From Monday 17 December 2007 through Sunday 20 January 2008, PLATO's Breaking News coverage is on "Summer Holidays", and will be limited to MAJOR Western Australian education articles, editorials, Op Ed pieces and Letters to the Editor. Important national stories from The Australian [and if time permits, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald] will be included whenever possible. The home page will be updated only once a day, normally in the evening.

We anticipate that full coverage will resume on Monday 21 January 2008.

Monday 7 January

Tuesday 8 January

Wednesday 9 January

Thursday 10 January

Friday 11 January

Saturday – Sunday, 12 – 13 January

 

Monday 7 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 23)
    
    
    • Students' use of mobiles a worry

      "The YouTube video of a fight at Rockingham High School can easily be misconstrued, judging by the comments of viewers of YouTube.

      "Who controls the education system today? It seems the students will take control if something is not done before schools start this year.

      "Videos of this sort can undermine the system - and especially teachers - by students' mobile phone "productions".

      "Technology has overtaken the system and education policy is way behind. Teachers need protection from such "productions" in their classrooms. No wonder teachers are leaving in droves. Mobile phones should have been banned in schools when they first came out.

      "This "toy" is corrupting the minds of children and many parents have lost any control over their teenagers. The last decade of "fear" endorsed by the Howard government has given marketeers an opportunity to take advantage of the consumers.

      "Today, mobile phones are cunningly marketed as a false sense of protection for all who own one.

      "Protection that a mobile supposedly offers all who fall for this cunning practice is a fallacy and needs to be exposed by education policy and legislation pronto.

      "A mobile phone is a useful tool when it is in the hands of responsible people."

      Mary Jenkins, Spearwood
      

 

• The Australian
  
  
  • Wisdom really does increase with age
    from The [UK] Sunday Times
    

    "New findings seem to contradict one of the most widely accepted assumptions about ageing: that the human brain is at its most powerful between the ages of 18 and 26.

    "Scientists have discovered that intelligence, instead of peaking in our youth, remains stable and in some respects gets sharper as we grow older. The researchers found that verbal skills continued to increase for at least two decades beyond the age of 20, while arithmetic ability remained constant.

    "Their work suggests that many assumptions made by employers, policymakers and educational institutions about ageing need to be rethought.

    "Verbal ability appears to keep increasing over time," said Lars Larsen, a psychologist at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, who led the research. ..."

    Full story in The Australian at link

Tuesday 8 January

• Curriculum Council
  
  
  • Year 12 School Data 2007
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • In Short

      "Education Minister Mark McGowan is to be commended for beginning to bring reason and sense to our beleaguered education system. However, for him to say, "So now we have a system based on content, syllabuses, exams and traditional marking" is far from the truth for Years 1-10. The current curriculum, assessment and reporting policy mandates that assessment in Years 1-10 be unequivocally tied to the ambiguous levels that mean little to student, teacher or parent; and the new content via new syllabus is merely an optional resource for individual teachers. There are many miles to go before we see the "return to the traditional standards" that Mark McGowan says he has already achieved."

      Fiona Walker, Mt. Nasura
      
      

    • Dummy Spit

      "So Matt Birney is quitting politics because on a salary of a mere $195, 000 (including allowances), it is "an expensive hobby".

      "Like many present-day politicians, he has a greatly inflated opinion of his value to society. Politicians frequently trot out the old argument "pay peanuts and you'll get monkeys".

      "Arguably the four greatest premiers of the last 60 years (Bert Hawke, Sir David Brand, John Tonkin and Sir Charles Court) all came through a system where a backbencher was paid the same as a top-of-the-table classroom teacher."

      Laurie Sutton, Wilson
      
      

    • Stigma in classrooms

      "The labelling of special needs pupils as potential "disruption" in a proposal to review government policy is disheartening (Disabled pupils face school ban, report 20/12).

      "Even if the term "disruption" was merely, perhaps, the use of inappropriate semantics, this resembles the stigma of exclusion that was borne by past generations. How can a single student cause a "disruption"? Is this unrest created by the noise or motion of the wheelchair, the presence of equipment such as a laptop, the possibility that a special needs pupil may need extra time to complete assigned tasks, or the expression of a desire to learn by a student who may "look different"?

      "I recently graduated as valedictorian (bachelor of laws degree with first-class honours) while living with cerebral palsy and being confined to a wheelchair (Accolade for top student who did it the hard way, 26/12).

      "I never considered myself to be a "disruption in class" and am confident that my co-students, teachers and lecturers would never have perceived me in this light.

      "I had a teacher's assistant and tended to ask more questions than other classmates. However, this curiosity rose from my love of learning, rather than my physical disability - and my "inquisitive mind" was not out of place, given the positive learning environment promoted by the education system.

      "Motivated teacher's assistants often also aid mainstream students (with difficult subjects or topics) after the needs of the special needs pupil are met, thereby potentially providing an additional staff member. I encourage the education system and/or government to assess the needs of every student so that lessons are intellectually stimulating and appropriately challenging for all."

      Maria Mansour, Queens Park
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Private schools outperform public schools in TEE
    
    "The Department of Education and Training has defended its record after newly released data revealed just two state schools made it into the top ten for 2007.

    "St Mary's Anglican Girls School ranked number one, based on the highest number of TEE students scoring in the top third of the state.

    "St Mary's was followed by St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls and Christchurch Grammar.

    "Manjimup Senior High School was the best performing state school at number eight.

    "The department's director General Sharyn O'Neil has defended the performance of public schools.

    "Public schools and parents sending children to public schools can expect that students there will be provided with every opportunity for those students to achieve well," she said.

    "I think what we would say is regardless of where students have studied, in catholic schools, independent schools, in public schools their achievements are highly regarded and we'd like to congratulate them all."

    "Top ranked schools: (Based on the percentage of students obtaining TEE results in the top third of the state.)"

    1. St Mary's Anglican Girls' School
    2. St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls
    3. Christ Church Grammar School
    4. Methodist Ladies' College
    5. Hale School

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• Quadrant Magazine [January – February 2008 issue]
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • The Plight of Teachers

      "Peter Ryan’s nasty spray against teachers as “traitors” (November 2007), while par for the course these days, should not be allowed to stand unchallenged.

      "It is true that Victorian parents did vote for candidates who “connived in the degradation of our schools” in 1992 and 1996, but by 1999 they had realised how much damage had been done and elected a new government which has gradually rebuilt the system.

      "Teachers do not “have control of the education system”. If they did, it would be far better disciplined and far better resourced. They have been sidelined by the trendy Left, which has been allowed to lower standards, and the nasty Right, which has been allowed to take away resources and impose the time-wasting absurdities of business jargon.

      "Teachers are not, in the main, “narrowly educated and amazingly ignorant”. Many of them have scored well in Year 12 and demonstrate a high degree of intellectual ability in their university studies. I have been fortunate to teach future teachers this year who display the “candour, enthusiasm, decency and innate intelligence” that Mr Ryan seems to want to grant all young people, except for those studying teaching.

      "Rather than pursue “naked self-interest”, teachers have time and time again caved into state governments that have made their lives worse. Teachers at the top of the scale in Victoria are now paid more than $31,000 less than in 1975, relative to average earnings. The secondary pupil-teacher ratio, at 12.0:1 in 2006, provided almost 2,000 fewer teachers than both the 1992 Labor ratio of 10.8:1 and the 1981 Liberal ratio of 10.9:1. The maximum teaching load was pushed up by retrospective legislation in 1992 and left there by the current Labor government.

      "If “pedagogical slums” exist, I have never see or heard of one. Teachers are decent people who work hard for their students in stressful, under-resourced and often poorly led schools. They do not deserve the regular slander they receive from the likes of Peter Ryan.

      Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge, Vic.
      
      
      

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Congress Is Urged to Enhance 'No Child' Law
    
    Bush Promises to Veto Any Bill That Weakens 'Accountability' of Education System
    
    The law calls on public schools to ensure that all children are proficient in reading and math by 2014, requiring testing annually in grades three through eight and once in high school. It has been praised for revealing pockets of struggling students, especially those who come from poor families, are minorities, have disabilities or are learning English. But the law has been criticized for its emphasis on testing and for what some say has been a lack of funding. A ruling released Monday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit revived a lawsuit that is challenging the law as an unfunded mandate, the Associated Press reported.
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Parents of special needs pupils forced to go private [from 6 January]
    by Anushka Asthana, education correspondent [The Observer]
    
    "Parents whose children have special needs such as dyslexia or Asperger's syndrome have been giving up holidays, meals out and new clothes to fund costly private education following an 'exodus' from state schools.

    "Over the past decade the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in private schools has almost trebled, with an extra 52,594 taking places, according to a report by the Bow Group, the centre-right think tank. It says that children with special needs account for 83 per cent of the growth in the independent sector since 1997.

    "The number of children with SEN going private has increased by 300 per cent since the government started reducing statementing and closing special schools," said Charlotte Leslie, co-author of the report. "That cannot be a coincidence." ...

    Full story in The Guardian at link

Wednesday 9 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Girls wipe floor with boys in TEE [Front page headline]
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "High school boys failed to outperform girls in any Year 12 subject and the State's elite private girls' schools have again dominated TEE rankings, in further evidence of a divide between the sexes in classrooms across WA.

    "The results have heaped pressure on the State Government to segregate the sexes in certain classes in WA's public schools in a desperate bid to stop boys becoming second-class citizens in the State's education system.

    "The inequality in the classroom revealed yesterday by the annual high school TEE league table will spark fresh interest in a little-known trial of single-sex classes being run in five public schools.

    "St. Hilda's Anglican School for Girls was the most successful school in 2007, leading four other girls' schools which ranked in the top 10.

    "The table, released yesterday by the Curriculum Council, ranks schools according to the percentage of full-time students who studied four or more TEE subjects and scored a scaled mark above 75 per cent in at least one subject.

    "St. Hilda's, Methodist Ladies College, Presbyterian Ladies College, St. Mary's Anglican Girls School and Perth College also rated in the top 10 in a second table, which is based on the percentage of TEE students whose average mark was in the top third of all scores. All five girls' schools have consistently ranked in the top 10 in the past five years.

    "Other data released yesterday provided more proof that boys are struggling to keep up with their female classmates, with girls outgunning boys on school work completed through the year. The in-school assessments comprise half of a students' final TEE mark.

    "An analysis of the grades awarded by schools shows there was not one subject in which boys did better than girls in 2007. Girls clearly outperformed boys in 28 of the 112 subjects offered in Year 12, including those in which boys traditionally shine such as calculus.

    "In the remaining subjects there was either no significant difference between the sexes or there were too few students to compare.

    "WA boys' education consultant Ian Lillico urged the Government to consider splitting the sexes in certain subjects in State schools.

    "It has to be done carefully but is effective in subjects where girls clearly outperform boys, such as in English, languages and Social Studies," he said.

    "Mr. Lillico warned that the change would have to ensure low-achieving boys were not lumped together as a group because it could compound "anti-learning attitudes", such as "real men don't read books."

    "In 2006, the Carpenter Government launched a three-year trial of partial sex segregation at Mirrabooka, Rockingham, Hampton and Eastern Hills senior high schools and Yule Brook College in Maddington.

    "Then education minister Ljijanna Ravlich committed the Government to establishing some single-sex schools to give parents more choice in the government school system if the trial was deemed a success.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said a decision would be made when the trial ended at the end of the 2008 school year."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • St. Hilda's secret to success is variety (page 16)
    by Phillipa Prior

    "St. Hilda's Anglican School for Girls has returned to the top of the TEE league tables, jumping from eighth in 2006 to first last year.

    "Seventy-three of the 135 St. Hilda's students, or 54 per cent, had a scaled mark of 75 per cent or more in at least one TEE subject.

    "Parents who pay about $14,000 a year per child at the school - or a staggering $27,000 for a boarder - can find comfort in the knowledge their dues appear to have paid off.

    "Dean of Curriculum Pam Garnett put the success down to a "culture of excellence" which encouraged each student to achieve her best in the areas they were passionate about.

    "A robust extracurricular programme, maximum class sizes of 25 students and an after-school tutoring centre which was particularly popular the day before exams contributed to the result, she said.

    "Dr. Garnett admitted St. Hilda's was well resourced and could perhaps offer opportunities other schools could not.

    "We try to provide them with lots of experiences to develop confidence and leadership capabilities…They become more connected with the school if they're involved with all those extra activities," she said.

    "The school tracked academic performances closely and gave support in literacy and numeracy but most learning was done before Year 12.

    "Dr. Garnett denied there was pressure to achieve high results, saying it was more important students enjoyed school life. "If they're enjoying what they're doing, they tend to do well."

    "Private girls' schools were prominent in the top 10 with Methodist Ladies' College second, Presbyterian Ladies' College fourth and St. Mary's Anglican Girls' School sixth."

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Special Liftout: How your school rates
    
    
    • Year 12 School Data 2007
      
      
      
    • Elite school for boys calls for comparison ban (liftout page 2)
      

      "The head of one of Perth's elite private schools has called for a ban on the publication of data that compares the academic achievement of schools.

      "Christ Church Grammar School principal Garth Wynne said the tables, published today, were "shallow and unhelpful".

      "Despite Christ Church students performing well this year, and ranking fifth on the tables, Mr. Wynne said making that information public added nothing to the quality of education.

      "The measures used fail to take into account the particular circumstances of individual schools and their communities and are completely unrepresentative of much of what is truly important in education," Mr. Wynne said in a letter to The West Australian.

      "Statistics on TEE performance help schools plan for improvement and assess their own results over time, and allow top-performing students to be rewarded for their achievements, according to Mr. Wynne. But that information was misused when creating tables that compared schools with each other.

      "These tables present a confused message to the community of what is 'valuable' in education," he said.

      "Education Minister Mark McGowan said Mr. Wynne's point was valid because the tables were often misinterpreted. But the Government would continue to release them in a format that gave a balanced snapshot of how schools were performing around WA.

      "Mr. McGowan said a variety of factors, including differences in ability, cultural and language background, educational background of parents and economic differences, needed to be considered when judging a school's performance.

      "Shadow education minister Peter Collier did not oppose the tables, but did not believe top-performing schools should be published in rank order.

      "I think it's really dangerous to make a value judgment on schools because academic performance is perceived as being the ingredient of success or otherwise in a school," Mr. Collier said.
      
      

    • Also from the liftout:
      
      
      • Vital information if used correctly
        
        
      • All-rounding pays off
        
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • More must be done to 'sell' public eduction: Union
    
    "The State School Teachers Union says rankings which showed private schools outperforming public schools prove more must be done to sell public education.

    "Private Schools took the top five spots in a ranking of schools released yesterday by the Curriculum Council of WA.

    "Only two public schools made it into the top ten.

    "The Education Department says the results reflect the fact that state schools must accommodate students from different backgrounds.

    "The new President of the Teachers Union Anne Gisbourne agrees, but says parents need to be made aware of what public schools have to offer.

    "There is no doubt that there is further work to be done by both department and government to highlight the many advantages that occur by students attending public schools and the opportunities that they have,' she said.

    "She says the previous Federal Government's education funding policy is also to blame.

    "That has very much pushed that notion of privatisation and it could be argued has skewed the funding in such a way that it has assisted and encouraged parents to move into the private sector."

    "Rob Fry from the West Australian Council of State School Organisations says raising the leaving age means public schools are teaching more students vocational courses, and the rankings do not take into account students studying non T-E-E subjects.

    "The raising of the leaving ages has had the additional impact of additional students being in the schools not just to focus on doing TEE unit subjects but also to undertake VET in school courses," he said.

    "Public schools do not have a choice of the students they accept or reject, every student that knocks on the door of a public school is given a place and an opportunity of study, and I think that based on that there is more pathways available now for students."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Technophone teachers wasting millions [late update from 8 January]
    

    "Britain's state schools spent £1 billion ($2.25 billion) on cutting-edge information technology last year but 80 per cent of them are failing to make full use of it, according to experts.

    "Pupils now handle equipment worth thousands of pounds, with some using laptops, interactive whiteboards or hand-held smartphones. The Government claims that Britain is a European leader in installing IT in the classroom.

    "However, Becta, the Government’s adviser on IT in schools, says that many teachers are intimidated by the equipment and struggle to cope, and that children have a better understanding of how it works.

    "Britain is one of the biggest spenders per head on technology in schools worldwide, according to Becta — formerly the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency — and the amount is growing each year.

    "Yet Andrew Pinder, its chairman, said: “We are achieving nothing like the impact that we should from this technology. We spend more than other countries but not enough schools are using technology effectively.” ....

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Extend loans to foreign students
    by Gavin Moodie
    
    "Australia should offer income contingent loans to international students. That way, the country would combine its fourth biggest export with its best higher education policy export.

    "Income contingent loans were introduced in Australia in 1989 as HECS and have become one of our great higher education policy innovations..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    The sector isn't really on the slide
    by Tony Shiel
    

    "Contrary to the alarmist headline "Sector slips in international rankings" (HES, December 5, 2007), there is very little cause for concern and much to celebrate in the results of 2007 editions of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University index and The Times HES-QS world university rankings.

    "In the article, Luke Slattery uses two data points to reveal that "an overall decline in the higher education sector's international performance highlights the challenge faced by the new Rudd Government in achieving its education revolution". Two data points do not constitute a trend.

    "When we look at the Shanghai Jiao Tong results over a five-year period (2003-07), the outcomes highlight that although Australia does not enjoy the privilege of having a top-50 university, it can be suitably proud that nearly half its university sector is positioned within the top 500.

    "In 2003 we had 14 universities in the top 500, now there are 17. During the same five-year period, one university has improved its position by more than 100 places (Flinders) while another three have moved up to a higher band (Western Australia, Adelaide and Macquarie). Only two universities have moved down a band over the five-year period (Monash and Tasmania)..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Special treatment for foreigners
      
      "With regards to your article "Students not penalised for copying" (HES online, December 21), this is far from an isolated incident.

      "I used to teach a masters level IT course run by a university in Queensland.

      "One semester, I failed 15 out of a class of 17 students for blatant plagiarism. Large passages of their submissions were copied from the internet; they made no attempt to rewrite any of it and didn't bother to cite sources for their information.

      "Every one of those 15 was an international full-fee paying student.

      "When I reported this to my superiors, they told me to let them deal with it.

      "It was swept under the carpet and that piece of assessment was wiped from the record.

      "After that semester I resigned.

      "I see no excuse for plagiarism from masters students, regardless of their country of origin.

      "There are certainly other instances of individuals plagiarising (cheating); however, the special treatment afforded to international full-fee paying students in these situations is well beyond that afforded to Australian students. "
      

      Name withheld
      
      

    • Learning concerns addressed
      
      "Your article "Little Action on English" (HES, November 28) suggests that Australian institutions are not likely to take action to ensure improvements in the English language competence of international students.

      "On the contrary, representatives of the international education industry who attended the national symposium in August identified a clear action agenda to address legitimate concerns about aspects of the preparation, selection and education of international (and, let it be noted, Australian) students.

      "This action includes the strengthening of in-course language and academic support for international students (as well as domestic students); the monitoring of performance to ensure that international students maintain an adequate level of English competence during and on completion of study; development of more effective mechanisms to audit students' English language entry and academic progression standards; and a priority research agenda, determined in consultation with industry, governments and with Australian employer and professional groups, to inform any needed improvements.

      "The key stakeholders are committed to investing the resources required to carry out these and other actions, to ensure quality outcomes for international students. "
      

      Dennis Murray, Executive director International Education Association of Australia, Melbourne
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Report into school funding revealed
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    

    "A secret federal report into funding for private schools has found that many are receiving more than their fair share of taxpayers' money.

    "The Herald understands the federal Education Department's review of private school funding has identified entrenched inequity in the Commonwealth system. The report, which was completed last year but kept under wraps by the Howard government before the November election, recommends transitional arrangements to wean some schools off inflated levels of funding.

    "The Rudd Government - which made an election promise to maintain the existing system that delivers more than $6 billion in subsidies to private schools each year - is now faced with the department's own criticism of the funding system, which measures each school's entitlement according to the wealth of families who attend.

    "The report found that many schools are being overpaid as part of the Howard government's "no losers" policy which ensured no school would receive less money than it had in the past.

    "That was despite a review in 2004 that found the socio-economic status (SES) of some schools had improved, entitling them to less money.

    "About 60 per cent of independent and Catholic schools have had their funding maintained at artificially inflated levels and are exceptions to the rule of the funding formula.

    "The Australian Anglican Schools Network said new schools were not able to access the same levels of funding as older schools that have had their funding frozen at historic levels.

    "The network's president, Peta Smith, has said a review of inequities in the Commonwealth funding model was long overdue because some schools had government funding maintained at levels that new schools in the same area could not access.

    "In her confidential submission to the Commonwealth inquiry into the SES funding scheme, she said the system of funding schools at artificial levels was unsustainable.

    "Funding maintenance is not sustainable in the long term as it ignores the logic of needs-based funding being assessed on the SES score that is at the core of the SES model," the submission, obtained under freedom of information laws, says.

    "However, Ms Smith said there were some schools that needed to have their funding maintained.

    "Christian Schools Australia has been arguing for a greater share of funding for its low-fee schools and hopes to strike a similar deal to that achieved by the Catholic school system, which will receive $12 billion in funding in the present four-year funding agreement, which runs to the end of this year.

    "The Greens NSW MP John Kaye said the department's review was bad news for the Rudd Government.

    "In order to take the heat off the education issue in last year's federal election, they committed Labor to the SES funding model without worrying about its deep flaws," Dr Kaye said. "Now they will have to work their way out of trouble, probably by burying the report and papering over the massive cracks in private school subsidies."

    "Dr Kaye said it was outrageous the federal government review was conducted behind closed doors and that the final report had been buried.

    "More than $6.2 billion is distributed each year to private schools under current arrangements and this is tipped to rise to more than $7.5 billion by the end of the next funding period," he said.

    "With such large sums of money and such massive impacts on public education, the Government has an obligation to publish the results of the review."
    

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • College seeks fees for suspended courses
    by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Reporter
    

    "A private college being investigated under the Immigration Act is demanding students continue to pay fees of up to $5000.

    "The Sydney International College of Business's courses in commercial cookery, hairdressing and hospitality have been suspended by the NSW Education Department and it is forbidden from accepting payment from current students until its accreditation is restored.

    "The NSW Vocational Education and Training Registration Board is considering whether to deregister the college.

    "The college's troubles threaten to leave hundreds of international students in breach of their visa conditions and thousands of dollars out of pocket.

    "One student, from India, said the college was refusing to refund up to $2000 he'd paid in October for a course that had not yet started and which he no longer wished to do in case the college's registration was cancelled."

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Separatism in our schools can be solved by reworked curriculum
      
      "Governments increasingly encourage Australians to place children of similar backgrounds together in schools: some for the powerful and privileged; most for people with strong religious requirements.
      

      "We cannot deny a separate Islamic school at Camden when we encourage schools for Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists, Church of Christ, Assembly of God, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Uniting, Coptic Orthodox, Brethren, Ananda Marga and Scientology.

      "Government policy is unsustainably destructive because it encourages separatism - fertile ground for ignorance, intolerance and social conflict. The OECD now recognises "social cohesion" to be an important area for schooling policy development.

      "But it would be unfair to require all children to go to public schools, which are hostile places for those whose religion is an important daily feature. Public schools are the only public places where it is forbidden to practise one's sectarian beliefs - an inconvenient truth for us who champion them.

      "Australia has a fractured schooling system, and it needs to be replaced.

      "Perhaps we could reconstruct schools to offer two layers of curriculum from the earliest years of schooling. An "essential" layer, comprising themes that Australia's citizenry regards as essential to the common good, and an "elective" layer, which matches curriculum specialities to family and student interests - including sectarian teachings.

      "From a two-stream curriculum structure we might develop schools that can respond to Australia's two biggest schooling problems: poor outcomes for students of low socioeconomic status and high levels of student boredom. A welcome byproduct would be the appearance in the same school of chapels with crosses and/or half-crescents and/or Stars of David.

      "These schools would offer a coherent national curriculum and system. This could be managed by an Australian schools commission, whose make-up would reflect a cross-section of society. It would overcome the fury generated by schooling systems scrapping and conniving for funds from the same Treasury. It would not fund public schools that deny religious freedoms, or church-based schools that separate and divide our society, or schools for the privileged that reproduce power elites in the most undemocratic ways. It would manage a cohesive system of Australian schools with a curriculum supporting the common good and a parallel curriculum supporting speciality and preference. "

      Van Davy, Pearl Beach
      
      

    • Enrolments the key to assessing fairness in funding
      

      "Many questions arise when funding is viewed alongside school enrolments ("School fees to rise as government grants soar", January 5). The average funding increase for the schools listed in your report is about 25 per cent, yet only half the schools appreciably grew over this time. One school has scored a 93 per cent increase in NSW government grants when its enrolments actually fell by about 20 per cent.

      "Federal funding defies rational explanation. Newington, Abbotsleigh, Ravenswood, MLC and Meriden scored funding increases of between 20 and 40 per cent, yet with lower enrolments. Enrolments at The King's School and Trinity crept up at about 5 per cent but their funding increased by more than 40 per cent.

      "The private school funding regime now borders on high farce."

      Chris Bonnor, Cherrybrook
      
      
    
    
    • Enrolments the key to assessing fairness in funding
      
      "Funding of non-government schools is a fixed, smaller percentage of the amount spent on students in government schools. As governments meet cost increases in public schools, a percentage flows on to non-government schools.

      "Recent years have seen substantial increases in teachers' salaries well above the inflation rate. The flow-on of this amount accounts for much of the increase noted by the Greens.

      "Second, non-government school funding is made on a per child basis. As enrolments increase so does a school's government grant, because every child is entitled to some public contribution to their education. Without showing enrolment increases the Greens' histrionics about funding are laughable - their list includes start-up schools whose enrolments by definition are increasing rapidly.

      "The omission of enrolment figures alone makes the Greens' analysis useless for any purpose other than propaganda - and this is clearly their intention. Next time let's see this information where it belongs - on the opinion page. It certainly is not news. "
      

      Stephen O'Doherty, Chief executive officer, Christian Schools Australia, Macquarie Park
      
      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • School opponent denies being anti-Muslim [late update from 8 January]
    AAP
    
    "The leader of a residents group which opposes plans for an Islamic school on Sydney's southwestern fringe says the issue is not one of religious intolerance.

    "Spokesman Emil Sremchevich said hundreds of Camden residents had attended heated public gatherings because they felt their democratic rights were not being observed.

    "We're a community of 30,000 people and the majority so far has expressed a negative sentiment towards this proposal.

    "Therefore, we seek a referendum on this issue and for council to give us polling rights to say 'yay or nay,'" Mr Sremchevich told the Nine Network.

    "Camden residents need to be given the rights to chose what type of development they want in their area."

    "Mr Sremchevich said census data showed there were fewer than 200 muslims living in Camden and the area had two public high schools which were half full.

    "The community would be equally concerned about plans to place a Catholic school on the proposed rural site, he said.

    "The majority rules, the governments are elected by the majority ... if the minority doesn't like it, bad luck," said Mr Sremchevich, who represents the Camden McArthur Residents Group.

    "He blamed media focus on commentary from "rednecks" and a heated meeting organised by an unaligned far-right group for depicting the issue as one of religious intolerance.

    "Any issue like this that involves a potential religious intolerance will bring people in from the outside who will obviously put their two dollars worth of propaganda in," he said.

    "... Forget the religious issues here, forget about Muslim or non-Muslim issues here, that is not the issue.

    "The basic issue underlying this is us to be able to say to the council, 'Look, we elected you here, we want you to represent us because at the end of the day that's what you do'."

    "Islamic education adviser Silma Ihram said the Islamic school was needed to cater for outer southwestern Sydney's growing muslim population.

    "Building muslim schools in Australia was a key way to oppose Islamic extremism, and related violence, Ms Ihram said.

    "For Muslims, the biggest problems we have, what people are afraid of, is those who are ignorant in the religion who start propagating things (which are) dangerous to society, as we have seen overseas," Ms Ihram told Nine.

    "The best weapon against that is information and a good education, teaching kids in Muslim schools that are registered by Australian authorities, supervised by Australian authorities, teaching the Australian curriculum."

    "Ms Ihram said the proposed school, which would cater for up to 1,200 students when complete, would allow the students to "learn to be good Muslims in an Australian environment".

    "We want to make sure that as many as possible of our future leaders are educated in what Islam is really all about without sending them to Pakistan or anywhere else."

    "The school's development application is before the Camden Council and a decision is not expected until March."

    From The Age at link

Thursday 10 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teacher shortage unknown (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    Union says shortage could leave 15,000 pupils stranded. But Minister says he doesn't know the extent of the problem.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan admitted yesterday he had no idea how many children would be left without a teacher when school resumes next month.

    "While the teachers' union maintains that a shortfall of up to 600 teachers means more than 15,000 State school students could be left stranded, Mr. McGowan's office said it had no figures on the likely extent of the problem.

    "After a disastrous start to the school year in 2007, when State schools struggled with a shortfall of more than 260 teachers, the department brought its graduate recruitment programme forward six months and pushed to recruit teachers from overseas and interstate in a bid to avoid a repeat of the debacle this year.

    "But a spokeswoman for Mr. McGowan said it was too early to estimate this year's shortfall. "We do not have any figures available at this stage," she said. "Idle speculation is completely counterproductive."

    "Education Department acting human resources executive director John Serich said it would not have an accurate picture of the number of vacancies until after school administration staff returned to work later this month and it received notice of all resignations and retirements.

    "Therefore it is inappropriate to try to tie us down to an exact figure for the start of the school year," he said.

    "State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne is standing by her estimate that schools could be up to 600 teachers short.

    "Because we haven't got a settled (enterprise bargaining) agreement, which may well have made people think twice, we think the teacher shortage will be up around about that," she said.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier accused Mr. McGowan of being secretive.

    "As far as teacher numbers are concerned, they must have some fairly accurate approximate numbers," he said.

    "Mr. Collier said Mr. McGowan had already dismissed the union's estimate as inaccurate.

    "If that's the case, then he's got an idea of what the actual number is, or he wouldn't make that comment," he said.

    "At this stage, three weeks out of the start of the academic year, if the Minister and the department have no idea of reasonably accurate figures in terms of the teachers shortage, it really does put a question mark over the efficiency of the department."

    "The reluctance to reveal the extent of the shortage comes as negotiations are set in motion again on a new enterprise bargaining agreement for teachers.

    "Nearly 90 per cent of union members rejected the State Government' s second EBA offer last month and it is unlikely a new EBA will be agreed before school starts, even if the Government puts forward a third proposal before then, because the union will wait until teachers have returned from holidays to consider it."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Howard's idea of history to be made history (page 13)
    Canberra

    "The Rudd government is expected to scrap plans to force the States to introduce compulsory Australian history classes in Years 9 and 10 from next year.

    "It is also expected to dump a controversial model Australian history syllabus released by former prime minister John Howard in October on the eve of the election, after it was being overly nationalistic and "barely teachable".

    "A spokeswoman for Education Minister Julia Gillard said that although history would be a compulsory component of the national curriculum for parts of the secondary school years, the Government would work collaboratively with States and Territories, rather than impose things on them.

    "Australian history is a critical part of the curriculum and should be included in all years of schooling, not just for a few years in a secondary school," she said. The Government would work with the States and Territories to implement a rigorous national history curriculum for all students from kindergarten to Year 12.

    "It also would refer the former government's Guide to Teaching Australian History in Years 9 and 10 to the National Curriculum Board.

    "States accused Mr. Howard of waging a phoney "culture war" and playing politics when he announced in October that high schools would have to teach 150 hours of Australian history - and it would be a condition of $42 billion in Federal money. The detailed course, overseen by a four-member panel including conservative historian Geoffrey Blainey and political commentator Gerard Henderson, listed more than 70 significant events ranging from indigenous settlement to the Sydney Olympics.

    "Professor Tony Taylor, whose draft was the basis for the panel, said he believed the model Australian history syllabus would be "dropped like a hot potato". "I think it's dead as a doornail," he said. "The prime minister's final document was too close to a nationalist view of Australia's past."

    "He was highly critical of changes to his draft. Although it was not the political sermon some feared, the model syllabus was too heavy on content and teachers would have found it hard to race through. "I think that was almost entirely a Howard push," he said. "It's too close to nationalism, too removed from a Kevin Rudd, regional and global view." He believed the new Government would take a broader view and make history, rather than stand-alone Australian history, a central part of the curriculum."

    From The West Australian
    
    See related story in today's Australian
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Experts reject reading study
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Leading Australian education experts continue to reject scientific evidence that teaching phonics improves reading skills in children.

    "The latest results from a seven-year Scottish study show that children taught how to put sounds together to read words, called synthetic phonics, had significantly better reading skills than their peers taught using analytic phonics, breaking whole words into their constituent sounds.

    "But eminent Australian literacy researcher Allan Luke, from the Queensland University of Technology, questions the validity of using evidence-based research in assessing teaching methods. Professor Luke, a former director-general of the Queensland Education Department and ministerial adviser on education, has dismissed scientific studies showing the benefit of phonics.

    "Speaking at a curriculum symposium last month, he said the studies provided no evidence that alternate methods had failed.

    "Opponents of a phonics approach in teaching reading argue that it fails to enhance students' reading comprehension.

    "The seven-year Scottish study found that, under the synthetic phonics approach, students' reading was 42 months ahead of the average for their age and spelling was 20 months ahead.
    But their comprehension was a more modest 3.5 months ahead, which researcher Rhona Johnston said was due to a substantial number of students coming from socially disadvantaged areas.

    "To counter the criticism, Professor Johnston, now at the University of Hull in England, and her colleague Joyce Watson, at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, compared a group of 10-year-olds from Clackmannanshire with a similarly disadvantaged group of students in England.

    "The Scottish children read words 24 months ahead of what is expected for their age while the word reading of the English students was on target. In spelling, the Scottish children were six months ahead of their age compared to the English students.

    "In comprehension, the Scottish children were on target for their age, while the English students were 6.6 months behind.

    "Literacy expert Kevin Wheldall, from Macquarie University, said phonics taught children how to decode written language and was a necessary first step in learning to read.

    "Comprehension comes from a good understanding of spoken English, but if you can't decode words, then it doesn't matter how good your listening comprehension is," he said. "(Critics) seem to be determined not to believe the evidence."

    "Professor Luke made his comments at a curriculum symposium last month hosted by the Australian Curriculum Studies Association in conjunction with the Queensland teachers union, state education department and the Queensland Studies Authority, which sets school curriculum.

    "Professor Luke's paper argues that the troubled No Child Left Behind program in the US to improve reading skills, which prescribes a phonics approach and standardised testing, shows such an approach would fail in Australia. It says consistent in both countries "has been the rise of a 'gold standard' of evidence-based research as the major criterion for deciding what will be considered 'valid' as evidence of success in literacy teaching".

    "It begins from what we term the phonics hypothesis: that there is scientific evidence that literacy achievement can be improved through systematic curricular approaches to pedagogy that emphasise 'alphabetics' or phonics," the paper says.

    "There is little recognition of the host of contributing factors identified in ethnographic, case-based and quantitative literacy research. Factors like home-school transitions and access; the variable impacts of community cultural and linguistic background; the effects of poverty; the increasing incidence of special needs; and the impacts of differential school resourcing."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Half of us lack modern world skills
    by Stephen Lunn, Social affairs writer
    

    "Half of all Australians lack the minimum reading, writing and problem-solving skills to cope with life in the modern world.

    "A new survey on life skills by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals 46 per cent of the population, or seven million people, would struggle to understand the meaning of newspaper and magazine articles or documentation such as maps and payslips.

    "And 53 per cent reached just the second of five levels in a practical numeracy test, while 70per cent, the equivalent of 10.6million people, only managed to progress to level 2 in a series of problem-solving exercises. "Level 3 is regarded by the survey developers as the minimum required for individuals to meet the complex demands of everyday life and work in the emerging knowledge-based economy," said the ABS report, Adult Literacy and Life Skills.

    "The survey of almost 9000 people, which included a written life-skills test, was also done in seven other developed countries. Switzerland and Norway came out well ahead of Australia, while the US ranked much lower across all age ranges. Italy was the poorest-performing country of those participating.

    "One stark difference in Australia was gender. Women were stronger at understanding written material than men, but males were better at understanding documents such as maps.

    "And when it came to numbers, women did considerably worse.

    "While 53 per cent of men achieved (the acceptable) level 3 or higher, only 42 per cent of women managed the same. And almost twice as many men as women reached the top levels of the numeracy test.

    "Management consultant and social commentator Wendy McCarthy said the results were further evidence Australia was becoming a society increasingly divided into two classes.

    "Ms McCarthy said a decade of neglect of the public education system was to blame.

    "It's a huge opportunity lost," she said. "It clearly demonstrates that if you don't invest in public education, except as a safety net, if you don't make it sexy, interesting, exciting, a way to get into the next world, you will slip back - and that's what's happening to Australia.

    "We will look back over the last 10 years and realise with some horror how much we overemphasised the value of the individual and overlooked the common denominators in our society."

    "The ACT was the best-performing state or territory in terms of literacy and numeracy, followed by Western Australia and South Australia. Tasmania performed worst. While people whose first language was not English achieved lower literacy scores than the general population, comparisons with a 1996 survey show considerable improvement in literacy levels of this cohort."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Rudd to keep private funding model
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    

    "The Rudd Government will continue the current funding arrangements for private schools for the next four years despite a scathing report from its Education Department recommending that some schools have their funding cut.

    "Acting Prime Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard in Melbourne yesterday reiterated Labor's election promise to maintain the current indexation model for determining funding for non-government schools.

    "What we've said is we're keeping the current formula," she said.

    "That was our commitment and we'll be sticking to it. We wanted to give schools certainty and we've given them certainty with that commitment."

    "Funding for non-government schools is governed by the socioeconomic background of their students, which is determined by matching census data with students' addresses.

    "But about 60 per cent of independent and Catholic schools are exempt from the funding formula under the previous government's policy that no school would lose funding when the new model was introduced in 2001.

    "A departmental review commissioned by former education minister Julie Bishop is understood to conclude there is no justification other than historical reasons for continuing the existing funding arrangements.

    "It is understood that the internal review, which has not been released, makes about six recommendations described as "hard-hitting", including taking money away from some schools that receive more than they would under the SES model.

    "Under the arrangements, a large proportion of schools have their funding maintained, meaning it is indexed to ensure they receive the same amount they would have under the previous funding arrangements.

    "Schools are also guaranteed funding won't fall should their socioeconomic status change from one census to the next.

    "During the election campaign, Labor promised to maintain the SES funding arrangements, including the exemptions, for the next four-year funding agreement to run from next year to 2012. It has also promised to fund schools according to need without taking one cent off any school.

    "Ms Gillard yesterday refused to be drawn on whether the funding arrangements were flawed or would be reviewed beyond 2012.

    "But she said the neediest schools would benefit first under Labor's education policies.

    "We've got big promises to deliver: a billion-dollar fund for computers and information technology in schools, trades training centres in every secondary school in this country," she said.

    "We're going to deliver those big promises and we're going to make sure in delivering them that they get to the schools in greatest need first."

    "The Australian Education Union, which represents government school teachers, yesterday labelled the funding model corrupt and called for the SES model to be abandoned.

    "Acting federal president Angelo Gavrielatos called on the Rudd Government to abandon its commitment to the current arrangements, which he said entrenched inequity and were unsustainable.

    "The current private school funding model is distorted, corrupt and discredited," he said."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Gillard backs history classes for all
    AAP
    

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard says the federal Government supports Australian history being a compulsory component of the curriculum for "all years" of schooling.

    "But she stopped short of endorsing the model syllabus recommended by a panel set up by the former Howard government.

    "Instead the work of the Australian History Reference Group will be referred to the Government's proposed national curriculum board, a spokeswoman for the minister said today.

    "Australian history is a critical part of the curriculum and should be included in all years of schooling, not just for a few years in secondary school,” she told AAP.

    "The Government will work co-operatively with the states and territories through Labor's national curriculum board to implement a rigorous, content-based national history curriculum for all Australian students from Kindergarten to year 12.”

    "The comments followed a Fairfax report today that the Rudd Government was expected to scrap plans to force the states to introduce compulsory Australian history classes in years 9 and 10 from next year.

    "The new Government was also expected to dump the history syllabus released by former prime minister John Howard on the eve of the election after it was criticised for being overly nationalistic and “barely teachable”, it said.

    "Ms Gillard's spokeswoman said the Government supported history being a compulsory component of the curriculum for “parts” of the secondary school years.

    "She said the Prime Minister had welcomed the release in October last year of the Guide to Teaching Australian History in years 9 and 10 by the reference group.

    "Gerard Henderson, a member of the reference group, is confident the federal Government will still proceed with the introduction of the history syllabus.

    "At the history summit we looked at some of the curriculum that was being taught in some of the states and it was absolute sludge,” Mr Henderson told ABC Radio today.

    "What you really had was a view among some conservative politicians, some Labor politicians that something ought to be done.

    "I think it (history curriculum) will be taught because there's a great deal of opposition from within the states to what is being taught in the history syllabus.”

    "The controversial history syllabus was strongly criticised by Labor state governments at the time of its release.

    "But Mr Henderson said it was not criticised by federal Labor.

    "(Treasurer) Wayne Swan actually praised the final report - said it was very fair to Labor - and I've never seen any criticism from anyone saying it wasn't.”

    "There is broad bi-partisan support for reform in this area although it is not surprising that (Education Minister) Julia Gillard would want to take a different tact to the way (former education minister) Julie Bishop did it.”

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• Education Minister Mark McGowan Media Statement
  
  
  • Campaign to unearth school gardeners and cleaners
    
    The Carpenter Government will undertake an advertising campaign to recruit more cleaners and gardeners in public schools over the coming weeks.

    Launching the new recruitment campaign today, Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said about 50 cleaners (20 in the metropolitan area, 30 in regional areas) and 20 gardeners were needed for public schools around the State.

    Mr McGowan said the $40,000 radio and press advertising campaign would kick off on Sunday and run for one week with a subsequent week in early February.
    
    Full statement available at this link

Friday 11 January

• The Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Quality is paramount
    
    Studies point the way for the education revolution

    "More than two years after the definitive National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy established beyond doubt that "direct systematic instruction in phonics during the early years of schooling is an essential foundation for teaching children to read", influential Australian education experts, who shape the way trainee teachers are taught to teach reading, are still in deep denial. Yesterday's revelation by The Australian that Queensland University of Technology professor Allan Luke has dismissed scientific studies proving the benefits of phonics highlights the magnitude of the challenge confronting the Rudd Government in implementing its much-vaunted education revolution.

    "Scientific evidence in support of phonics is convincing, with a seven-year Scottish study finding that children who were taught how to put sounds together to read words were several years ahead of average in reading and months ahead in spelling and comprehension. Surveys of newly graduated teachers across Australia show that most flounder about how to teach reading, despite its being the foundation of all learning. State education systems and universities training teachers must be encouraged - or made - to adopt the best practices in literacy teaching. Yet Professor Luke's attitude is indicative of the implacable opposition the Rudd Government, like the Howard Government before it, will meet if it tries to break free of the equality-of-outcomes philosophy that has dogged schooling for a generation. Labor might be better placed to draw the states, teachers' unions and universities into the process, but it must be prepared, sooner rather than later, to impose its commitment to quality and rigour.

    "That must include building on and improving uniform testing, clear reporting to parents and transparency in publication of schools' results. While NSW and Victorian parents can look at published Year 12 results to compare schools, Queensland parents, for instance, are largely in the dark, with only very broad Year 12 comparisons released. Teachers' unions have long railed against public accountability, but that stance has been debunked by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Program for International Student Assessment, which conducts comparative international testing. As Justine Ferrari points out in The Australian today, PISA has found that students in schools where student-achievement data is regularly made public score substantially higher than others.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday promised a rigorous, content-based national history curriculum from kindergarten to Year 12, but stopped short of endorsing the model syllabus recommended by the Australian History Reference Group set up by the Howard government. Until it has something better to replace it, the Government should be wary of scrapping the model course released by the Coalition, designed to be taught in Years 9 and 10, with the Australian story covered in 10 chapters with 70 "milestone events". Ms Gillard will collaborate with the states about history, but if this means protracted delays and the kind of sludge taught in Studies of Society and the Environment courses in most states instead of narrative-based history and factual geography, the education revolution will be a dud.

    "The Coalition's curriculum was criticised for including too little about the rest of the world, but it was a useful starting point. Handing out laptops will be the easiest part of the education revolution. "

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Studies confound left-wing teachers
    by Kevin Donnelly
    

    "It comes as no surprise that Allan Luke, an academic at the Queensland University of Technology, cites the apparent failure of the US No Child Left Behind initiative as an argument against the phonics approach to literacy and increased testing and accountability in schools, writes Kevin Donnelly.

    "Luke made his opinions clear in a 1998 paper titled “Literacy debates and public education: A question of crisis?” and his recent work has followed suit. Contrary to the evidence, Luke argues there is no literacy crisis and that a phonics approach, based on teaching children the relationship between letters and sounds, is flawed.

    "The 1998 paper suggests those worried about falling standards, especially conservatives such as former Howard government education minister David Kemp, want to allow “dominant social groups to organise and regulate the lives of the disadvantaged and subaltern groups”. Kemp, of course, was responsible for introducing national testing.

    "According to Luke, monitoring standards and ensuring schools are effectively teaching children how to read and write is a ploy to open schools to market forces and to further entrench the position of non-government schools.

    "In the debates surrounding the best way to teach literacy, two schools of thought contend.

    "There are the progressives committed to whole language and critical literacy, where learning to read is apparently as natural as learning to talk. Children use pictures, cartoons and a words context to guess meaning. Reading is a political act, because texts are often used to marginalise disadvantaged groups.

    "The second school of thought includes advocates of phonics. Phonics is defined as a sounds-based approach that first teaches children the sounds of letters and how they blend into words, before moving to letter combinations that make up words. Phonics advocates argue that learning to read is unnatural and that any definition of literacy should be relatively simple and straightforward.

    "In "A map of possible practices: Further notes on the four resources model", Luke defines literacy and how it should be taught, and makes it clear which side of the debate he favours. Luke argues, in the jargon much loved by progressives: "We do not view how to teach literacy as a 'scientific' decision, but rather as a moral, political and cultural decision about the kind of literate practices that are needed to enhance peoples’ agencies over the life trajectories and to enhance communities’ intellectual, cultural and semiotic resources. Literacy education is ultimately about the kind of society and the kinds of citizens/subjects that could and should be constructed."

    "Given Luke's antipathy to phonics and the increased testing and accountability advocated by the US No Child Left Behind initiative, it is no surprise he argues the initiative has failed and that Australia should not go down the same route.

    "He outlines his position in "Learning lessons: What No Child Left Behind can teach us about literacy, testing and accountability."

    "As suggested by its title, Luke bases his hostility to phonics and testing on one US project. Ignored are a wealth of government inquiries, including the UK Rose report (2006), the New Zealand Government report "Let’s All Read" (2001), and the Australian National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (2005), all of which argue that a whole language approach to literacy is insufficient and that greater attention must be given to phonics.

    "When arguing the US approach has failed to raise standards, Luke also makes the mistake of ignoring the results of the 2007 report by the Centre on Education Policy that evaluated NCLB’s effectiveness (he only refers to the 2003 report). As noted by Kerry Hempenstall, an associate professor at Melbourne's RMIT, the 2007 report suggests that standards in the US have improved since the implementation of NCLB.

    "In most states with three or more years of comparable test data, student achievement in reading and maths has gone up since 2002, the year NCLB was enacted,” Hempenstall writes.There is more evidence of achievement gaps between groups narrowing since 2002 than of gaps widening.

    "During last years election campaign, Kevin Rudd described himself as an economic conservative. Based on the ALP's election promises for a back-to-basics approach to curriculum, holding schools accountable and mandating the inclusion of phonics in all teacher training courses, he could also have described himself as an educational conservative.

    "The real test for the Rudd Government over the next year or two will be whether it can implement its conservative education agenda. Based on the teachings of Luke, and other like-minded devotees of the cultural Left, the outlook is far from clear. "
    
    Kevin Donnelly is the author of Dumbing Down, published by Hardie Grant Books.

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Pupils do better with public testing: OECD
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    

    "Publicly ranking students' performance and requiring them to sit external examinations boosts their results, according to the biggest international survey of academic ability.

    "Teachers' unions have been strident critics of the public reporting of student results, in particular comparing the performance of different schools. The unions have also argued against the introduction of national literacy and numeracy tests.

    "But the results of the Program for International Student Assessment, conducted every three years among 15-year-olds by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, show a consistently higher performance in schools that keep track of student performance on a public level.

    "The report says external exams assessing students against a set standard, as occurs around Australia except in Queensland and the ACT, puts students about one school year ahead on the PISA scale.

    "The impetus provided by external monitoring of standards, rather than relying principally on schools and individual teachers to uphold them, can make a real difference to results," itsays.

    "PISA itself has encouraged countries not to take internally assessed education standards for granted and is now indicating a strong effect ... by subjecting schools to external assessment with publicly visible results."

    "Students at schools that publicly posted their students' results scored 14.7 points higher in the PISA science tests. When demographic and social factors were taken into account, the rise was still a significant 6.6 points.

    "By contrast, informing parents of their child's performance relative to other students or national benchmarks increased scores by 4.7 and 4.2 points, which was not statistically significant. Reporting results relative to other schools had a negative effect, lowering scores five points, which was also not statistically significant.

    "Students set external exams scored about 36 points higher, which, adjusted for demographic and social effects, was 17 points higher and not statistically significant.

    "The report defines external exams as subject-based exams assessing performance relative to an external standard such as Year 12 exams or the national literacy and numeracy tests that start in all states and territories in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 in May.

    "Acting federal president of the Australian Education Union Angelo Gavrielatos said extreme caution should be taken in extrapolating general lessons from the OECD report.

    "Mr Gavrielatos said the report failed to take into account differences in school systems such as curriculum, assessment and reporting policies.

    "We certainly believe that student results are the property of individual students, their parents and teachers," he said.

    "Parents have every right to know how their child is performing but no right to know about their neighbour's child. That's in no one's interest.

    "Countries like the UK and the US that have high-stakes testing and public reporting of student results in the form of league tables ranking schools are not high-performing countries in the PISA tests."

    "The analysis contained in the 2006 PISA results, released last month, covered 55 countries, including Australia, matching school characteristics with student scores in the science tests, which was the main area examined in 2006, as well as shorter tests on reading and maths.

    "It found that while students in academically selective schools scored substantially higher, streaming students in classes according to their ability within a school lowered their scores by about 10 points, or 4.5 points when adjusted for social effects.

    "(This suggests) such a policy might potentially hinder learning of certain students more than it enhances learning of others," the report says.

    "Commenting on the results, PISA director Andreas Schleicher said the effect of selective schools and grouping students according to their ability was not necessarily incompatible.

    "If you are in a selective school, you do better on average," he was reported as saying. "But if you stratify the entire system, you would not see a positive impact."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • ASIO to protect schools
    by Matthew Franklin and Siobhain Ryan
    

    "Taxpayers are to spend $20 million on high-technology security measures to protect Jewish, Muslim and other schools at risk of hate-based attacks.

    "The Rudd Government plans to order ASIO and the Australian Federal Police to assess risks at all of the nation's schools to identify those with special security needs.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard confirmed the plan yesterday as Jewish and Islamic community spokesmen said they would welcome help with security measures such as cameras and 24-hour patrols, bollards to restrict vehicle access and shatter-proof glass.

    "Ms Gillard, who is also Acting Prime Minister, said at-risk schools spent large amounts of money providing their own security at the expense of their teaching budgets.

    "Labor would assume responsibility for the costs of schools assessed as being at risk.

    "The Rudd Government believes the resources invested in the provision of a quality education should not be diluted by onerous security needs," Ms Gillard said through a spokeswoman.

    "Priority will be given to existing schools with an already established or identified security need, but all applications will be assessed on the basis of an objective security assessment."

    "Confirmation of the move follows unrest in the NSW town of Camden, on Sydney's southwestern outskirts, which has been the scene of angry protests by locals over a plan to establish an Islamic school.

    "Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported yesterday that tensions were so high that white supremacist groups had planned a rally at the proposed site of the school on Australia Day.

    "The Howard government had offered the Jewish community tax deductibility for security spending on schools and other community buildings such as synagogues.

    "During the election campaign, Labor matched the commitment but also proposed its school grants to apply to all schools.

    "Labor's election policy, published ahead of November's election, committed a Rudd government to guaranteeing the right of all children to safe school environments, regardless of the type of school they attend.

    "In recent times, there have been examples of public and private, religious and secular schools facing particular risk," says the party's policy document.

    "Federal Labor is aware that Australia's Jewish schools, as well as a range of other at-risk religious, ethnic and secular schools, are forced to maintain often elaborate and costly security measures to guarantee the safety of their students."

    "The cost of security could act as "a significant drain" on the ability of schools to provide quality teaching.

    "Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot said the government measures should help pay for the hefty security bills triggered by frequent threats against the Jewish community.

    "It's costing a lot of money. Across Australia, it's many millions of dollars annually," he said.

    "Jewish schools already regularly checked school buses for bombs, and many needed extra measures, from boom gates and retractable bollards to 24-hour CCTV surveillance and security guards, to ensure their students' safety, he said. "We're retro-fitting buildings with specially designed glass, which is shatter-proof, that doesn't become a missile," Mr Goot said.

    "He said the community had longstanding contact with state and federal police agencies about their security needs, which extended beyond schools.

    "You've got synagogues, you've got communal facilities, you've got aged homes and hospitals," he said. "You would have the whole range of institutions that you find in any community, that are a target to agreater or lesser extent."

    "Steve Rothman, the chairman of the co-ordinating committee of Jewish State Schools, said heightened security had already helped to prevent attacks.

    "There have been incidents in the past that, because of surveillance, we have been able to nip in the bud," he said.

    "Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said he hoped Islamic schools in Australia would also receive assistance.

    "There's certainly a need for security at our schools, and especially so during times at heightened tension - if there's something happening outside Australia, or in Australia - and we feel that there is a need for extra vigilance for the safety of our children," he said.

    "Mr Patel, whose federation runs five Islamic schools, said he would like to see security officers at the front gates, at drop-off points or exposed play areas "so we don't have any harassment of our children".

    "But the minimal fees charged by the schools meant they had not been able to afford the extra security until now.

    "Obviously, it's one of those things we have certainly considered we need to employ but because of the fairly tight budgets and the cost implications, we have not done anything," Mr Patel said. "

    Additional reporting: Sanna Trad

    Updated story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Parents set for soaring school costs
    by Milanda Rout
    

    "Parents preparing their children to go back to school face soaring bills of up to $21,000 this year as the cost of tuition, uniforms and books continue to rise.

    "And families of newborn babies better start saving, because new figures show the cost of putting a child born this year through secondary school will top $305,000.

    "School costs have risen at more than double the rate of inflation and come amid warnings to parents to plan early for their child's education.

    "Figures compiled by the Australian Scholarships Group after a survey of parents across the country show families that send their children to private schools will be hit the hardest this year.

    "A private preschool bill will set parents back as much as $6952, a primary school bill could reach $12,561, and sending a child to secondary school will cost them up to $21,112.

    "Tuition makes up the bulk of the expense for private school students, with uniforms and books costing up to $2000 and laptops a further $1764.

    "Families sending their children to Catholic schools will pay less in tuition than their private counterparts, with this year's preschool fees costing $4354, primary school $7317 and secondary $11,445.

    "Parents of government school students are far from spared the expensive costs of schooling, with parents around the country expected to pay up to $5618 for secondary school for the year, $5317 for primary school and $2662 for preschool.

    "They will pay more than $1500 in tuition alone before forking out hundreds of dollars for uniforms, books and laptops. "

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Labor wedded to compulsory history
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    

    "The Rudd Government yesterday rejected suggestions it was dropping history as a compulsory element of the school curriculum, saying it was critical that Australian history be taught throughout a student's schooling.

    "Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is also the Education Minister, yesterday dismissed reports in Fairfax newspapers that the federal Government was scrapping history as a compulsory subject in Years 9 and 10.

    "A spokeswoman for Ms Gillard reiterated Labor's commitment, first made in October, to refer to a national curriculum board the Australian history course developed at the behest of former prime minister John Howard.

    "Federal Labor's position on teaching Australian history in our schools has been clear since October 2007," she said. "The Rudd Government is committed to ensuring Australian history is taught in our schools."

    "Labor's then education spokesman Stephen Smith issued a statement on October 11, in response to Mr Howard's release of the Guide to Teaching Australian History in Years 9 and 10.

    "It says Labor believes history, particularly Australian history, is an essential part of the school curriculum and a key element of the party's plan for a national curriculum and "should be included in all years of schooling".

    "The four-member reference group included eminent historian Geoffrey Blainey and conservative commentator Gerard Henderson, whose involvement was seen as Mr Howard imposing his ideological bent on the subject.

    "The panel was formed by the Howard government after Mr Howard was reportedly unhappy with a curriculum drafted by Monash University history professor Tony Taylor based on a blueprint developed at the Australian History Summit in 2006.

    "Mr Howard also planned to force the states to use the guide in teaching a compulsory 150 hours of Australian history over Years 9 and 10 by making it a requirement of federal school funding.

    "Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith said yesterday the history guide was developed to address problems in the way the subject was taught, often as part of a social studies course and with little coherence.

    "If Julia Gillard plans to leave the states to their own devices like in the past, then the outcome will be the same old substandard and haphazard curriculum," he said.

    "One of the first policies released by Kevin Rudd on becoming Prime Minister was a plan for a national school curriculum in core subjects from the first year of school to Year 12, to be developed by a national curriculum board.

    "The Government is yet to reveal the board's membership but has said it would be headed by an eminent academic and involve state and territory governments, the independent and Catholic school systems as well as academics and practising teachers.

    "Teachers' unions were absent from the proposed membership."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • McGowan wants a bigger focus on WA in history lessons (page 13)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Plans by the former Federal government to force States to introduce compulsory Australian history classes in Years 9 and 10 should be scrapped because the idea was based on an inaccurate model, Education Minister Mark McGowan said yesterday.

    "Responding to reports that the Rudd Government would abandon the controversial model history syllabus released by the former prime minister John Howard on the eve of the election, Mr. McGowan said he would welcome moves to dump it.

    "What he was putting forward maybe was not an accurate assessment of a whole range of aspects of Australian history that should be studied," Mr. McGowan said.

    "Mr. Howard announced in October that high schools would have to teach 150 hours of Australian history to receive Federal funding.

    "Mr. McGowan said the WA Government had major concerns about the syllabus devised by a panel appointed by Mr. Howard and former education minister Julie Bishop.

    "Principally because there was not necessarily going to be the study of Western Australian history as part of it," he said. "I want to make sure that WA students learn a lot of WA history.

    "As to the facts and dates that John Howard had in his proposed curriculum, a lot of those facts and dates may not have been the ones that we wanted, so therefore I'd like to see some history focus that has some WA component to it and is not just a 1950's world view." Mr. McGowan said a history curriculum should include a modern perspective on Australia's position in the world.

    "A spokeswoman for Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard sad the Government had no plans to scrap compulsory history studies. But it would refer the model history syllabus to its proposed national curriculum board and work collaboratively with States and Territories to develop a national curriculum."

    From The West Australian at link

    
    

  • Teacher shortage a secret until school start (page 13)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "WA parents will be kept in the dark about the extent of the teacher shortage until just days before school starts in February.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said yesterday that he would wait until the last week of the summer holidays before releasing details on the teacher shortfall in State schools.

    "I'll give you the figures as soon as we get people back into schools, in the week before school begins," he said. "As soon as we get a figure I'll give it to you as soon as it's accurate. To put out inaccurate figures would be irresponsible."

    "Mr. McGowan was forced to admit this week that he had no idea how many children would be left without a teacher when school resumes next month.

    "We don't have figures," he said. "I'm not going to speculate, I think it's unhelpful. I think it's scaremongering to just go out there with figures not based on any science, just based on something that's been plucked out the air in order to get a headline and I'm not going to do it."

    "Yesterday he once again hosed down the teachers' union estimate that the shortfall could be as high as 600.

    "I would very much doubt it," he said.

    "But he could not guarantee that all schools would be fully staffed by the time school starts on February 4.

    "He stressed that the Education Department had introduced nearly 20 new measures in the past year to boost teacher numbers but it was operating in a highly competitive market.

    "Initiatives included paying graduate teachers higher salaries, recruiting six months earlier, offering scholarships and a task force to find solutions to the teacher shortage.

    "What I'd say to the general public is as soon as we know where we're at, we will provide a firm figure to the public as to how our measures that we've put in place over the past year have gone," he said.

    "Mr. McGowan said it was impossible to know what the shortage would be until after principals returned to schools.

    "But shadow education minister Peter Collier said it was "inconceivable" that Mr. McGowan would not be aware of approximate numbers at this stage because most teachers would already have notified the department if they planned to take leave or retire.

    "Last year State schools struggled with a shortfall of more than 260 teachers.

    "Mr. McGowan said the expected to put a third pay offer to teachers in January after the State School Teachers Union knocked back the first two.

    "The State Government is also desperate to recruit more school cleaners and gardeners. It is spending $40,000 on an advertising campaign to attract another 50 cleaners and 20 gardeners."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Disruptions in class

      "I would like to congratulate your correspondent Maria Mansour (Stigma in classrooms, 8/1) on her wonderful achievement. However her question "How can one student cause a disruption?" comes as a surprise when she goes on to say she has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair.

      "While she deserves accolades on being an achiever, it is obvious that she was able to. Others with cerebral palsy are not so lucky. Some are intellectually impaired as well as physically.

      "We must also remember that there are other disabilities besides cerebral palsy. The fact is that one student can cause a disruption.

      "Ms. Mansour would have seen all degrees of disability. Some of these result in the children exhibiting all kinds of tics, ranging up to violent physical spasms and shouting. Without a doubt this is disruptive to other children in the class.

      "However, having said this, I will go back to my original reaction when I first saw this proposition. Sure, exclude these children from mainstream classes, on one condition - that all disruptive students without disabilities are excluded as well. In fact, possibly excluded first because their behaviour may well be the cause of a tic in a disabled child."

      Jan Steele, Dianella
      
      

    • "I applaud Maria Mansour's comments and achievements (Letters, 8/1) in what relates to a disruptive student. My own 25 years as a classroom teacher have clearly shown me that children with disabilities are much less disruptive than the small group of constantly poorly behaved individuals who steal valuable learning time from students who want to learn.

      "But increasingly, teachers are facing irate parents insulted that any teacher would dare to discipline their children. Perhaps we need to rethink the notion of what disruptive elements in the classroom are."

      Brenda Macoboy, Marmion
      

      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Government revising pay offer to teachers
    
    "The State School Teachers Union says it expects negotiations over a new pay deal with the State Government will resume before the school year begins.

    "The Union is pushing for a pay rise and recently rejected the State Government's second round offer.

    "The government is revising the offer and should present it to the union within the next two weeks.

    "But the Union's Anne Gisbourne says it is unlikely there will be an agreement before students return.

    "I think it would highly unlikely that we will have a resolved position. The members do need to see another offer that comes forward and that of course requires members to be back in school to even effect that," she said.

    "Industrial action in these circumstances is always a possibility. We will certainly consider a range of options should we not have progress in negotiations with the department and the Minister."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
  • McGowan closes Aboriginal school
    
    "The Minister for Education says he decided to close an Aboriginal school in Perth's northern suburbs because it lacked an acceptable standard of education.

    "Mark McGowan has decided to close the Aboriginal Community College in Gnangara before first term begins.

    "The school received funding from both the State and Federal Governments, but the Mr McGowan says the school was experiencing problems with its budget.

    "It is the second school Mr McGowan has closed in as many months. He closed an Islamic college in Kenwick because its staff were focussing too heavily on religion instead of the curriculum.

    "Mr McGowan says the Education Department alerted him of problems with the schools finances.

    "Some years ago it was a well regarded school it met the needs of its community," he said.

    'It was quite a good little institution there in Gnagara but whats happened over the last few years is its deteriatated."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
• Students warned to beware private colleges
  by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Writer
  

  "The NSW Government has warned students to beware of unscrupulous private colleges after 318 were reported to Fair Trading this year.

  "The NSW Fair Trading Minister, Linda Burney, yesterday warned students to research their training courses carefully if they did not get into their preferred university course.

  "The University Admissions Centre will release the cut-off scores for each university course next Thursday, allowing students to discover whether or not they were successful.

  "Some students discovered too late that their private course 'qualifications' are not recognised in the relevant industry and they have wasted their time and money," Ms Burney said. ..."

  Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
  
  
  

• School funding scheme ending: Gillard
  

  "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard says a NSW-based scheme which sees up to $4.5 million in taxpayer-funded interest subsidies paid to private schools is being "phased out".

  "Ms Gillard backed away from criticising the Labor state government scheme which, according to News Limited newspapers, was being used to prop up the balance sheet at some of Sydney's richest schools. ..."

  Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

Saturday – Sunday, 12 – 13 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Privates school fees jump 9pc (page 11)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Private school fees are soaring at up to double the inflation rate, with elite colleges increasing their fees as much as 9 per cent this year in a bid to stop other schools poaching their top teachers.
    
    "The fee rises mean that Perth's most expensive school, Presbyterian Ladies College, will crack the $16,000-a-year barrier, more than 60 times the cost of attending a State school.

    "Association of Independent Schools deputy executive director Valerie Gould said expected increases in State school teachers' salaries were one factor pushing the most expensive private schools to lift their fees between 6 and 9 per cent.
    
    "With a teacher shortage there may have to be decisions made about what we have to offer our staff to keep them because they could be lured away by other schools," she said.

    "Ms Gould said decisions to increase fees were not taken lightly because principals were aware that many parents were making sacrifices to send their child to a private school. "Schools do agonise very hard over fees and they consider what their parents can afford, how many parents might now either have to withdraw their students or go to the school to negotiate a different way of paying, or do we have to offer bursaries to some parents," she said.
    
    "Schools also took into account the increase in the average government school recurrent costs when setting their fees. This year's increase was 4.6 per cent.
    
    "Generally fee increases have to be more than that, because in the non-government sector they have to add on the cost of maintenance and new buildings," she said.

    "Anglican Schools Commission executive director, the Rev. Peter Laurence, said its schools would raise fees between 5 and 9 per cent.
    
    "Mr Laurence said the increase was slightly higher than usual, partly because schools had to keep their lead on State teachers' wages. But they were flying blind until the State School Teachers Union finalised talks on an enterprise bargaining agreement.
    
    "There's no doubt that one of the issues that have to be addressed is the salary remuneration area to make sure there is some attraction to teach in our schools," he said. "There is a teacher shortage and it filters through the system ultimately . We've been largely spared from it but any principal will tell you that in certain areas they are getting fewer applicants for positions."

    "Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said secondary school fees at Catholic schools, which averaged $2800 to $3200, would rise between 6 and 9 per cent.
    
    "Some primary school fees would rise 15 per cent because they were in a high socioeconomic area where parents could afford to pay more."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Aboriginal private school is shut down (page 11)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Serious financial problems, a lack of teachers and dwindling enrolments have forced Education Minister Mark McGowan to close a private school for Aboriginal children.
    
    "Mr McGowan said he had serious concerns about the ongoing education of students at the Aboriginal Community College in Gnangara.

    "The college board has informed me that it is in serious financial difficulty and would not be able to pay staff or operate as normal in 2008," he said.
    
    "Although the school has received generous State and Commonwealth financial support, the financial problems are in addition to ongoing issues with the governance and management of the school and a significant decline in the number of students. The lack of teaching staff and struggling finances has therefore led to serious concerns about the standard of education at the college."
    
    "The Department of Education Services , which has responsibility for registering non-government schools, said the school was no longer financially viable.

    "The college last year received $250,000 Commonwealth funding and $81,000 from the State Government to help pay for a principal and two teachers, a cleaner and gardener, accounting fees, maintenance, vehicle costs and teaching resources.
    
    "The board still owes the Commonwealth $80,000.

    "Despite being given nearly two years to fix the problems, the school was unable to comply with registration standards, including teacher qualifications, enrolment procedures and the standard of education being provided.
    
    "There were just 35 students enrolled last year. Six of those were high school students but the school could not obtain a secondary trained teacher to teach them.
    
    "Last year the high school students did work set by a staff member while they were supervised by non-teaching staff.

    "The college is the second school Mr McGowan has closed in recent weeks. The Muslim Ladies College, in Kenwick, was closed because it had employed unregistered teachers who spent too much time on religious studies."

    From The West Australian at link
    
    Similar APP Story in The Sunday Times
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • In Short
      
      "It's all very well to suggest segregating girls from boys in the classroom but maybe someone should be looking at why the boys' results were lower than those of the girls in the first place. The first question I would be asking the boys is: "How many hours a day do you spend playing mind-numbing electronic games?"

      L. Sutherland, Madeley
      
      

    • "In regard to your 9/1 report (Girls wipe the floor with boys in TEE), the author has to be a feminist to write such an unbalanced article. All West Australians congratulate the girls on their achievement and they deserve exposure, but surely not in this form. The girls are going to be mothers one day. Would they show this article to their boys? Will you give it first page exposure when the boys beat the girls? Our society doesn't need this kind of division."

      Peter Botica, Salter Point
      
      
      

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Education peril in 'fonic' debate
    by Piers Akerman
    
    "The simplistic, populist approach of the Rudd government to its much-vaunted education revolution is based on its mantra of "a laptop for every child".
    
    "However, even that slogan has now been modified to the more slippery "every child shall have access" to a computer, which will in all probability undergo further transformation at the hands of the Labor Government's army of spin meisters before any actual policy is implemented.

    "Whatever the outcome of the access-to-computers debate, a far more dangerous threat to the education system was revealed by The Australian newspaper.

    "The story identified the hazard posed by some within the education industry who feel compelled to place their own ideological hobby horses before their responsibility to ensure that the young are provided with the best opportunities to learn.

    "The reporter highlighted the case of a distinguished literacy researcher, Alan Luke, from the Queensland University of Technology, who has rejected the most recent research that shows phonics-based teaching improves the reading skills of children.

    "In a paper presented to a forum hosted by the Australian Curriculum Studies Association, the Queensland Teachers Union, the state Education Department and the Queensland Studies Authority, Prof Luke argued that the introduction of phonics-based teaching in the US and Australia was accompanied by "the rise of a 'gold standard' of evidence-based research as the major criterion for deciding what will be considered 'valid' as evidence of success in literacy teaching".

    "Prof Luke said there was "little recognition of the host of contributing factors", including such things as "home-school transitions and access; the variable impacts of community, cultural and linguistic background; the effects of poverty; the increasing incidence of special needs; and the impacts of differential school resourcing".

    "All well and good, but why should this lead to the rejection of a tried and proven method of successfully teaching reading?

    "The clue is in Prof Luke's explanation of his rejection of the evidence-based research that supports phonics.

    "He cites the same broad areas of cultural and linguistic background, poverty, special needs and so forth that now litter post-modern education studies.

    "Surely, however, those factors (as dear as they may be to the inner-urban, academic-stacked Labor branches) do not trump the reality that the hard evidence has shown.

    "Author Kevin Donnelly belled the cat in a piece published in The Australian on Friday when he quoted from a paper presented by Prof Luke in 1998 in which he argued that monitoring standards and ensuring schools were effectively teaching children how to read and write was a ploy to open schools to market forces and to further entrench the position of non-government schools.

    "Literacy education is ultimately about the kind of society and the kinds of citizens/subjects that could, and should, be constructed," he wrote.

    "Well, no, literacy education is about teaching reading and thereby providing individuals with an essential tool for intellectual development.

    "Rudd's laptop-led education revolution didn't factor in cultural warriors such as Prof Luke, but it will have to deal with them if it intends to hold to its promise to support back-to-basics curricula and accountability in education.

    "The Roman philosopher Cicero wrote that the uncritical defence of the unknown and what is not clearly understood "is more deplorable in its rashness than simply being wrong".

    "In jettisoning a proven method of teaching reading, Prof Luke and other academics who denounce phonics, are turning back the clock to a strain of thought that existed before the Enlightenment.

    "There is no point today in hanging on to the belief that the world is flat when it can be proven to be round, no matter what the politically correct view of the globe is held to be.

    "Educationalists who cling to peculiar beliefs that cannot be supported by readily available research must be challenged and removed from any positions they may hold which might give them control over school curricula.

    "Only the proven best methods of teaching should be adopted by those who have the responsibility of educating our children, not systems chosen for their ideological purity." [emphasis added]

    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
    
  • School fees blowout - it pays to save for future education (page 63)

    States the obvious re school fees rising and provides suggestions on how to save for the future education of your children.

    Full story in The Sunday Times
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 63)
    

    • WA is catching up

      "Re "Public schools snub" (TST, January 6): If politicians such as Paul Omodei did their research they would have found that, led by Victoria, about 35 per cent of children in each state go to private schools. WA has merely been catching up with the eastern states.

      "The sad fact is that the churches that run most of the private schools do not practise what they preach and do not provide an education system for the poor and underprivileged.

      "Instead, their education systems are for those who can afford the expense, whose parents believe church schools can ensure their children get into university or those who believe such an education will ensure their children do not fall prey to drugs or drift off the beaten track of social responsibility.

      "As the Minister for Education rightly claims, the public system provides an excellent choice for parents.

      Those of us who practise Christianity as taught in the New Testament can do so with the assurance that our children and grandchildren will get sound training at public schools."

      D.A. Forrester, Lesmurdie
      
      

    • Dilemma on school

      "In 2009, I will face the dilemma of where to send my three young boys to school.

      "Education Minister Mark McGowan has closed down my local school in an obvious land grab that shows no concern for the needs of the children.

      "The school Mr McGowan wants the Blackmore Primary School children to attend abuts an almost-derelict shopping centre where six people have been robbed in the past few weeks.

      "My choice is clear - go private or drive to a suburb where there will hopefully be three places for my boys."

      Tory Clerke, Girrawheen
      
      
      

• The Weekend Australian
  

• Op Ed
  Labor ignores the Left
  by Kevin Donnelly
  
  EDUCATION 2008: an education revolution or the same old story?
  
  "In his first parliamentary speech as leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd tagged education as a key policy issue.

  "In the months leading to the November federal election, the ALP released a series of persuasive policy papers that presented a coherent and convincing narrative about what needed to be done to strengthen Australia's education system. Much to the chagrin of those on the cultural Left who would prefer the ALP federal Government to advocate a new-age and feel-good approach to education - illustrated by Australia's dumbed-down, outcomes-based education model of curriculum - the incoming Government's education revolution involves computers, increased testing and accountability, rigorous standards and a back-to-basics approach.

  "Unlike previous Labor governments, which attempted to stem the flow of students from government to independent and Catholic schools by restricting non-government school funding, the Rudd Government has also accepted parents' right to choose where their children go to school and has guaranteed the funding formula introduced by the Howard government, at least until 2012.

  "Looking ahead across the next 12 months, will Rudd and Education Minister Julia Gillard be able to deliver? Given that the Council of Australian Governments and the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs - both federal-state-territory organisations - are now fully ALP-controlled and given the apparent goodwill on all sides, there is every reason to feel optimistic.

  "This is especially so given events at the state level during the past year or two. Tasmania has modified its OBE-inspired Essential Learnings approach to curriculum, the West Australian Education Minister has done an about-face and now argues that OBE fails to deliver, and Queensland has adopted a basics approach to English as a subject.

  "OBE has disappeared from the educational lexicon, to be replaced by concepts such as content and performance standards and personalised learning. [emphasis added]

  "Late last year, state and territory governments released Federalist Paper 2, which argues for the central importance of academic subjects, that the public has every right to know about school and teacher performance, and that the success of an education system should be measured not simply by how much is spent but by how well students learn.

  "On the level of rhetoric and, in some instances, in practice, it appears the tide has turned and that Gillard's description of herself as an educational traditionalist is not out of place. After debates throughout 2007 about falling standards, the impact of political correctness and postmodern gobbledygook on the curriculum, especially literature and history, and the best way to attract and reward teachers, it appears that 2008 signals a period where criticisms will be addressed and the system strengthened.

  "Optimism about 2008 should also be tempered by the fact that an education system, especially one suffering from provider capture, is similar to an oil tanker: it takes a long time to change direction and set a new course.

  "Rudd, in the ALP's election policy paper Establishing a National Curriculum to Improve our Children's Educational Outcomes, stresses the importance of an academic and rigorous approach to curriculum. Parents and teachers expecting dramatic changes this year in what is taught will be disappointed. Labor's national curriculum is not set for delivery until 2010 and the party has promised to give control of the project to bodies responsible for the parlous situation that exists.

  "When in opposition, Rudd and education spokesman Stephen Smith argued that teachers and schools should be held accountable for performance and that increased investment in education should be linked to improved outcomes for students.

  "While a national approach to rewarding teacher performance has yet to be agreed on, it appears any model put forward in 2008 will be of little value. Not only is there no intention to link rewards for teacher performance to students' results, as measured by improved learning outcomes, but the model being suggested is overly bureaucratic and onerous in terms of compliance and only available to a minority of teachers, thus doing nothing to alleviate the issue of teacher shortage.

  "There is also the additional concern that holding schools accountable for performance, while imposing a state-mandated, often dumbed-down curriculum and denying them the right to hire and fire staff, is unfair.

  "Fulfilling the election promise to give all senior school students access to computers and the internet, while superficially popular and in line with the mantra of becoming the knowledge nation and competing in an information technology-rich world, does nothing to address the most important issue: how best to attract Year 12 students to teaching as a career and how best to support and reward them when in schools.

  "The baby boomers, who make up the majority of the teaching profession, are rapidly heading for retirement and researchers agree that about 30 per cent of beginning teachers leave the profession after four to five years. Mathematics and science teachers are especially difficult to recruit and keep in the profession, and in some areas, especially Western Australia, many classes will begin this year without qualified teachers.

  "While some, such as the Australian Education Union, argue that the supposed bad press about teachers is to blame for the shortage, there are other factors that must be taken into account. In Victoria, for example, the ALP Government places many teachers on short-term contracts, denying them job certainty and any guarantee of continuity in their chosen profession. The quality of the curriculum and the rate and constant nature of educational reform is also significant in terms of teacher anxiety and burnout.

  "WA's adoption of OBE, whereby teachers are forced to implement a decidedly cumbersome, unfriendly and burdensome curriculum, as argued on the Perth-based People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes website (www.platowa.com), has led to teacher frustration and angst.

  "In Tasmania, the recently retired president of the teachers union, Jean Walker, argued that the state's adoption of Essential Learnings presented the greatest challenge the union had faced in protecting teachers' working conditions. In 2008, whatever curriculum initiatives are planned, care should be taken that teachers are not, once again, overwhelmed and that they are given a substantial role in what is being designed.

  "Generally, teachers are not well paid and it is ironic that across Australia, especially in Victoria and Western Australia, ALP-controlled governments are refusing to meet teachers' demands for better pay and conditions. Given the research suggesting that, along with the quality of the curriculum, teachers are the most important determinant in how well students learn, it stands to reason that they should be better rewarded.

  "Luring the right Year 12 students to teaching as a career is also vitally important. Many of the boomers now in the system are only there because of government-sponsored studentships that paid for their time at university and college. While moves to reduce the Higher Education Contribution Scheme payment by students undertaking teacher training in maths and science is a start, maybe it is time to re-introduce studentships. [emphasis added]

  "A submission by the Australian Secondary Principals' Association argues that teacher training must better prepare teachers for the reality of the classroom and, based on a survey of beginning teachers, concludes that teacher training is"at best satisfactory" as a preparation for teaching and in "several areas it is clear that they (beginning teachers) felt that they were significantly under-prepared".

  "Much is on the agenda for 2008. The danger is that the attempted solutions are based on past practice, one where committees and bureaucracies work in isolation from schools, and governments impose initiatives based on short-term political expediency or whatever is the most recent education minister's plan.

  "The alternative? Give schools greater autonomy and freedom to best reflect the needs and aspirations of their local communities, as with charter schools in the US. Give more parents the ability to choose where their children go to school by introducing educational vouchers, a system in which the money follows the child to either government or non-government schools and there is a greater reliance on market forces to improve quality. Now, that would be an education revolution." [emphasis added]

  Kevin Donnelly is director of Melbourne-based Education Strategies and author of Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books).
  
  From The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Extra years at school pay dividends
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  

  "Forcing students to remain at school increases their income over their lifetime, with new Australian research showing every extra year of education adds 10 per cent to their salary.

  "A study by Australian National University economists Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan found that the increased income was almost three times the wages students lost by staying at school.

  "States that raised the school leaving age in the 1960s substantially increased the lifetime earnings of individuals," it says.

  "Recently announced increases in the school leaving age ... are likely to have a beneficial effect on individuals growing up in those states."

  "The school leaving age in most states is 16 but many states recently introduced requirements for students to remain in education, training or a job until 17.

  "The findings contradict a report by the Centre for Independent Studies last month, which rejects the idea that providing more education and training will improve the job prospects and wages of high school dropouts.

  "In the paper, CIS social research director Peter Saunders argues the best way to help the bottom 25 per cent of school leavers is to increase the number of unskilled jobs, not to give them better skills.

  "The solution to the skills shortage lies in policies like delayed retirement and increased female participation in the workforce," Mr Saunders said. "The solution to unskilled joblessness lies in generating more unskilled employment."

  "Dr Leigh, a research fellow at the ANU Research School of Social Sciences, said yesterday the issue of increasing the proportion of students completing school or an equivalent qualification was a matter of long-term social policy.

  "The Government ought to think of the skills shortage in terms of the life chances of somebody who gets 10 years of schooling in a modern economy," he said. "Having a good base of general skills is going to be the most valuable thing we can give kids these days.

  "I'd love to pay less for a plumber but we should be more worried about what a high school dropout is going to earn 20 years from now, not whether we have cheap plumbers or someone to drive a truck at the mines."

  "The study, to be published in the international journal Economics of Education Review, is the first to estimate the economic benefit of staying at school, comparing the effect of raising the school-leaving age and the age at which students started school.

  "Dr Leigh and Dr Ryan used income data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey of about 12,000 people, including those aged 25 to 64 years who had completed school in Australia. For every extra year of school, the gross income was 13 per cent higher.

  "The study then examined the length of education determined by when people started school. Most states have a single entry date with students having to turn a certain age, often five years, by a cut-off date. As a result, some children born within a month of each other start school a year apart. If both leave school aged 16, the first student will have an extra year of schooling. With this measure the researchers estimated income increases of 8 per cent a year for the extra year.

  "The study then examined the effect of governments raising the minimum age at which students can leave school. Students forced to attend an extra year earned about 12 per cent more a year.

  "Comparing the three methods, the study estimates the benefit of extra education is 10 per cent a year in increased income, even after taking into account the lost earnings from starting work later."
  

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Call for crackdown on bogus providers
  

  "Unaccredited education providers that operate unchecked must be urgently dealt with, the president of Universities UK has urged.

  "Last week, a leading British businesswoman was embarrassed into handing back an honorary doctorship she was awarded by Irish International University. The institution is neither Irish nor a university.

  "The negative publicity generated by such stories can do real harm to the reputation of British education, Rick Trainor said.

  "International students must be reassured that action is being taken, he said.

  "It is vital we ensure that bogus education providers are not allowed to operate unchecked in the UK."

  From The Australian at link




• Letters to the Editor
  
  
  • We need to give English teachers evidence-based tools
    
    "The local and international scientific evidence for the benefits of direct, explicit and systematic phonics instruction as a prerequisite for assisting children to develop on-going reading competence is overwhelming and no longer in question ("Experts reject reading study’’, 10/1).
    
    "What is in question is the rejection of the scientific evidence by literacy experts and teacher educators throughout Australia's 34 higher education providers of teacher training, as well as by state and territory providers of in-service teacher professional learning. To dismiss scientific evidence for what is demonstrably effective for teaching children to read in favour of reported findings from qualitative, case-based, ethnographic studies is problematic for several reasons.

    "Foremost among these reasons is that findings derived from such studies typically suffer from major threats to validity and lack generalisation beyond the cases studied. The consequences are that teachers are not being provided with effective evidence-based teaching strategies, and children are not being provided with foundational alphabetic, letter-sound, decoding skills for reading and subsequent comprehension. This state of affairs is tantamount to gross negligence that has deleterious effects on students’ life-chances including further education, training, employment and productive participation in society.

    "Given that teachers are the most valuable resource available to schools, an investment in their professionalism is vital by ensuring that they are equipped with an evidence-based repertoire of pedagogical skills that are effective in meeting the developmental and learning needs of all students for whom they have responsibility. Consistent with the theme of your editorial ("Quality is paramount", 11/1), our teachers and students require and deserve no less."
    
    Dr Ken Rowe, Committee chair, National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy
    
    

  • "How, exactly, is one meant to determine the efficacy of an educational intervention if not by studying the evidence? Could the researchers who claim that analytic phonics is superior explain the basis on which they arrive at that conclusion?

    "This goes back to the point I've frequently made about another fad: dumping computers into schools without a definite plan as to how they will facilitate education. All the evidence (where it's been measured) shows that the result is negative for learning. For example, in a recent comparison of reading skills across countries, countries where kids spent the most time surfing the net or playing computer games scored lower, with three hours or more a day of either activity negative.

    "Why, in any case, set up analytic phonetics and synthetic phonics as mutually exclusive? If you learn with the synthetic method, you are learning how words are constructed, but you must also at some point pick up how to decode a word you hear into distinct sounds – even if this is not explicitly taught. If you learn using the analytic method, you do not learn how words are constructed. In this sense, the synthetic method seems to me to be more useful but would it not be the best approach to combine the methods?"
    
    Philip Machanick, Taringa, Qld
    
    

  • "I taught Years 1 and 2 in the 1960s before the radical curriculum changes occurred. Using a combination of approaches, classes of 30 or so children of mixed abilities were well on the way to reading fluency by the end of Year 1.

    "By the 1990s and beyond, I despaired at the literacy levels of English classes I taught at secondary level in Years 10 to 12. What happened in between? The whole word approach, surely a tool rather than a system, seemed to predominate. Rote learning, a very handy way of imprinting, especially for spelling, was discredited (mathematics has suffered as a consequence as well). Systematic formal study of language structure was abandoned – grammar became a dirty word and its advocates branded as heretical in English teaching circles.

    "Writing clearly, coherently and cohesively has implications which, of course, emanate from the level of skill and comprehension a child has acquired and practised in reading. A fluent and habitual reader can acquire writing skills instinctively but often does not understand the how and the why of written communication. Imagine the frustration of an old-style teacher such as me trying to explain incorrect usage, using grammatical terms, to a student who has never been taught formally the structure of English.

    "I have never subscribed to the theory that correcting student writing stifles creativity. Learning to write fluently and elegantly surely gives a writer more freedom and accuracy of expression.

    "It is to be hoped that the much-touted education revolution of the new federal Government includes curricula which contain clear prescriptive elements for the teaching of reading and writing, beginning at early primary school level and, at undergraduate teacher training level, providing programs for a lost generation of prospective young teachers who missed out on formal grammar."
    
    Enid Duncan, The Gap, Qld
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • History is safe
      
      "Carlos d'Abrera (Letters, 11/1) need have no fear for history teaching under the Rudd Government. It was the Victorian Liberals who dumped history in favour of the conglomeration of Studies of Society and the Environment. Victorian Labor re-established history as a traditional academic discipline. I taught my year 9s Australian history from European occupation through the gold rush to World War I, and my year 10s from the Treaty of Versailles through the Great Depression to World War II. There were plenty of facts there to help them with the not at all postmodern historical concepts of context and narrative."

      Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge
      
      
      

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Student unions on brink of extinction
    by Sarah Price
    

    "Student union membership has plummeted by up to 95 per cent since the Howard government made it voluntary, leading to a widening gap in student services between elite and regional universities.

    "National Union of Students (NUS) president Angus McFarland said while some of the more wealthy universities were able to supplement the lost income from union fees, that was not the case for other, less well-off institutions.

    "It's meant that we've seen a widening of the gap between the rich universities and poor universities," he said.

    "UNSW and Sydney University can afford to prop it up. But at Charles Sturt University, Wollongong University and the University of Western Sydney, we've seen that there's had to be a significant demise in income and organisations are struggling."

    "Mr McFarland said that at Wollongong University, the student newspaper was now run entirely by volunteers, the second-hand book shop had closed and a child-care subsidy provided had been removed.

    "At the University of Newcastle, student-association run entities had cut staff numbers by 65 per cent, the events budget had been slashed, there was no more free Centrelink and tax advice and a computer lab has been closed.

    "At the University of Western Sydney, Mr McFarland said funding for clubs and societies had been reduced by at least 50 per cent, a shuttle bus service had been closed and most of the staff positions were gone.

    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the Rudd Government would work with universities "to restore vital student services that the previous Liberal government trashed".

    "The Minister for Youth, Kate Ellis, will be conducting consultations with universities, student societies and clubs on the best way to ensure vital services like child care are provided," she said.

    "Federal Labor will obviously allow students to voluntarily organise themselves but we think the most important thing is to ensure vital student services are restored."

    "Mr McFarland said the NUS would not advocate a return to compulsory membership with upfront fees, but it wanted changes to be made and was compiling a discussion paper canvassing options, which it hoped to present to the Federal Government next month.

    "We're looking at what's happening across the world, at how it works in the UK, Western Europe and other places," he said. "All students should be able to access quality student organisations and services."

    "NUS figures show huge drops in union membership since 2006. The University of Newcastle Students' Association had 15,000 members in 2006 and 800 last year. The University of Wollongong Students' Association had a drop in membership from 10,000 to 1000. At Sydney University, union membership dropped from 40,000 to 10,000."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link

  
  
  

• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Editorial
    School guards
    

    "It is a sad reflection on this troubled age that the Rudd Government is considering spending millions on security protection for schools at risk from fanatics.

    "Jewish and Islamic schools are among those to be assessed for risk.

    "The Government might relieve schools of the cost of providing their own security.

    "Australian society's tolerance has allowed people from a multitude of ethnic and religious backgrounds to live peacefully side by side.

    "But a few bigots, often driven by historic bitterness, seek to disrupt this harmony.

    "No school should have its capacity to teach compromised because of the cost of protecting pupils."
    

    From The Herald Sun at link

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This page last updated 11 August, 2008 11:35 PM