australian online [Sunday updates]
  
  
  • McRae resigns over corruption claims [added 12:30 pm]
    AAP
    
    "Tony McRae has resigned as Western Australia's environment minister.

    "WA Premier Alan Carpenter cut short a trade mission to India and rushed back to Perth late last week after Mr McRae faced questioning by the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC).

    "The premier asked Mr McRae for his resignation this morning.

    "Mr McRae told reporters that although he strongly disagreed with the premier's decision, he respected his right to make it.

    "Mr McRae said the allegations against him are "unfounded and based on supposition and innuendo"..."

    Full story in The West Australian online at link
    
    
    
  • McRae had to go: Carpenter [added 2:00 pm]
    AAP
    
    "West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter says Environment Minister Tony McRae had to resign from state cabinet because he made a major error of judgment in discussing political fundraising with lobbyist Julian Grill...
    
    "Mr Carpenter said he had listened to Mr McRae's version of events and believed dumping him from the ministry was his only option.

    "Mr McRae has committed a major error of judgment in discussing political fundraising with a person commercially involved with a project that was before the minister for consideration," Mr Carpenter told reporters today.

    "That action left Mr McRae severely compromised.

    "The government has to be seen as beyond reproach and adhering to the highest level of accountability and transparency.

    "As I have said and demonstrated before, any issues arising out of the CCC and requiring action by me will be dealt with accordingly."

    "More ministers are expected to be questioned at the CCC hearings this week..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian online at link
    
    Similar stories on ABC News: Story 1 Story 2
    
    
    

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Hit squads to remove bad teachers (page 3)
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Teachers accused of misconduct will be removed from schools by a new Education Department investigations squad.
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan created the 28-member team, led by a senior police officer, in response to last year's damning Corruption and Crime Commission report on the department's failure to investigate sexual misconduct complaints against teachers.

    "Mr McGowan said the Standards and Integrity Directorate would start its work by the middle of the year and would go "above and beyond" the CCC's recommendations. It has advertised for staff this weekend.

    "This is a zero-tolerance approach that we've brought in," he said.

    "If there is an allegation and sufficient evidence against someone having done anything inappropriate, they're pulled out of the school.

    "The level of evidence is up to (the directorate), but they have a senior police officer, so they have the power to make this decision.

    "What I want is a quick and effective investigation and enforcement. That's what this is about.

    "We can't have people in classrooms who are doing this sort of stuff to children."

    "Mr McGowan said the team would be a permanent fixture, investigating allegations of sexual misconduct, fraud, theft, misuse of resources, inappropriate use of computers and the release of confidential information in schools and TAFEs.

    "Led by Det-Insp Trevor Porter under the new Professional Standards and Conduct Division, the directorate would refer complaints to police and other agencies for prosecution.

    "The Education Department could sack those investigated by the directorate.

    "Mr McGowan said that per capita, the directorate would be the biggest of its kind in Australia. In a school system with hundreds of thousands of children and tens of thousands of employees there would always be misconduct, but he wanted it acted on quickly.

    "The CCC investigated five separate cases. We're having a look at all those and ... we're looking at everything in relation to child-protection issues," he said.

    "Mr McGowan's predecessor, Ljiljanna Ravlich, was dumped in December after the CCC report and a subsequent parliamentary inquiry into her claim she did not know about the 10-month CCC probe.

    "She said her lack of knowledge was why she did nothing about the problems in her department.

    "The CCC revealed the department repeatedly failed to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct by teachers and even allowed a convicted child-sex offender to work as a teacher.

    "Liberty and Justice WA spokesman Laurie Levy said the primary interest was child protection, but the Government had to ensure it had enough evidence to warrant investigations, so teachers' rights were not infringed.

    "We don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater on this," he said.
    
    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    This story made the eastern states Sundays as well
    
    
    

  • Year 7s not for High School
    
    The WA government will not transfer Year Seven students into high school, following recommendations of a study into the educational benefits and costs of the move.
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Lost art of childhood (page 50)
    by Phil Haberland
    
    One of the most profound and relaxing pieces of advice I received from my daughter's school principal this week was the maxim: "Allow your children just to be children."
    
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Carpenter picked off by factions (page 59)
    
    "Premier Alan Carpenter must sack Environment Minister Tony McRae. If he fails to act, the public's trust in his Government will continue to erode.
    
    "But that is only the start. It is imperative that Mr Carpenter acts decisively on two other fronts.

    "First, he must put in place safeguards that protect Cabinet confidentiality, a convention that is crucial if our system of government is to work properly.

    "Second, the Premier needs to change the culture of the Labor Party. He needs to overhaul the archaic system that allows factional warlords to run the party.

    "The Premier should decide who sits in Cabinet, not the factions. And ordinary party members should select candidates who run for parliament rather than the handful of unionists and party apparatchiks whose strings are pulled by faction leaders..."
    
    "Indeed, the state of politics in WA is so abysmal the Premier cannot even trust his own ministers. It is embarrassing..."
    
    "The Premier needs to restore trust in his Government. At the moment, it looks like he is running a government that wields power, makes decisions and does favours for its Labor mates – rather than the people who elected them."
    
    Full Editorial in The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    

  • McRae 'should resign': Labor MPs call for sack (page 8)
    
    Senior Labor MPs have urged Premier Alan Carpenter to stand down beleaguered Environment Minister Tony McRae until a Corruption and Crime Commission investigation is completed.
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian

  Education News

• Computer will pick 'teacher juries' (page 16)
  by Bethany Hiatt

  "The WA Electoral Commissioner will be given the task of selecting people to sit on "teacher juries" to judge new outcomes-based education courses in a bid to keep the process independent of education authorities.

  "Electoral Commissioner Warwick Gately confirmed yesterday the commission was developing a computer program that would randomly select up to 500 teachers from names supplied by the Curriculum Council. [emphasis added]

  HOLD IT ! Why are they to be provided by the Curriculum Council??? Doesn't WACOT have a list? Why would the Council have a list of teachers? "Random selection for a "selected subset of teachers"???
  
  "The West Australian understands that each jury will comprise 10 classroom teachers who would be paid for their time. Special facilitators will be appointed and trained by an independent co-ordinator to support deliberations and report their conclusions by May.
  
  "The juries will not have the power of veto and the council will make the final decision on whether a course goes ahead. [emphasis added]
  
  "Council chief executive David Wood said it was too early to say how much the process would cost.
  
  "Last year classroom teachers strongly criticised many aspects of new OBE courses to be implemented in Year 11 this year, saying they were unfinished and teachers were unprepared to teach them. Their threat to boycott the courses forced the State Government to delay 13 of them until next year.
  
  "Many of the teachers accused their subject association leaders of being slow to relay the anxiety experienced by their members.
  
  "Education Minister Mark McGowan said he wanted broad feedback from ordinary teachers rather than teachers' groups.
  
  "We're not going to have this process taken over by people who are the normal mouthpieces on these issues – we want to have the views of the silent majority," he said.
  
  "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said the juries should allow teachers an unfettered chance to have their say on the new courses without their views being clouded by "theoreticians and bureaucrats".
  
  "He added two provisos, saying they had to be practising teachers who would be teaching the course next year and they should not be selected by people with an interest in the outcome.
  
  "I also want to see that when people turn up to the teacher juries they are given an absolutely cast-iron guarantee that they are able to say what they think without any sense that their views will be questioned, rejected, or that there will be consequences for those views." [emphasis added] [Well said, Mike!   Web]
  

  But of course Wendy Cody objects:
  
  "But English Teachers Association president Wendy Cody said she had reservations about the teacher juries.
  
  "There is a potential for such a selection process to come up with a mix of people who are not best placed to be making decisions about the new courses," she said." [emphasis added]

  Of course not, Wendy, only You and Your Mates are qualified!

  From The West Australian
  
  
  

• Teachers seek compulsory geography (page 65)
  by Bethany Hiatt

  "Geography is as important as English and maths and should be compulsory study for all upper-school students, according to the head of a national geography teachers' group.
  
  "Australian Geography Teachers Association director Grant Kleeman said the study of geography was essential for all students..."
  
  "We're arguing for a strong core curriculum that gives students a broad liberal education," he said.
  
  "A recent survey of WA schools found that the number of students choosing to study geography this year had dropped more than one-third, which Dr Kleeman said was a reflection of a nation-wide trend as students were given more subject choice..."
  
  "Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said English was the only compulsory subject for Year 11 and 12 students.
  
  "It is important that schools counsel students into courses that meet their future needs and give them a broad education," he said.
  
  "Mike Fazio, president of the WA Geographical Association, said while he would back plans to improve general geographical knowledge, it was not feasible to force students to study geography after Year 10."
  
  Full story in The West Australian
  
  
  

• Balga Works boss escapes jail for apprentice training scam (page 9)
  by Steve Pennells, Melbourne

  "The man who ran the bungled, government-funded Balga Works program narrowly escaped imprisonment yesterday after pleading guilty in a Victorian court to using forged documents to rip off more than $140,000 from a Commonwealth training scheme..."

  "Carton was instead given a suspended sentence of 18 months on each of the three fraud charges, to be served concurrently."

  Full story in The West Australian
  
  
  Carpenter's Crisis
  
  

• Click here for today's Alston Cartoon [Cartoon © The West Australian]
  
  
  

• Defiant Carpenter: I may spare McRae [Front Page Headline]
  by Robert Taylor, Graham Mason and Ben Spencer
  
  "Alan Carpenter appeared to throw a lifeline to besieged Environment Minister Tony McRae yesterday as Labor MPs and political analysts warned that Corruption and Crime Commission revelations had sparked a crisis of confidence in the WA Government..."
  
  "That decision will be closely considered by Greens leader Giz Watson, who yesterday would not rule out joining forces with the Opposition in the Upper House to block supply after the May Budget and force the Carpenter Government to an early election.
  
  “If the level of public confidence is so low, then we would consider that,” Ms Watson said. “It has to be in the public interest and it’s very much an action of last resort because in effect it would bring down a government.”
  
  "Opposition Leader Paul Omodei called for Mr McRae to resign or for Mr Carpenter to sack him.
  
  "But more concerning for Mr Carpenter will be emerging unrest in Labor ranks with influential Labor MP and Legislative Assembly speaker Fred Riebeling saying yesterday that the ghosts of WA Inc had resurfaced.

  “It’s not the brightest day or week we’ve had. The core of the Government are people that were really there to rebuild the party after WA Inc and they’re the ones — people like me — that are most disappointed about where we now find ourselves,” he said..."

  Full story in The West Australian at link
  
  
  
• Carpenter won't automatically sack errant Minister
  
  
  

• McRae's fate to be decided today
  
  

• Editorial
  Crisis-ridden Premier must show guts for harsh remedies (page 22)

  "Alan Carpenter rushed back to Perth yesterday to be confronted by not only a disintegrating Government but also a crisis of public confidence in WA's political system. The Premier's melodramatic return was a political necessity, but is of itself no solution to the crippling effects of disclosures in the Corruption and Crime Commission.
  
  "He must act with decisive authority in administering the necessarily harsh remedies. The first step must be to sack Environment Minister Tony McRae, who epitomised the political malaise in this State by being morally blind to his offence. The CCC revealed that Mr McRae had asked lobbyist Julian Grill for fundraising help while Mr Grill believed Mr McRae was dealing with a planning proposal on behalf of one of his clients. It was put to him in a commission hearing that he misled Mr Grill about the status of the proposal in the hope of increasing the prospects of soliciting a benefit for himself. He denied any misconduct but told the commission he could not explain his action..."
  
  "[Carpenter] is confronted by Labor's biggest scandal since WA Inc but has shown signs of being paralysed by indecision. And speculation continues that there is more political pain to come with more ministers to be questions by the CCC..."
  
  Full Editorial in The West Australian
  
  More Crisis of Government stories in The West Australian.
  
  
  

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Wrong to link results with teacher pay: expert
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "A national expert in measuring teacher quality says student results provide an invalid base for identifying high-performing teachers for pay rises.

    "Lawrence Ingvarson, a research fellow at the Australian Council of Educational Research, was commissioned by the Federal Government to research performance pay for teachers.

    "The report has not been made public, but the federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, has said it supports her push for performance pay in all schools. She maintains that student results should be a key determinant of teacher quality and has suggested asking principals, parents and students to rate teachers.

    "The deputy federal president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos, said Ms Bishop's credibility was in question because although the report supported performance pay models it did not support relying on students' results as an independent measure.

    "Dr Ingvarson declined to comment on the report, which he co-authored, but when asked about his general views he told the Herald that existing test data could not be used as a reliable measure of individual teachers.

    "He said teacher merit pay had been tried in the US and failed and that giving principals power to hire and fire could lead to a messy cottage industry with no common standards for performance. "If we leave it up to the school it leads to cronyism and favouritism," he said. "We can't do it well until we have developed methods of assessing teachers that stand up to very critical reviews of their validity, reliability and fairness."

    "Dr Ingvarson said value-adding data, which measures the progress of students by comparing their test results over the years through high school, was a narrow measure of teacher quality.

    "Any methods of assessing teacher performance need to reflect the complexity of the knowledge and skills of good teaching.

    "No one form of evidence provides a sufficient basis for providing valid or fair judgements."

    "Dr Ingvarson said student questionnaires could provide a reliable source of evidence about teaching, but "only in conjunction with a lot of other evidence", such as samples of student work.

    "You can't just waltz right in and take a hand count of students," he said. "You need to do it using instruments like proper questionnaires that have been properly evaluated and validated."

    "The principal of Riverside Girls High School, Judy King, said Ms Bishop's plan to base teacher pay rises on student results was "ridiculous and indefensible".

    "It really is cash for grades if you want to pay teachers on test results," she said.

    "The head of the NSW Institute of Teachers, Tom Alegounarias, said student results were just one ingredient in any evaluation of teachers, but they could not be used independently. "It can't be reliable in assessing quality teaching if it is looked at in isolation," he said. "There is not enough student outcomes data available nationally to make reliable judgements for all teachers in all circumstances."

    "Ms Bishop said she disagreed that student results could not be a measure of teacher performance.

    "The Opposition spokesman on education, Stephen Smith, said Ms Bishop was fumbling with public policy."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link

    
    
    
• The Wekend Australian
  
  
  • Feature
    Education overhaul now principal election issue

    Kevin Donnelly says both main parties are finally on the learning track. [text highlights added by Web]
    
    "The parliamentary sitting year has just begun, but already it is clear that the main political parties see education as a significant issue in the lead-up to the federal election.
    
    "Beginning with his first speech to parliament as Opposition Leader late last year, and in subsequent interviews, Kevin Rudd argues that Australia must become the most educated society in the Western world and that any increase in educational expenditure should be linked to measuring how successful schools are in improving learning outcomes.

    "Opposition education and training spokesman Stephen Smith says merit-based pay for teachers is a good idea and there is a strong argument for a national curriculum, a situation, Smith is reported as saying, where "in an ideal world we would have common school years, a common curriculum, commonality to all our primary school and secondary school education so if mum and dad move from WA to Victoria there would be a seamless transition".

    "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop, at a National Press Club speech in Canberra on February 7, argued that principals should be given the power to hire and fire staff, that educational standards were not high enough and that there needed to be greater consistency in school curriculum across Australia.

    "At a book launch in Canberra this month, Prime Minister John Howard said approaches to teaching literature, where graffiti and SMS messages shared centre stage with Shakespeare, robbed students of their cultural heritage and that much of the curriculum had been dumbed down and made politically correct.

    "Several comments can be made about the education debate.

    "First, the ALP's new-won preference for greater accountability, the need to monitor teacher and school performance and to strengthen standards represents a dramatic reversal from past policy.

    "The ALP traditionally argued that the best way to improve education was to spend more, on the mistaken assumption that increased resources led to more teachers and better learning, but previous ALP attempts to set the education agenda failed. They included the failed national statements and profiles of the Keating government, inspired by outcomes-based education, and Knowledge Nation, otherwise known as noodle nation.

    "Rudd's recent boast - that he has a proven track record in delivering good outcomes in areas such as education as a result of his stint as director-general of the cabinet office for Wayne Goss's government in Queensland - also rings hollow. During the Goss years, education in the state gained a nationwide reputation for being new age and politically correct. As Queensland academic Kenneth Wiltshire wrote in these pages on September 23 last year, because there are no external, competitive examinations in the state's schools, it is impossible to authenticate students' work and to measure school effectiveness. Wiltshire also noted that the curriculum was driven by ideological fads such as critical literacy, in which students were taught to deconstruct texts in terms of power relationships and the rights of victim groups.

    "That education standards, especially in English, were dumbed down under the Wayne Goss-Rudd partnership was made clear by this week's announcement by Queensland Education, Training and the Arts Minister Rod Welford that there would be a return to the basics after years of what he termed "curriculum waffle".

    "Given that the ALP traditionally has been beholden to the Australian Education Union - a teachers union that regularly runs a marginal seats campaign against coalition governments and whose curriculum policy is based on the 3Rs of republic, refugees and reconciliation - it is also of concern how effective any Labor government would be in delivering what is, to all intents and purposes, a conservative agenda.

    "Bishop's argument for greater accountability in terms of learning outcomes, a national curriculum and merit-based pay for teachers, drawing as it does on the Blair Government's education agenda, has much to recommend it. At the same time, there are several important caveats.

    "One needs only to remember the debilitating effect of experiments inspired by outcomes-based education, such as Tasmania's Essential Learnings and the proposed West Australian Certificate of Education, to realise that if such fads were mandated nationally, standards would fall.

    "The likelihood of a national curriculum leading to a lowest-common-denominator approach is high, given the professional bodies in control of Australia's curriculum - such as the Australian Curriculum Studies Association, the Australian Secondary Principals Association and the Australian Council for Educational Research - argue there is no crisis and that outcomes-based education represents world's best practice.

    "About one week ago, 14 peak national education bodies signed a media release condemning the present curriculum debate as "simplistic, ill informed and about the past" and guilty of being "hijacked by partisan political views and media commentators pushing their own barrows".

    "Since the Australian Council for Education Research's primary expertise is in educational measurement, not curriculum, it is understandable that the influential national education body is an advocate of identifying and measuring learning outcomes. Although there is a place for evaluating school effectiveness by measuring what students learn, it should not be forgotten that there is much of value in education that cannot be weighed and measured. Turning teachers into bookkeepers, with countless hours wasted identifying and recording meaningless learning outcomes, takes time and energy away from the classroom and convinces many in the profession that teaching is not for them.

    "Many, if not all, of the education policies being advocated in Australia have originated and been trialled overseas for several years.

    "In Britain, under the Blair Government, a system of testing key subjects was introduced, leading to league tables and under-performing schools being publicly outed.

    "In the US during the early to mid-1990s, a failed attempt was made to implement outcomes-based education and, more recently, a debate has started about the feasibility of lifting standards by introducing a national curriculum and assessment regime.

    "One can only hope that the main parties, in developing and advocating educational polices, take note of overseas developments, in addition to Australia's experience, and that political point-scoring does not obscure what is best for teachers and students."

    Kevin Donnelly is director of Melbourne-based Education Strategies. His book Dumbing Down was recently launched by Prime Minister John Howard in Canberra.
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Carpenter rocked by new revelations
    by Amanda O'Brien, WA political reporter
    
    "Up until Thursday, reporters covering the Corruption and Crime Commission in Perth were easy to spot.
    Pumped so full of salacious information they couldn't print, they floated like ink-stained helium balloons across the city.

    "With one of the biggest scandals since the WA Inc era unravelling before their eyes, the media was banned by the CCC from saying anything that would identify any of the ministers being accused of serious misconduct.

    "For Alan Carpenter, thousands of kilometres away in India, the suppression order was a lifeline.

    "If the suspect ministers couldn't be named, he couldn't be expected to do anything about them, or so the theory goes. He stayed put, ignoring calls to come home, presumably thinking he could ride out the scandal until his scheduled return on Sunday.

    "But on Thursday his luck ran out. The helium balloons came whizzing back to earth as yet another minister came to grief, but this time without the protection of a suppression order. Environment Minister Tony McRae's career was in tatters and Carpenter grabbed the first plane back to Perth.

    "The crisis facing the Government is extraordinary. And with at least another week of CCC hearings to come, it is anyone's guess where it will go next.

    "More ministers are expected to feature next week.

    "The reality starting to sink in is that for some time Western Australia has had two premiers running the state.

    "One is paid to run the booming resource-rich state without fear or favour; the other is paid to manipulate and influence ministers and public officers to warp government decisions to favour his clients.

    "To add to the confusion, both men have their photos on a glory wall of premiers at parliament house. But Brian Burke is listed as ending his reign in 1988. Carpenter is considered current.

    "Even though reporters are banned from identifying the two other ministers who featured as alleged Burke acolytes at this week's hearings, the toll of tarnished and irrevocably Burke-damaged ministers is now four and counting: Norm Marlborough, who was sacked in November, the two unnamed ministers and McRae. But the damage to Carpenter doesn't stop there.

    "Since he became Premier 13 months ago, the number of ministers or former ministers burned by the CCC is six, if you include Ljiljanna Ravlich, demoted after the CCC investigated her mismanaged department, and John D'Orazio, dumped from the ALP after featuring in a CCC surveillance video..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    

  • Premier returns as crisis deepens
    by Amanda O'Brien, WA political reporter
    
    "Western Australia could face a constitutional crisis if more ministers are found to have acted improperly in their dealings with disgraced former premier Brian Burke.
    
    "As Premier Alan Carpenter rushed back to Perth from India to deal with the allegations about his ministers, the Greens, who hold the balance of power in the upper house of parliament, said they could block supply, forcing an election, if the crisis deepened. [emphasis added]

    "Looking nervous and tired, Mr Carpenter faced a wall of cameras when he touched down in Perth after travelling all night to take control of the scandal over his ministers, including Environment Minister Tony McRae, who was accused in the Corruption and Crime Commission on Thursday of using his position to solicit a benefit.

    "Mr Carpenter revealed he was not even told by Mr McRae that he had been called to give evidence, only finding out after the scandal became public knowledge.

    "But he refused last night to rush into judgment, saying he would read all of the transcripts from the CCC hearings and speak to Mr McRae before deciding on his future.

    "Mr McRae was accused of manipulating the announcement of a planning decision affecting a client of lobbyist Julian Grill, Mr Burke's business partner, to gain a benefit from Mr Grill.

    "The allegation followed sensational evidence on Tuesday about two unnamed ministers accused of doing the bidding of Mr Burke. Their names were suppressed by the CCC..."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    

  • Feature
    The man who knew too much
    Brian Burke has wielded a staggering amount of influence in the West, writes Tony Barrass
    
    Whatever the issue, whatever the problem, if you wanted to do business in Western Australia, you rang one number. And on the other end of the line you could be guaranteed that the deep, steady voice would always answer: "Hello, Brian Burke speaking."
    
    

The Ravlich connection... "His close links with Kevin Reynolds, the head of the old Builders' Labourers Federation in WA, the only state not to have disbanded the union that now goes by the name of the CFMEU, gives him a factional alignment with the centre of the Labor Party."





• Editorial
  Management by mates [scroll down to second editorial]
  
  Corruption and cronyism in politics damage democracy
  
  There is something rotten in the state of, well almost everywhere. From coast to coast, state governments are embroiled in corruption inquiries or embarrassed by schemes and stratagems that are ethically appalling. The most extraordinary example of the slide in state government standards is in Western Australia.
  
  
  
  
• Letters to the Editor
  
  
  • Vocations are outdated
    
    "Teaching is a vocation? Oh, that it still was. Mark Howie (Letters, 22/2) is obviously still hopeful of returning education to the 1950s.

    "Nurses, teachers and priests may once have believed in a vocation. These days, I would suggest, most have been convinced that the desirability of a decent salary isn’t half-bad.

    "If you want evidence, look at the cars parked outside schools and those outside lawyers and barristers offices. Which would you rather own?

    "If one had time to examine the flow of top students to top jobs you will notice a certain reciprocity. Well-paying jobs get top students. I can understand some people still suggesting vocation as a way to get top people for low-paying jobs. Sorry, it doesn’t work anymore. What you pay for is what you get. And I suspect that goes for more than just teaching."
    
    David Farnsworth, Ballarat, Vic
    
    

  • "For 33 years I taught, as my pay shrank in real terms and my workload increased. If only someone had told me and my wonderful colleagues we shouldn’t have been struggling to achieve excellence without “performance-based rewards”. It’s the bucks stupid!"
    
    Garry Bickley, Elizabeth Downs, SA
    
    
    

• AAP
  
  
  • WA Premier flies home to decide minister's fate
    
    "West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter must sack his errant Environment Minister or face a crisis of confidence in Parliament, Opposition Leader Paul Omodei says..."
    

    "Mr Omodei said he would not rule out blocking supply as a last resort if the crisis worsened." [emphasis added]

    
    
    
• The New York Times
  

• Grades Rise, but Reading Skills Do Not [23 Feb]
  by Diana Jean Schemo
  
  [Long but worth reading   Web]
  
  

The share of [US] students proficient in reading dropped to 35 percent from 40 percent in 1992... In math, only 23 percent of all 12th graders were proficient...

"High school students nationwide are taking seemingly tougher courses and earning better grades, but their reading skills are not improving through the effort, according to two federal reports released here Thursday that cite grade inflation as a possible explanation.

"The National Assessment of Educational Progress, an exam commonly known as the nation’s report card, found that the reading skills of 12th graders tested in 2005 were significantly worse than those of students in 1992, when a comparable test was first given, and essentially flat since students previously took the exam in 2002.

"The test results also showed that the overwhelming majority of high school seniors [Year 12] have not fully mastered high-school-level math.

"At the same time, however, grade-point averages [numerical equivalent of letter grades] have risen nationwide, according to a separate survey by the National Assessment, of the transcripts of 26,000 students, which compared them with a study of students’ coursework in 1990.

“There’s a disconnect between what we want and expect our 12th graders to know and do, and what our schools are actually delivering through instruction in the classroom,” David W. Gordon, the superintendent of schools in Sacramento, said at a news conference announcing the results.

"The reports offered several rationales for the disparity between rising grade-point averages and tougher coursework on the one hand and stagnant reading scores on the other, including “grade inflation, changes in grading standards” or the possibility that student grades were being increasingly affected by things like classroom participation or extra assignments.

"The National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered the yardstick for academic performance because it is the only test taken all across the country. The test of 12th-grade achievement was given to a representative sample of 21,000 high school seniors attending 900 public and private schools from January to March 2005.

"It showed that the share of 12th-grade students lacking even basic high school reading skills — meaning they could not, for example, extract data about train fares at different times of day from a brochure — rose to 27 percent from 20 percent in 1992.

"The share of students proficient in reading dropped to 35 percent from 40 percent in 1992. At the same time, the gap between boys and girls grew, with girls’ reading skills more than a year ahead those of boys.

Seniors [Year 12] working at a basic reading level can identify elements of an author's style. At the proficient level, they can make inferences from reading material, draw conclusions from it and make connections to their own experiences. CNN

"In math, only 23 percent of all 12th graders were proficient, but the exam has been revamped, so the results could not be compared with those from earlier years, officials said. The new test has fewer questions requiring arithmetic and more using algebra and geometry. Some 39 percent of 12th graders lacked even basic high school math skills.

"These results came about even though the separate study of transcripts showed that 12th graders in 2005 averaged 360 more hours of classroom instruction during their high school years than students had in 1990.

"Their overall grade-point average was 2.98 — just shy of a B. That was one-third of a letter grade higher than in 1990. The share of students taking a standard curriculum or better, intended to prepare them for college, jumped to 68 percent from 40 percent.

"In math, girls had higher grades than boys, and closed the achievement gap, scoring about as well as boys did on the national assessment. Boys who had taken advanced math and science courses, however, scored higher than girls who had also taken such courses.

"The Bush administration, which has been pressing to expand testing in high school under the federal education law, No Child Left Behind, seized upon the results as proof that high schools were not measuring up.

“The consensus for strengthening our high schools has never been stronger,” Margaret Spellings, the secretary of education, said in a statement released in advance of the report. “Schools must prepare students to succeed in college and the 21st-century work force.”

"Just how students can be getting better grades in classes that are supposedly more challenging yet lag in reading may become clearer in the future. Mark Schneider, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, the branch of the Education Department that administers the exams, had also collected a warehouse full of course descriptions, reading lists and textbooks to investigate the actual content of classes students are taking.

"The Education Trust, a nonprofit group representing urban schools, attributed the disparity to a kind of academic false advertising, saying that schools may seem to offer the same courses to all students, but that the content of those courses is sometimes less demanding for poor and minority children.

"For example, the group found, a ninth-grade English teacher at one school assigned students a two- to three-page essay comparing the themes of Homer’s “Odyssey” to those in the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” At the same school, assignments in another class covering the same material were considerably less demanding. There, students broke up into three clusters, with one designing a brochure for “Odyssey Cruises,” another drawing pictures and the third making up a crossword using characters from the “Odyssey.”

“Just slapping new names on courses with weak curriculum and ill-prepared teachers won’t boost achievement,” Kati Haycock, the Education Trust’s president, said."

From The New York Times at link

Similar story in The Washington Post and most US daily newspapers / radio and TV news networks



• Massachusetts: Gay Topics and Schools [24 Feb]
  
  

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by parents who wanted to keep their young children from learning about same-sex marriage in school. The judge... said the courts had decided in other cases that parents’ rights to exercise their religious beliefs were not violated when their children were exposed to contrary ideas in school.



• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  
  • Some math myths are in fact true
    by Clifford F Mass, Guest Columnist
    
    "A column by Virginia Warfield of the University of Washington suggests that the rising storm of criticism of Washington state K-12 math education is based on myths ("Many math 'truths' are in fact myths," Feb. 9). A careful examination of the facts suggests otherwise.

    "Supposed myth: Washington state K-12 mathematics instruction is in a disastrous condition.

    "The truth: K-12 math education in our state is in a deplorable state.

    "Washington students are coming to college unprepared for college math, with most unable to handle basic algebra. The math remediation rate in college is now 30 percent; 40 percent of high school students can't pass the WASL [The Washington Assessment of Student Learning] after two tries; math assessment scores of incoming freshmen [first year] have plunged at the UW [University of Washington]; tutoring companies are enjoying triple-digit growth, and the move toward reform curricula is leaving students without the ability to do or understand math. Reform advocates like to parade Washington's average scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress as a mark of success. But varying demographics, curricula and application of this exam among states makes it a completely useless tool of comparison.

    "Supposed myth: Our state math standards are rated F.

    "The truth: Our state math standards were rated an F and deserve it.

    "Reform math advocates like to paint the criticism of state math by the Fordham Foundation as the work of a conservative mind-set. In reality, the study that flunked our state standards was directed by an admittedly liberal California mathematician who selected the rest of the committee and was the primary author of the report. It's interesting that true-blue California was given the honors as having the best math standards in the nation.

    "Supposed myth: The WASL is a bad test.

    "The truth: The WASL is not only a bad test, but it reinforces all the bad aspects of reform math.

    "The WASL exam reflects the reform math curricula that Warfield defends: Students are not taught, but asked to discover math for themselves, practice and competence with algorithms (such as long division and use of fractions) are neglected, and calculators are heavily applied. In fact, the WASL is too easy an exam and does not evaluate key ideas and skills needed in college and the real world. The WASL is also an extraordinarily expensive exam, and its development and scoring are done by one company, which also makes some of the leading reform textbooks. The WASL provides no usable information for the improvement of student learning or curriculum. Finally, because the WASL is used only in our state, we can't determine how well our students are doing compared with the rest of the country.

    "Warfield suggests the math problem will be solved if we just have more patience and put more resources into teacher training and parent education. That is a myth. The truth is that the reform math methods espoused by many in the educational community have made the situation infinitely worse and a generation of students are being lost to this experiment. More money is not the solution; better curricula that model the successes in those nations and states with the most success in math instruction is the only sure approach. [emphasis added]

    "Staying the course, as in international relations, is not always wise, especially when we already have entered the shoals of math failure and our children are the certain victims.
    
    Clifford F. Mass is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.

    From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer at link
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Home schooling 'triples in eight years'
    
    Soaring numbers of parents are teaching their children at home because they are not happy with the quality of state education, according to government research.
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Academies criticised over maths and English results
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "Tony Blair's flagship academies are criticised today for their poor performance in maths and English exams.

    "An investigation into the £5bn academies programme by the National Audit Office (NAO), the public spending watchdog, concludes it is providing value for money and raising educational standards for pupils in deprived areas. But it recommends that the privately sponsored academies should give higher priority to literacy and numeracy - as only 22 per cent of their pupils got top-grade passes in maths and English at GCSE compared with a national average of 45 per cent..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Schools bow out of the bidding for top students
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "Most of us have heard of the Soccer Mum. But it's this time of year that the Scholarship Mum, or Dad, begins gearing up for the annual feeding frenzy.

    "Cheering their children on from the sidelines as they dutifully sit exams, these parents have one thing in their sights — a scholarship from one of the top independent schools.

    "It's nothing to be sneezed at. But the problem is, some parents do.

    "Principals and senior staff are bracing themselves for the inevitable onslaught as parents, desperate for the best deal, try to lure schools into a bidding war..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Attacks on teachers rising, says survey
    
    Violence in the classroom is worsening, according to a new survey that reveals 92% of teachers have been verbally abused by pupils and 49% have been physically abused.
    
    
    
  • Brown's last budget to focus on education
    
    Gordon Brown will signal next month that education will be the focus of his premiership when he sketches out plans for government spending in what is expected to be his 11th and final budget.

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This page last updated 13 August, 2008 0:35 AM