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Breaking
News: Week of 27 October 2008
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Saturday – Sunday, 1 – 2 November
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Avoid school league tables, says expert
by Gerard Noonan
"A leading British education academic has warned Australia not to copy the obsession in Britain and the United States with league tables and report cards for schools.
"Peter Mortimore, a former director of the British Institute of Education, says rather than adopt Britain's "failed" policies, Australia's Education Minister, Julia Gillard, should look at countries such as Finland, which support high-level teaching. [Also, see the following Op Ed by Peter Mortimore.]
"In England, a market approach to schools has created a bewildering hierarchy of institutions, from the elite private schools for the most powerful and advantaged families to the 'bog standard' comprehensive for the most disadvantaged and least powerful," Professor Mortimore said in Sydney yesterday. "Is this what Australia needs?"
"He is visiting Australia to stimulate debate on the effects which "accountability" measures, such as constant testing of students and the production of league tables, have on student well-being and performance. The visit is sponsored by five Australian universities, including the University of Western Sydney, and the Australian Education Union.
"The Prime Minister and Ms Gillard have been pushing a competitive agenda for schools, arguing that federal funding should be linked to teachers' and principals' performance, and each school should be forced to produce report cards so parents can choose.
"Professor Mortimore said a study of schools in Britain showed students could expect to be formally tested at least 100 times during their school years. Pupils became labelled as "failures", teachers were blamed and schools threatened with closure.
"But in the latest OECD survey of 15-year-old student performance, , Britain's average scores in reading, mathematics and science had seriously declined since 2000.
"Inequality - demonstrated by the number of students who "failed" the tests - remained worryingly high compared with other countries. He contrasted this with Finland, where teaching is the country's most popular job. All teachers received formal training for at least five years. Finnish students topped the OECD tests in 2000, 2003 and 2006.
"In Finland, the government trusts teachers, and energises and encourages them," he said. [emphasis added]
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
Similar story in The Australian
- Op Ed
Finland is the shining light
by Peter Mortimore
"In England since 1988 education ministers from different political parties have sought to create an education revolution.
"They have dismantled the powers of local authorities, created new types of secondary schools (with different governance, finances and powers), encouraged parental choice, established a national curriculum, introduced mandatory testing at 7, 11, 14 and 16 years, promoted league tables of results and made endless changes to teacher training.
"Ministers have succeeded in using new legislation to change systems, organisations and procedures. Whether they have succeeded in raising the average level of achievement, overcoming the impact of disadvantage on learners or in creating a more just society is, however, questionable.
"In the latest survey of childhood conditions carried out for UNICEF, the United Kingdom (England was not rated separately) was ranked bottom of 21 countries. Furthermore, the 2006 PISA (the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment) shows that average scores in reading, mathematics and science have seriously declined since 2000 and that equity in education remains worryingly low.
"The centrepiece of the English reforms is the "high stakes" testing regime. It has been calculated by an English researcher that a child will experience at least 100 formal tests or examinations over the course of their schooling. The assessment is not only about the progress of pupils but encompasses the quality of teaching and the performance of schools. This has led to situations where pupils are labelled, teachers blamed and schools threatened with closure. Yet, as any assessment expert can tell you, using the same tests for judging individual children's progress and for measuring school effectiveness will not work; it is not fit for the (different) purposes.
"In my career in the education service, I have researched school effectiveness for more than 30 years. I have argued consistently that all schools do not perform at the same level: some promote greater progress and better care for their pupils than others. But I have also acknowledged the limitation of school effectiveness. Whilst some talented individuals overcome the effects of disadvantage and some outstanding schools can, through superhuman effort, buck the trend for a period, they are the exceptions. In every school system in the world in which data are collected, the advantaged (as a group) - having experienced better diet, housing, health care, access to books and educational experiences from birth - outperform the disadvantaged. Trying to even up the life chances for the disadvantaged is the greatest challenge for education systems. The available evidence, however, does not support the view that it can be met through the transparency of report cards or league tables or through unfettered choice. These tools simply help the advantaged to make even more strategic choices.
"In England, a market approach to schools has created a bewildering hierarchy - from the elite private schools for the most powerful and advantaged families to the "bog-standard" comprehensive for the most disadvantaged and least powerful. Is this what Australia needs?
"If it is not - and many of the arguments of Australia's federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard, point to her desire for a better society - then, rather than adopting failed English policies, it would be more astute to study how Finland has managed both to top the world in average scores and to achieve a high degree of equity. Could this be due to its comprehensive, unstreamed schools, its lack of inspections and regular testing programs and its huge investment in well-educated teachers?
"Of course, politicians are attracted to macho policies. It is understandable that they want to produce dramatic change. But they need to do so wisely. Making education systems work for the most disadvantaged is one of the most challenging tasks facing any government. It needs careful, well-researched trials, experimental use of resources and intelligent debate, rather than bloody revolution."Peter Mortimore, visiting Australia as the guest of five universities and the Australian Education Union, is former director of the Institute of Education, University of London.
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
Look who's reading now - how a lizard tale reawakened learning
It was through an innovative literacy program developed by an EDEN teacher, Karelynne Randall, that Ben discovered not only that he could read but he could also write a book about his experiences.
- School future hangs in the balance
As the National Art School searches for a new director, old controversies continue to dominate debate about its direction, writes Joyce Morgan.
- Barefoot in class across the Third World divide
Erik Jensen observed as Sydney pupils learnt of the harshness of life for their peers in a place where high school education is not guaranteed.
- Letter to the Editor
- Let's just file that idea away under naivety
"The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy ("Critics of web filter 'bullied' ", October 24), is trying to implement a system that will protect children from pornography and other harmful material on the internet, a system that will be compulsory for all Australians. Ignoring the "compulsory" bit, it sounds great. Who would object to that?
"The trouble is, the internet does not recognise context. For instance, if you look up "nude girl" you will find not only pornography; there will be Renaissance art, diagrams from sex education classes and images unrelated to what you have searched for. The internet operates as a database; it can't see an image and decide what it is. It is obviously incapable of bias.
"Censorship will begin with pornography and move on to other things. Many censorship experts believe that it will eventually attack things such as illicit drug information and file-sharing. Instructions about drugs could very well persuade someone to try them, but at the same time could turn someone against them.
"And concerning file-sharing: when I was doing my HSC, I always tried to download my own music on to the school computers to show my teachers and peers, sometimes for marked assessments. (I had to discreetly use a proxy website to get the tracks.) But even if you wrote and recorded the song, you cannot prove that to the filter. It blocks the MP3. This would probably apply to many media formats. And this filter will be mandatory for schools, too.
"There was a rumour that there was a plan being devised by global internet service providers to whittle down internet access into packages, where you could access only selected sites such as Google, Wikipedia and Ninemsn, more or less limiting the internet to sites run by some of the world's largest corporations. Not only that, but internet access to information could easily be controlled. While this rumour could be false, the concept is scary enough. What is also scary is that it is perfectly possible, given China, Burma and South Korea's recent censoring of information.
"Whether the rumour is true or not, you can see what I'm getting at. Considering our influence as a nation in the Western world, this decision could cause other countries to follow in our footsteps.
"Do you, the Australian public, really want government picking and choosing what you should see, deciding what is appropriate for Australians?"
Liam O'Brien, Hamilton South
- ABC News
- Talks fail to avert teachers' strike
"The Australian Education Union says a strike by South Australian teachers will proceed on Thursday.
"Last-minute negotiations in the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) have failed to avert the industrial action.
"The IRC has recommended the Government take another look at its overall offer to give teachers 9.75 per cent more over three years..." [emphasis added]
Full story on ABC News at link
- NT teachers given back right to strike
The Australian Education Union says Northern Territory teachers are now protected in taking industrial action and may do so during upcoming Year 12 exams.
- Education Union says bi-lingual education boosts performance
The Northern Territory Education Union says the NT Government is ignoring international evidence that bi-lingual education improves academic performance of students.
- The Canberra Times
- Op Ed
State of mind we shouldn't fall into
by Kevin Donnelly
"It's no secret that, like the US singer Billy Joel, Minister for Education Julia Gillard is in a New York state of mind. After a trip earlier this year, Gillard has waxed lyrical about the success of the Big Apple's education system.
"So impressed is the federal Education Minister that she has invited the head of the New York Department of Education, Joel Klein, to Australia next month to convince state and territory authorities that they should also start singing from Klein's songbook.
"In New York, school results in statewide tests are made public and schools are ranked by performance. Teachers are also monitored, and rewarded if their students improve or punished if they do not.
"On the surface it looks good. For too long, parents have been kept in the dark about whether Australian schools are up to scratch, and under-performing teachers have been able to keep their jobs.
"At the level of rhetoric, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's call to make school data public, like academic results, teacher morale and student behaviour, also deserves a tick.
"As the PM said, if parents find out their school is no good they can vote with their feet and move to the next one.
"Reality check: unfortunately matters are not so simple. For all the extra millions spent on New York education rising from $US12.5 billion in 2002 to a projected $US22 billion this year, and all the Joel Klein initiatives to make schools and teachers accountable, the system is no better.
"While students' results, measured by state tests, have strengthened on Klein's watch, according to the more credible and objective National Assessment of Educational Progress students' scores have flatlined.
"As argued by Sol Stern, a New York-based educationalist, the reason state-controlled results have improved is that the bar has been lowered each year so more children succeed.
"Someone should also tell Minister Gillard that, in every major international test since the 1970s, America has failed to perform in the top category. Why should Australia follow New York's example while world's-best performers such as Singapore, Japan, Finland and the Netherlands are ignored?
"The way New York schools are ranked is also open to criticism. Schools are not rewarded according to the best results but ranked according to how much their performance improves.
"US academic Diane Ravitch argues, ''There is so much emphasis on progress that schools that consistently have high scores may be graded F because they did not improve while schools with abysmal scores that went up a few points would get an A.''
"If the New York system were adopted by the AFL, based on the 2007-08 home and away results, Geelong (at the top of the table both years) would get an F because there was no improvement. The Western Bulldogs, on the other hand, would be rewarded with an A as the team moved from 13th on the ladder to third.
"The result? As noted by New York education activist Leonie Haimson, under this faulty ranking system the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice can be cited by US News and World Report as one of the nation's leading high schools despite receiving an F.
"The system that is used to evaluate teachers is also open to criticism. Not only are teachers rewarded or punished largely on the basis of one criterion student performance in standardised tests but the margin of error, according to the New York Department of Education's own research, is 15 per cent to 20 per cent.
"Under the New York system, one that Minister Gillard now wants to mimic, it's impossible to know whether a teacher's ranking signifies him or her as being below average, average or above average.
"Unlike Gillard, parents strike a discordant note when talking about New York's education system. In a 2008 survey carried out by a group called Class Size Matters, most parents argued there was too much emphasis on testing.
"More important for parents were reducing class sizes and spending more on school maintenance.
"Over the past 10 months, Gillard has argued that gone are the days of guesswork and unproven fads. Rudd's education revolution, she argues, is based on sound research about what works and what doesn't.
"It's a pity, when singing the praises of New York and Joel Klein, that the minister fails to follow her own advice."
Dr Kevin Donnelly is director of Melbourne-based consultancy Education Strategies
From The Canberra Times at link
- The Australian
- Letters to the Editor
- Private schools save money
"Tim Hawkes makes a valid point when he says private schools save the government money ("In the eye of school funds storm”, 25-26/10). Many families make sacrifices to send their children to private schools and if government support is reduced and fees rise, they could be forced to send their children to state schools and the cost to government would be considerably greater."
AJ Miller, Port Elliot, SA
- "The King’s School attracts federal government funds because some of its students, like the Ridge family, come from an area of low socio-economic status, near Bourke.
"But pupils at public schools like Bourke HS get only one quarter of the funds the federal Government allocates to families who send their kids away to non-government schools.
"If the Ridges and others like them sent their sons to Bourke HS and it attracted the same federal subsidy given to Kings, it might be able to provide a better education for all the kids in the Bourke area."
John Drysdale, Clunes, NSW
- First Byte
"Xavier College muck-up day: violent, destructive behaviour ("Police hunt pupils who damaged car”, 22/10). Just 40km south to Karingal Park Secondary College’s end of year sleep over: exemplary behaviour. To the proud parents and teaching staff you may stand tall."
Vic Langsam, Karingal, Vic
- The Age
- Letters to the Editor
- Five Letters at that link on the closure of the Australian National Academy of Music, one on rogue training colleges and two on school bullying and the Xavier College incident.
- Inflexible fashion
“Having experienced the open classroom in the 1970s, I could have told the researchers that rebadging it as “middle school” would not work (“Muddle in the middle, review finds”, Education, 13/10).
“The recycling of this failed fad of 30 years ago, in which subjects do not matter, subject expertise does not matter and actual teaching does not matter, was doomed to failure.
“With the hope that the national curriculum documents will be content-based and grounded in evidence of what works, the time has come to dump the “guide at the side” teacher as facilitator and return to actual teaching.
“I doubt, however, that they will be as valuable as the ancient work of the Secondary English Committee, which needed only two pages of concise prose to sum up what English teaching needed to achieve.
“Now, curriculum documents present dozens of pages of repetitive waffle with level descriptions so poorly written that, when their numbers are removed from them, teachers are unable to put them in their correct sequence.”
Chris Curtis, Hurtstbridge
- The West Australian
Class blowouts worry teachers (page 9)
by Bethany Hiatt
“Almost 70 State schools packed too many children into early primary classes at the start of school year, figures reveal, raising union concerns about teachers' workloads and the quality of learning in Years 1 to 3.
“The Department of Education and Training will release data today showing average class sizes at 67 schools exceeded the recommended limit of 24 pupils in Year 1 to 3.
“It said most classes were only one or two students over but the teachers union said it was possible that class sizes could have crept up further since the figures were collected in February.
“Education director-general Sharyn O'Neill said schools had to be flexible because enrolment numbers fluctuated during the year.
“When class exceeded the limit, it was "generally" by agreement between the principal and teachers. Schools were staffed and resourced based on student enrolments. "In the few cases where a class size is significantly above the recommended number, schools are expected to provide additional teaching resources," she said.
“It is the first time the department has explained overcrowding since The West Australian published 2007 class size data leaked from confidential negotiations with the union on pay and conditions. The data showed 1004 classes at 320 primary and high schools had more students than allowed under the teachers' enterprise bargaining agreement.
“At the time, a spokesman said the 2007 figures were supplied "in confidence" so could not be discussed.
“State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said yesterday she was concerned that many schools were still not keeping average class sizes under the limit.
"We know that resourcing is supposed to be place in schools that would enable that to occur," she said. "We would urge any schools where class sizes are creeping over the top to pay attention to that and work as hard as they can to ensure that class sizes stay within the maximum as described in our agreement."
“Ms Gisborne said overcrowding was detrimental to young children because they received less individual attention. Packing too many children into classes added to teachers' workloads and made it more difficult to control bad behaviour.
“Bentley and Osborne primary schools had the highest average class sizes for Years 1 to 3 at 28.5 students, however Bentley's has dropped to 24 since the beginning of the school year.
“The data also showed 574 schools had average class sizes in Years 4 to 7 below the recommended level of 32. These included district high schools and remote community schools.
“Education Minister Liz Constable said the figures were good, but it was important to keep class sizes below recommended levels.”
From The West Australian
- 'Crime and hunger' in truant plan (page 12)
by Alana Buckley-Carr
"Crime will skyrocket and children could go hungry if a Federal Government plant to stop welfare payments to families of truants goes ahead, the WA Aboriginal Legal Service says.
“In a submission to the Senate inquiry into the no-school, no-welfare scheme, the ALS said the plan could lead to more children skilling school rather than cutting truancy...”
“ALSWA has serious concerns that cancelling welfare payments will result in children and young people being physically disciplined by parents in attempts to force children to school,” it said.
“Such action will result in school being further associated with punishment and will negatively impact on parent-child relationships.
“ALSWA suspects that stopping payments will actually work to increase the number of children not attending school. If, for one instance, one child in a family of five is truanting and the payments are cut, all five children not being able to attend school due to parents not being able to afford bus fares, stationery or food for lunches.” ... [emphasis added]
Full story in The West Australian
- Feature
Treasured highlights of longest-lived school (page 20)
by Paul Murray
“WA's third school, located on a high piece of land looking out over the fertile junction of the Swan and Helena rivers, opened its doors to students in 1833, just four years after the British settlement began.
“What was then Guildford Colonial School remains today as WA's longest-serving educational institution and at the weekend it celebrated its 175th anniversary.
“In a remarkable testament to what might appear to those driving through Guildford to be an unremarkable suburban primary school, more than 1000 people whose lives it had affected turned out to join the festivities.
“And it became not just a celebration of history, but if the central role that education and good schools can play in our lives.
“Guildford has always been proudly unfashionable, so there was none of the self-conscious dread that often goes with class reunions.
“For those of us who attended Guildford Primary in quieter times, there were happy memories of growing up in a semi-rural hamlet and attending a close-knit school where everybody knew everybody else.
“And, remarkably, despite the ravages of the years, almost everybody seemed able to recognise those who shared with them Guildfords stiflingly hot or achingly cold classrooms. Name tags helped.
“The painstaking organisation that went into Saturday's celebrations and the feel of the place speak warmly still of a close-knit and caring school community, admirably headed since 1993 by Neil St Quintin who retires at the end of this year.
“Some of the school's layout is just as it was when I left in 1962, with only the modern fixtures changing the look of some very familiar classrooms. And the town of Guildford itself also manages to retain a lot of its village feel.
“Some changes, however, are very noticeable. And some absences were painfully regrettable.
“My Grade 7 class photograph shows the Christian names of the times: Jim, Tom, Alfred, Lorraine, Phyllis, Stephanie.
“The school's work boards now disclose a new wave of Guildfordians: Tyler, Jayke, Zahra, Ayden, Mia and Caitlyn.
“Great teachers were remembered on Saturday for their positive influences and their distinctive traits, many of them relating to the easy resort post-war period to corporal punishment.
“Laura Nolan's new history of the school, Treasured Island, describes three in particular. They were Jessie Nairn and Winifred Field, who taught at Guildford for 34 and 25 years respectively, and 27-year veteran Jim Skillen, who retired in 1980 and still lives within a coo-ee of the grounds.
“Miss Nairn was a formidable figure, "a little bit liberal with her stick," according to some students. Ms Nolan noted that she was very strict about the rules of grammar.
"She'd get you by the shoulders and shake you so that your head would be shaking back and forward and she'd be yelling in your face: 'A verb is a doing word, a noun is a person, place of a thing!'" remembered one Guildford student. "She was the most dedicated of teachers," said another. "She was the teacher who taught me to have faith in myself. I was not always the most brilliant student in the class but she brought out anything you were good at."
“Thanks to Laura Nolan's research we know the 20 Aboriginal students from the nearby Allawah Grove reserve in South Guildford were enrolled in 1962.
“Nine of them appear in that year's class photographs published in Treasure Island. Sadly, name are only known for three.
“Not one former Allawah Grove student was at the anniversary celebrations, although by 1966 there were 38 at school, 16 in Grade 1 alone.
“It was very sobering reflection on the difficulties many of the Aboriginal children had in fitting into a predominantly "white" school that ,according to Ms Nolan's research did not make it easy for them.
“Allawah Grove was established in 1958 as part of what was known as the Transitional Housing Scheme to prepare Aboriginal families for living in the wider community. By the time is was closed 10 years later, only two had made the transition.
"At first, many of the teachers... were unsympathetic and frustrated by the children's general lack of readiness for primary school, unaware that many of the parents were unemployed and drank and gambled heavily," Ms Nolan writes.
“Later, the teachers realised the curriculum did not meet the needs of many Aboriginal children and suggested alternatives.
"However, the Education Department disapproved of the proposals because they would have discriminated between Aboriginal and white children," Ms Nolan found.
“A school readiness test designed at the Allawah Grove kindergarten was used to hold back some children for an extra year of special help. But the Education Department disallowed the scheme in 1966 of the grounds it was discriminatory.
“Laura Nolan outlines the hearing problems many of the children faced from untreated ear infections, dietary deficiencies, the language problems and that noisy adult parties in the cramped huts meant many were tired when they got to school.
“All that goes a long way to explain the absence of former Allawah Grove students at Saturday's celebrations. I suspect that in many cases history has not been able to write their stories with a happy outcome.
“However, on a brighter note, the welcome at the start of Saturday's formal events was made by Jeliamn Dann, a member of a well-known Aboriginal family, who is one of this year's school captains.”
From The West Australian
- Letters to the Editor (page 22)
System abuses teachers
"I am a permanent senior teacher with 30 years of teaching experience serving DET as a primary school teacher educating future generations but on Thursday that counted for little. I received a letter stating that "unfortunately you were not successful in gaining a substantive (permanent) teaching placement for 2009. Hopefully a temporary teaching position (end dated) could be found for you. Some temporary positions are for the full school year."
"The letter rambles on further about applying again in term two 2009 for a placement in 2010.
"There was no suggestion or mention that I would return to my "substantive" school of 10 years and nor was there any mention of when I may be offered a "temporary" school. Instead the letter ended with this: "For any related enquiries, please address your correspondence to Staffing@det.wa.edu.au."
"It is any wonder that there is a teacher shortage when the very people who need to be supported and valued are treated as numbers? The computers never see hard-working, passionate and loyal educators who wish to be treated professionally. This, I know, will not be the only letter of this type you receive this week - the flood is coming.
"Each year many hundreds of teachers receive this kick in the stomach, but what really matters is that no on is doing anything about fixing an already broken transfer system in which some golden people are hand picked by principals and others are at the mercy of a computer that can deal only with numbers. I leave you to ponder further why teacher like me have had enough."
D. Clarke, Hamilton Hill
- Like, it's pathetic
"How refreshing to read R. Robinson's observation (Letters, 23/10) about what the education system has been churning out over the years. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is revolted by the "like" generation which epitomises a system that has let us down.
"My son is now 24, like, and he can't, like, utter three words, like, without "like" punctuating everything. I've a daughter, now 31, whom I visited in Sydney recently. To my embarrassment, at a dinner, she still suffered from the "like" disease.
"Just to reveal how bad it has become, our firm several years ago was taken over by a group, in their 30s. The one steering the camp can't string as many as four words together without a "like". When I hear him on the phone, I cringe. And there is little likelihood he'll read this as his generation never reads a newspaper.
"The poor vocabulary of this "degeneration" is testimony to an appalling education system that failed them. I'm certain these so-called teachers considered "like" as self-expression. I agree with Paul Murray, this generation deserves and apology. How and why did we let these morons get away with their alarming and pathetic teaching standards for so long?"
Richard Adams, West Perth
- SSTUWA
- Two EBA Updates [# 82 and 83]
- # 82: Negotiations to continue
Negotiations
The parties have attended negotiation meetings over the last two weeks. Executive received a report back on progress of the negotiations on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 October 2008. Negotiations will continue into this week as the parties seek to reach a negotiated outcome.
Arbitration
The Union continues to prepare for arbitration in the event that a negotiated outcome cannot be reached or a further offer not accepted by the membership.
- # 83: Membership Details and Financiality
In the event of a resolution to this dispute through a negotiated settlement, a vote of members will need to be conducted. To enable such a vote to be managed the electoral roll must be brought up to date. To that effect, the SSTU will close its electoral roll at COB on Wednesday 5 November 2008.
Members are requested to ensure that their postal details are up to date. If you have changed your postal address in the last six (6) months and not updated with the Union office, please contact membership on 9325 5311 prior to COB Wednesday 5 November 2008. Members on quarterly payments are reminded that to be eligible to vote they need to be financial at COB Wednesday 5 November 2008.
From SSTUWA at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Family First demands wider internet filters
by Asher Moses
"Family First senator Steve Fielding wants hardcore pornography and fetish material blocked under the Government's plans to filter the internet, sparking renewed fears the censorship could be expanded well beyond "illegal material".
"The Opposition said it would take "a lot of convincing" for it to support the mandatory filtering policy, so the Government would need the support of Senator Fielding as well as the Greens and Senator Nick Xenophon to pass the legislation.
"Industry sources said Senator Fielding's sentiments validated the concerns of internet service providers (ISPs) that the categories of blocked content could be broadened significantly at the whim of the Government, which is under pressure to appease vocal minorities.
"A spokesman for Senator Xenophon said that should the filter plan go ahead he would look to block access to overseas online casino sites, which are illegal to run in Australia.
"In a senate estimates hearing last week the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, confirmed that his proposal would force ISPs to implement a two-tiered filtering system.
"The proposed censorship is more advanced than that in any liberal democracy and would put Australia on a par with oppressive regimes such as Iran, the internet industry says..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Scenario: There are some unsavoury fora that are hosted by Bravenet [which hosts the PLATO Forum].
It would be very difficult for ISPs to sort through them all, forum by forum, but very easy simply to block ALL Bravenet fora. [I understand that some DET schools do precisely that: block all students from accessing all Bravenet fora.]
Web
- Free uni wi-fi swamped with illegal downloads
The University of NSW has threatened to axe its free wireless internet service because students are bringing in their laptops and using them to download pirated music, movies and games.
- The Guardian
- Teenagers of yesteryear 'were brighter' [late online update, 27 October]
by Jessica Shepherd
Experiment shows best pupils are less able to analyse
"The UK's brightest 14-year-olds are less clever than a generation ago, while their classmates of average intellect are more able, a study shows.
"Michael Shayer, professor of applied psychology at King's College, University of London, tested the ability of 13- and 14-year-olds to think rationally and logically.
"He compared the survey of 800 teenagers to a similar experiment he did in 1976.
"His results for one part of the test showed that almost a quarter of 14-year-olds could think analytically in 1976, while just over 10% can now.
"In another section, the high-level thinking skills had dropped from a fifth of 14-year-olds to just 5%.
"However, average intellect had improved in a generation.
"The findings, to be published in the British Journal of Educational Psychology, contradict national exam results which show a year-on-year rise in top grades in tests taken by 14-year-olds and in GCSEs and A-levels.
"Shayer said: "Teachers are concentrating on giving the basic skills to more pupils, so the average ability goes up, but they fail to stretch the brightest so the high-end ability falls."
"Shayer and his team examined the teenagers' understanding of abstract scientific concepts, such as density, volume and weight.
"The students were asked to study a pendulum swinging on a string and investigate what caused it to change speed.
"A quarter of pupils gained high marks in this in 1976, while just over one in ten did today.
"In another test, pupils were asked to think about what made weights balance on a beam. A fifth gained good marks in this a generation ago, while just one in 20 did so today.
"Shayer said his research showed children's responses were becoming quicker, but that they lacked the ability to think "anything but shallowly". "They are not as able to step back from reality and to reason," he said.
"Shayer warned that unless the government urgently tackled the decline in higher-level thinking skills, the future supply of scientists would be compromised.
"Professor Peter Tymms, director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at Durham University, said: "Now there's more emphasis on getting their maths right and less emphasis on their thinking skills."
"They were left to play and take objects apart more a generation ago," he said.
"This month the education secretary, Ed Balls, scrapped national tests for 14-year-olds, known as Sats. He said a system of internal teacher assessment would be used instead from next year."
From The Guardian at link
- ABC News
- Teachers urged to head back to negotiating table
The Northern Territory Education Minister has described the decision by the Industrial Relations Commission to allow teachers the right to strike as disappointing.
- The Australian
- Letters to the Editor
- Minister and staffer set a bad example for all students
Six Letters on Julie Bishop's alleged plagiarism
- Cuts will hurt young careers
Four Letters on the Federal Government withdrawing funding from the Australian National Academy of Music
- The Age
- Teen 'sexperts' not so clued up on risk
A third of sexually active teenagers have their first experience before the age of 14 but many are unaware how infectious diseases spread, new figures have shown.
Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
- Letters to the Editor
- Minding my internet. I don't need that
"What a cynical and devious strategy employed by Senator Stephen Conroy in his decision to implement mandatory internet service provider filtering across Australia, and linking protecting children from pornography to the other issue of material considered to be of "inappropriate" content.
"Who is going to decide what is "inappropriate"? The minister? ASIO? Particular interest groups? I do not want to live in a country that supposedly protects me as an adult from gaining information about euthanasia or organisations advocating peace. The internet should not be controlled as it is in countries like China.
"What is more, I don't like the fact that decisions of this nature are made quietly by the Government, without recourse to community scrutiny. Hopefully, the airing of this threat to democracy will arouse people to protest before it is too late."
Dorothy Kiers, Melbourne
- Privilege halted
"The funding cut to the Australian National Academy of Music is understandable when one is aware of the facts. Peter Garrett should have outlined the fiscal policy reasons for making the cut in funding for a mere 50-plus students, with their 12 administrators.
"There are alternatives for these students within the College of the Arts, including the fine new developments within the arts precinct. Talent should be encouraged, but this degree of privilege in a community-owned town hall required relocation and review of funding."
Muriel Arnott, Middle Park
- ABC News
- Budget cuts won't affect police, education or health: Barnett
"The Premier, Colin Barnett, has sought to play down concerns about the impact of imminent budget cuts.
"The Government has instructed all departments and agencies to identify savings of three per cent.
"The Opposition wants the police force quarantined from any budget cuts, saying there should be no reduction in the numbers of frontline police.
"Mr Barnett says the overall police budget will increase when the Government delivers its first budget next May.
"We're going to make sure that frontline services do not diminish in police, education and health," he said.
"We'll in fact make sure that they're improved, but I would be irresponsible as would the Treasurer if we didn't look at ways for better using taxpayers money."
From ABC News at link
- The 7:30 Report
Reporter: Kerry O'Brien
Kerry O'Brien speaks with New York City schools chancellor, Joel Klein.
Transcript:
KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: "Some provocative ideas on education now and deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard is looking to cherry pick from a controversial set of reforms in New York City to introduce changes in Australian public schools.
"Aiming to make schools more accountable, results more transparent, giving more autonomy to principals, reforming teacher training. The Minister's plans have sparked criticism from teacher unions just as the Chancellor of New York's 1,000 public schools Joel Klein, has also been criticised by some educators there.
"But the former White House deputy counsel for President Bill Clinton and assistant Attorney General, now working for conservative New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has also claimed significant success in some of New York's most disadvantaged schools.
"Last year New York was awarded the $2 million Broad Award for the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement across all urban school districts in America.
"Julia Gillard has invited Joel Klein to Australia next month and I spoke with him about his reforms from his Manhattan office.
"Joel Klein, what was the situation you confronted when you started, and what do you say the situation is now?"
JOEL KLEIN, NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR: "When we started some 6.5 years ago, when Mayor Bloomberg took control of the system after the legislature in Albany authorised that, the system was highly politicised, it was very, very dysfunctional.
"We had seen stagnant graduation rates for a decade plus, our kids were underperforming at every level and the focus was really on virtually everything but trying to change education for our kids.
"Over the last six years, we've made significant progress; our graduation rate has gone up by more than 10 points during that time, more than two points a year, which is really significant.
"Our scores in reading and math have improved; parents support for our schools has gone way up.
"And I think the school system is now running at an entirely different and much, much more effective level. I'd be the first to admit we still have a lot of work to do. Our graduation rate, while its gone up is not remotely what it needs to be, our kids need to perform at a very different level.
"But we are making progress and putting in place the kind of systems, and the kind of accountability systems that will really lead to significant long term changes in student outcomes."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "What about increased resources, increased teacher numbers, reductions in class sizes since you've been there?"
JOEL KLEIN: "The class sizes have reduced, but the major investment of resources has been in our people. Teacher salaries today are 43 per cent higher than when we started.
"And what that has done is attracted really quality people to New York City, we've got in a program for basically second career people who go into teaching.
"We have been able to retain teachers at a better rate, we've been able to pay teachers to go to the more challenging schools, pay principals it take on those responsibilities.
"From the beginning when the Mayor took over to now, our budget has probably gone up somewhere around $6-7 billion, so where it started at about 13, it is now over $20 billion."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "But have your teacher numbers increased significantly?"
JOEL KLEIN: "They have increased, I wouldn't say significantly. We now have probably somewhere around 2-3,000 more teachers than when we started. When we started we had 80,000 teachers."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "How important is the fast tracking of teacher training in order to attract the so called "best and the brightest" to encourage them to teach particularly in disadvantaged schools? Do you a have a kind of two track teacher training process?"
JOEL KLEIN: "We do and I do believe that attracting the best and brightest is critical. The magic ingredient in any child's education is the quality of our teachers and, at least in the United States the kids with greatest needs don't remotely get their fair share of the highest quality teachers.
"So what we established is called a Teaching Fellows program, and it brings in people, some right out of college, some who, as I said before, are second career people, and we put them on a fast track, they actually get trained at the same time they start.
"They're mentored in their schools, our educational schools provide them with training after school, it's a multi-year process. But we start them teaching right from the beginning, and in many of our high poverty neighbourhoods, the quality of teaching has gone up.
"In fact an independent study was written about this showing that the quality of teaching in our high-needs communities have gone up."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "What does that do for the morale of other teachers? Don't you risk creating a kind of two tier status for teachers?"
JOEL KLEIN: "Well what you hope to do is create a rising tide so that the older teachers who've obviously learned a lot of tricks of the trade that the younger ones haven't, they older teachers can mentor and support.
"But they can also learn from the younger teachers, and when it works well you create the rising tide. Is there ever any time when people feel, "I wasn't fast tracked and he was", sure, that's the real world and that happens.
"But generally speaking success is the thing that teachers want to see in their schools, and when they have that sense that they're making progress, moving forward, I that boosts morale.
"Now I’m not going to kid you, when you make tough reforms and changes there's gonna be push back, and there are going be employee issues, but I think we are creating the rising tide.
"The President of our union, who's also the President of the National Union, she said on the first day of school this year in September that she had been travelling around the US and no place, in any urban area, was comparable to the work that we're doing.
"In fact he word she used was that New York City had become a beacon."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "In getting improved results, as I understand it, you're relying heavily on transparent grading of students, comparisons between schools, incentive payments for principals and teachers, autonomy for principles, is that the case?"
JOEL KLEIN: "That, plus empowering our principles. We don't have massive dictates from the central organisation, and saying to the schools, you know, you'll have precisely this class size, you'll have this after-school program, you'll hire two of these, three of these.
"We give budgetary discretion to our schools. But our accountability matrix are critical, and they are critical because it enables schools to look at each other and say, "They have the same kind of students."
"This is not about where you live or how rich your parents are, this is about schools that are comparable to each other. And then schools are able to learn from each other because some schools make more progress than others.
"Plus when we found that we put a grade on schools, what happened to our schools is they got excited and concerned about performing better."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "You can't have a system corrupted or distorted by a principal under pressure or a principal that wants to boost his or her status by encouraging teachers at the school to go soft on the students in tests to help them cheat in effect."
JOEL KLEIN: "It's happened on a handful of occasions since I’ve been here and we’ve terminated principals, terminated a couple of teachers at one point, but I don't think systematically that's a powerful explanation.
"And even before our system there was a Federal system here in the US under "no child left behind." So schools are under a certain amount of pressure, but I don't think somebody is going to imperil their livelihood by taking the risk of trying to have students cheat on exams."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "How do you answer the critics who say your school statistics are flawed because of wild statistical fluctuations or results from year to year, which suggest fundamental flaws?"
JOEL KLEIN: "I don't think that's a fair criticism. I've actually studied the statistics. There are some year to year fluctuations that are significant, but that's because schools that weren't making progress refocused and decided that the risk to them was they were gonna close.
"And so they decided that they would focus much more effectively on promoting student performance. But all of these things will come out over the years, meaning this is not a one year or two year experiment.
"Over the years you'll see steady patterns throughout our schools, you'll see a rising tide."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "Another claim is you are not actually making fair comparisons between schools?"
JOEL KLEIN: "I don't think that's a legitimate criticism and let me tell you why. We cluster schools into groups of 40 so those schools have essentially the identical challenges.
"We have lots of schools in our city, some start with a lot of kids who don't speak English, it's not their first language, some start with a lot of children who are special ed., some have gifted and talented programs but we have enough to cluster schools for comparisons that start at the same levels."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "You'd be aware of Daniel Kurtz, Professor of education at Harvard scribing your system as baroque. He says, "When educators are under intense pressure to raise student scores, big increases in scores can become suspect, scores can be seriously inflated".
JOEL KLEIN: "I don't think so, I understand when people say when people are under pressure, but again we have grading systems that have real integrity, people have been under pressure to improve student performance, if you want to say under pressure to improve scores, that's easy, anybody can improve scores.
"What we want to see is improving student performance and if you look in New York City, what you'll see is just that. Our students have to take exit exams to graduate from high school in all their major subjects, they have to accumulate significant credits, and the examinations are, results are improved, credits are improved.
"So what I think you can create is improved educational outcomes. Let's be serious, we want to put pressure on people to have our kids do better, that's what this is all about.
"But that's not about raising scores, that's about improving the education and as a result improving the outcomes, and I would expect that's what everybody wants for our kids.
"If we just do the same old same old, I can assure you that large numbers of kids, particularly minority kids, particularly poverty kids are not going to succeed.
"How do I know that? They didn't in the past. Are there going to be the occasional abuse that you mentioned? Sure there will be.
"But you know when people's attention gets focussed on changing outcomes for kids, the result of that is that education improves. We give them tools to do it.
"One of the things we've created are things call an "inquiry team", and that inquiry team works together with the data so see what a students' weaknesses are and what her strengths are, that's what it's all about, and we are creating that rising tide.
"I think that's the reason why, literally here, in the United Kingdom, in Australia, in various parts of the US, people are looking at the work we're doing. And my hope is that they will show us ways to improve our network, 'cause we have a long way to go forward.
"But complacency in education is not a solution, not here in New York City not in the United States, and I don't believe, in other parts of the world either."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "Joel Klein, thank you for talking to us."
JOEL KLEIN: "Thank you."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "There's speculation, incidentally, that Joel Klein is under consideration to become Secretary for Education in an Obama Cabinet."
From ABC News at link
- Teacher-free: half-day schools strike
"Teachers have held a last-minute telephone hook-up and decided to press ahead with a strike in South Australian public schools on Thursday morning.
"They discussed the SA Government's improved pay offer of 12.5 per cent more over three years for most teachers, up from a previous offer of 9.75 per cent more.
"But the Australian Education Union has been pressing for a 21 per cent pay rise over three years and changes to working conditions..."
Full story at ABC News at link
- Gillard looks to phase out full fee uni places
"The Federal Government will fund about 2,500 extra university places next year as part of a promise to phase out full fee undergraduate degrees.
"The move to scrap full fee paying places was announced during last year's election campaign.
"Education Minister Julia Gillard says the Government wants Australian students to gain entry to university on merit, not ability to pay."
From ABC News at link
- NSW won't privatise TAFE: Minister
The New South Wales Government says it has no intention of privatising the TAFE system.
- The West Australian
Grant ‘agenda’ worries schools (page 7)
by Bethany Hiatt
“The principals of some WA independent schools fear the Federal Government has a secret agenda to cut their government grants after trying to pass laws that will force them to reveal all sources of funding.
“As part of a $28 billion funding package proposed by Education Minister Julia Gillard, non-government schools will have to report all sources of funding, which could include private grants and bequests.
“Coalition MPs have argued that forcing schools to reveal their funding could create a “hit list” of wealthy schools that might result in them losing government grants after 1012 when the funding model will be reviewed.
“Under the existing model, independent schools get grants based on the socioeconomic status (SES) of their students.
“The School Assistance Bill, which also requires schools to adopt the new national curriculum, has been sent to a Senate committee for review. The committee will not report until the end of next month, leaving just four sitting days to get it passed before Parliament rises for the year.
“All Saints College principal Geoff Shaw said schools were willing to be transparent and face legitimate scrutiny . “But we would like the Government to be transparent when it seeks to change, apparently furtively, the basis of the schools assistance process,” he said.
“Guildford Grammar and Presbyterian Ladies College principals Rob Zordan and Beth Blackwood were concerned the bill would require schools to agree to the new curriculum before it was even written.
“It suggests a pre-acceptance of a national curriculum when the shape and form is an unknown quantity,” Mr Zordan said. “I can’t accept nor reject it if I don’t know what it looks like.”
“However, Australian Anglican Schools Network president the Rev. Peter Laurence said the Bill’s timing was more important than accountability issues. “Were it not to pass in the last week (of Parliament) it would put the funding of the non-government sector at jeopardy,” he said.
“The Association of Independent Schools WA expected the Government to consult schools on funding sources they will have to report. “We believe we can work through the detail of the regulations, but getting the Bill through is important,” executive director Valerie Gould said.
“Ms Gillard said non-government schools would be required to comply with the same transparency measures as public schools.
“The national curriculum would be compulsory but flexible.”
From The West Australian
Barnett faces revolt over 1.5b in cuts [Front Page Headline]
by Robert Taylor and Yasmine Phillips
“The State Government is facing a widespread revolt over its demand for 3 per cent spending cuts across the public service, with major interest groups and unions calling for key departments to be exempt.
“While Treasurer Troy Buswell insisted yesterday that frontline services would not be affected, Opposition Leader Eric Ripper accused the Government of a ham-fisted attempt to implement the efficiency drive he built into the Budget as treasurer before the State election to fund new promises.
“As the reality of the $1.5 billion in cuts over the next three and a half years began to dawn on department and agency heads yesterday, Mr Buswell called a press conference to insist that the cuts could be made to general recurrent spending without reneging on commitments to provide more nurses, police and teachers.
“But he has asked all departments, including police, education and health, to nominate savings.
"I expect ever public agency to provide a report back into the Treasury processes which details how that 3 per cent efficiency dividend will be delivered on," Mr Buswell said.
“WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said any cuts to the $3.3 billion education budget, which could amount to about $100 million, would be a betrayal of the community's trust in the new Government. "I think it's an absolute disgrace. We need more funding into education not less and 3 per cent is a significant amount of money to be removed," Mr Fry said.
"Schools struggle now, they're strapped to the bone and to ask the system to take a hit like that is just unacceptable." [emphasis added]“Mr Buswell was asked repeatedly yesterday to guarantee that core services would not be affected by the cuts but would say only that the Government believed there was "scope" within agencies to achieve the savings "whilst respecting the Government's commitment to the delivery of core services."
“It's going to be difficult for some agencies but we have an obligation to the taxpayers to spend their money wisely and we have an obligation to restrict the growth in recurrent spending which came to dominate Labor's years in power," he said.
“Mr Buswell and Mr Ripper believe that around one per cent, or $500 million, can be found within the current $18 billion budget in unspent money held by Government agencies.
“Mr Buswell is reaping a windfall from the collapse of the Australian dollar, which produces $130 million in extra revenue foe every cent it drops against the US dollar, but he warned this could be offset by falling oil and iron ore prices.
“Mr Ripper said Labor always believed the cuts could be delivered without affecting police, health and education portfolios. "There's no excuses for cuts to services, they were left with strong financial position," he said. Australian Medical Association WA president Gary Geelhoed said: "We would suggest the Health Department was under budgeted. They were promising 800 new nurses and more beds so there's not a $100 million slack there."
“Australian Nurses Union secretary Mark Olsen said that in Opposition, the Liberals had promised to make up the shortfall in nursing as well as provide 800 extra nurses, meaning the true total the Government had to find was 2000 nurses over four years.
“Community and Public Sector Union secretary Toni Walkington questioned how the State Government expected to implement mandatory reporting of child abuse when WA was already struggling with a shortfall of 116 child protection workers.
“Conservation Council of WA director Piers Verstegen said the environment already represented less than 2 per cent of the budget and further cuts could be devastating for the State's environment. He called for DEC spending to be exempt and additional spending in the portfolio.
“Association of Mining and Exploration Companies acting chief executive Sonia Webster said she supported initiatives aimed at improving public service efficiency but warned against cost-cutting which could endanger the Government's commitment to urgently streamlining the State's "slow and cumbersome approvals process".
From The West Australian
- The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- Australian internet filter to be compulsory
by Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
"The Federal Government plans to make internet censorship compulsory, putting Australia in the same league as China, Iran and North Korea.The Government will not let users opt out of the proposed national internet filter, which could ban controversial websites on such subject as euthanasia or anorexia, when it is introduced.
"Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy Minister Stephen Conroy admitted the Federal Government's $44.2 million internet censorship plan would now include two tiers - one level of mandatory filtering for all Australians and an optional level that will provide a "clean feed", censoring adult material.
"Despite planning to hold "live trials" before the end of the year, Senator Conroy said it was not known what content the mandatory filter would bar, with euthanasia or pro-anorexia sites on the chopping block.
"We are talking about mandatory blocking, where possible, of illegal material," he told a Senate Estimates Committee.
"Previously the net nanny proposal was going to allow Australians who wanted uncensored access to the web the option to contact their internet service provider and be excluded from the service."
From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
- The Melbourne Herald Sun
- Op Ed
Education revolution to turn back the clock
by Andrew Bolt
"Julia Gillard isn't leading the revolution you'd expect from an ex-boss of the militant Socialist Forum.
"Her "education revolution" turns out to be not the clenched-fist kind, but more the revolving one.
"Gillard, both Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, is in fact turning us back, at least in part, to where we were before education experts went mad with ideology.
"She is now restoring some "three-Rs" conservative basics that should never have been ditched.
"No wonder madder Labor MPs are aghast. Julia Irwin, for instance, blasted Gillard's reforms last week as a "so-called education revolution", demanding she do the traditional Labor thing instead of robbing private schools to pay state ones.
"The Australian Council of State School Organisations even damned her for pushing a "half-baked idea dreamt up by bureaucrats and a handful of neo-conservative newspaper columnists".
"But the good thing for Gillard is that it's all true. She has indeed gone from heading a socialist outfit that recycled ex-communists to heading a push to recycle conservative policies.
"Just to list her promised reforms is to show how much this Rudd Government is abandoning some of the Leftist dogmas that so damaged state schools from the 1970s.
"Last week, her new interim National Curriculum Board called for grammar to be once more taught in all schools.
"The discipline, too freedom-crushing for the '60s generation, had been dropped from curricula some 30 years ago. But now our education experts realise their consensus was wrong, and formal grammar must return.
"Also back in the draft national curriculum is better teaching of spelling and punctuation. Phonics, the teaching that "b" makes a "buh" sound, is also to be taught more rigorously -- or, as the draft curriculum puts it, "the explicit and systematic teaching of sound-script correspondences is important".
"Well, it's important now - now that our experts finally realise that their look-and-guess no-sweat alternative technique was pretty dumb, after all.
"It's all a bit late, given teachers must now teach rules of grammar few were ever taught themselves. It's especially late for university students who now must take remedial courses in English.
"But it's at least a good step - back to where we should never have left. And it's far from the only one.
"Gillard also wants more testing of students to see exactly which ones are being taught well . . . or badly.
"She wants parents to be given more test results so they can compare their schools' performance with that of similar schools, and judge if their child is getting a good education or bad.
"She wants to pay teachers more for results, and to send experts into failing state schools to turn them around - a muscular reincarnation of the school inspectors who once used to check the performance of teachers in class.
"There's now more teaching of trades, too, continuing the reversal of that other dud experiment of giving all children the same academic schooling.
"There's a lesson in this winding back of so many Leftist theories. Note: the experts can be crazy, and the consensus wrong. Getting warmer?
"And we should never again wait so long to fix such mistakes - or dismantle the tests and cloud the scrutiny that lets us detect them..."
link
- The Australian
- History should be like a detective hunt, says author Carol Baxter
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"There should be a practical element to the teaching of history in schools, with students given the opportunity to experience the thrill of the hunt in uncovering the past.
"In a submission on the national history curriculum, Carol Baxter, a professional genealogist and critically acclaimed author, argues that a course in practical history allowing students to trace the stories of Australia's early settlers would also revitalise the study of the colonial past.
"Students of chemistry undertake chemical experiments, students of geology examine rocks, students of music listen to and play music," she says. "But students of history only study bland secondary source reference books that communicate no sense of the historians' efforts ... nor of the drama and excitement of the detective hunt.
"The end result can be so boring that students often find history itself boring."
"Baxter will expand on the issue in an address to the Sydney Institute tonight, in which she will talk about her latest book, Breaking the Bank, which relates the previously untold story of the largest bank robbery in the nation's history.
"While Baxter supports the proposed structure for the national history curriculum to teach Australian history within the context of wider global events, she says schools have ignored colonial history beyond the basics of Aborigines, convicts, explorers and gold rushes.
"Australians, generally, have little knowledge of our colonial past, and the education system is largely to blame," a draft of her speech says.
"Moreover, the history taught in schools can be so dry. It has lost any sense of the drama and excitement of the events themselves, or of the historians' efforts in discovering the information and solving the mystery.
"Because that's what historians are: detectives, jigsaw puzzle players. Yet few students learn this simple fact because they rarely have the opportunity to practise history, to learn or use the skills that historians use."
"Baxter told The Australian that much original material from early colonial times was now available on the internet, which would allow students to track individuals through their days in the colony..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Upgrade sought in campus facilities
Australian universities face a $4.5 billion backlog in building maintenance and refurbishment work that could threaten the $12 billion international student export market.
- Still waiting for Labor to deliver on voluntary student unionism
The federal Government's failure to resolve the vexed issue of voluntary student unionism has been refocused by the financial crisis, as universities seek to shore up their bottom line.
- The Age
- Editorial
Freedom of speech depends on the right choices
Maintaining freedom and tolerance requires a culture of respect.
"... It is doubtful whether anything recognisable as respect for freedom exists in the demand by Family First's Senator Steve Fielding for extensive internet filtering. The Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has already indicated that the Government plans a two-tier filtering system, with illegal material, such as child pornography, blocked by a mandatory first tier, and other material, such as legal pornography that might be viewed by children, blockable in an optional second tier. Family First, however, wants X-rated and RC (refused classification) material banned for everyone, including adults. It is possible to share Senator Fielding's moral objections to pornography without also insisting that adults should be prohibited from seeing it. The kind of ban he wants would be a perilous one in a liberal democracy, raising the prospect of minorities being able to dictate what others may read or see. The Government should have the courage to resist it."
- Op Ed
Time for private schools to go public about all that money
by Shaun Carney
"... The Rudd Government, through the Schools Assistance Bill now before Parliament, wants to make disclosure of all funding sources mandatory for non-government schools. In return, private schools would get $26 billion in public funds for the next four years under the funding model established by the Howard government.
"There is no defensible argument against this measure, although the lobby group that represents most non-Catholic private schools has tried to produce one. It says the Government could use the disclosures to put together a less generous (to private schools) funding model in the future.
"There should be no argument about non-government schools getting taxpayers' money. The debate about choice has been had, and choice won. Where children are educated — in public or private schools — is nowhere near as important as how well they are educated and whether every child can have access to decent education opportunities.
"But non-government schools should not be able to have it both ways; the money the public pays to these private organisations should be conditional. Every working person and every company paying their taxes has a right to know if they are getting value for every dollar — and that is every dollar — spent on education. Given the conditions of many government schools and their university entrance results, it is fair to say that the state sector could give better value. We have no way of knowing whether that could be said about the non-government sector. These schools are avowedly private when it comes to their accounts and sources of income but decidedly public when it comes to taking their cut from the public purse.
"The jig is up. Let's look at the figures — taxpayer funds, fees, old-boy donations, building fund "contributions" and the rest — and work out what it really costs to educate a child in modern Australia."
Full story in The Age at link
- $200m state schools building scheme goes to Axiom group
by Mathew Murphy
"The State Government is expected to announce within days that it has awarded the $200 million public-private partnership to build 11 schools across Victoria to the Axiom Education consortium.
"Industry sources have told The Age that Axiom Education, which includes ABN Amro Australia, has been chosen to design, build, finance and maintain the schools throughout Melbourne's eastern and western growth corridors over 25 years. In return, the consortium will receive service payments once the schools are operational if the project is delivered to specified performance standards.
"The decision to proceed with the investment in school infrastructure during the present financial crisis highlights the Victorian Government's faith in the PPP model, which was decided on after a feasibility report on using PPPs to create new schools and a subsequent business case..."
Full story in The Age at link
- Victoria Uni campuses cut back
Hundreds of Victoria University students may be forced to relocate after the institution announced it would stop taking enrolments at two of its campuses.
- Exam time looms for littlest class of them all
With just 107 students from prep to year 12 — and a mere 18 teachers — Lavers Hill College gives off a friendly and familial vibe.
- Letter to the Editor
- Private colleges take offence
"As the peak national industry voice for private providers of education and training, the Australian Council of Private Education and Training was disappointed at the misrepresentation of private providers of education to overseas students in your articles " 'Sham' colleges operating with impunity" and "Reining in rogue colleges" (The Age, 25/10).
"Education services are Australia's third-largest export industry, contributing an estimated $13.7 billion to the economy. Private providers of vocational training and higher education make a significant contribution to the success of this industry, with about 75% of overseas students educated in the private sector.
"The private sector operates under the same regulatory standards as public universities and TAFEs.
"The unsupported claim that private providers are in any way working outside of the regulatory environment or "thumbing their nose" at the regulators is offensive to high-quality institutions across the private sector."
Andrew Smith, national executive officer, Australian Council for Private Education and Training, East Melbourne
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Push to privatise apprentice training
by Gerard Noonan, Social Issues Editor
"TAFE colleges around Australia face the biggest threat to their existence if the recommendations of a confidential government planning document are adopted by state education ministers next month.
"Federal and state bureaucrats are pushing to privatise all occupational training in Australia by making TAFE's $4 billion annual funding "contestable": bureaucratic code for privatising all occupational training.
"Critics say the move will seriously undermine the apprenticeship system that has underpinned Australian industry for the past century.
"The document also proposes that students in TAFEs or private vocational colleges be required to increase significantly the amount of money they will need to find to complete courses.
"The 21-page document proposes that students should fund their courses along the lines of the university higher education contribution scheme (HECS), in which the full cost of a course becomes a tax liability..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- The West Australian
Budget cuts will exclude front-line police and schools (page 6)
by Jessica Strutt and Yasmine Phillips
“Front-line police, health and education services would not be slashed under a Government demand for a 3 per cent cut in spending across the public service, Colin Barnett said yesterday.
“The Premier made the pledge after Chief Justice Wayne Martin said there was a case for law and order to be exempt.
“Mr Barnett said the spending cuts would apply across all government agencies, including those servicing regions. Any money saved as a result of the cuts would be used for some of the Government’s new initiatives.
“For example, if a program or project is not seen to be a good use of taxpayers’ money, those people and that money will e redeployed into other areas,” he said.
“We’re going to make sure that front-line services do not diminish in police, education and health and we’ll in fact make sure they improve. I would be irresponsible, as would the Treasurer, if we didn’t look at ways for better using taxpayers’ money.
“Chief Justice Martin said he was concerned about spending cuts being imposed on the judiciary, particularly if it affected services in regional areas. He believed there was a lot to be said for law and order being exempt from the spending cuts.
“If you take for example the salaries of judges and magistrates, which are a significant component of our budget, there’s no way you can cut those unless you have less judges and magistrates,” he said. “I think there is a case for exempting judicial and magisterial salaries from those cuts.”
“Shadow treasurer Ben Wyatt, whose party devised the plan to cut spending by 3 per cent, refused yesterday to outline where he believed the bulk of the cuts should be made and which departments and agencies should be exempted.
“Labor released its proposal for a one-off 3 per cent cut in August as part of its financial plan to fund its election promises. The Liberal Party subsequently supported the move.
“Mr Wyatt would not nominate which departments should face further cuts, instead saying that was the “conundrum” for the Government to solve.
“He said there was a clear difference between what Labor had proposed and what the Liberal-Nationals Government planned to do. The former Carpenter government had taken a more focused approach.
“During the campaign, former treasurer Eric Ripper said the police, education and health departments would be asked to trim 3 per cent from their projected costs but front-line services would be closely monitored, a position guaranteed by Mr Barnett.
“The Premier also suggested that he favoured rebuilding the WA Museum on the existing Northbridge site, rather than housing the State’s cultural and scientific collection in Wast Perth as proposed under the former Carpenter government.
“Mr Barnett, who toured the old museum site in Northbridge with Arts Minister John Day, said the State desperately needed a new museum.
“The Government was yet to make a decision on a site but did not favour putting the State’s cultural and arts facilities at different places across Perth.
“The former Labor government said it would build a $500 million museum on the East Perth power station site.”
From The West Australian
Letter to the Editor (page 22)
- In short
“Richard Adams (Like, it’s pathetic, 28/10), your children have obviously been out of school for a few years, so why didn’t you do something about this heinous act of intermittent verbalisation then? Mr Adams, you are, or should be, one of two constants in your child’s speech development (both parents need to take a part). Considering that your “time” with your child is more than twice that of the teachers, in a class situation where there are 25 or more other speakers, you are the prime shaper of their speech.”
Michael Bruijn, Waikiki
- The Australian
- Call to fast-track school reforms
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"Australia has 10 years to fix its education system and cannot afford to be distracted by headline-grabbing, short-term initiatives such as putting a computer in front of every high school student.
"A five-year research project examining six countries has concluded that core issues such as teacher quality are the keys to achieving a genuine education revolution.
"The Rudd Government must fast-track the education reforms agreed at the 2020 Summit in April, the authors of the study say. Failure to do so would put Australia behind world best practice, achieved in countries such as Finland, where every teacher has a master's degree and all schools are "best schools".
"The authors, former University of Melbourne dean of education Brian Caldwell and researcher Jessica Harris, call for the development of partnerships between private and public schools, as flagged recently by Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike.
"While 80 per cent of Australia's schools are "among the best in the world", they say, there is "no question that a number are struggling, especially when they are in remote locations with large numbers of indigenous students or in disadvantaged areas in urban settings".
"We believe all schools can be 'best schools' in the sense that all schools, regardless of circumstance, can be as good as those exceptional few that are currently considered to be the best," the report's authors say.
"Professor Caldwell and Dr Harris outline a 10-point plan to achieve a "transformation of Australia's schools" in a new book, Why Not The Best Schools?, based on the study and published yesterday by the Australian Council for Educational Research.
The main points include:
- Development of a national curriculum.
- Minimising or even abandoning plans for national testing programs.
- Funding private and public schools on the same basis.
- Auditing the intellectual capital -- that is, teacher quality -- in all schools.
- Greater autonomy for schools and principals.
- Creating a federation of schools, in line with the British model.
- Refurbishing or replacing most school buildings constructed in the 20th century.
- Increasing the business sector's involvement in education, including private funding of schools through foundations and trusts.
"The authors repeat international research that says a school is only as good as its teachers.
"The quality of schools will never exceed the quality of their staff," they write. "We believe that intellectual capital is the chief driving force for creating the best schools.
"Australia is falling behind the best-performing education systems around the world because it is not insisting on top-quality people entering the teaching profession."
"New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, who is visiting Australia, has emphasised that the key investment to improving student achievement is teachers: their pay and their quality.
"In an interview on Tuesday night, Mr Klein said attracting the best and the brightest of society into teaching, and paying them accordingly, was critical. [emphasis added]
"That has "attracted really quality people to New York City", Mr Klein said on the ABC's 7.30 Report.
"Professor Caldwell and Dr Harris recommend as a starting point that all schools undertake an audit of their intellectual capital.
"They caution that expectations for an education revolution in the short term are unrealistic.
"It will take at least (10 years) in Australia," they wrote.
"Short-term, headline initiatives that increase the numbers of computers in schools are simply completing a revolution in technology that gathered momentum in the 1990s." [emphasis added]
From The Australian at link
- Also worth a look: The Melbourne Herald Sun
- Expert warns Australia slipping in world education rankings
Australia is falling behind the best school systems in the world because top candidates are not entering teaching, a leading academic warns.
- Editorial
Mandate for change
Reforms are needed if our universities are to compete
"In the world university rankings, published in The Times this month, most of the top Australian universities managed to work their way down the ladder. The only institution to hold itsground was the Australian National University, which for the third year running claimed a global 16th place. For this reason alone it is worth listening to that university's vice-chancellor, Ian Chubb, on the subject of higher education research funding and the urgent need for the federal Government to concentrate scarce resources in the hands of the proven performers..."
"The Government's challenge is to provide the optimum environment for Australia's best brains and to foster creative relationships among them, whether they work at the ANU, James Cook University or Wollongong. And this means reinventing the higher education system. With an audit of research excellence in the pipeline and the recommendations of two big higher education reviews to assimilate by year's end, the Government will soon have at its disposal the information - and the legitimation - for a substantial overhaul of a sector where international performance is languishing. Kevin Rudd's Government came to power with a mandate for ambitious reform of all tiers of education, and the challenge outlined by Professor Chubb is one to which it should rise."
Full Editorial in The Australian at link
- Indigenous students to attend top schools [late online update]
"The Federal Government will help pay for 2000 scholarships for indigenous students to attend some of Australia's top secondary schools.
"Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today announced the Government would give the Australia Indigenous Education Foundation $20 million over the next three years, a contribution to be matched by business.
"The money will be invested in an endowment fund and combined with investment revenues to pay for up to 2000 scholarships over the next 20 years.
"The six-year scholarships will cover tuition and boarding fees as well as other expenses families might not be able to meet, including uniforms and sporting equipment.
"The Government said the scheme would give indigenous students the life-changing opportunity to attend a high-quality capital city secondary school.
"The Government hopes the funding will help halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements between indigenous and non-indigenous students."
From The Australian at link
- Letters to the Editor
- Downside of history hunt
"The sort of history “detective hunt” which author Carol Baxter urges teachers of history to undertake ("History should be like a detective hunt: author”, 29/10) looks like the traditional project or assignment often used in child-centred learning, and which at their best are brilliant at engaging school students fully and actively. But, as is often the case in these matters, there is a serious caveat.
"Far from needing less, this approach needs more from teachers in their depth and breadth of subject knowledge, as enquiring young minds come up with questions, often of the most abstruse and obscure kind, which in turn require an insightful appreciation of the historical big picture. Baxter doesn’t write her novels off the top of her head: she needs detailed research into their settings, characters and context, the type of learning teachers should have acquired, usually more formally, in their undergraduate degrees.
“Go and look it up on the web” should not be an easy downhill ski for uncommitted or ignorant teachers; rather, it is an invitation to join committed and knowledgeable ones on Euclid’s “royal road to learning”.
Leonard Colquhoun, Invermay, Tas
- Academy, once a sweetener, now leaves a sour taste
Three Letters on the Australian National Academy of Music
- The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- Head boy Gary Rego delivers abusive Valedictory speech
by Paul Lampathakis, education reporter
"The head boy of Perth private school Corpus Christi will be forced to sit his TEE exams elsewhere, after delivering a spray of abuse at a school graduation ceremony.
"Gary Rego, 16, told students and parents at the Sunday night ceremony that it was "really sad" -- following a crash that killed three students in August -- that Principal Vaughan Sadler was not at the graduation dinner, but was "holidaying and watching cricket in a far away land".
"Mr Rego also fired off at acting-principal Sue Baker.
"We all know what it means to be under the authoritarian and dictatorial rule, thanks to Sue Baker . . . in trying to gag freedom of speech, thought and expression," he said.
"Another student of the Bateman college, in Perth's southern suburbs, captured the speech on video, which was then posted on Youtube..."
Full story in The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
- ABC News
- Teachers head back to school
Thousands of public school teachers returned to work this afternoon after a morning strike and rally.
Police say about 4,000 teachers marched from Adelaide Oval to Parliament House in their pay and conditions protest.
- The Independent
- Education Reviews: Digital resources
Evaluations supplied by Schoolzone, an independent body that asks teachers to rate digital learning titles
Worth a look... Web
- The Age
- Internet screening move hits hurdle
A headline-grabbing election promise to crack down on internet nasties looks to be in trouble as Senate opposition grows.
- Unis count cost of losing full fees
Universities are being short-changed millions of dollars by the Federal Government's decision to abolish full-fees for Australian students.And they admit they will be more reliant on overseas students or forced to find other savings to offset lost revenue.
- Orchestra chief calls for music academy rethink
The head of the Australian Chamber Orchestra has condemned the Federal Government's cutting of funding to a music academy and wants a national music curriculum established.
- Op Ed
Elite musicians need a training centre
by Brett Dean (artistic director of the Australian National Academy of Music)
Australia will lose its talented players if the music academy is closed.
- Letters to the Editor
- Four Letters on public - private school funding at that link.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Editorial
Sharing the cost of training
"We have about 420,000 mostly young people currently in apprenticeships to acquire the skills our economy needs. Unfortunately about half of them will not complete their training, according to recent experience. Some will drop out early because the job is not what they visualised - particularly many apprentice chefs, who literally can't stand the heat and tension of a working kitchen - others at a later stage when they find employers willing to hire them with partial qualifications. In licensed trades where a formal qualification is a requirement to practise, as with electricians, there is more incentive to finish the course.
"The Rudd Government made workforce skills a centrepiece of its agenda, promising 630,000 extra training places in five years, and has just promised to double this year's quota of new traineeships to 113,000 as part of its new economic stimulus. So it's appropriate that Canberra and the states should now be looking at how the existing system of apprenticeships and traineeships is working, and whether there are better ways of going about it.
"In the past few decades, apprenticeships have moved a long way from the old system whereby boys (mostly) were virtually indentured at age 15 or 16 to a tradesman for four or five years, learning on the job and moving from menial assistant towards skilled workmate, partner and eventual successor. Training has moved into a mix of institutional courses and on-the-job experience. But the element of sacrifice for a long-term goal remains. The apprentice has low pay, while friends in unskilled jobs have more money for mobile phones or cars; employers who invest in training positions see free-riders in their industry lure away the finished product.
"That other options are being studied should not necessarily cause alarm, but open up debate on this important subject. These include making the annual $4 billion allocated to the state colleges of technical and further education "contestable" by private training schools, and an income-contingent fee scheme like the HECS system for university students. This requires careful comparison of the sometimes spotty record of private colleges against the generally fine reputation of TAFE colleges. It also needs sound modelling for cost sharing between trainees, employers and governments, though ultimately we should accept that a better national skills base requires more national investment. But even without changing the system, it would help if school-leavers were given more realistic ideas about their apprenticeships and traineeships before they start, and then society gave more encouragement for them to resist consumerist lures and stick it out."
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Letter to the Editor
- Privatising apprentice training is a bad investment
"Here we go again. Another example of governments "privatising the profit and socialising the loss". The proposal of the Federal Government to introduce contestability of funding (privatisation) for the vocational sector is left over from the Howard government's market-driven ideology ("Push to privatise apprentice training", October 29). Julia Gillard should really look at the source of the advice she is getting on the subject.
"Technical and further education colleges have trained millions of young Australians over many decades and continue to do so under untold funding pressures from governments.
"This is reform for reform's sake.
"Why are we offering to give public money to "tick and flick" private registered training organisations when we have an excellent system of vocational education and training? These private organisations will not want to offer courses that are not cost-effective. They will not build expensive workshops. They will not support students with learning difficulties, behavioural issues or who might need the services of a counsellor or a literacy and numeracy tutor.
"One major reason for the skills shortage is the chronic underfunding of TAFE colleges. The reform has to be about encouraging apprentices to take up a trade by providing them with a "living" wage and subsidising their wages rather than subsidising the employers of apprentices. But I digress.
"Giving public money to the lowest bidder will do nothing to redress the situation.
"The taxpayers of NSW get a sixfold return on their investment in TAFE. I am certain we will not get the same benefit under a privatised system. Training isn't a money-making endeavour, it's an investment in a skilled workforce.
"I urge Ms Gillard and the Rudd Government to abandon this mad plan and restore public funding for TAFE to appropriate levels (i.e. pre-Howard levels) or else we'll have to re-establish a new system from the ashes of TAFE in the future, at great expense to taxpayers."
Pierre Masse, TAFE graduate and teacher, Artarmon
- BBC News
- Protests over Italy school reform
"School pupils, university students and teachers have staged demonstrations across Italy against a school reform law just passed by parliament.
"In Rome's Piazza Navona, a popular tourist spot, several people were lightly injured in a clash between left- and right-wing students.
"The reform package is expected to cut the education budget.
"In primary schools there will be just one all-purpose teacher per class and a grade system for pupils' behaviour.
"The package will reinstate a 10-point system for grading pupils' conduct, aimed at curbing bullying..."
Full story at BBC News at link
- The West Australian
Constable supports curriculum stand-off (page 5)
by Bethany Hiatt
“There are growing doubts about whether $28 billion in crucial funding would be available by the start of next year after WA Education Minister Liz Constable said yesterday she would not support the Federal Government's demand that the schools sign up to the unfinished national curriculum in return for the money.
“And she won strong support from Hale School principal Stuart Meade, who said he had "major concerns" about agreeing to adopt a curriculum which did not even exist as a condition of receiving money.
“In a move which puts her on a collision course with the Rudd Government, including her Federal counterpart Julia Gillard, Dr Constable said she agreed with the schools' reluctance to sign up to the proposed curriculum.
"I would not support any arrangement where private schools were forced to sign up to something they haven't seen," Dr Constable said last night.
“Independent schools have been told the must agree to implement the national curriculum as a condition of receiving $28 billion in Federal funding at the start of next year, even though curriculum writers will not start detailed work until March 2009.
“Mr Meade said he wanted to see the details of the curriculum before signing the funding deal.
"My understanding is that documentation regarding national curriculum will not be presented until some time in 2009 and yet we will be asked to sign funding agreements before the end of the year," he said.
"It's a life lesson we teach our students all the time - don't sign for something unless you know what you are signing for."
“The funding agreement Bill containing the curriculum requirement has been refereed to a Senate committee. When it returns, Parliament will have just four days to vote on it before rising for the year.
“Guildford Grammar School and Presbyterian Ladies College principals Robert Zordan and Beth Blackwood said earlier this week that they were reluctant to accept the new curriculum when it was still an "unknown quantity".
“Ms Blackwood said she was not opposed to the concept of a national curriculum, but she believed it would be prudent to know what she was signing.
"If the national curriculum is not completed, and it certainly wouldn't be completed at the time that we were asked to sign for the funding, then I do think that it's not a reasonable request," she said.
“However Wesley College principal David Gee said he had fewer concerns about signing up to a national curriculum because of his dissatisfaction with the implementation of senior school reforms in WA.
"I'm not overly concerned at this point about funding being tied to agreement to participate in the national curriculum process," he said.
"There have certainly been elements of State-imposed curriculum change in recent years that have been problematic for schools like Wesley. And at least the process appears to be more consultative."
“Advice papers outlining the broad direction curriculum writers should take in English, history, maths and science were released for public comment two weeks ago.
“Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard told Parliament last week that while the national curriculum would be compulsory, it was not a straitjacket for schools.”
From The West Australian
ABC News
- Don't take away Qld's education strengths: union
The Federal Government should be cautious in forcing a national approach at the expense of Queensland's strong education system, the state's teachers' union says.
- Letter to the Editor (page 22)
In short
“Today Australia celebrates World Teachers' Day. The WA College of Teaching asks parents and the community to acknowledge in some way the invaluable and vital work that teachers do, often under the most difficult of conditions. Given the current and predicted ongoing teacher shortage in a number of areas, a telephone call to your local politician to urge greater support for teachers would be an important first step.
“Teachers educate and support our most valuable resource - our children. To be effective they need parent and community support.”
Brian Lindberg, chair of the board, WA College of Teaching
- The Canberra Times
- Enrolments in Year 12 science and maths plunge
by Emma MacDonald
"Fewer school students study science than they did 30 years ago, and fewer study maths than they did a decade ago, a trend which has led to a lack of teachers and university graduates with degrees in the subjects.
"An Australian Council for Educational Research report issued yesterday shows senior secondary students' participation in science has almost halved since the mid-1970s.
"In 1976, 55 per cent of Year 12 students studied biology, 29 per cent chemistry and 28 per cent physics.
"Last year, 25 per cent studied biology, 18 per cent chemistry and 15 per cent physics.
"The council also found declining enrolments in every state and territory in advanced maths studies.
"The report's lead author, the council's deputy chief executive of research, John Ainley, said strengthening the science curriculum in schools was a key to generating higher levels of participation in science-related studies at university.
''The content and process of science curriculum in secondary school needs to relate more strongly to the experience of young people and connecting what is studied in schools to the emergent fields of science such as biotechnology,'' Dr Ainley said.
''Stronger use of curriculum resources at primary school level is also required.''
"The report also suggested that schemes to offset charges may provide an incentive to attract science graduates to teaching, even if that was not always for a life-time career.
"The federal Education Department commissioned the report.
"Education Minister Julia Gillard said the findings highlighted ''the continuing challenge of recruiting graduates from science and maths-related fields into teaching''.
''The Rudd Government recognises that high quality science and maths education is critical for building a strong, prosperous and innovative society,'' she said, noting the Government was investing in a range of initiatives to invigorate science and maths education in schools and lift enrolments.
"These included the development of a national curriculum, addressing shortages of specialist maths and science teachers by reducing the Higher Education Contribution Scheme fees in maths and science and for teachers who go into those subjects.
"The report found evidence from international surveys indicating Australian high school students performed comparatively well in mathematics and science.
"But there were signs students were not as interested in learning science as their counterparts in other countries.
"Compared with other countries, Australian high school maths lessons tended to feature greater use of repetitive short problems and less emphasis on higher-level problems with discussion of alternative solutions and reasoning.
"By Year 12, there were a number of changes in enrolment patterns, with a steady decline in biology, chemistry and physics classes, and a decline in participation in advanced and intermediate maths.
"Long-term studies have found the uptake of science-related studies at university is stronger among those who specialise in science studies in the final year of school, which in turn is influenced by a student's proficiency in mathematics when he or she is in middle secondary school.
"University enrolments in the natural and physical sciences have remained steady since 2001, but with an increase in the health field and a decline in information technology."
From The Canberra Times at link
- The Australian
- $20m gives indigenous kids a chance, says Kevin Rudd
by Patricia Karvelas and Angus Hohenboken
"Indigenous students will be sent to leading boarding schools under a $20 million plan to address chronic levels of academic under-achievement, and close the education gap between black and white Australia.
"The announcement last night by Kevin Rudd of 2000 school places in the next 20 years came after the Prime Minister had earlier signed on to a scheme, championed by mining magnate Andrew Forrest and backed by some of the nation's leading businessmen, that will boost the employment prospects of Aboriginal children.
"Under the plan, Aboriginal schoolchildren will also become workplace P-platers as they are provided with work experience, casual employment and school-based traineeships to ensure they never spend a day on the dole.
"The P-plater scheme is a key plank of an Aboriginal jobs drive supported by Seven Network boss Kerry Stokes, gambling giant James Packer and News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch.
"The business leaders, with a combined fortune of $20 billion, joined Mr Rudd and Mr Forrest to launch the program, which aims to provide 50,000 jobs to indigenous Australians.
"Fifteen companies have already committed to providing more than 6000 jobs.
"Adding to Mr Forrest's jobs initiative last night, Mr Rudd told the Business Council of Australia that the Government's scholarships program would be matched by business contributions to be directed to the Australian Education Foundation.
"Under the plan, commonwealth and business funding will be investetd in an endowment fund over a 20-year period that will reach $40 million and pay for ongoing scholarships.
"Cape York indigenous leader Noel Pearson has long argued that indigenous high school students should be sent to boarding schools.
"Mr Rudd said the scholarships program was one step to meeting the Government's goal of halving the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for indigenous children within a decade.
"The scholarships will last up to six years and cover tuition and boarding fees, as well as other expenses that are unable to be met by families such as uniforms, sporting equipment and pocket money. It expands on the existing indigenous boarding scholarship schemes that support about 250 students each year..."
Full story in The Australian at link
Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
- Melbourne students invent gadget that hits TV gripes for six
Electrical engineering students at Melbourne University yesterday showed off their final-year projects that ranged from the ingeniously worthy to the ingeniously trivial.
The "Delay-o-tron", created by Daniel Monteiro and Ben Vogler, puts your radio in sync with your TV simply by linking both via a small box of gadgetry, or, if watching and listening on a computer by using specially developed software. The technology, in essence, delays the radio broadcast so the words match the pictures.
- Head boy of school that lost three students in a car crash pans principals
The head boy of a Perth Catholic school that lost three students in a car crash has attacked the college's principal during a graduation ceremony speech, accusing him of abandoning them after a "horrific" year.
Gary Rego, 16, also told students and parents the acting principal was dictatorial and had tried to gag freedom of speech.
More detailed story (and link to video of his speech) in yesterday's Sunday Times online
- Op Ed
When principle gets left behind
One reason state governments are so lousy is that they face incompetent state oppositions, says Michael Costa (the former treasurer of NSW).
- AEU
- Teachers and Parents take action on World Teachers' Day
Parents, teachers and principals are joining together on World Teachers Day today to urge the Federal Government to give public schools a significant new funding injection at the November 17 Council of Australian Governments meeting.
- The Age
- Police checks net 500 teachers
by Farrah Tomazin
"Police checks taken last year detected more than 500 teachers who had committed crimes — but each one was allowed to remain in the classroom.
"Documents tabled in State Parliament yesterday revealed that over the past financial year 552 teachers had been discovered with records for crimes such as theft, drug possession, assault, or driving offences — a massive jump from only 70 teachers the year before.
"But the state's teaching watchdog yesterday admitted that all teachers — other than those who had committed serious sex crimes — had been allowed to stay in the profession, because the offences either dated back years or were not deemed serious enough to warrant any action.
"The indictable offences were either quite old or no penalty was imposed by the courts," said Andrew Ius, chief executive of the Victorian Institute of Teaching.
"There was nothing in any of the cases that we felt would detract from the person being a suitable teacher." ...
Full story in The Age at link
- Minister to discuss elite music training
Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett has agreed to meetings today to discuss ways to continue the training of elite young classical musicians in Melbourne next year.
He is having separate talks with the director of the doomed Australian National Academy of Music, internationally acclaimed composer Brett Dean, as well as with some of ANAM's students and with representatives from Melbourne University.
- Op Ed
Publish and be damned
Caught out by Julie Bishop's "essay"? Her publisher reponds.
- Letters to the Editor
- It's a long life
"It is timely when many students are about to sit their year 12 exams, and when some are perhaps becoming overly concerned, to reflect on their actual importance. The exams are significant, and provide an opportunity for students to win entry to courses and jobs of their choice. It is important, however, to recognise that they are but one of many educational opportunities and pathways. Failure to gain the desired result is not a permanent handicap.
"No educational doors are permanently closed. There are a huge range of courses available, and many ways to enter the courses and jobs of one's choice. Within a couple of years of sitting year 12 exams, students are eligible for mature age special entry schemes.
"Having taught year 12, marked year 12 exams, sat on VCE examination setting panels for many years and had three of my children sit VCE, I would urge students, and parents, to keep the importance of the exams in perspective. The exams are but one of a whole lifetime of educational opportunities."
Dr Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills
- Not on education, but food for thought... Web
Dropping the dead donkey: a fable
"Young Charlie bought a donkey from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. But the next day he said, "Sorry son, the donkey died." Charlie replied, "Well, then just give me my money back."
"The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already." Charlie said, "OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey." The farmer asked, "What are you going to do with him?" Charlie said, "I'm going to raffle him off." The farmer said "You can't raffle off a dead donkey!" Charlie said, "Sure I can, watch me."
"A month later, the farmer asked Charlie "What happened with that dead donkey?" Charlie said "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998."
"Didn't anyone complain?" the farmer asked. "Just the guy who won," said Charlie. "So I gave him his two dollars back."
"Charles now works as a consultant for Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and the US Federal Reserve, the UK, the European Commission and as a special adviser to the Prime Minister of Australia."
Ronald Kitching, Frenchville, Qld
- BBC News
- Many violent pupils not expelled
More than 340 children are suspended for violence against other pupils every school day in England, figures highlighted by the Tories show.
- The Guardian
- 'Teachers in France are angry - Sarkozy treats them with scorn'
Teachers are taking to the streets to protest against job cuts and reforms that they say are undermining the whole education system
A revolutionary wind is blowing in French classrooms. Tens of thousands of teachers recently took to the streets of Paris to protest against Nicolas Sarkozy's new education policy. And next month the protests will continue with primary school teachers going on a one-day strike, possibly with their secondary school colleagues joining in, during a five-day campaign of industrial action.
Saturday – Sunday, 1 – 2 November
- The West Australian
- Editorial
Curriculum with shades of OBE should be resisted (page 20)
“There is no justification for pressuring schools to sign up to a national curriculum they haven't seen. Regardless of the merits or otherwise of such a curriculum, there is no benefit in the evident political rush to introduce it.
“Independent schools have been told they have to agree to use the proposed national curriculum as a condition of getting $28 billion in Federal funding at the start of next year. Curriculum writers will not start detailed work until next March.
“The Federal Government's demand has been met with some understandable resistance in the WA private school sector. WA Education Minister Liz Constable has said she will not support the demand that schools sign up to the unfinished national curriculum in return for the money. She says she agrees with schools' reluctance to do so.
“Her stance is eminently reasonable. It puts her at odds with the Federal Government, but she is entitled and obliged to stand up for the interests of WA education as she sees them.
“In any case, this has every appearance of a Federal Government using its funding power to try to impose its will on schools. Its ability to withhold funding for education doesn't make it right. It is likely that many taxpayers would condemn the misuse of the Federal Government's authority over the distribution of their money for what looks very much like coercion.
“There are some good arguments for a national curriculum, as well as reasons for reservations about the idea, but this is not the way to go about introducing it. The main aim should not be haste, but getting it right, even if it takes more time and debate than the Federal Government may want to allow.
“Though it makes sense to have curriculum consistency among the States, there must also be flexibility for schools to adapt their offerings to the needs and circumstances of their communities. For example, schools should be free to teach local or State history as part of a wider curriculum. There are also questions of standards, assessment and teaching style under a national curriculum, particularly since there are reasons to fear a possible decline in academic rigour under the proposal.
“The author of a paper that gave a broad outline of a national science curriculum for students from kindergarten to Year 12 called for a course that was neither "knowledge-heavy" nor too dependent on "pencil and paper" testing. There was also a suggestion in the paper, which was released last month, that science teaching should be made more "relevant" to students.
“This sort of language should sound the alarm for parents and others who want high academic standards to be rigorously applied in schools. The outcomes-based education disaster in WA was also accompanied by such language, with a big measure of silly ideology thrown in.
“If that is the direction in which the national curriculum is heading, Dr Constable should resist it with all her might. This is about what is taught in our classrooms, not an experiment to test the theories of education academics.
“Far from trying to foist the unknown on schools with demands, the Federal Government should negotiate with all interested groups to come up with a curriculum of high quality which they can accept without the need for threats.”
From The West Australian
- School slams course 'blackmail' (page 8)
by Bethany Hiatt
“A private school principal has described as "financial blackmail" a demand to sign up for an unfinished national curriculum or miss out on Federal funding.
“Christ Church Grammar School headmaster Garth Wynne joined a growing chorus of school leaders who said they were reluctant to agree to a curriculum which did not yet exist in return for a share of a $28 billion funding package.
“(It's) appalling that we are held to ransom like this," he said yesterday. "We cannot operate without the new funding but are not made aware of the actual details of the conditions attached until after the event. (It's) best described as financial blackmail of independent schools."
“The Schools Assistance Bill, which also requires private schools to agree to report all sources of funding to get crucial grants before the nest school year, has been sent to a Senate committee for review.
“The committee does not report until the end of this month, leaving just a few days to get the Bill passed before Parliament rises for the year.
“Principals are also concerned the new requirements suggest the Government plans to change the way it funds independent schools.
“Shadow education minister Christopher Pyne said the Rudd Government left the legislation to the last minute "to slide changes under the radar and stymie debate" and it was arrogant of Education Minister Julia Gillard to pretend there were not serious concerns about the legislation.
“Independent Senator Nick Xenophon, who shares the balance of power, said:
"This is about process and about fairness and the independent schools have a point.
"How can they be expected to lock into a curriculum in the absence of seeing what that curriculum is?"
“WA Education Minister Liz Constable backed the principals this week, saying she would not support any arrangement where private schools were forced to sign up to something they had not seen.
“Ms Gillard did not respond to the mounting concerns, saying only that the legislation was before Parliament and that Dr Constable had not raised the issue at a meeting of education ministers in Hobart yesterday.
“Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard, who will sign the agreement for all WA Catholic schools, said he wanted clarification on issues such as the national curriculum, but there was not enough time.
"We need that Bill to pass before the end of the year otherwise we won't be in a position to pay salaries," Mr Dullard said.
“He was confident schools would have input into a national curriculum.
“Association of Independent Schools of WA executive director Valerie Gould said schools could refuse to sign once the Bill was passed but would not get funding. Many schools were concerned that funds would not arrive in time.”
From The West Australian
- Fewer students taking maths and science (page 59)
by Bethany Hiatt
“The proportion of Australian students who study science and maths at school and university has declined over the past 30 years, a new report has found.
“It said students were more likely to take up science-related studies at university if they did well at science in Years 11 and 12, which was in turn influenced by their maths proficiency in early secondary school.
“Strengthening school science curriculums was a key to boosting the number of people studying science at university, lead author John Ainley said.
“The report, released this week, was commissioned by the Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
“It said that last year 25 per cent or Year 12 students studies biology, 18 per cent studied chemistry and 15 per cent studied physics. This was a big drop compared to 1976, when 55 per cent studied biology, 29 per cent took chemistry and 28 studied physics.
“The report said there was also evidence of a decline in the proportion of students studying advanced maths to Year 12 level since the 1990s.
“Dr Ainley, who is also Australian Council for Educational Research deputy chief executive, said high school science curriculums needed to relate to the experience or young people and connect to emergent fields such as biotechnology.
"Stronger use of curriculum resources at primary school level is also required," he said.
“His views echo those of University of Canberra education professor Denis Goodrum, who recently recommended in a draft national science curriculum that science should be made more relevant to students. He said teachers should put less emphasis on requiring students to memorise scientific terms and more focus on learning broad concepts.
“Dr Ainley said the lack of specialist-trained science teachers in primary schools was a major problem, as was the lack of enthusiasm for science among generalist teachers.
“More university graduates with a science background needed to be recruited into teaching.
“Another contributing factor was the wider range of subject choices available to students.
“Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the development of a national curriculum would help invigorate science and maths education.
“The Rudd Government had also allocated $625.8 million to boost enrolments in maths and science teaching courses by reducing their university fees.”
From The West Australian
Similar story in Friday's Canberra Times
- Countdown to TEE time (page 8)
by Bethany Hiatt
“More than 13,000 students have been preparing for the TEE which starts on Monday as the gap widens between the number of private and State school students sitting the exams.
“Latest Curriculum Council figures show that just 42 per cent of the year's TEE students sitting at least four exams are from State schools compared with 53 per cent from private schools, even though more than half of Year 12s attend State schools. Overseas students comprise the other 5 per cent.
“The number of private school students doing four exams has risen from 5952 last year compared with 6085 this year. But the number of public school students has dropped from 4824 to 4763 over the same time. About 13,736 students are enrolled to sit at least one subject.
“Education Minister Liz Constable said State schools had opened op many vocational courses in the past decade. New TEE courses that are being examined for the first time include physical education studies, earth and environmental science and applied information technology.
“Last year's top TEE student and Beazley medal recipient Neil Thomas, 18, of Waterford, said it was never too late to put in a big effort. "What worked for me was giving up all vestiges of a social life and studying for pretty much most of the day, every day," he said. "It's worth the short-term pain for the long term gain." Now studying a combined law-arts degree at the University of WA, he hopes to complete a university exchange program in the US or Britain. The former Wesley College student hopes for a career in international law, diplomacy or politics.”
From The West Australian
- Letters to the Editor (page 22)
Please explain
“Thank you D. Clarke for your letter (System abuses teachers, 28/10). I also received a letter a week ago from the Department of Education and Training (DET) stating that "unfortunately you were not successful in gaining a substantive (permanent) teaching placement for 2009. However, a temporary teaching position (end dated) could be found for you. Some temporary positions are for the full school year." The letter also rambled on about applying again in term two 2009 for a placement in 2010.
“I have been teaching for three years in a hard-to-staff school. There was no suggestion or mention that I would return to my current school or when I may be offered a temporary school.
“I cannot believe I find myself in such a perplexing situation. I thought (along with many others) I was to be placed in a permanent position in 2009. The letter I received from DET in late 2007 suggested this: "Congratulations, I am pleased to be able to advise you that following the offer of permanency for country teachers, you are confirmed as a permanent member of the DET teaching staff." What they fail to mention is that this does not mean you will receive a permanent placement with DET, only when one becomes available. I have since found out that if a temporary position does not become available in my immediate area or district that also have the power to place me in another district.
“What is it going to take to get the system changed and replaced with one that works professionally for teachers?”
S. McDougall, Bunbury
- My home truths
“In response to Richard Adams (Like, it's pathetic, Letters, 28/10), I don't know of one primary school teacher who doesn't teach grammar of promote grammatically correct speech - that's our job. Unfortunately we are dealing with parents like you, who don't realise that the education of their children involves a partnership between school and home.
“Teachers are merely the facilitators of education but the real learning starts at home with the main role models - the parents. We can't fix society's problems and haven't got a hope when parents do not give their children boundaries.
“In my 4/5 class, many children watch M+ movies and unsuitable TV programs such as Summer Heights High and Kath and Kim. They also partake in MSN chatting, stay up late and regularly use colourful language which is quite often heard in the home. As a result, teachers are left with the patch-up job of modelling the correct ways to behave, interact and speak.”
Barb Gloggner, Rossmoyne
- The Sunday Times
- WA's new face of education - teachers without TEE (page 3)
by Paul Lampathakis, education reporter
"At least 124 school leavers without TEE qualification will be able to study teaching in 2009.
"This is more than double the 52 non-TEE high school graduates who had direct entry into Edith Cowan University's education course this year.
"Greg Robson, head of ECU's school of education, said though the students had not done TEE, entry standards were very high.
"Students had to excel in Year-12 subjects and meet requirements for the long-established portfolio entry.
"They had to be recommended by their principal as "being highly suitable for the teaching profession'', submit a resume and application and attend an interview.
"But Rob Fry, president of the WA Council of State School Organisations, the peak parent group, said universities had to ensure they assessed and addressed any deficiencies students might have by not having done TEE.
"We want the standards of the teaching profession to be as high as possible,'' he said.
"But he was open to the idea of non-TEE entry because even a great TEE score it did not mean a student would make a great teacher.
"Social skills, communication skills and good management skills in terms of adolescents and children are needed, but it's about ensuring standards,'' Mr Fry said.
"With a teacher shortage of 45 and a shortfall of 200 predicted for the start of 2009, new Education Minister Elizabeth Constable said of the ECU program: "Universities have an obligation to maintain standards.
"How they chose their students is up to them, as long as they can ensure that the standard of their graduates is maintained.'' [emphasis added]
"Lisa Vergone, 18, who is finishing her first year of teacher education at ECU after gaining non-TEE entry, denied the practice lowered the standard of candidates.
"I got all As in high school, so I had to be of a certain standard,'' said Ms Vergone, a Mandurah Catholic College graduate, who still works at her parents' Dwellingup orchard when not studying.
"A lot of people who did TEE are here with me and I'm keeping up with them.
"And people I know who did the same thing as I did are doing really well.''
"Prof Robson said education entrance numbers had increased because the success of the non-TEE program last year meant it had been expanded from 20 schools to 30 this year."
From The Sunday Times at link
- Murdoch: Delivering education is a priority (page 53)
by Terry McCrann
“Rupert Murdoch - chatting to a bunch of African-American children in the middle of Harlem in New York about Fox TV's hit American Idol - is an unusual image of one of the world's most powerful businessmen.
“Talking about Kevin Rudd a year on, he suddenly switches passionately to children and education.
"This country, like the US, like Britain, has huge social problems. To tackle them, you have to start with the schools," he says.
"We support a couple of charter schools in the middle of Harlem. One of them has been running for five years. It takes 100 new students each year. Last year it had 3300 applications, and entry was purely by lottery - 71 per cent have no father.
"I took a class of 60 to 70 for an hour. I talked to them about a few of my experiences. They wanted to talk about MySpace and American Idol."
"The way it works is that the state pays as if it is a state school. And they get extra money from people like us, so they can pay more to the young teachers, he says. This directly contrasts with the New York public system, which is geared to starting teachers on a low salary, then building up with the aim of retiring at 55.
“That gets it completely the wrong way around. The money available for education should be front-end loaded, starting good teachers on a good salary - say $A90,000.
“It is something that worries him about the ability of state governments in Australia to deliver an education.”
From The Sunday Times
See related story on ABC News
- The Weekend Australian
- Primary schools 'need more cash'
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"Primary school students are neglected in education funding, as extra resources are being directed to infants and high school students while the primary years receive less funding than any other school year.
"In a keynote address to the Australian Primary Principals Association conference, emeritus professor of education Max Angus said that Australia's spending as a proportion of GDP on Years 3 to 6 was among the lowest of the OECD countries.
"Yet the achievement gap in literacy and numeracy between the brightest and struggling students started to widen during primary school.
"The middle and upper primary years are the neglected years in the education system," Professor Angus said. "Yet it's the period in school where things go off the boil, where the kids who aren't achieving start to lag seriously behind."
"Professor Angus, from Edith Cowan University in Perth, specialises in education policy and school resourcing. He conducted a six-year research project into the level of resources in primary schools around the nation.
"He told the APPA conference of government and non-government principals that the funding model used by governments to calculate the amount to give to schools stemmed from 19th-century thinking on primary education.
"Historically, there has been a widely held belief that teaching a 17-year-old chemistry student is a more intellectually demanding job than teaching a six-year-old to read," he said.
"The funding model is essentially built on this premise."
"The APPA conference yesterday passed a motion calling on the federal and the state and territory governments to redress the funding inequities between primary and secondary schools and for an urgent review of funding in the primary years to arrest the widening gap in literacy and numeracy achievement..."
Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
- Gillard praises Tasmania for lead on school ratings
Tasmania has become the first state to release ratings of every state primary and high school based on literacy, numeracy and other key performance indicators.
Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday praised the move as "brave" and said the commonwealth would continue to push other states to follow.
- Fear for tertiary training exports
The outlook for Australia's third-biggest export, education, is being clouded by worries the global downturn could hit Asia and fears that any recession here could cause the Government to put the brakes on immigration and student visas.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Parents abandon private schools as downturn bites
by Erik Jensen and Gerard Noonan
"The global economic crisis is forcing parents to pull children out of private schools and fall back on the state system, and some of Sydney's top private schools are bracing for a slump in enrolments.
"Some public schools have already filled vacancies for next year, with up to 60 per cent of new enrolments coming from private schools.
"After more than a decade of aggressive fee increases, the private sector has conceded the years of growth are over. The principal of Barker College, Rod Kefford, acknowledged schools faced "downward pressure" in the weeks and months ahead.
"Catholic schools are preparing to run at a loss in 2009. At crisis talks in Sydney last week, principals discussed cost reductions and guaranteed the place of every Catholic student, regardless of his or her ability to pay fees.
"The Catholic Education Office of Sydney's director of schools, Kelvin Canavan, said the system was prepared to run at a deficit next year. "I hope, with good management, we will come through this. I just wouldn't want to dislocate a child's education."
"Financial issues are being increasingly cited by parents as the reason for the switch.
"There is a sense of - I won't say the word 'exodus' - but exit from the private sector," said Andrew Blair, the president of the Australian Secondary Principals Association, which represents the heads of government-run schools.
"I reckon we're going to see the next three to four weeks being critical to enrolments in the public sector for the beginning of 2009."
"Mr Blair said public schools were already reporting unusually high interest, particularly from parents of private school children. He said smaller independent schools would have to consider restructuring their fees..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- The party is over for those creative fee rises
by Gerard Noonan, Education Editor
"... For every year in the past decade, private school boards have jacked up fees by between 7 and 10 per cent each year. I know this, because, over much of that time as the Herald's education editor, I've polled a selection of leading private schools for their annual fee rise. It's now common for schools to charge $20,000 a year in fees and receive millions of taxpayer-subsidised dollars each year from the federal and NSW governments. Even the Catholic school system got in on the act, though the rises were closer to inflation rather than double digit.
"All parties come to an end. Just as the merchant bankers and the finance industry careerists are learning that public good isn't their strong suit, the private school fee rort is now under intense scrutiny. It may take a year or so but the ability of schools to tell their clientele that fees are ratcheting up again has run its course.
"Next stop: a thorough review of the funding scheme Labor inherited from the Coalition. Are you listening, Julia Gillard?"
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Neediest students lose special funding
Schools catering to students from the most disadvantaged suburb in NSW have lost their funding under a program designed to help the state's neediest students.
- Op Ed
We know how schools get better - it's not league tables
by Adele Horin
"Julia Gillard is mightily impressed with the New York public school system. It is famous for grading schools from A to F and closing the ones that fail to improve performance. She is bringing its guru, schools chancellor Joel Klein, to Australia soon.
"If Gillard adopts a similar punitive regime that publicly ranks schools by performance, she will win the battle but lose the war.
"Every expert - and every parent - knows the making of a good school is high-calibre teachers. First-class teachers won't stay in a school system that is oppressive, narrowly focused and obsessed with rankings.
"A plethora of recent studies have examined the world's successful school systems and all reach the same conclusion: first-class teachers are the drivers of educational improvement, not constant testing and league tables.
"The performance gap between classes within a school can be greater than the gap between schools, due to gifted teachers. That's why smart parents have always fought - usually unsuccessfully - to have their child transferred into the class with the good teacher.
"How to attract the best and brightest candidates to teaching is the crucial issue confronting Australia. [emphasis added]
"The 2007 McKinsey report, How The World's Best Performing School Systems Come Out On Top, based on 26 countries, the massive OECD study Improving School Leadership, based on 19 countries, and the book Why Not The Best Schools? by Professor Brian Caldwell and Dr Jessica Harris, released this week, all virtually ignore the Klein publish-and-be-damned approach. Publishing school test results in the newspaper to shame poor performers, or inspire them to improve, is peripheral at best, and may be counterproductive.
"It is surprising to see how little this tough regimen, so favoured in some form by Australians from both political camps, features in the world's top school systems which, by the way, did not include New York. None of New York's schools even made Newsweek's list of the nation's top 200 public schools published in May.
"The McKinsey report is unequivocal about the primacy of quality teaching. It cites seminal research from Tennessee that shows if two average eight-year-old students are given different teachers - one a higher performer, the other a low performer - the children's performance diverges by more than 50 percentile points within three years. Other studies suggest students placed with high-performing teachers will progress three times as fast as those placed with low-performing teachers.
"Finland and Singapore regularly top student performance in international tests, and pride themselves on having the world's best teachers. They have transformed teaching into a high-status profession. And the McKinsey reports shows how. A good (though not excessive) starting salary is part of the answer. A highly selective entrance process for teacher training is critical, and students need a master's degree before they can teach. Also important is a process for removing bad teachers early.
"Once in the classroom, teachers need sustained and substantial help to improve. "We would never turn out a freshly minted doctor and say, 'Go operate on somebody' without three or four years of guided practice," the report says. "But we turn out teachers, put them in classrooms, and ignore them."
"Boston, with its superior school system, used "professional development, professional development, professional development" as the three pillars of its approach. Mentoring in the classroom was found to be particularly effective.
"Beatriz Pont, an author of the OECD study, sees little value in league tables. The best way to achieve academic results is to "invest in teachers and school leadership". Caldwell adds that greater autonomy for schools is more important than constant testing and comparison.
"Gillard deserves praise for her focus on the most disadvantaged schools. Big dollars are promised, and more would be available if the Government diverted some public funds from private schools. If disadvantaged schools could attract the best teachers, with higher pay, instead of the least experienced, many problems would be solved.
"A lot of parents - and journalists - would like more transparency about school results. It seems only right and democratic. But what is the point of shaming struggling schools with hard-to-teach students unless the Government guarantees to deliver help, not condemnation?
"Publication of performance reports, the McKinsey study said, shows that "though many good schools improve further under the pressure resulting from the transparency of the system, failing schools seldom improve for this reason alone". If a school lacked the capacity to improve, no amount of pressure would change it.
"In Finland, which keeps school audits confidential, for every seven class teachers there is one who works with small groups identified as falling behind. Singapore has built classroom laboratories that test student reaction to new teaching techniques. This is the focus we need. [emphasis added]
"If Kevin Rudd's education revolution ends up a damp squib it will be because it focused on the wrong things - laptops, league tables and parent choice to move their children to a better school. None of these attributes features in the expert evidence on the world's best school systems.
"If Labor manages to transform the status and quality of teaching, and gives disadvantaged schools the intensive help needed, that would be a proud legacy."
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- ABC News
- Murdoch warns Aust unprepared for global challenges
"News Corporation chief executive Rupert Murdoch has called for a major overall of Australia's education system and says the reliance on Government hand-outs must end.
"The media boss has delivered a blunt assessment of the nation's capacity to deal with the global challenges that lay ahead.
"In a speech to around 500 people at the Sydney Opera House, Mr Murdoch has used the first of his six annual Boyer Lectures for the ABC to warn that Australia is ill-prepared for the global challenges it faces, including the current financial crisis.
"I fear that many Australians will learn the hard way what it means to be unprepared for the challenges that a global economy can bring," he said.
"He identified several areas of reform that are needed among them the education system.
"We have a 21st century economy with a 19th century education system and it is leaving too many children behind." [emphasis added]
"Mr Murdoch also says there is too much reliance on Government subsidies, saying Australia is in danger of becoming a "nation of bludgers".
"While a safety net is warranted for those in genuine need, we must avoid institutionalising idleness," he said.
"The bludger should not be our national icon."
"Mr Murdoch says apologies alone will not achieve Aboriginal reconciliation, but that Indigenous children must be given access to top quality education, which they currently do not have."
From ABC News at link
- ABC "Unleashed"
- Phony literacy [31 October]
You do have to feel some sympathy for Australian teachers. After weeks of their protests, Mr Rudd recently reaffirmed his resolve to assess children in years 3, 5 and 9 for literacy and numeracy; and, as if that wasn't enough, to hold the teachers "accountable" on those assessments. Assessment, he said, will permit schools to be closed, teachers sacked and parents to "vote with their feet". If it sounds as though Adam Smith's "invisible hand" has been invoked, you are right. However, I doubt he understands Smith.
Well worth a look
- The Sunday Age
- Police called in over stalking of principal
by Carmel Egan
"Police are investigating the stalking of a high-profile primary school principal over a series of obscene and threatening letters sent to her and her supporters.
"Margaret U'ren, the former principal of Hurstbridge Primary School, has been the subject of a nine-month Department of Education inquiry into allegations — made in an initially anonymous letter — that she bullied and intimidated staff.
"The letter claimed that nine of 20 teaching staff resigned at the end of last year to escape Mrs U'ren.
"Several of those contacted by The Sunday Age denied having seen the letter, and at least one has never been interviewed as part of the department's investigation.
"Most, however, refused to comment, saying present and past Hurstbridge teachers had a pact not to speak about Mrs U'ren..."
Full story in The Sunday Age at link
- Job training keeps students in class
by Liza Power
"Dealing with class trouble-makers wasn't the first of Jim Crowley's concerns when he sat down to a meeting of staff at Bairnsdale Secondary College last year. Neither was addressing the needs of "the best and the brightest". Rather, it was the students in the middle that had him stumped. The sorts of kids — year 8 boys mainly — who had spent their school days neither starring nor floundering but who one day just simply stopped coming to class.
"He had no doubts many left school to find jobs or apprenticeships. But that didn't stop him from feeling they had fallen short of realising their full potential. Staying at school to complete year 12 would open doors for such boys. What he needed was a way to convince the students of that.
"The program Mr Crowley devised, with the help of several teachers and the local Smith Family office, is called Straightalk. Held at the Bairnsdale RSL and drawing men from a diverse range of professions — builders, plumbers, chemists, policemen, a male nurse, architects, surveyors, a photographer — it's based on a simple premise: lunch and a chat. The students ask the men what their jobs involve, the subjects they studied, and whether they think they have what it takes to follow a similar path.
"The program has proven so successful that it's since been adopted by six schools across the Gippsland region, with 200 students from Mallacoota to Morwell taking part this year. Sessions have also been held in Bendigo, with Shepparton and Ballarat soon to follow..."
Full story in The Sunday Age at link
- The Age [Saturday]
- Op Ed
Lingering scars of school bullying
I went to a school that had bullies. The great regret of my life is that I didn't stand up to them. I was not bullied nearly as much as others but I lived in fear of what I saw. Not so much physical bullying, though I saw kids get bashed in the way a piece of tin might be bashed. What I feared more was the psychological bullying — particularly the practice of isolating individual kids so that no one spoke to them, day or night, for this was a boarding school and there was no escaping home in the evenings.
- Letter to the Editor
- Protecting privilege
"Michelle Green's letter (Letters, 31/10) is predictable in her role as a lobbyist for private schools eager to protect their privileged position. Whatever the information the parents of students in these schools might receive, it does not alter the fact that these schools are subsidised by every taxpayer.
"Most recipients of government payments are subject to accountability and mutual obligation requirements. Why should private schools be any different?
"Two recent articles highlight this issue. One, on architectural prizes (The Age, 31/10) was mention of the fact that Melbourne Grammar made a profit of $10.6 million in 2006. How much of this was taxpayers' money? The previous day, in an article on Scotch College's quest for greater compensation for land lost to the widening of Citylink, we see that Scotch made a $12.7 million profit in 2006.
"This school is now effectively using taxpayers' money to hire expensive lawyers to sue the Government (ie taxpayers) for millions of dollars for a strip of land narrower than a cricket pitch.
"Full accountability for every dollar received, as well as every dollar spent would provide the transparency needed in cases like this. If private schools want to keep their finances secret, they should take their hands out of taxpayers' pockets."
Graeme Smithies, Northcote
- The Guardian
- Exclusions expose scale of underage drinking
Official figures show 42,000 barred from classrooms over alcohol or drugs
Tens of thousands of pupils are being excluded from school for drinking, according to new research which undermines the government's claims that its efforts to curb alcohol-related antisocial behaviour are working.
- The Windsor [Ontario, Canada] Star
- Canada No. 2 in education
Canwest News Service
OTTAWA - "After a sluggish performance in an international health report card earlier this week, Canada bounced back Friday with the second-highest grade for education and skills training.
"Among the 17 countries ranked by the Conference Board of Canada, Canada lagged behind only Finland in the area of education and skills, coming through with an overall B average.
"But Canada was not alone near the head of the class, tying for the grade with seven other nations -- Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands..."
Full story in The Windsor Star at link
All Alston cartoons are © The West Australian Newspaper
All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers
This page last updated 6 November, 2008 9:18 PM
