Op Ed
Hard lessons to come in education revolution (page 21)
by Tony Rutherford
“The gloss seems to be wearing off the Rudd Government rather more quickly, perhaps, than anyone might have imagined. The Budget was a wasted opportunity, and has already disappeared without leaving much of a trace either on the difficult task of economic management or on the minds of the voters. The ultimately pointless squabble between Government and Opposition over petrol prices seems unlikely to do anything significant about the price of petrol, but has damaged Kevin Rudd's standing to some degree yet to be measured. And his gratuitous insults to his public servants will hardly stand him in good stead.
“A common theme through much of the travails of recent weeks is a perceived failure to deliver: interest rates are not likely to go down very much very soon; and the grocery pricing scheme looks like being an expensive and futile flop. There must already be quite a few voters out there who are wondering if all the promises are going to turn out to be lies.
“In other less obvious areas, life in Government is turning out to be much harder than life in Opposition. The vision of a promised land of peace and light in Federal-State relations, for instance, is already looking hollow, with major disagreements already emerging about the proposed national scheme for occupational health and safety, about health insurance and public hospitals, about industrial relations and about the GST.
“An interesting question that emerges in the face of all this is whether the Prime Minister and his Government can deliver on their promises in other key areas.
“In particular, we are still waiting for signs of real progress in the much proclaimed "education revolution".
“During the election campaign, much was made of the importance of education in securing the next great wave of improvements in productivity needed to take the Australian economy forward. It was a good and credible line. It is now looking less so. It was disappointing, for instance, to see from the Budget that the Government was unwilling or unable to make much difference to the funding of Australia's universities.
“It was equally disappointing to see the cuts to the CSIRO, cuts which the Government did not even seek to justify. And one of the cornerstones of Mr Rudd's revolution, the more or less universal provision of computers to schools, was in fact the occasion of the first falling-out between the new Government and its State Labor colleagues. There seems not to have been much news on that front lately.
“It still seems a little odd that Julia Gillard has such a fistful of portfolios, and one wonders whether her education responsibilities are coming a poor second to her industrial relations responsibilities. Her activities in this area are much less high-profile than those of her Liberal predecessors, and she seems less interested in the public school system than them.
“Ms Gillard did indeed surface wearing her education hat the other day, and in a way provoked some concern. She made it clear that, as far as she was concerned, the results of the national literacy and numeracy tests – tests which Labor spokesperson Stephen Smith strongly supported in Opposition – would not be released in anything like their raw form, something not promised during the election. They will not, indeed, show anything as straightforward as percentage results; tests will be graded in “bands” of achievement. More, the tests will be statistically adjusted to compensate for socio-economic differences between schools.
“This is a betrayal of both children and parents.
“It is not difficult to see what lies behind it. It is the usual collusion between so-called progressive educational theorists and the nation’s teaching unions. Those unions have always opposed testing and were, repeatedly, an obstacle in the way of the Howard government's somewhat erratic school reform agenda over the past three or four years.
“It turns out that the unions can now achieve most of their aims by leaning on a sympathetic minister.
“Parents need the truth. It doesn't harm the growing number who now seem quite uninterested in their children's education. But those who do still care need to know how well their children's school is faring.
“Those in less advantaged socio-economic areas indeed need to know more urgently and more I precisely than those better off.
“Concealing the true state of affairs merely relieves the pressure on the State public school systems to do better. And it inevitably raises the question as to why anyone bothers with testing - perhaps it is now meant to be a gesture, no more, a futile sign that the system is indeed doing something.
“Something quite unpleasant is going on here.
“Children in high schools in such areas are already being denied the possibility of doing the harder TEE options as it is. Teachers in such schools increasingly hold the opinion, consciously or not, that they shouldn't hold any great expectations of their pupils; after all, none of them will do very well in life, and what use is calculus?
“Of course, this is to have things utterly round the wrong way. The whole purpose of public education is to ensure that every child, from whatever background, has an equal chance to every other child of the best possible education.
“Research in the US, for instance, shows that where parents are offered the right information, some of them (especially African Americans) will act on it. Those parents will often, where they can, switch schools. No one would expect anything less.
“Whatever all this represents, it is not the beginning of an education revolution. Voters who care about these things, whether or not they are parents, may well have reason to regret another broken promise.”
From The West Australian
Year 7s to sit new State science tests (page 17)
by Bethany Hiatt
“Almost every Year 7 student in WA will be assessed on their science skills in new benchmarking tests which will take place in State, Catholic and most independent schools later this year.
“Under the new WA Monitoring Standards in Education assessments, Year 7 students will sit science tests for the first time and all Year 9s will be tested on their knowledge of science and society and environment. The Statewide tests are being held on top of national reading, writing and maths tests which students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat last month and which replaced WA-based literacy and numeracy tests.
“The State School Teachers Union is considering whether to oppose the new testing program.
“Last month it directed teachers not to implement the national tests but was forced. to back down after the Department of Education and Training took legal action in the WA Industrial Relations Court.
“The department's school support programs executive director, David Axworthy, said he was confident teachers would "put the needs of students first" and conduct the tests as required.
“Year 9 students have been tested in science for the past four years. A small sample group of Year 9s sat society and environment tests last year but this is the first time all Year 9 students will be assessed in that subject.
“Mr Axworthy said it was much easier to compare students' performances against each other when everyone in a year group did the same test.
“Data from the tests would be used to monitor students' progress. The tests would also be used to identify students who needed extra support and to help schools refine their teaching programs.
“The department would consider whether to introduce more tests after the 2008 results were collected.
“WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said the department should have organised the State tests to coincide with the national tests.
"Kids that have already been tested in some areas are suddenly going to be told, in a few more weeks you're going to be tested again," he said.
“Association of Independent Schools of WA executive director Audrey Jackson said many private schools chose to use the MSE tests because they found the data valuable, even though use of the tests was not tied to funding as the national tests were.”
From The West Australian
