From Monday 15 December 2008 through Sunday 18 January 2009, PLATO's Breaking News coverage is on "Summer Holidays", and will be limited to MAJOR Australian education news items. Major overseas stories will be added if and when time permits. The home page may be updated only once a day, normally in the evening.

We anticipate that full coverage will resume on Monday 19 January 2009.

Monday 15 December

Tuesday 16 December

Wednesday 17 December

Thursday 18 December

Friday 19 December

Saturday – Sunday, 20 – 21 December

Monday 15 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • School scores fail uni test on picking best
    by Andrew Trounson
    
    "Universities are looking for broader ways to assess prospective students amid suggestions the tertiary sector needs to drop its reliance on a single school score.
    
    "University vice-chancellors are concerned that school results are too narrow and are failing to identify talented students who fail to make the grade, especially from among the disadvantaged attending under-resourced state schools.
    
    "As thousands of Victorian and NSW students wait for their results today and Wednesday, respectively, Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andrew Blair wants to dump the whole idea of having schools produce a single entry score.
    
    "Instead, Mr Blair said it should be left up to universities to assess students using a range of criteria, including a more rounded view of a student's school performance.
    
    "If I had my way, I would dissociate secondary education from tertiary selection. I would leave it up to the tertiary sector with portfolios of support from schools," Mr Blair told The Australian.
    
    "Universities are using an increasing range of selection criteria, primarily to try to identify talent from among disadvantaged groups.
    
    "My feeling is that we will eventually, for equity reasons, want to break away from a lock-step with (school scores) and move into something a bit more holistic," Macquarie University vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz said.
    
    "It makes it a more equitable system because the people who miss out on the score are usually the kids that go to the poorer schools and this gives them a chance of showing what they can do outside of that system."
    
    "The federal Government is heading into the second year of a three-year pilot program encouraging universities to experiment with aptitude tests as a supplementary assessment tool for students from disadvantaged backgrounds or who have missed out on an entry score by only a small margin..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    Related story on ABC News
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Call to review school security
    
    The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union is calling for an immediate review of security at all state primary schools after a cleaner was sexually assaulted at work.
    
    Related story in The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Progress reported on school bullying
    
    There was renewed debate yesterday over the extent of school bullying after a report by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, revealed in The Sun-Herald, showed more than a quarter of Australian year 4 students said they had been bullied. Of 36 countries sampled, Australia, on a scale of best to worst in incidence of bullying, stood at 32.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Letting parents vote with their feet on school choice doesn't add up
    
    So we now have desperate parents attempting to bribe teachers to get their children into a selective high school. What a sad indictment of our education policies, the holy grail of which is parental choice.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Rethink on Melbourne Uni model
    
    Melbourne University will revamp its "Melbourne Model" teaching system amid complaints that parts of the curriculum are overloaded or not challenging enough for students.
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • How to Go Forward With 'No Child Left Behind'
    
    President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to "fix the failures" of the No Child Left Behind law, which rates schools based on student performance on annual math and reading tests... Under the law, schools must reach steadily rising performance goals. Certain schools that fall short face sanctions as severe as a management shake-up.

 

Tuesday 16 December

• The West Australian
  

  • Nationwide maths plan doesn't add up: expert (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “A former assistant director-general of WA education had attacked the proposed national maths curriculum labelling it a “one-size-fits-all-model” that would dumb down education.
    
    “Norm Hoffman who retired in 1987 and now runs specialist maths classes for gifted school students, said that under the draft curriculum all children of a given age, including the most advanced and the least able, would study the same maths.
    
    “The new national mathematics curriculum being proposed for children in Years 1 to 10 is a one-size-fits-all model,” he said. “Such an approach might be appropriate in English but it is quite inappropriate in mathematics.”
    
    “Dr Hoffman, who was also a former State superintendent who oversaw maths education in WA, claimed the only provision proposed for top maths students was that they could be “extended appropriately using challenging problems within current topics.”
    
    “He said that was unworkable. “This piecemeal approach will not give the able students the coherent, stimulating curriculum they need and deserve,” he said. “Under the proposed scheme, both the less able and the more able students will be denied the opportunity to engage in appropriate and satisfying experiences in mathematics.”
    
    “Dr Hoffman said the National Curriculum Board justified its position by stating that some of the developmental variation between students could become the basis for inequity in their educational experiences.
    
    “The board will not accommodated these differences by setting different expectations for different groups, since that reinforces differences and creates inequitable outcomes,” it said in a paper outlining the broad directions for the new curriculum.
    
    “The board's scheme, as it applies to mathematics, is fundamentally flawed,” Dr Hoffman said. “I can only conclude that he people responsible for generating it know little about mathematics and know little how children aged 5 to 15 develop intellectually.”
    
    “But Monash University science, mathematics and technology education professor Peter Sullivan, who was the main author of the draft curriculum, rejected claims it would dumb down maths education.
    
    “I think it's actually a misreading of the plan,” he said. “But that is a possible interpretation and I think that it's just part of the feedback and consultation process. We'll just make sure that next version is clearer.”
    
    “Professor Sullivan said that instead of introducing new content to advanced students, they would be encouraged to cover the same content at a more sophisticated level.
    
    “The Mathematics Association of WA said it was seeking feedback from its members on the proposed national curriculum and would prepare a formal response to the board in February.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Security tightened at schools (page 14)
    
    Security guards have been posted at a north suburban primary school and security patrols increased at neighbouring schools after an indecent assault on a school cleaner on Friday.
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • In short
      
      “This is the true spirit of Christmas. While shopping in Midland I spoke to a lady trying to find a beautiful pink Cinderella dress for an eight-year-old's party. She told me she was a teacher and this was for a pupil who had experienced a tragic year, including the death of her mother and a father who is not coping. This wonderful lady chose a dream dress, socks, pretty shoes (plus extra pairs) and everything else this little girl would need to be pretty. I added some cash for jewellery, so I hope this little girl feels a princess when she dresses for her party. God bless this wonderful teacher.”
      
      Helen Hoskin, Stoneville
      
      

• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Blog
    HSC - the future
    by Maralyn Parker
    
    ... As this national curriculum grows the future of our HSC and all other state and territory final school qualifications will be increasingly questioned.... Legislation has already been passed to create ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) to manage writing, assessing and reporting on the national curriculum Australia-wide... Mind you no-one is too worried, not even Western Australian themselves probably, if the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) disappears... [emphasis added]
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • New study structure at UWA from 2012
    
    "The University of Western Australia senate has endorsed a new course framework.
    
    "Under the changes, students entering the University from 2012 will have a choice of only five three-year undergraduate courses.
    
    "The Deputy Vice Chancellor Don Markwell says the courses will be more flexible, develop research and communication skills and include a community service component.
    
    "We would like to produce graduates who have both specialist depth in particular areas of their interest but also to be be rounded to have some greater degree of breadth and to develop those skills which employers and other tell us are so important such as communication skills," he said.
    
    "The University says some courses may take longer for students to complete as a result of the new course structure."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Student aid in line for major improvements
    
    Youth Allowance and Austudy are expected to be overhauled under a sweeping university shake-up to be considered by the Federal Government.
    
    
    
  • Private school students scoop scholarships
    
    Almost all of the elite university scholarships offered to the state's highest-ranking VCE students have been scooped by students from private schools.
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Chicago Schools Chief Is Obama’s Education Pick
    
    Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools superintendent known for taking tough steps to improve schools while maintaining respectful relations with teachers and their unions, is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice as secretary of education, Democratic officials said Monday. Mr. Duncan, a 44-year-old Harvard graduate, has raised achievement in the nation’s third-largest school district and often faced the ticklish challenge of shuttering failing schools and replacing ineffective teachers, usually with improved results. He represents a compromise choice in the debate that has divided Democrats in recent months over the proper course for public-school policy after the Bush years.
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Indigenous education

 

Wednesday 17 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • $7bn overhaul for higher education in Bradley review
    by Luke Slattery
    
    "Higher education is set for a $7 billion overhaul aimed at boosting graduate numbers by 330,000, tightening quality controls, merging some regional universities and turbo-charging research and development.
    
    "Under recommendations from the first comprehensive review of the higher education system in two decades, a new super-regulator would have the power to shut universities that failed to meet standards.
    
    "The review, by an independent panel of experts led by emeritus professor Denise Bradley, calls for portable "learning entitlements", or vouchers, to fund an extra 330,000 graduates by 2020. A national voucher scheme is a radical change from the centralised method of allocating university places by bureaucratic decree, and one that neither political party has been prepared to countenance.
    
    "Applying first to public universities, it would extend in time to private providers and TAFE.
    
    "The Bradley review anticipates that a voucher system will cost the federal Government an extra $1.1billion over four years, as universities attempt to meet its target of 40 per cent of the population aged 25-34 with degrees by 2020 - compared with 29 per cent today.
    
    "Students would be able to take learning entitlements to the university of their choice, making those institutions more responsive to student demand and improving efficiencies in course delivery.
    
    "Low-income students would also benefit from a raft of recommendations aimed at boosting financial support.
    
    "The review mixes its deregulatory voucher scheme with other measures that are unashamedly centralist, such as a demand that 20 per cent of students come from disadvantaged groups, compared to 15 per cent today..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [There's a plethora of similar stories in all major newspapers.]
    
    See the Op Ed by the report's author in The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Bradley's vast agenda
    
    Reviews are made by what is done with them
    
    "The Bradley review, as Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Sydney's Macquarie University has noted, delves into every nook and cranny of higher education and contains two very big ideas. Both are admirable and challenging - increasing the number of university graduates by more than one-third and setting university funding according to student demand using a voucher system. Actually, it is the review's third big idea - more stringent quality control by means of a new national accreditation agency - that promises to make the first two ideas effective.
    
    "Under the proposal of former University of South Australia vice-chancellor Denise Bradley, students would, in theory, be able to take their vouchers to the university of their choice, provided they meet course requirements. Institutions would become more responsive to student demand, helping the strong universities get stronger, and the weak wither to the point where they could lose their university status or be forced into mergers.
    
    "It would remain to be seen, in practice, what would happen when the most in-demand courses at the top universities were vastly over-subscribed. Capacity limits would inevitably force rankings of applicants.
    
    "Emeritus Professor Bradley has delivered a strong pitch for boosting university attendance among students from poorer socio-economic groups. While the HECS scheme already gives everyone the same chance, the review would take this further, obliging universities to take 20 per cent of students from disadvantaged groups. We remain sceptical about the effectiveness of centralised planning in this form, which goes against the merit principle that should determine tertiary entrance. The onus is on those who back the imposition of targets to demonstrate that they would not reduce standards.
    
    "To be successful in practice, the recommendations would also require a seismic shift in the quality of primary and secondary schooling through a more rigorous national curriculum. Much educational disadvantage stems not from costs or barriers to entry but from poor secondary school performance. This is not the fault of students but the fault of weak curriculums, shortages of specialist teachers, especially in maths and science, and lack of academic rigour.
    
    "Far from courses such as teaching and business being difficult to access, many universities have been forced in recent years to drop their scores so low to fill places that they are accepting students in the bottom third of their cohorts. The Bradley review's aim of increasing student participation further makes a lift in school and university standards mandatory - dumbing them down further to boost numbers would be counter-productive.
    
    "Ian Chubb, vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, is right when he says reviews are made by what is done with them. This review poses challenges for the federal Government in terms of funding and for universities to lift both participation and standards."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    • 'Voucher system' for uni placements - Bradley review
      
      The Bradley review, released on Wednesday, recommends a voucher system be introduced enabling students to attend whichever university will accept them. Under the system, government funding would follow the student rather than be allocated to institutions.
      

    • Vouchers can boost numbers, says Bradley review
      

    • Op Ed: Bradley drops bomb
      
      
    • You say you want a revolution
      
      
    • Bases are covered
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Investment must be made in higher learning
    by Denise Bradley
    
    "Australia faces a critical moment in the history of higher education. There is an international consensus the reach, quality and performance of a nation's higher education system will be key determinants of its economic and social progress. If we are to maintain our high standard of living, we need an outstanding, internationally competitive higher education system.
    
    "While the system has great strengths, it faces significant, emerging threats which require decisive action.
    
    "Higher education has changed dramatically over the past 30 years or so. It once comprised a small number of publicly funded institutions. There are now 37 public universities, two private universities and 150 or so other providers of higher education. The public universities derive significant proportions of their income from non-government sources and some private providers receive government subsidies. The public-private divide is no longer a sensible distinction.
    
    "Australia is falling behind other countries in performance and investment in higher education. Twenty-nine per cent of our 25- to 34-year-olds have degree-level qualifications but in other OECD countries, targets of up to 50 per cent have already been set.
    
    "To increase participation numbers, we must also look to members of groups under-represented within the system - those disadvantaged by circumstances of birth: indigenous people, the poor, and those from regional and remote areas. Participation by these groups has been static or falling over the past decade.
    
    "There are clear signs that the quality of the educational experience is declining; the established mechanisms for assuring quality nationally need updating; and student-to-staff ratios are unacceptably high.
    
    "Our universities lie at the heart of the national strategy for research and innovation - itself a critical foundation of our response to a globalised world. There is abundant evidence that government funds for infrastructure to support research in universities is very significantly below the real costs. This is leading to a pattern of quite unacceptable levels of cross-subsidy from funds for teaching, adversely affecting the quality of the student experience.
    
    "In 2020 Australia will not be where we aspire to be - in the top group of OECD countries in terms of participation and performance - unless we act now.
    
    "Access to Commonwealth funds should be made available to a wider range of eligible providers in a staged process. The funds should follow the student, not be allocated to the institution. Such a system allows institutions flexibility to decide courses they will offer and the numbers they will admit.
    
    "Australia is the only OECD country where the public contribution to higher education remained at the same level in 2005 as it had been in 1995. Over that time the private contribution increased significantly. A significant increase in public investment and funding for higher education is warranted.
    
    "At the same time, both a more appropriate rate of indexation and regular triennial review of the adequacy of funding for higher education are required to ensure that the country's efforts in this area remain competitive internationally over time.
    
    "Present levels of income support are inadequate to support students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Reforms to, and better targeting of, income support should allow such students to attain better qualifications in a more timely fashion. This will require significant reforms to elements of Australia's welfare and income support system.
    
    "Greater incentives and more support for high-performing international students to undertake research degrees in Australia and better support for domestic research degree students will assist us to deal with a looming shortage of academics and researchers.
    
    "The world is in a period of rapid and unpredictable change. It is not clear if the measures in this report will be sufficient to enable the higher education system to meet these challenges adequately.
    
    "To improve its relative performance, additional, ongoing and significant public investment in higher education will be required."

    Denise Bradley is the chairwoman of the Review of Australian Higher Education, with Peter Noonan, Helen Nugent and Bill Scales. This is an edited extract from their report.
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Opinion
    'Teach First', learn later: a quick fix
    by Lorraine M Ling
    
    "We all remember teachers who impacted upon us positively and also teachers who impacted upon us negatively. We learnt because of them and sometimes in spite of them. Teachers cannot avoid in some way making a difference to our lives and thus the profession of teaching is one which comes with a significant responsibility.
    
    "The decisions which teachers make every day in their profession as educators are based on knowledge and understanding of a variety of theories, methods, approaches, strategies and models. The ability to make these decisions in an informed and ethical manner derives from the training and preparation teachers receive for their profession. This ability and preparation is what separates teachers from the public armchair experts who claim to know everything about education because they have been to school. Teaching is a profession.
    
    "It is not surprising, given the elements of teacher preparation which are seen by teacher educators as central, that there is alarm at the announcement by Education Minister Julia Gillard that Australia is to follow in the footsteps of USA and UK with their short cut, quick fix approaches to getting "teachers" into classrooms. [emphasis added]
    
    "Ms Gillard has announced that the Government will fund a new scheme to "attract Australia's best graduates into teaching". This is part of the previously announced $500m National Partnership between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories to improve Quality Teaching which is also a key COAG issue.
    
    "The Minister, in the media release announcing the scheme, proposes "a new pathway" for high performing graduates to enter teaching in areas such as commerce, law and science. Top graduates would do an intensive teacher training course, receive mentoring from experienced teachers and undertake further study as they complete their teaching qualification. The program would require that graduates give a minimum two-year commitment to teach in schools and at the end of that time, graduates would have the option of taking up positions in the business sector.
    
    Serious concerns
    
    "There are a number of serious concerns about this scheme which is being enthusiastically embraced by at least some of the state governments. Such schemes as these involve a block of about six weeks of intensive training before appointing these "teachers" to schools. In the case of the Victorian scheme (which will come with the accreditation and blessing of the Victorian Institute of Teaching) these people will be appointed to schools which are classed as "disadvantaged". This label could mean a number of things such as being in a low socio-economic status (SES) area, possibly having some disengagement issues with students, potentially in remote and hard to staff areas.
    
    "Six weeks of training means these "teachers" will be equipped with survival skills only, recipes, bags of tricks and prescriptions. With such limited exposure to the teaching theory it would be virtually impossible for them to properly engage with the bodies of theory and knowledge which are central to teacher preparation. This is worrying enough, but perhaps even more concerning is the fact that these people will be highly likely to teach as they were taught, be uncritical of the existing teacher culture and of necessity, be acculturated into that culture. This may or may not be appropriate. [emphasis added]
    
    "Given that high achievers in universities are likely to come from higher SES areas, their own educational experience may not equip them for the contexts in which they are placed. If they are lucky enough to have a mentor who has the time to seriously coach them, and who is themself a critically reflective teacher, they may learn much on the job. However, due to the intensification of teachers' work, a teacher who is designated as a mentor will struggle to find time in their busy schedule to undertake the task in the manner which is required.
    
    "There is also some literature which queries the whole notion of mentoring as it well may be a means by which to ensure that the status quo prevails unquestioned and uncritiqued. Such questioning and critique is essential in any profession which is to progress, adapt in a rapidly changing world, and to move beyond an old and outmoded paradigm.
    
    "The Victorian scheme claims that one of the key elements is that these are graduates who would otherwise have not gone into teaching. Yet if we look to the overseas experience it is unlikely that these people will still be teachers five years on.
    
    "The notion that "high quality teachers are critical to a high quality education system" which is articulated by the consultants who are preparing the Teach First style model for Victoria, is not in question. What is in question is how a six-week crash course in teaching and then a stint in a disadvantaged school for two years will produce high quality teachers. It is also central to the Victorian scheme that it is in league with "leading corporates".
    
    "It is now well accepted that education is a tool of economic rationalism, as is every other social process in the current era, but we have to consider the appropriateness of the corporate ideologies and agendas that are now being driven down through the schooling system and inculcated into learners from preparatory grade onwards.
    
    "It is not surprising that the "Teach First" model appeals to governments even though there are many criticisms of it by professional educators. It constitutes for governments a "quick fix", a band aid, a lower cost of training teachers, a means to produce uncritical teachers, and potentially to ensure that the status quo prevails unchallenged by critique from within the ranks of professions such as teaching.
    
    "Whilst we know this is unsound in every way, it is pragmatically desirable for governments and that will win out over pedagogy and common sense every time unfortunately."
    
    Professor Lorraine M Ling is Dean of La Trobe University's Faculty of Education.
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • [WA] Teachers welcome literacy, numeracy money
    
    "Teachers have welcomed a $4.6 million literacy and numeracy funding package but have questioned whether more money needs to spent.
    
    "The funding was announced by the State Government and will go towards initiatives including providing additional resources for teachers and a website for parents.
    
    "The latest national literacy and numeracy testing showed West Australian students are not performing as well as those in other states.
    
    "The President of the State School Teachers Union, Anne Gisborne, says the funding is positive.
    
    "Whether the $4.6 million is enough to address some of the longer term issues around literacy and numeracy performance is another question but it certainly is a step in the right direction," she said."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    • Cash boost to improve literacy standards
      
      
      
      
• The West Australian
  

  • Group pushes for God-free school religious lessons (page 49)
    by Bethany Hiatt and Daniel Hatch
    
    “A group which rejects religious faith says WA should follow Victoria's lead in offering God-free religious educational lessons.
    
    “Humanist Society of WA president Diana Warnock said she was keen to talk to the WA Curriculum Council after the Victorian Humanist Society revealed it had developed a curriculum to deliver “humanist applied ethics” to primary school pupils.
    
    “The humanist philosophy places emphasis on the worth of all human beings, rational thinking and morality without dependence on faith. Humanists believe taxpayers should not fund religious indoctrination in schools.
    Under the Victorian plan, humanist volunteers will be able to teach their philosophy in the class time designated for religious instruction, though parents would have the option to withdraw their children.
    
    “I'd certainly be very interested top talk to the Curriculum Council here about it,” Mrs Warnock said. “If anybody else is offering information about morals and values I'd certainly like the opportunity to do that as well because I think there are plenty of ways you can teach people to behave the right way without giving them religious instruction.”
    
    “But the group which co-ordinates non-denominational Christian programs in more than 100 WA schools, Youth Care, said humanism should not be taught during time allotted to religious education because it was not a religion.
    
    “Ministry services head, John Clapton said Youth Care had no say on which groups went into schools. “But it's ironic that an organisation that is emphatically non-religious should seek to use a time slot that is provided in State legislation for religious education as an opportunity for them to promulgate their non-religious views of life,” he said. “Because there are other places where that could happen.”
    
    “Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said the curriculum framework outlined the values that were taught in independent, Catholic and Government schools.”
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Former basketballer moves to centre court on Obama's team
    
    About 20 years ago, he was struggling to make a name for himself as a professional basketballer in Nunawading. Today, Arne Duncan will be named secretary of education in Barack Obama's administration.
    
    
    
  • Skint students say a little largesse is only fair
    
    Students will benefit from key recommendations in the review of higher education released today, particularly increases to student income payments and a drop in the age of independence.
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Talking about another campus revolution
    
    Congratulations to Afghan refugee Shaheen Hasmat, who beat the many odds against him to achieve an tertiary entrance score of 99.8. The dux of Reservoir District Secondary College has been offered a scholarship to study medicine at Monash University. The 17-year-old defied the barriers imposed by race and disadvantage. Overwhelmingly, our most successful students attend private or select-entry state schools. Only 15 per cent of Australian university admissions come from students from the bottom 25 per cent of postcodes ranked according to income and education.

    Encouragingly, Professor Denise Bradley's review of higher education seeks to increase the number of disadvantaged students enrolling in undergraduate degrees, proposing a target of 20 per cent be set by 2020.
    
    

Thursday 18 December

• The West Australian
  

  • State literacy + numeracy = $4.67m boost (page 58)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “The State Government yesterday launched a $4.67 million package to lift literacy and numeracy standards in public schools.
    
    “The package includes key findings from a review into literacy and numeracy by University of WA education dean Bill Louden, completed two years ago.
    
    “But the Government is yet to respond to his main recommendation that teachers should be trained in early identification of students who are likely to experience learning difficulties.
    
    “Education Minister Liz Constable said the initiatives include $1.5 million over four years to help primary principals implement a whole-school approach to literacy, $1.2 million for a pilot program using paraprofessionals to support teachers and $500,000 over four years to work with universities to develop teaching resources.
    
    “It was the first of a comprehensive strategy. “There is no magic want to instantly lift literacy and numeracy standards in our schools,” she said.
    
    “Dr Constable said strategies concentrating on early intervention and remote education would be released early next year.
    
    “Education director-general Sharyn O'Neill said the department would work closely with universities to make sure graduate teachers were very clear about when and how to teach essential skills.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Blaze spoils last day for Rossmoyne students [late update: online only]
    
    A fire that gutted classrooms at Rossmoyne Senior High School in Perth’s southern suburbs overnight has marred the last day of school for students but will cause minimal disruption, principal Leila Bothams said this morning. The fire was reported just before 11pm last night and caused about $600,000 damage to two demountable classrooms.
    
    
    • ABC News
      
      
      • School fires on the increase
        
        The Department of Education says the number of school fires has more than doubled in the past year.
        
        
        
  • Degrees push may lead to shortage of trade skills, warns Unions WA (page 10)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “Encouraging more people to get university degrees could drastically increase Australia’s shortage of skilled tradespeople and put unnecessary pressure on students, Unions WA said yesterday.
    
    “A comprehensive report into Australia’s higher education sector released yesterday said the nation needed more well-qualified workers to meet the demands of a rapidly changing global economy. It set a target of 40 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds holding bachelor degrees by 2020, up from 29 per cent now.
    
    “Unions WA secretary Dave Robinson said Australia had experienced a big shortage of people with trade-based skills over the past five years and the report’s recommendations would make the problem worse.
    
    “I think there’s a potential there for a continuing shortage,” he said.
    
    “Academic training was not necessary and for many people it was not manageable, Mr Robinson said.
    
    “Rating university education over other forms put “incredible pressure” on students to perform well enough in their TEE to go to university, rather than “accepting and acknowledging limitations”.
    
    “There is this view that to have a university degree is sexier than getting a trade-based qualification,” Mr Robinson said.
    
    “In terms of balance in our economy, that does a serious injustice to those people who would go for that sort of training development and skills. It also doesn’t recognise that we need very practical trade-based skills to support industry.”
    
    “Mr Robinson said people working in trades needed a different set of skills to those with degree. “Most people are not going to be able to achieve a university qualification and don’t need to,” he said.
    
    “There is almost a stigma attached to people who elect to go to TAFE and I think that is a crying shame that we would even think to continue down that path and make it worse.”
    
    “Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union secretary Les McLaughlan said any reduction in skilled tradespeople would increase dependence on overseas labour.
    
    “There have been less people going into trades and more going into tertiary (education),” he said.
    
    “If this is saying we’re going to accelerate that, then that will further weaken our skills base and I think that would be of some concern.”
    
    “But former University of South Australia vice-chancellor Denise Bradley, who chaired the higher education review, said more university graduates would not exacerbate the shortage of skilled tradespeople because there was a big pool of people who did not have qualifications.
    
    “There needs to be a much greater emphasis on skills across the board,” Professor Bradley said.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Wider uni net would work: reviewer (page 10)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “Plans to attract more people into higher education would not lead to lower standards, according to the author of a wide-ranging review of higher education.
    
    “The Bradley review recommends that universities increase the number of graduates by enrolling more people from poor, rural and indigenous backgrounds who are under-represented in tertiary education.
    
    “Former University of South Australia vice-chancellor Denise Bradley, who chaired the review, said she was more concerned about maintaining the quality of graduates, rather than any potential fall in entry standards.
    
    “Research showed students with poor exam results who received support at university could do as well as others who started with a higher entrance rank.
    
    “There is an unfounded belief that the TER actually has any great meaning,” she said. “When you look at the performance of these students who come in under special entry schemes, 97 per cent of them do as well as students coming in under the normal arrangement.”
    
    “Professor Bradley said evidence showed a high correlation between socioeconomic status and the TER.
    
    “Well-off parents are able to pay for coaching and various kinds of support for students,” she said. “What we need to do is use different methods for attempting to make judgements about capacity and then support them when they come in.”
    
    “University of WA vice-chancellor Alan Robson said there was a difference between entry standards for school leavers, who needed a tertiary entrance rank above 80, and for people who did not do well at school but had life experience.
    
    “If universities increased enrolments in line with the report’s targets based on school leavers alone, they would have to drop the minimum entry rank to 60, which UWA would not do. But the targets were achievable if more mature-age students enrolled.
    
    “Edith Cowan University vice chancellor Kerry Cox strongly backed the call for increased access for disadvantaged groups.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Tiny school relishes its place in the sun (page 59)
    
    With just five full-time students, four staff and a bright, breezy classroom tucked behind the township only a short stroll away from the beach, Rottnest Island Primary School is a sought-after posting.
    
    
    
  • Dream education a work in progress (page 56)
    
    [This article is from Parentcentral.ca and appeared on 10 December]
    
    LAFAYETTE, N.Y. – It sounds like a student's dream school – no teachers, no homework, no weekly tests, no grades.
    
    
    
    
• SSTUWA
  
  
  • Union endorses Replacement Agreement for tafe lecturers
    
    TAFE Committee has endorsed in principle, a replacement Agreement for TAFE lecturers.  The replacement Agreement will be prepared for a vote during the January break. Details at that link.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Viva the revolution
    
    School performance is a right-to-know issue
    
    "The waiting is over for Year 12 students anxious to find out how they have been marked in the ultimate school examination. But who is marking their teachers and their schools? The answer is nobody, unfortunately. and that is why it is time to to hasten Julia Gillard's education revolution.
    
    "The Australian believes parents and students have a right to know how schools are tracking so they can make informed choices about education. Those who spend taxpayers' dollars should be accountable to those who pay the taxes. Teachers' pay should be linked to results, not seniority, rewarding excellence and discouraging mediocrity. Choice and competition are powerful incentives.
    
    "Teachers' unions have fought this kind of openness tooth and nail. State governments have been reluctant to take them on, allowing a culture of provider capture to prevail. The result is the annual snow-job that occurs at this time of year, when exam results that could easily be collated are kept secret, thus preventing schools and teachers from being ranked according to performance.
    
    "This is the culture of secrecy that the Education Minister has pledged to break. Ms Gillard has taken a keen interest in the trend towards accountability in the US, where grading schools and allowing bad schools to close has produced measurable improvements in public education in areas such as New York, New Orleans, the District of Columbia and Chicago. US president-elect Barack Obama this week anointed Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as his education secretary, and in doing so tacitly endorsed the policies of accountability and free-market style incentives that Duncan has championed.
    
    "It is one of the perversities of Australian politics that Ms Gillard, who comes from the left wing of Labor, is better-equipped to introduce these reforms than her conservative predecessors. Under John Howard's leadership, the sort of policies Ms Gillard proposes would have been condemned as a heartless assault on public education by the forces of reaction. Ms Gillard - and Mr Obama for that matter - can hardly be accused of being conservative culture warriors, allowing the reforms to be judged on their own merits.
    
    "The unions will not go down without a fight, however, and it will be interesting to see how hard Ms Gillard is prepared to push her reforms in the light of her naked concessions to old-fashioned unionism in the Fair Work Australia bill introduced to parliament last month. She should resist the temptation to cherry-pick the more palatable reforms or to set aside the tougher aspects of accountability, such as allowing poor schools to close.
    
    "There was more evidence of the failings of public education in Denise Bradley's review of higher education, released this week, which found the Dawkins educational reforms of the 1980s failed to raise the proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds at the tertiary level. We have our doubts that Professor Bradley's solution - a mandated target of 20 per cent of students from disadvantaged backgrounds - would make any difference. Professor Bradley is asking universities to make up for failings further down the line.
    
    "What is needed is a bottom-up education reform that measures progress at every stage. This is a chance for the Rudd Government to show it really is the vanguard of the reforming centre. We will know it is on track once the culture of secrecy that protects schools and teachers from scrutiny is finally broken."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Gillard to play ball with Obama's education chief
    
    Julia Gillard's plan to introduce bold US-style accountability and transparency mechanisms in Australian schools has been given a significant boost by Barack Obama's decision to appoint pro-reform Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as his education secretary.
    
    
    • Aussie lessons for Obama's school tsar Arne Duncan
      
      Karen Duncan, who grew up in the plush surrounds of an exclusive Tasmanian girls' school, just may be the Australian closest to the incoming US administration of Barack Obama. Her husband, Arne, has been responsible for transforming some of Chicago's toughest schools and is now the president-elect's nomination for secretary of education.
      
      
      
  • Plan to teach tots calls for PC play
    
    Political correctness in the playground is the theme of the nation's first curriculum for childcare centres.
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Let the children play
    
    But beware those sexist, racist homophobic toddlers
    
    "However faulty it may appear to those who think children should enjoy dolls, toy trains, sandpits and stories, the nation's first draft curriculum for childcare centres will have its uses.
    
    "Toddlers will be able to create their fingerpainted masterpieces on the back of its ludicrous, politically correct pages. Shredded, it would make useful straw for toy animals' beds. And covered in bright poster paints, its diatribes about equity, diversity and pedagogical leadership could be handy for making puppets. Or paper planes.
    
    "Children know how to play, but the panel of state and federal education bureaucrats and academics purporting to tell them how should go back to the playpen.
    
    "There, they might begin to see what's wrong with their claims that play among babies, toddlers and kindergarten children "is not always innocent and fun". Rather, they claim, it can be "cruel, unfair and unjust - a space for politics and power relations, where children are excluded on the basis of gender, age, size, skin colour, proficiency with English, class, ethnicity, sexuality and more".
    
    "Beware those sexist, racist, misogynist, homophobic terrible twos."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Cant takes magic out
    
    Trust the bureaucracy to spoil childhood by writing a childcare curriculum infested with politically correct jargon, says Natasha Bita.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Worldwide alert on Microsoft browser
    
    More than 500 million internet users around the world are at risk from a major flaw discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer software that can give criminals access to personal details, including banking passwords and log-ins. Microsoft Australia said yesterday it was "working around the clock" to fix the fault in the popular internet browser, used by about 70 per cent of net users worldwide.
    
    About 2 million people, most of them outside Australia, are believed to have fallen victim to the flaw after visiting apparently safe websites, and the problem threatens to sweep the worldwide web, Britain's Daily Mail reported yesterday. The newspaper said that hackers in China were at the centre of the cyber attack, the most serious in the history of Microsoft's operating system.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Educated guess has its risks
    
    Funding universities through a student voucher system has some merit, but it could spell the end of smaller institutions.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Editorial
    Getting ahead by degrees
    
    "In the midst of the greatest modern example of cognitive blindness by the world's supposedly best financial minds, it is perhaps strange to have prescriptions for the country's universities dressed in the language of economic utilitarianism. But if that's what it takes to get more money into the badly frayed higher education institutions, so be it, and Denise Bradley's new review of the sector contains some worthy recommendations.
    
    "One is simply that more funding needs to come from government for basic teaching and research. Another is that student allowances have to be increased to acknowledge the high cost of accommodation, in particular, and limit the diversion this has demanded from a student's time on campus to part-time work. More assistance for students from low-income or indigenous families is also important. No one can object if this is partly financed by ending the gap-year rort whereby about 30,000 students living at home and being supported by well-off parents can have themselves deemed "independent".
    
    "The amounts Professor Bradley suggests are not large in the context of federal spending, and the objections that projected surpluses have already been squandered by the Rudd Government's short-term economic stimuli do not stack up when Keynesian deficits are clearly going to be the order of the day in the Western world for years.
    
    "One result will be to lessen the universities' dangerously large reliance on full-cost fees from overseas students. This kind of revenue flow can be unpredictable, and has already led to questions of compromised academic standards and an unsatisfactory educational experience for the students.
    
    "The review suggests that the suggested injection of nearly $6 billion over four years can launch us towards a significant lift in the proportion of younger workers with degrees by 2020, and this is essential to meet the demand for skills in an increasingly service-based economy. We are left a bit vague about what skills these are. The Business Council of Australia is in no doubt: it wants "quality and relevance" with "every individual student … able to apply what they've learnt in a practical and useful way". We still believe that the purpose of universities is to develop the ability to think, and bring critical power to bear on entirely new sets of opportunities and problems. What is studied on the way is secondary.
    
    "The Bradley review's more debatable suggestions are those for closer integration of the university and vocational training systems, and the idea of portable student vouchers, which could encourage excessive enrolment in subjects of immediate vocational utility and reward - which wouldn't make us a particularly clever country."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link

 

Friday 19 December

• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Risks in call for tertiary reform [from 18 Dec]
    by Kevin Donnelly
    
    "The Bradley review's call to increase participation rates for disadvantaged students is worthy mirroring the Federal Government's policy to increase the percentage of such students entering tertiary study from 15 per cent to 20 per cent.
    
    "But the danger is that, in the rush to positively discriminate in favour of working-class, migrant, indigenous and isolated students in rural Australia, merit flies out the window and those students who now do very well will be discriminated against in future.
    
    "In a number of speeches over the year, Julia Gillard, as Education Minister and Social Inclusion Minister, has argued that universities are the preserve of the wealthy and that the participation rate for disadvantaged students must be increased. Based on the mantra of equity and social justice, equality of outcomes and increased participation, Gillard argues that every student, regardless of ability, interest or motivation now has the right to tertiary study. She has established a National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education at the University of South Australia and signalled that a key measure of school success would be how many at-risk students undertake tertiary studies. Given that universities rely on the Federal Government for financial survival, it's understandable why many fully support Gillard's call.
    
    "Instead of relying on Year 12 results, and tertiary entry scores, some vice-chancellors have argued recently for the introduction of equity quotas and basing selection on interviews and the socio-economic profile of candidates' families.
    
    "Based on the British experience where Labour initiatives include evaluating students in terms of what school they attended, their cultural background and whether their parents have degrees or well-paid jobs, the danger is that social engineering replaces merit. Such an example of social engineering might sound bizarre but, as proved by a recent example in Britain where a student was denied entry to the medical faculty at Sheffield University because her parents had degrees, it's obvious that cultural-left social policy can have unfair consequences.
    
    "The potential losers are those students whose parents have worked hard, saved and given them a good start in life by overcoming disadvantage. At a more personal level, neither of my parents had degrees and growing up in Melbourne's working-class Broadmeadows wasn't easy: the only university dad spoke about was the university of hard knocks.
    
    "Like many others, my brother and I stuck to our studies, got into university and completed degrees. Luckily, success came and my children had a better start in life growing up in Melbourne's eastern suburbs with a white picket fence and attending private schools. Like thousands of other students whose parents have climbed the social ladder, if the Bradley quota system is introduced and so-called privileged students are discriminated against, my children would be marked down for having a privileged background and possibly lose out when applying for tertiary study.
    
    "While many appear unwilling to admit it, there is also the point that not every student deserves or has the ability to benefit from tertiary study, and increasing participation for its own sake will lead to falling standards.
    
    "Far better, if policymakers and politicians are serious about raising the standards of under-performing schools associated with many disadvantaged communities, is to enact policy that holds such schools accountable for performance.
    
    "Overseas research by Ludger Woessmann for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development suggests the most effective way to improve students' results is to provide additional resources, give schools autonomy over staffing and free them from bureaucratic, centralised control.
    
    "Handicapping some students, simply because of who their parents are, where they were lucky enough to grow up or what school they attended, is unjust and unfair. The message is also sent that hard work, talent and application are less important than being a member of a so-called victim group that has to rely on government action to get ahead."

    Kevin Donnelly is director of Melbourne-based Education Strategies and author of Dumbing Down.
    
    From The Canberra Times at link
    
    
    

• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • School administrators threaten strike action
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "School administrators are threatening to cripple WA schools with strikes on the first day of lessons next year. The administrators say they won't work on February 2, 2009, " unless the State Government commits to properly resourcing school support functions".
    
    "Community and Public Sector Union branch assistant secretary Jo Gaines said critical administrative services in schools - already buckling under the pressure of staff shortages - were being further threatened by continued under-resourcing.
    
    "Ms Gaines said there were also additional demands from Government policies to shift functions from teachers to support staff.
    
    "She said an example was the Classrooms First Strategy, which relied on a well resourced professional school administration system to enable teachers to concentrate on the task of teaching.
    
    "School support staff are integral to a quality education system in WA," Ms Gaines said.
    
    "Without our members, teachers cannot teach and schools cannot function."
    
    "Numerous independent reviews have acknowledged the importance of school support staff and the critical shortfall of resources allocated to school support functions by (the Education Department).
    
    "Ms Gaines said that despite years of negotiation between the department, the Government and members - which included school registrars, business managers, school support officers, library officers, laboratory technicians and information technology support staff, the situation remained unchanged and continued to compromise the delivery of quality education in WA.
    
    "She said union officials met Education Minister Elizabeth Constable yesterday and called on her and the Barnett Government - which campaigned on the importance of education in WA in the state election - to address this issue and avert the strike.
    
    "But Ms Gaines said although the Education Department Director General Sharyn O'Neill and Dr Constable acknowledged the long term workload problems suffered by school support staff, their capacity to address problems had been reduced by Treasurer Troy Buswell's 3 per cent departmental cuts which had removed a further $91million from the education budget.
    
    "School support staff see it as their duty to stand up for their schools and will take strike action on the first day of Term 1, 2009 unless the State Government commits to properly resourcing school support functions," she said.
    
    "This is not a campaign on wages. This is a campaign to ensure we have a quality education system in WA.
    
    "Teachers are not the only people involved in ensuring our school system delivers quality education to our children."
    
    "But all that Dr Constable would say on this issue this afternoon was: I have had two good meetings with union representatives in recent times and I am aware of the issues involved".
    
    "This month, teachers resolved a long-running battle over salaries and conditions with the Government, which will mean raises of more than 20 per cent over three years for most chalkies."
    
    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    
  • Pay rise for TAFE teachers
    
    WA TAFE lecturers have been offered a $168 million pay rise. The State Government and State School Teachers’ Union executive reached agreement on a new salaries and conditions package this week. But acceptance of the deal is subject to a vote by lecturers, which is expected to be finalised early next year.
    
    
    
    
• Business Council of Australia
  
  
  • Bradley Review Provides a Solid Basis for Reform
    
    The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has welcomed the focus of the Bradley review of higher education on greater participation in higher education.
    
    Chairman of the BCA Task Force on Education, Skills and Innovation, Hutch Ranck, said extending Australia’s knowledge and skills base was crucial to achieve strong economic growth and address disadvantage.
    
    At the same time, improved participation levels must be matched by lifting the quality and relevance of what is taught, Mr Ranck said.
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • School Board Votes To Allow Pay Cuts
    
    US teachers face salary cuts as the recession deepens.
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Demand for state schools rises as recession hits
    
    The economic crisis is triggering record applications to state schools from parents abandoning fee-charging private schools, new research has found.
    
    Similar story on BBC News
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Most Talked About: The Bradley Review
      Boosting graduate numbers a worthy goal, but …
      
      Five Letters at that link
      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Several on the Bradley Review
      

 

Saturday – Sunday, 20 – 21 December

• The West Australian
  

  • Intensive plan to lift results in WA schools (page 12)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “Children as young as eight will have to go through intensive cramming sessions to train them to perform well in exams so WA can improve its poor ranking in national tests.
    
    “The State Government revealed yesterday it would spend $500,000 developing a resource package to prepare students better for national literacy and numeracy tests and help improve WA's performance.
    
    “Parents and teacher groups have attacked the move, saying it would focus on teaching children to pass exams rather than giving them a broad education.
    
    “The Federal Government yesterday released the full report of the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy tests for student in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, held for the first time in May this year.
    
    “Students from public and private schools sat the same tests, which assessed their ability to read, spell, write a creative story using proper sentences, correctly use punctuation and grammar and understand maths.
    
    “A preliminary report in September showed that WA was ranked sixth of the eight States and Territories in most of the tests. The proportion of WA students who were  at or above the minimum standard was below the national average in all the 20 tests across the four year levels. The full report showed that indigenous student achievement was significantly lower than those of non-indigenous students across Australia in all areas.
    
    “It also showed that city students achieved better results than country students and girls outperformed boys in every area except numeracy.
    
    “Education Minister Liz Constable said she was disappointed with WA's results and determined to raise literacy and numeracy standards. Schools needed to concentrate on reading and writing in all years and on numeracy in lower primary school. The package, available next year, would include sample tests, essential skills that needed to be taught for each test at each of the four year levels, advice on how to best prepare students for NAPLAN and tutorials on how to understand school results and plan for improvement.
    
    “State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne welcomed extra resources for teachers but was concerned that schools were increasingly driven by test results.
    
    “I think we have to be cautious that we're not buying ourselves into a focus on what we might call a league tabling competition,” she said.
    
    “WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry was concerned by the narrow focus on teaching students how to pass a test. “We want them to gather overall skills, not just the skills for passing tests,” he said.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Constable blasts 'fuzzy' draft on early teaching (page 12)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “Education Minister Liz Constable has called a new draft curriculum for teaching children under five “fuzzy” and “frothy”, but she would not withdraw WA from national consultation.
    
    “A preliminary draft of the Early Years Learning Framework being developed by State and Federal governments contains politically correct statements such as “play is not always innocent fun” and educators should “work with children to challenge power assumptions and create play experiences that promote equity, fairness and justice”.
    
    “Hollow jargon such as children should “create meaning using a variety of culturally valued symbol systems” is also included in the document, which is being revised for introduction in child-care centres and kindergartens in July.
    
    “Dr Constable said the document lacked substance or guidance for teachers. “some of this woolly, fuzzy, frothy thinking is really disappointing from my point of view,” she said.
    
    “The Minister said she was passionate about educating children from birth. Research had shown that children who had structured programs early in life fared better at school.
    
    “I'm really keen to see us doing the right thing and being sensible about it,” she said. “The framework can be based on evidence rather than ideology or a bit of froth.”
    
    “But asked whether WA would refuse to use the new curriculum if she was not happy with the final draft, Dr Constable said: “Let's do it one step at a time, let's see what happens.”
    
    “Edith Cowan University early childhood lecturer Carmel Maloney said the document's language was appropriate because it was aimed at professionals and other support documents would be provided.
    
    “It was not necessary to outline curriculum targets because that would make the document too prescriptive.
    
    “Associate Professor Maloney, who had some input into the document, defended its political correctness.
    
    “I think what it's actually saying is that early childhood teachers just need to be aware of how children relate to one another and this notion of equity, fairness and justice needs to be emphasised in play,” she said.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Listen to these wise views on mathematics
      
      “Bethany Hiatt's report (Nationwide Curriculum 'dumbs down mathematics', 16/12) engendered a feeling of nostalgia as I read the remarks of Norm Hoffman.
      
      “This delightful gentleman introduced us to the sublime beauty of calculus and analytical geometry more than 52 years ago. I have enduring respect for the man who clearly must still be an intellectual force to be reckoned with.
      
      “Dr Hoffman's experience in teaching mathematics would have to be formidable in view of his age, positions held and current occupation; his view on teaching mathematics ought to be listened to.
      
      “Peter Sullivan might want to consider that the defence of his own draft curriculum may be the motivation behind his rejection of Dr Hoffman's claims rather than accepting the probability that Dr Hoffman could be right.
      
      “I do hope the good professor has not succumbed to the siren call of political correctness in the development of the draft curriculum and really does consider what is best for young students who love mathematics.”
      
      Richard Wilkins, Swanbourne
      
      
      

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • 500 teachers 'not qualified' (page 21)
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "More than 500 unqualified teachers are educating children in WA schools.
    
    "The teachers' registration body, the WA College of Teaching, has confirmed that subjects including maths, English, foreign languages and music have been taught by people without a teaching degree or diploma of education.
    
    "At least 505 taught in Perth and country-area private and public schools this year, and up to a quarter had no university degree.
    
    "Qualified teachers who exposed the practice attacked the provision of "limited authority'', saying only properly educated teachers should be allowed the "big responsibility of educating our children''.
    
    "Why do we bother getting degrees if they can teach like this?'' one teacher said.
    
    "Why don't we also have nurses doing surgery while we're at it?''
    
    "But WACOT director Suzanne Parry said sometimes it was better to have people with some qualifications or subject knowledge than have no teacher.
    
    "She said maths, English and other subjects had sometimes been taught under this provision, but languages and music were the main subjects affected.
    
    "Under the college's limited authority to teach provision, such people were granted part-time and full-time employment, ranging from two weeks to two years.
    
    "This could happen if a school advertised for teachers and none were available, and WACOT decided applicants' other qualifications, or experience were appropriate.
    
    "But teaching experts and parents said proper training was pivotal for equipping teachers with the knowledge to prepare and deliver lessons, manage classes and handle student behaviour.
    
    "The best way of doing that is to go through a program that has clearly defined standards that enables them to teach well,'' Greg Robson, head of Edith Cowan University's school of education, said.
    
    "We understand the need to acknowledge experience.
    
    "But we still would argue strongly that you need specific preparation to be a well-qualified and useful teacher.''
    
    "Rob Fry, president of peak parent group the WA Council of State School Organisations, said parents wanted every teacher to be appropriately qualified.
    
    "But WACSSO was aware of shortages in recent years that made it difficult to get qualified teachers, especially in regional areas.
    
    "Mr Fry said skilled people had much to offer students, but they should get recognised teaching qualifications.
    
    "He said the WACOT Act containing the limited authority to teach clause, was up for review.
    
    "Education Minister Liz Constable said that based on advice she had received from WACOT, she did not believe students' education was being compromised by the use of the limited authority.
    
    "Dr Parry said similar provisions operated elsewhere in Australia.
    
    "Among short-term teachers were some who had finished university, but were awaiting results."
    
    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
  • Schools told fund your own crossings (page 4)
    by Glenn Cordingley
    
    “Twenty traffic warden-controlled school crossings have closed in WA this year and 18 are under a cloud – jeopardising the safety of tens of thousands of children.
    
    “Parents have been told to hire their own lollipop staff or enlist volunteers to run 39 crosswalks.
    
    “A Stage Government review based on pedestrian and traffic movements says they do not warrant police-funded wardens.
    
    “The Children's Crossing and Road Safety Committee has informed affected parents and citizens groups to go it alone, but just one school association has so far agreed to privately administer its own wardens.
    
    “The remaining 18 have been given until early next year to inform the State Government of their decisions.
    
    “Police Minister Rob Johnson said manned crossings put “considerable demand” on trained officer resources when attendants were absent.
    
    “In the first term alone this year, police devoted the equivalent of
    1379 one-hour shifts (not including travel time) to crossings,” he said.
    
    “He suggested parents walk their children to school gates but conceded “that was not always possible”.
    
    “WA Police is under pressure from the State Government to make 3 per cent budget cuts.
    
    “However, Student Pedestrian Policy Unit spokeswoman Janelle Child said the move had nothing to do with cuts.
    
    “(The crossings) have simply not met the necessary criteria,” she said.
    
    “Two separate crosswalks at Beldon Primary School have just been downgraded, which means Angela Babbington, 40, now walks her son Reid, 8, to and from school.
    
    “The traffic wardens are our front-line protection for kids, who need adult supervision while developing awareness when crossing the road,”
    Mrs Babbington said.
    
    “Beldon P&C this week lost and appeal to have the decision overturned.”
    
    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    
  • Dress sense for uni degree (page 21)
    
    A short feature on using formerly "vocational" subject for TER purposes.
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Education Union says vulnerable students need system's help
    
    "The Australian Education Union (AEU) says new data released yesterday is a reminder of the need to pay close attention to the nation's most vulnerable students.
    
    "The full results of this year's literacy and numeracy tests showed the ACT as one of the top performers.
    
    "But the report shows Indigenous students and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds lag behind other students.
    
    "Secretary of the ACT branch of the AEU, Penny Gilmour, says the results are not surprising.
    
    "But it does, I think, serve as a very useful reminder," she said.
    
    "Every time we have data like this, one of the things that we have to take very special care about in our society is that we look after the need of the most vulnerable kids in it.
    
    "There is a robust system, here. Our students are achieving well, but that's no reason to sit on our laurels.
    
    "We need to make sure that we are always looking for ways to improve to make sure that every student reaches their full potential."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Students suffer in HSC result race
    
    Schools are "disposing" of poorly performing students and encouraging Higher School Certificate candidates to take easier subjects to manipulate the way HSC results are reported and their school is ranked in league tables. [See following Letter on this topic.]
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Schools rigging results just cheat all students
      
      "As the silly season of "league tables" is upon us, it is timely to reflect on the loss of ethical practice in the push for school success as defined by academic achievement at the HSC.
      
      "Consider this scenario: a year 11 student from a "successful" private school requests enrolment at his local comprehensive public school for year 12. When asked why such a change was sought in the middle of HSC studies, he says he has been told by his school he cannot continue to study all his year 11 subjects there, but would have to study some at TAFE, or change schools.
      
      "He says he knows he would not be able to continue there because he "wouldn't get good enough marks" and only those likely to achieve highly would be allowed to sit exams - this despite the fact his report shows reasonable achievement in year 11 and no other problems.
      
      "A rare occurrence? No. This has happened twice in the past few weeks at my school and at several of my colleagues' schools. It is an event revisited each year in our local comprehensive schools.
      
      "Since the position on "league tables" is determined by the number of Band 6 results achieved divided by the number of exams sat at a school, it is easy to see the effect for a school that reduces the number of exams and maximises the Band 6 results.
      
      "As the principal of a public, academically successful, comprehensive school, which accepts all students (for some of whom just completing the HSC is a wonderful achievement), I question the ethics of excluding students on predicted HSC results. Not that the school in the scenario above is likely to admit to such "value adding".
      
      "Academic achievement is a fine goal, but not at the expense of our ethical responsibility to young people. Public funds should not be used to support such blatant results rigging."
      
      Judy Thompson, Principal, Blakehurst High School
      
      plus several Letters critical of TEE League Tables
      
      
      
  • Op Ed
    Youths today read quickly but that doesn't mean they're reading well
    
    My daughter received her HSC results this week. It's been a slightly unsettling experience watching her study English these past two years, because she's had to read far fewer of the classics than I did at her age, writes Michael Duffy.
    
    
    
  • Exchange students put at risk of being abused [Sunday update: online only]
    
    Australians as young as 15 on overseas exchange programs are among thousands of students abused each year by those entrusted to support them.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Age
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Eight Letters on last Sunday's article: Religion in schools to go God-free
      
      
      
      
• The Age [Saturday]
  
  
  • Aboriginal children fail basic school tests
    
    Up to 80 per cent of Aboriginal children in remote Northern Territory communities are failing basic literacy and numeracy tests.
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Teachers to get 'role model' code
    
    Teachers in England will have to act as "role models" both in and out of school under a proposed new code of conduct. They could face losing their status if they get drunk and into arguments while out socialising, or do not get help for drink or drug problems.
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • $38 Million Schools Cut Proposed for Maryland Counties
    
    In response to Maryland's worsening fiscal outlook, Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget secretary has recommended cutting almost $38 million this year from an initiative that sends additional money to local schools.

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This page last updated 23 December, 2008 9:20 PM