Monday 13 April

Tuesday 14 April

Wednesday 15 April

Thursday 16 April

Friday 17 April

Saturday – Sunday, 18 – 19 April

Monday 13 April

• The Age
  
  
  • Claims of pressure on schools over exam
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "[Victorian] State Government bureaucrats have been accused of pressuring schools to spend most of their time over the next four weeks practising literacy and numeracy tests so Victorian students can "look good" in a high-stakes national exam.
    
    "From May 12, more than a million Australian students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are expected to take part in the three-day test, which is designed to provide a snapshot of how students are faring across each of the states and territories.
    
    "But teachers claim Education Department officials are pressuring them to "teach to the test" — in other words, to use most of their time practising assessments at the expense of other parts of the curriculum — so Victoria can outshine other states when the results are released later this year.
    
    "The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) was introduced last year. The results — based on tests in reading, writing, language conventions and maths — are released publicly and compliance is tied to federal funding agreements with each state.
    
    "But Australian Education Union state president Mary Bluett told The Age: "There's a lot of pressure being put on schools and their students to perform really well, and it seems to be more about making Victoria look good."
    
    "The Education Department's Anna Malbon denied schools were being pressured over the tests. She said the department had been "working with schools to implement strategies to improve literacy and numeracy" but added: "The department does not expect teachers to teach solely to a test."
    
    "In a memo sent to schools last week, Education Department secretary Peter Dawkins warned principals that the test results would "have a very high profile on the national stage as well as in Victoria" and that students will need help to prepare so they can "understand the genre of testing and the cognitive demands they will be placed under to successfully complete the task". [emphasis added]
    
    "The 2008 NAPLAN results showed that Victoria is firmly among the top performing jurisdictions in Australia," Professor Dawkins wrote in the memo, obtained by The Age.
    
    "However, there are still too many students at or below the minimum benchmark. We need to work together to reduce these numbers and achieve high numbers in the top performance categories. Accordingly, this year, our objective should be to improve on the 2008 results."
    
    "Ballarat High School principal Paul Rose said Education Department officials had urged schools to spend a lot of time making sure students were familiar with the types of questions they would be asked on the day.
    
    "The message is: 'this is something you will take seriously, and you will do a much better job to shine in these tests'," Mr Rose said. "But the question is, are we deliberately schooling young people about the test instead of giving them sustainable long-term knowledge?" [emphasis added]
    
    "NAPLAN replaced the states' standardised assessments. The national system meant that for the first time, all students per year level took part in the same exam at the same time of the year, which authorities argue provides a more accurate snapshot of how students fare and the Federal Government said would enable better targeting of resources.
    
    "Teacher unions have always argued that standardised tests take too much time away from other aspects of the curriculum, place too much pressure on students, and only provide a snapshot of achievement at one point in time, instead of long-term achievement."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Feature [new series?]: The Volunteers
    School’s in as lawyers put strong case for self-belief
    by Kate Campbell
    
    "A partnership between one of Perth’s biggest law firms and a high school is forging strong community bonds and giving students a better chance to succeed.
      
    "For two years, Minter Ellison has run a “buddy system” with Warnbro Community High School via the Australian Business and Community Network.
      
    "The law firm has offered students the chance to listen to emerging leaders in the community and help them set goals, given them work experience, sponsored school art exhibitions and set up a scholarship program for talented students to help them study law or legal studies at Murdoch University.
      
    "Other assistance includes music tips from former Minter Ellison lawyer and former keyboard player for WA band Eskimo Joe, Dan Bull, working with indigenous students and mentoring a “Principal’s 22” of high-achieving Year 12 students.
      
    "Fourteen Minter Ellison lawyers are also about to start a six-month mentoring program to help about 18 Warnbro students with their aspirations and selfesteem by providing positive role models.
     
    "School principal Syd Parke said the relationship had boosted the image of public education in the area. “There’s a lot of optimism around the school and Minter Ellison has contributed to that,” he said.
    
    “They have made our school better . . . and absolutely lifted kids’ aspirations. It’s shown them opportunities they didn’t know existed before.”
    
    "Minter Ellison managing partner John Poulsen said up to 40 staff had volunteered to spend time with the students, even sharing their life stories.
    
    "They gave about 100 work hours to the pro bono cause, which went much deeper than “good PR”.
    
    “People want to be part of an organisation that gives some meaning to their life,” he said.
    
    “I think the legal profession does a raft of things that go unnoticed.” Mr Poulsen said the program had changed many students’ lives and boosted their belief in what they were capable of.
    
    "He called on more organisations to join the adopta-school program.
    
    "National Volunteers Week starts on May 11."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Pop focus in music education panned
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "A teacher of teachers says music education in schools has been reduced to entertainment, with classroom lessons focusing heavily on pop at the expense of understanding the classical art form and its history.
    
    "Associate professor in music and music education at the University of NSW, Robert Walker, argues that all students should study the work of Western classical composers such as Mozart or Tchaikovsky, which has a complexity unparalleled in other musical traditions.
    
    "Professor Walker says students were missing out on an important part of their cultural heritage in the failure to study classical music, with the little music that children learn at school mainly comprising pop.
    
    "The lack of music teaching is well documented, particularly in government schools where specialist music teachers are scarce.
    
    "A national review released in 2005 made 15 recommendations, but Professor Walker said it still failed to address the lack of classical music taught in schools.
    
    "I'm not against pop music but it's very simple, and not difficult either to play or sing," Professor Walker says in the latest Platform Paper published by Currency House.
    
    "By contrast, classical music was complex and challenging and while it was part of Australia's cultural heritage, most children's exposure to it was through Hollywood films.
    
    "At least children ought to know what's been happening in Western culture. It's not a question of being superior, it's part of our cultural heritage," he says in the quarterly essay on the performing arts. "Music education has become all about enjoying music; if kids don't like or enjoy it, we've broken a major rule of education." ...
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Indigenous children fall further behind every year they're at school
    by Andrew Fraser
    
    "The Productivity Commission has found that the gap between indigenous and other children in basic education requirements increases the longer they are at primary school.
    
    "While indigenous students are falling behind in all subjects, the area where the gap is largest at the end of primary school is in basic numeracy, says a commission report released late last week.
    
    "Mining the results of the 2007 national basic skills tests, the Report on Government Services 2009 found that the only time and subject in which the gap narrows was between Years 3 and 5 in writing.
    
    "In all other instances in writing as well as in reading and numeracy, the gap increases as students get older.
    
    "In writing, the gap is 18.8 per cent in Year 3, narrowing to 16.9 per cent in Year 5, but blowing out to 20.5 per cent in Year 7.
    
    "In reading, the gap is 15.3 per cent in Year 3, widening to 23.8per cent in Year 5, and widening further to 26.1 per cent in Year 7. In numeracy, the gap is even starker. It starts at 17.1 per cent in Year 3, rises to 25.6 per cent in Year 5, and then to 34 per cent in Year 7.
    
    "Less than half of all indigenous students nationally are able to meet the benchmark for numeracy in Year 7..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    Similar story on ABC News
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Stressed teachers suffer breakdowns
    by Polly Curtis, education editor
    
    Teaching is the most stressful job in the UK and mental illness is on the rise, says the National Union of Teachers
    
    "Schools are blighted by stress-induced mental illness and many teachers face "burn-out" before they retire, according to the National Union of Teachers, which yesterday voted to launch a new campaign to protect teachers' rights and reduce their workload.
    
    "Delegates at the union's annual conference in Cardiff backed moves to demand a reduction in their working hours, guaranteed time to prepare for lessons outside of their teaching timetable and a cutback in class sizes to a maximum of 20.
    
    "The union also presented evidence documenting the impact of stress on teachers' mental health, including figures which reveal that teachers have a higher rate of suicide than the general population.
    
    "John Illingworth, a former primary headteacher from Nottingham who, in a speech to the NUT conference three years ago, revealed his own struggle after a breakdown, said yesterday: "Depression, anxiety and burn-out have become the teacher's diseases, though they often remain hidden."
    
    "Illingworth's highlighting of the issue in 2006 triggered a working group of NUT representatives to investigate the effects of mental illness on the profession. The results of their research were presented yesterday.
    
    "It included one study by the Health and Safety Executive, which concluded that teaching is the most stressful occupation in the UK with 41.5% of teachers reporting themselves as "highly stressed". A 2003 survey found that one in three teachers took sick leave in 2002 as a result of work-related stress.
    
    "Most alarmingly, the Samaritans have reported that the rate of suicide per 100,000 teachers in England and Wales is 14.20 compared with 10.25 per 100,000 people in the general population.
    
    "The conference heard that teachers are suffering under the pressure to improve their exam and test results in the annual league tables, and also increasingly from the schools inspectorate, Ofsted, which puts "intolerable" pressure on teachers during inspections.
    
    "The union will now lobby for a national employment contract, which would give all teachers the right to reduced working hours to ease the pressure in their working lives. The conference issued a threat of local industrial action if their demands are not met, saying members would refuse to carry out tasks they deemed non-crucial in schools with intolerable conditions."
    
    From The Guardian at link
    
    Related stories from BBC News and The Independent
    
    
    
    
• Of possible interest
  
  
  • Op Ed: Opportunity rides the super-highway by Ziggy Switkowski [The Australian]
    
    
  • Op Ed: Questions, but [media] landscape is changed forever [The Australian]

 

Tuesday 14 April

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Fear raised schools will become 'test factories'
    by Kim MacDonald
    
    "Teacher and parent groups fear moves to publish numeracy and literacy exam results will turn classrooms into “test preparation factories”, with the emphasis moving from educating students to beating other schools.
    
    "The Save Our Schools parent group fears widespread and unfair comparisons when individual schools results from next month's nationwide tests are published for the first time.
    
    "It is understood the Federal Government will rank schools in categories based on socioeconomic levels, but there would be no measures to stop others from using that information to rank schools across the State of nation.
    
    "SOS spokesman Trevor Cobbold said schools were already feeling the heat from moves to publish the results, and were dedicating all their time to memory drills.
    
    “Such a focus on testing competence means an impoverished education for all of us,” Mr Cobbold said.
    
    “Deep learning and understanding, creativity, play and imagination are all left behind in test preparation factories.”
    
    "Mr Cobbold said ranking schools would reflect nothing more than the relative socioeconomic status of the students, which was the major determinant of test results.
    
    "The Federal Government has not previously published the results on a central website. The West Australian has previously published the individual results for WA schools but has not ranked them in order.
    
    "The State School Teachers Union said pressure was already mounting on teachers in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who were being told to put most of their class time into preparing for the numeracy and literacy tests.
    
    "Union president Anne Gisborne said up to a quarter of school time was being spent on preparing for the tests in a bid to push up a schools' chance of achieving good exam results. Subjects like science were temporarily dropped from the curriculum to make way for extra numeracy and literacy exercises.
    
    "Ms Gisborne said the stakes had been further increased by the Federal Government's decision into tie funding to improvements in numeracy and literacy across each State and Territory after the third year of testing.
    
    "But the Australian Primary Principals Association said it supported the national tests as a means of providing schools and authorities with information about student performance.
    
    "Association president Leonie Trimper said the group also supported the release of information to the general public, but only when it was proved that the information would be used to benefit the school.
    
    "It was uncertain whether the group wanted members of the public to apply for the information from authorities. Ms Trimper said the association's views would be outlined soon in a position paper."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Dumb dumb di dumb
    
    Music students need more than pop on their iPods
    
    "It was almost inevitable. Just as comics and Big Brother ousted George Orwell and Oscar Wilde, green propaganda replaced geography and "social justice themes" overtook narrative history, classical composers such as Mozart or Tchaikovsky have given way to pop in school music. Robert Walker, associate professor in music and music education at the University of NSW, is rightly concerned about the quality of classroom music education. Hampered by a severe shortage of qualified teachers, the subject has largely been reduced to entertainment.
    
    "Professor Walker's experience in Britain and Canada, and as former chief examiner for the International Baccalaureate, makes him well-placed to comment. As he argues, it is a sad reflection that Asian students know more about Western classical music than most children in the West, with nations such as South Korea stipulating pieces to be studied at set ages.
    
    "Just as Sydney's Anglican archbishop Peter Jensen is concerned that young people are missing part of their cultural heritage by not being familiar with the Bible, Professor Walker says students are missing an important part of that heritage by not studying classical music its history. As with too many other subjects, school curriculums are devoid of real content.
    
    "At least Professor Walker, who teaches teachers, can exercise quality control. The big challenge is with the state education authorities. Hopefully, more rigorous national curriculums in English, maths, science and history will filter through to other subjects, including music."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    Flashback [to May 2006]
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Arts on the outer
      
      "The scandalous disappearance of music from our schools ("Pop focus in music education panned”, 13/4) is, regrettably, a phenomenon shared by all the arts.
      
      "It certainly is a situation that calls for urgent redress, but this will not happen until our politicians see the light.
      
      "The National Curriculum Board (NCB)—a conglomeration of federal and state education ministers—has decided not to include the arts in its stated aims.
      
      "Its website states English, mathematics, science and history curriculum will be developed and implemented in schools from 2011 and “a second suite of curriculum will include languages and geography”. No mention of the arts at all.
      
      "The NCB’s aim is to “provide students with an understanding of the past that has shaped the society and culture in which they are growing and learning, and with knowledge, understandings and skills that will help them in their future lives”.
      
      "Yet its proposed curriculum ignores entirely the absolutely significant contribution of the arts to our understanding of the past. It also ignores (in our increasingly visual culture) the mounting evidence that the visual areas of the brain are inherently linked with creative and intelligent activity."
      
      Donald Richardson, Mount Barker, SA
      
      
      
    • "As a lifelong music teacher and educator, I heartily support the views of Robert Walker that children should learn about and listen to classical music as part of their general education. Unless a child has been fortunate enough to have parents interested in classical music he or she is deprived of the opportunity to learn about one of the richest fabrics of our human society. There is nothing wrong with pop music per se, but it is only one of the various forms of entertainment.
      
      "To suddenly introduce classical music to children who have never heard it before needs a carefully crafted syllabus of short inspirational works to engage their interest, together with some interesting facts about the composer. They need to learn the difference between styles and the difference between melody and harmony, acoustic and amplified music."
      
      Marguerite Brand-Webber, Buderim, Qld
      
      
      
      
• ABC News
  
  
  • NT education system 'a failure'
    
    "A senior fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies has labelled the Northern Territory's education system a 'failure'.
    
    "Helen Hughes has released a paper reinforcing that students from remote schools perform a lot worse in literacy and numeracy than their metropolitan counterparts.
    
    "Professor Hughes says by encouraging bilingual education programs in remote schools, the Northern Territory Government has failed to achieve results in any language.
    
    "She is calling on the Government to streamline education.
    
    "[The] Northern Territory is an outlier on every single test of numeracy and literacy, years three, five, seven and nine," she said.
    
    "The results are appalling.
    
    "They amount to a 100 percent failure rate."
    
    "She said there was an inherent culture in remote schools that children "are different" and do not need to read and write.
    
    "There's hardly any secondary teaching and it's the curriculum that's the problem. Everybody knows it." [emphasis added]
    
    "However, the Northern Territory branch of the Education Union says bilingual programs in remote schools encourage better school attendance.
    
    "We want the kids to get to school. That is all it boils down too," the union's Rodney Smith said.
    
    "If they get to school they have a chance of learning something and by removing the chance to be comfortable at school and being introduced to school in their own language, is going to stop getting the children there and feeling comfortable."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • More funding needed to prevent early school leavers
    
    Teachers unions and parents associations say the ACT Government will have to boost school funding if its plan to lift retention rates is going to work.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Pressure to rein in 'corrupt' colleges
    by Sushi Das
    
    "The Federal Government is facing mounting internal pressure to launch a co-ordinated nationwide crackdown on corrupt training colleges that are making millions of dollars a year exploiting foreign students by breaching immigration and education laws.
    
    "Senior officials from government departments have told The Age that widespread rackets among private trades colleges are "out of control" and undermining Australia's education, immigration and employment systems.
    
    "Complex networks linking unscrupulous private colleges, migration agents, education agents and businesses offering work experience indicated the involvement of organised crime, one official said.
    
    "The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said serious problems existed at several levels: colleges and agents were fleecing students using forged certificates and immigration fraud; government agencies charged with checking the credentials of students entering the country were "lackadaisical"; and some students were complicit in scams aimed at securing permanent residency in Australia. [emphasis added]
    
    "They said that while individual government departments and agencies were belatedly stepping up efforts to deal with the problem, a unified response from the Commonwealth was being hampered by a lack of co-ordination, confusion over jurisdictions, and a reluctance to upset a lucrative industry.
    
    "It's out of control," one of the officials said. "In the current economic climate … I think people are fairly reticent to try to fiddle with this huge earner in Australia."
    
    "International education is a $13.7 billion industry, making it the nation's third largest export after coal and iron. Australia has the highest proportion (19 per cent) of international students of any OECD country.
    
    "The whole thing is a sustained attack on our education system, it's an attack on our immigration system, it's an attack on our workplace relations system," another official said.
    
    "The Government is allowing it to happen and it could be stopped with the stroke of a pen," he said..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Why teaching to the test is wrong
      
      "Re State Government bureaucrats pressuring schools to spend most of their time over the next four weeks practising literacy and numeracy tests with years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students (The Age, 13/4). The rationale is that their scores will "look good" in national tests in May.
      
      "Almost every day, I hear the pressure that teachers feel to prove "results" based upon such a flawed system as a standardised test.
      
      "The testing, and data and results gained, are based on a misguided notion that we can accurately provide useful information about children's learning.
      
      "It is time state and federal governments looked more deeply into meaningful assessment. Teaching to a test is an insult to the intention of what a holistic education should be about. I do not blame teachers.
      
      "However, I wish more educators, schools, academics and parents voiced their opposition to these tests and the pressure placed on teachers for data-driven "results"."
      
      Kathy Walker, education consultant, Brighton
      
      
      
      
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Why I abandoned teaching
    
    When Leonora Klein started training she found a world in which measuring was more important than learning
    
    Worth a look
    
    
    
  • Teachers call for 10% pay rise as union warns on curriculum
    
    Teachers called for a 10% pay rise yesterday after hearing that low salaries are forcing young recruits out of the profession. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) said ministers must not use the recession as an excuse to cut pay.
    
    Similar stories in most UK media
    
    
    
  • Can you teach an old dog with young tricks?
    
    Is phonics suitable only for teaching children to read? A new study proposes to show it can help adults too
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • TV 'reduces children's attention'
    
    Teachers are "struggling to compete" with the sound-bite culture of television, says a teachers' union leader. Julian Chapman, president of the Nasuwt teachers' union, is warning the quick-fire pace of television is reducing concentration spans in UK classrooms.
    
    
    
  • Teachers decry optional testing
    
    Children should not have to sit "optional" school tests if teachers think them unnecessary, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has said.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Students out of control
      
      "What schools are Gaynor McGrath talking about when she says we should be using "restorative justice" to deal with school discipline problems ("Yes, there is a way to avoid gangland culture in prisons", April 13)?
      
      "This supposedly gives students an opportunity to reflect and concentrate on the action rather than the person, and leaves them "with a feeling of being worthwhile".
      
      "In the real world of most schools the first problem is getting the students (if they are not caught red-handed) to admit what they did, or in some cases follow instructions from any authority figure (ie teachers), before you can get to negotiating a punishment. Sorry, restorative solution.
      
      "Students will argue like bush lawyers so they can avoid consequences for their actions.
      
      "Some have parents who don't care what their children do, and some have parents who tell their children it is OK to challenge authority and to stand up for their "rights" (as opposed to the rights of teachers and victims).
      
      "This idea will certainly increase the already inflated "feeling of being worthwhile" for badly behaved students, but it certainly will not change their behaviour or their attitude towards authority, which is the major root cause of discipline problems in the first place."
      
      David Croxon, Flinders
      
      
      
      
• Of possible interest
  
  
  • Op Ed: Ruddnet is too good to be true, by Malcolm Turnbull [The Australian]

 

Wednesday 15 April

• The Australian
  
  
  • Innovation takes a hit in recession: expert
    
    Australia remained one of the worst performers in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on innovation and education and risked entering the global upswing in "very bad shape", Cutler review panel member John Foster has warned... "We are at or near the bottom of the OECD league tables on innovation and education," [Professor Foster] said. "If that's where we remain we will be in very bad shape entering the next global upswing." [emphasis added]
    
    
    
  • Far behind in quality control
    
    British universities have a better system for maintaining standards than their Australian and US counterparts... At its present rate of progress Australia is years away from establishing even the standards framework that British MPs [recently] criticised so vigorously.
    
    
    
  • Teen died in Blue Mountains after triple-0 failures
    
    [Not on education but an example of bureaucracy gone mad.]
    
    Alone, without water and disoriented in bush scrub, schoolboy David Iredale made six frantic 000 phone calls. His life was slipping away, and he knew it. But in the 17-year-old's hour of need, he was tragically failed by emergency services phone operators, who twice put him on hold, never asked him his name, and repeatedly asked him to identify the street he was on despite his insistence that he was "lost in the bush"... In one of the calls, despite David's explanation that he was "lost in the bush" and was without water, the operator repeatedly asked him to nominate the street he is on... The body of the Year 12 Sydney Grammar student was found nine days later...
    
    Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Power of narrative
    
    The benefits of good teaching last a lifetime
    
    ... Today's school children equally deserve to touch base with the most enduring aspects of Western cultural heritage in literature, music and art. Even if the encounter is as simple as a passage read aloud or listening to a stirring overture, it can spark a lifelong interest. The best teachers inspire and enrich their students lives by using great classroom content to open exciting doors...
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Expel repeatedly disruptive pupils, says Balls
    
    Education secretary calls for tougher school discipline as figures show escalation of repeat suspensions
    
    Similar stories from most major UK media
    
    
    
  • Teaching union NASUWT calls for end of special needs policy
    
    Teachers are calling for the government to abandon a flagship Labour policy to include children with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools.
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Bad behaviour 'wastes five weeks'
    
    More than five whole weeks of secondary school are wasted each year because of bad behaviour, a survey from a teaching union suggests.
    
    
    
  • Jabs bought by bitten teachers
    
    Teachers working in special schools are so worried about being bitten by pupils that they are buying their own tetanus and hepatitis jabs, say teachers.
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Education Standards Likely to See Toughening
    by Sam Dillon
    
    WASHINGTON — "President Obama and his team have alternated praise for the goals of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law with criticism of its weaknesses, all the while keeping their own plans for the law a bit of a mystery.
    
    "But clues are now emerging, and they suggest that the Obama administration will use a Congressional rewriting of the federal law later this year to toughen requirements on topics like teacher quality and academic standards and to intensify its focus on helping failing schools. The law’s testing requirements may evolve but will certainly not disappear. And the federal role in education policy, once a state and local matter, is likely to grow..."
    
    "The clues emerge from the fine print of the economic stimulus law that Mr. Obama signed in February, which channels billions of dollars to public education. The key education provisions in the stimulus take the form of four “assurances” that governors must sign to receive billions in emergency education aid..."
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • No to national tests
      
      "The drift towards high-stakes testing in schools has led to claims of pressure on them to "teach to the test" (The Age, 13/4). Competition between the states means officials want results that show them in a good light. However, there is no educational imperative driving this. It is political point scoring. This is the American experience repeated, as exemplified through the No Child Left Behind policy disaster.
      
      "If allowed to go unchallenged, it results in a narrowing of curriculum and classes where students "practise" for these tests. However, this proves fruitless when they begin to tune out and teachers become disaffected. Such practices give an undeserved air of legitimacy to high-stakes testing."
      
      Alan Wright, educational consultant, Mornington
      
      
      
      
• Of possible interest
  
  
  • Heckler: Beware of the boss from the black lagoon [The Sydney Morning Herald]
    

 

Thursday 16 April

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Remote schools must cross language barrier

  Treat all alike to improve standards, argue Helen Hughes and Mark Hughes

  "The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy tests of all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 were held for the first time nationally last May. The results showed that indigenous students in remote schools in WA had very high national literacy and numeracy failure rates.

  "Literacy and numeracy failure rates for indigenous children were 25 per cent in remote and very remote schools in NSW, 50 per cent in South Australia, WA and Queensland., and 75 per cent or more in the Northern Territory. In addition to these failure rates in many remote indigenous schools children did not site the tests because the teachers knew they could not pass them.

  "Yet in Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, indigenous children performed like other Australian children with barely 10 per cent failure rates. There is no gap between the literacy and numeracy of indigenous children and other, mainstream Australian schools, no matter where they are located.

  "Ethnicity cannot be blamed for the low pass rates of indigenous students. High failure rates are clearly associated with sub-standard remote schools that are mostly attended by indigenous children.

  "The NAPLAN results showed much lower pass rates than past State tests because children were previously not sitting the tests were recorded for the first time. The tests were also held under more rigorous conditions. Students had to sit the examination appropriate to their age rather than the level they had reached at school and materials such as alphabets were not allowed to be displayed.

  "Last year's NAPLAN results are particularly disquieting for WA because the State Department of Education has made some efforts to improve education in remote indigenous schools.

  "Since 2006 there has been an efforts to introduce at least two hours of teaching in English in every school. This policy was intended to end the non-lingual education that is still a colossal barrier in States and Territories that only teach in natal languages in remote schools for the first three or four years. Most of the assistant teachers who teach natal language classes In the Northern Territory are only qualified in traditional cultural knowledge so that they cannot teacher literacy and numeracy.

  "International experience suggests that if children are to become fully literate and numerate in a language, they have to be immersed in that language from kindergarten when they absorb languages more readily than when they are older.

  "But clearly two hours a day of English is not enough to bring indigenous children in remote schools up to mainstream standards.

  "WA has also moved to support ESL teaching in remote schools attended by indigenous students.

  "It supported remedial tutoring for children who failed 2007 State literacy and numeracy tests.

  "But these remain special programs. Dumbed-down curriculums prevail in remote WA schools because they are thought to be appropriate for Aboriginals.

  "And school principals are swamped by “culturally appropriate” trendy initiatives that take time away from basic, mainstream teaching to little purpose.

  "WA to its credit was also the only State or Territory that scheduled the Commonwealth's “it's fun to be at school every day” festival series to take place during vacation rather than in term time, showing a commitment to school attendance at school.

  "Unfortunately these continue to be undermined by dysfunctional behaviour in remote communities in which alcohol continues to rule despite the success of welfare quarantining for poor attendance.

  "If incentives to parents fail, truancy policing must be put in place. Prolonged funerals cannot be an excuse for non-attendance at school.

  "Given WA's remarkably successful record of reform of policing in remote indigenous settlements, it seems that the same dedication to treating Aboriginals like other Australians in schooling is necessary to improve remote literacy and numeracy. Mainstream curriculums are essential.

  "Although dysfunctional social behaviour persists, many parents in remote settlements are concerned that their children do not leave school able to read, write and count so that they can get a job let alone, with full high school education, proceed to TAFE and other further education.

  "The number of non-performing indigenous remote schools in WA is very small.

  "In mining and tourist centres, mainstream schools provide standard education for non-indigenous children.

  "WA has the resources to ensure that its small numbers of non-performing remote schools are turned into mainstream performers.

  "It should use the school-by-school reporting available from NAPLAN to ensure that all children sit the tests appropriate to their age next month, to find the schools that were not performing in NAPLAN last year and monitor whether they improve this year to ensure that hey become normal schools within three years."

  Emeritus Professor Helen Hughes is a senior fellow of the Centre for Independent Studies and Mark Hughes is an independent researcher. Their report Revising Indigenous Education is available at http://www.cis.org.au

  From The West Australian
  
  
  

  • Schools fight back to stem bullying
    by Ben Spencer

  "A record number of public schools are turning to a leading anti-bullying program in a bid to stamp out the problem.

  "Almost half of the 200 government schools that took part in the Constable Care Child Safety Foundation's program last month requested its bullying presentation, foundation chief executive Vick Evans said yesterday. The personal safety and self-respect programs were delivered to more than 22,000 children across the State, a record in the foundation's 20-year history.

  "Mr Evans said an increasing number of primary school children were being bullied and public schools were turning to specialist programs to teach children how to cope. Research suggested one in six young West Australians would be bullied at school, which in turn made them one-third more likely to develop a depressive illness later in life.

  “The schools are requesting the bullying program at a far greater rate than any other programs,” Mr Evans said.

  "Edith Cowan University child and adolescent health professor Donna Cross, who is undertaking a two-year study of cyberbullying for the State Government, said schools were becoming more aware of bullying and developing a greater intolerance towards it.

  "She said there was no evidence to suggest the amount of bullying has rising but believed cyberbullying had made it more difficult for schools to police.

  “Children have moved from more overt to covert bullying,” Professor Cross said. “Our schools are much more vigilant and obviously looking for good-quality programs to address all forms of bullying.”

  "Education Minister Liz Constable said there was no doubt there was more of a focus on bullying in WA schools as more students were prepared to report it. Anti-bullying programs were an important part of behaviour management in schools.

  “I think schools are setting up an environment where children do feel that they can talk to adults about something that in the past they mightn't have,” she said.

  "Dr Constable said cyberbullying was many times more problematic than other bullying because it could happen anywhere at any time of the day.

  "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said students were speaking out about bullying more than ever. “It has been around for a long time but you told no one and kept it all to yourself,” he said."

  From The West Australian
  
  
  

  • Fruit scheme draws only a quarter of WA's schools
    by Angela Pownall

  "Only a quarter of almost 1000 WA schools have joined a health drive to ensure children drink water and eat fruit every day.

  "Over the past four years, 250 schools have joined the Crunch and Sip scheme to improve child health by giving children a bottle of water and a piece of fruit daily. The scheme is run by the Cancer Council of WA.

  "A startling 1.5 million Australian children – about 27 per cent – are estimated to be overweight. Experts warn the trend is continuing to climb as children eat too much junk food.

  “It improves eating habits and children do behave better with Crunch and Sip because they are getting that bit of good energy during the day, “ Cancer Council Spokeswoman Sally Blane said.

  “I spoke to a school nurse who said it stopped kids coming to her with headaches and was helping concentration.”

  "Crunch and Sip provides water bottles to schools so that children get into the habit of drinking water throughout the day. The school, parents or sometimes local growers provide each child with a daily piece of fruit.

  "Ms Blane said the Cancer Council WA was trying to get all schools involved, but some teachers had the perception it would take too much time to ensure pupils have water and fruit everyday.

  "About 980 schools are eligible to join Crunch and Sips, including primary schools, district high schools, independent schools and education support centres. Bambara Primary School in Padbury was the 250th school to join.

  "The council is studying the schools for evidence of health benefits, improvements in behaviour and better nutrition.

  "Experts have estimated about 385,000 Australian children are obese, while another 1.2 million are considered overweight. In WA, almost 100,000 children are obese or overweight."

  From The West Australian

  
  

• The Australian
  
  
  • Tognetti hits 'Neanderthal' music teaching
    by Corrie Perkin
    
    "Richard Tognetti, one of the nation's most acclaimed musicians, has attacked as "Neanderthal" the current quality of music education in schools, and urged its swift inclusion on the national curriculum.
    
    "The Australian Chamber Orchestra artistic director said state and federal arts and education ministers should act quickly before more schoolchildren missed out on learning how to read music, play an instrument or sing in a choir.
    
    "What's missing is a comprehensive national system that is unencumbered by state differences, a system that we can identify as a necessary part of the education net," Tognetti told The Australian yesterday.
    
    "There are many little organisations trying to do their bit in terms of music education, like the ACO, Musica Viva, the Song Room and some of the state orchestras. But we're all operating on our own. What we also need is a comprehensive program taught within schools."
    
    "Tognetti's comments are timely. At tomorrow's meeting of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs in Adelaide, state and territory education ministers will discuss the national curriculum. Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has taken the unprecedented step of inviting Arts Minister Peter Garrett to address the meeting. Mr Garrett will discuss the importance of arts education, and music specifically, to a student's academic and emotional life.
    
    "Tognetti said he welcomed music's inclusion in the curriculum debate. "It's fantastic news to hear the Government is waking up the sleeping giant and is really moving ahead on this," the violinist said.
    
    "For years, musicians, academics and educators have argued for the importance of mandatory music training in schools. A 2005 Howard government-commissioned report presented scientific research and anecdotal evidence that showed listening, studying and playing music improved a child's concentration and self-esteem, and their ability to work with others.
    
    "To learn and to understand music, and to be able to express yourself in a technical way -- what a gift," Tognetti said.
    
    "I can think of plenty of people who say they aren't musical but they like listening to music. And others who can't play an instrument, but if you ask them about their kids they say if there's one thing they would like for their kids, it's for the kid to be able to play a cello or a piano."
    
    "His comments follow remarks by University of NSW music academic Robert Walker, who said music education in schools had been reduced to entertainment, and that students should study the work of classical composers such as Mozart.
    
    "Tognetti said he would welcome the teaching of the entire music canon, but said the first objective should be to get mandatory music teaching into every school.
    
    "I'd like to dispense with talking about whether we should be teaching pop or classical until we're out of the current Neanderthal age, then deal with those issues once we've come to terms with what universal music education actually is," he said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • 'Dodgy colleges' exploit foreign students
    AAP
    
    "Australian students want the federal Government to launch an inquiry into the mistreatment of international students amid reports corrupt training colleges are exploiting them.
    
    "The National Union of Students says international pupils are being exploited by dodgy English-language providers, unscrupulous landlords and bosses.
    
    "There are still a few dodgy higher education providers out there who are offering qualifications well below quality standards," union president David Barrow said in a statement.
    
    "A full inquiry will get the facts on the table (and) be good for Australia's reputation, the sector and the well-being of international students."
    
    "Mr Barrow said foreign students also faced problems when seeking employment because they were allowed to work only 20 hours a week, forcing some into blackmarket jobs and under-the-counter arrangements.
    
    "Landlords (also) have been able to exploit international students and we have heard some three-bedroom apartments can house 10 students, each paying $150 a week."
    
    "International education is worth $14 billion to Australia and is the nation's third-largest export industry after coal and iron."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Truants' mother faces $500 fine
    
    A Canberra woman is facing a fine of up to $500 dollars for failing to ensure her children are attending school. ACT Police say on Monday, April 6, they found one of the woman's children riding a bike during school hours, and later discovered the boy and his two brothers, aged from six to 11, had not attended school for three quarters of first term. The children's mother has been summonsed to appear in court tomorrow.
    
    
    
  • Student beats Tax Office in landmark case
    
    A Victorian student has successfully claimed education-related expenses as a tax deduction, after a court decision that could open the door for thousands of student-assistance recipients nationwide.
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • ‘Scrap league tables - not tests’
    
    A teachers' union says it wants the scrapping of school league tables in England, rather than Sats tests.
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Teachers warned about cyberbullying
    
    Teachers should Google their names to check whether pupils are abusing them, say ministers
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Teachers told to use TV show tactics in class
    
    Teachers should liven up their lessons by bringing game shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? into the classroom to stop children being disruptive, according to the Government’s behaviour “tsar”.
    
    Similar stories in most major UK media
    
    
    
    
• Yahoo News
  
  
  • Education Chief to Spend Billions to ‘Transform’ U.S. Schools
    
    Education Secretary Arne Duncan plans to spend a record US$5 billion to transform U.S. schools by rewarding states for innovation, providing merit pay to teachers and creating a national scorecard to identify failing schools.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • 'Out of control?' Show us the proof
      
      "Re "Pressure to rein in 'corrupt' colleges" (The Age, 14/4). Australia's private education and training sector offers quality, diversity and choice to students from Australia and overseas. Like every industry, occasionally individuals do the wrong thing. The Australian Council for Private Education and Training supports the Immigration Department and other bodies to investigate those incidents.
      
      "But it is outrageous for unnamed officials to suggest this problem is "out of control" or "widespread". In 2008-09, nearly 100,000 international students enrolled in Victorian colleges, generating $3.9 billion in value for our economy and resulting in the full-time employment of nearly 40,000 Victorians.
      
      "In the same period, ACPET understands that Victorian authorities received about 70 complaints (less than 0.1 per cent) about international education. While these complaints are thoroughly investigated, they are nonetheless rare. It is irresponsible that anonymous sources are permitted to make sweeping generalisations without providing evidence."

      Andrew Smith, executive officer, ACPET, East Melbourne

Friday 17 April

• The Australian
  
  
  • Parents to check schools via net under education plan
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Parents will be able to compare their child's school with others on a website providing information on student characteristics, test results and sources of income under a proposal being considered by the nation's education ministers.
    
    "At a meeting of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs in Adelaide today, a report on school reporting proposes a model based on the West Australian website Schools Online that lists details of every public school in the state.
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has committed the Rudd Government to transparent reporting of school results and characteristics as a way of identifying and targeting need in the school system.
    
    "Ms Gillard has said the Government will not compile simplistic "league tables" ranking schools based on student performance but provide sophisticated data to hold schools accountable, comparing groups of like schools.
    
    "At MCEETYA today, Ms Gillard will push for student results to be published sector by sector, allowing independent schools as a whole to be compared against Catholic and government schools for the first time.
    
    "One model under consideration is the model adopted by Western Australia under which every public school reports literacy and numeracy results as well as student and teacher characteristics, enrolment trends, programs and priorities, and attendance.
    
    "As well as allowing parents to compare a school with groups of like schools, the report proposes that groups of students within a school are compared with similar groups in other schools.
    
    "For example, it would allow governments to track a group of Year 3 students performing well in literacy and numeracy tests with a similar group of students and see how their results changed as they progressed through school.
    
    "It is envisaged that the information would be published on a national website, with each school in Australia having its own profile page, with links to its own website and other information.
    
    "The plan is to include information on the school environment, the type of school, student enrolment, teacher numbers and level of professional accreditation, student progress through the school, satisfaction surveys of parents, students and teachers and sources of income broken down into the amount earned from different sources such as bequests, investments and fundraising.
    
    "The independent sector is uncomfortable with revealing how much its schools earn from independent sources, particularly with a review of the funding system scheduled to begin next year.
    
    "State and territory governments are worried about the consequences of publishing school performance data, and fear a run by parents on the top performing schools.
    
    "State government officials point to the experience in Britain, where publishing league tables encouraged an exodus of parents from underperforming schools to a small number of top schools that were unable to meet the demand.
    
    "But West Australian Education Minister, Liz Constable, said that was not the experience of the state after parents and the community responsibly interpreted school results.
    
    "Dr Constable said the information encouraged a healthy discussion about what the community expected from schools.
    
    "It's important to emphasise that you shouldn't read too much into one set of information from one point in time," she said.
    
    "There's a whole range of factors that people consider in choosing a school, and in WA it hasn't led to large number of parents changing schools."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    • It's happening: see the more recent story from ABC News:
      Parents to compare schools online
      
      
      
      
  • Changing our tune on education
    by Corrie Perkin
    
    "The future of arts education in Australian schools rests in the hands of federal, state and territory education ministers, meeting in Adelaide today. It's a weighty responsibility for government officials who find themselves in office at this particular moment in the national curriculum debate. Indeed, some may argue that the introduction of compulsory arts education is still a long way off and unlikely to happen on their watch. But today's Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs could further the debate and fast-track its development, or shut it down.
    
    "The time has come to bring Australia in line with the civilised parts of the world as far as arts education is concerned," leading music educator Richard Gill says. "For too long our children have been deprived of serious well-planned arts education. If we don't do something about this now, we may miss a vital chance and we will be paying the price for years and years to come."
    
    "The National Curriculum Board's immediate task is to develop a kindergarten to year 12 national schools curriculum for English, maths, science and history by late 2010. Its second phase will look at geography and languages. Since late last year federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett has been discussing the arts' inclusion in the curriculum debate with Education Minister Julia Gillard. Garrett's unprecedented invitation to address today's meeting is a crucial next step in presenting the idea to the ministers in charge of driving curriculum reform.
    
    "Garrett declines to talk specifically about the content of today's address, but tells The Australian he is looking forward to the meeting. "It's a unique and welcome opportunity for a commonwealth arts minister to be able to present to MCEETYA, especially given the important issue of the next phase of the national curriculum they will be determining," he says.
    
    "While Garrett says he is committed to all art forms, including dance and visual art, it's likely music will be the first discipline for discussion. Much of the groundwork has been done: the Howard government's 2005 National Review of School Music Education, a 313-page tome of analyses and ideas, sought the views of many experts. Its chairwoman, Margaret Seares, concluded that "raising the quality and status of music education will have a positive impact on the breadth and depth of aesthetic, cognitive, social and experiential learning for all Australian students and, ultimately, for our society at large".
    
    "Music also has a network of innovative programs operating in schools around Australia, and this will work in its favour. Organisations such as Musica Viva, the Song Room, various state orchestras, as well as Opera Australia and Victorian Opera, provide workshops and classes for students and teachers.
    
    "Many schools and city, regional and remote areas are not serviced by these projects. But the view is that successful existing models could be adapted and expanded nationally..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Parents to compare schools online
    
    "The Federal Education Minister has announced what she calls the biggest education reform the country has ever seen at a meeting of education ministers today.
    
    "Education ministers from around the country met in Adelaide to discuss reforms to public school education.
    
    "From later this year, parents will be able to get online access to nationally consistent information about any school in the country.
    
    "Julia Gillard says they will then be able to compare schools in relation to how students perform.
    
    "In 2009 people will be able, through a website, to look at and get information about their own school and importantly be able to compare it with like schools," she said.
    
    "She says it is the biggest change to education the country has seen.
    
    "We want Australian parents and members of the community who care desperately about the quality of school education to have reliable clear information about what is happening in schools, and to be able to compare schools in similar circumstances," she said."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Literacy 'key to improving Indigenous life expectancy'
    
    Australian of the Year Mick Dodson has declared adult literacy is the key to closing the gap in Aboriginal life expectancy.
    
    
    
  • Council looks to restart anti-truancy scheme
    
    A successful program which helped cut truancy among Aboriginal students in Orange could be restarted.
    
    
    
    
• Of Possible Interest
  
  
  • State won't reveal high-risk colleges [The Age]

 

Saturday – Sunday, 18 – 19 April

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Strike risk on teacher threats
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Teachers are being threatened wit the sack for refusing to write school reports and the issue threatens to turn into strike action.
    
    "State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne has confirmed the union and the Education Department are due to battle over the matter in the Industrial Relations Commission On Friday.
    
    "This comes after two Eastern Hills Senior High School teachers refused their principal's orders last week to write interim reports.
    
    "They were threatened with disciplinary action by the department's human resources executive director John Serich, who went the Mt Helena school.
    
    "Ms Gisborne said the teachers' enterprise bargaining agreement obliged teachers to provide only two written reports to parents each year, at the end of semesters one and two.
    
    "She said interim reports, which were usually for the end of term one, were beyond those conditions and were taking teachers away from core teaching duties.
    
    “What we have had over a period of time is an explosion of written reporting to parents,” Ms Gisborne said. “This has created an additional an unnecessary workload for teachers.”
    
    "She said extra written reports were not needed because, at any time, a teacher or parent could arrange to meet if they had concerns about a student's progress.
    
    "Teachers who spoke to The Sunday Times branded the department's actions as “industrial bullying of the worst kind”.
    
    "An Education Department spokesman said: “Mr Serich met with the two teachers because he was concerned they were not fully aware that failure to follow the directive could lead to disciplinary action.”
    
    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • NSW at forefront of push to improve schools
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "NSW will take the lead in setting national education standards including the development of a national curriculum and providing parents with student report cards comparing the performance of similar schools.
    
    "Australian education ministers met in Adelaide yesterday and decided that the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority would be located in Sydney. The decision will be viewed as a vote of confidence in the Higher School Certificate as a preferred curriculum model to follow and is likely to anger other states, including Victoria and South Australia, that were overlooked.
    
    "The NSW Premier, Nathan Rees, said that he welcomed the opportunity to work with other states to build a new national curriculum.
    
    "The first phase will involve shaping a national curriculum for English, maths, science and history, for all years from kindergarten to year 12.
    
    "Professor Barry McGaw, who chairs the National Curriculum Board, which will morph into the new authority, was the architect of the revised HSC.
    
    "Mr Rees said yesterday "bringing the authority to Sydney is an indication of the quality and standing of our own curriculum".
    
    "New South Wales is investing $16 million over four years in supporting the new national authority; with a start up staff of 30 people with the possibility to expand further."
    
    "Asked whether the decision to locate the new curriculum authority in NSW was a vote of confidence in the Higher School Certificate as a model for other states to follow, the Federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, said the Australian Government was "working co-operatively with all states and territories …".
    
    "The new authority is expected to provide all parents with comprehensive report cards on their child's performance at school from later this year. The reports will compare schools from around the country with others of a similar size and demographic profile.
    
    "Despite assurances from the government this will not create "simplistic league tables", it is clear that similar schools will be ranked according to their performance in a specific area, such as literacy.
    
    "In Britain, all schools are compared with each other according to a single score.
    
    "The new Australian reports will detail how much income each school receives from fees, state and federal government funding. Each school's socio-economic status, teaching staff numbers, attendance rates and enrolments will also be included.
    
    "Geoff Masters, from the Australian Council of Educational Research, was among experts consulted about how schools should be measured. He said the Federal Government had been advised to restrict comparisons to schools facing similar social and economic challenges.
    
    "Our advice was not to create league tables as England has for example," he said.
    
    The national report cards, available online this year, will include results in national literacy and numeracy tests for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    See following related stories from The Weekend Australian and The Age
    
    
    
  • Schools outraged by race to spend [Sunday: online only]
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Billions of dollars are being wasted in the State Government's haste to spend the Commonwealth building fund, schools say.
    
    "Primary school principals have complained about being quoted $2 million for prefabricated buildings supplied through the NSW Department of Education. Quotes viewed by The Sun-Herald show the buildings could be constructed locally for half the price.
    
    "After consultation with my Parent and Citizens body, one of our fathers provided a quote for the building of a wonderful hall for just over $1 million and the building of three new classrooms for $425,000," a principal from the Riverina said.
    
    "If I can build a hall and three classrooms for $1.5 million, our school would have $500,000 left over to fund the building of the covered walkways."
    
    "Primary school principals say there is not enough time to plan how they will spend their share of the Federal Government's $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution jobs stimulus package.
    
    "Meanwhile, the money is bypassing local businesses and failing to create jobs, they say.
    
    "The Education Department has ordered prefabricated libraries and classrooms in bulk from companies in Victoria and western Sydney. Principals claim they could contract local builders to construct cheaper and more durable buildings.
    
    "At the same time, the department is withdrawing from small businesses contracts for the supply of stationery and photocopiers and awarding them to multinational companies.
    
    "The State Opposition spokesman on education, Adrian Piccoli, said such a centralised procurement policy was making things worse for businesses and schools..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Arts profile gets boost in national curriculum
    by Justine Ferrari and Corrie Perkin
    
    "The status of the arts was boosted yesterday when education ministers decided to add the creative and performing arts to the second phase of the national school curriculum.
    
    "The new curriculum, to roll out from 2011, starts with English, maths, science and history. The second round will cover geography, languages and the arts.
    
    "The Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs meeting in Adelaide also agreed on a system for the national reporting of school performance and characteristics to start this year.
    
    "As reported in The Australian yesterday, parents will be able to compare schools on a website providing information on test results, student characteristics and sources of income.
    
    "The reporting system will cover government, Catholic and independent schools and will be overseen by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, based in Sydney.
    
    "ACARA will be responsible for the development and implementation of the national curriculum as well as national tests in literacy and numeracy and reporting of results and school performance.
    
    "The composition of the board is still to be finalised, based on nominations from the states and territories, but it is understood NCB chairman Barry McGaw will head the new authority.
    
    "The campaign to include the arts in the national curriculum was led by federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett, who addressed the education ministers' meeting yesterday to argue the case.
    
    "The move follows months of intense lobbying by the performing and visual arts sectors.
    
    "Significantly, it also gives the green light to one of the objectives outlined by the Creative Australia group at last year's 2020 summit.
    
    "Mr Garrett was converted to the idea of mandatory arts teaching in schools during his years as Opposition arts spokesman.
    
    "Creativity, interpretation, innovation and cultural understanding are all sought-after skills for new and emerging industries in the 21st century," Mr Garrett said. "Arts education provides students with the tools to develop these skills."
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard described the agreement with the states and territories on national school reporting as "a big step forward in the agenda of transparency".
    
    "This is a new era for Australia," Ms Gillard said. "Parents will be able to look at their local school. They'll be able to look at schools in their local area and they will be able to easily compare their school with schools in similar circumstances."
    
    "The website will publish information on the type of school, numbers and qualifications of teachers, sources of income from government, fees and others, the demographics of the students as well as scores in national literacy and numeracy tests for the school, the highest score in a group of like schools, and the national average.
    
    "The school profile report will include links enabling parents to compare the school's performance with similar students and with other schools in the local area."
    
    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    Related story in The Age
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Poor children 'less likely to improve'
    by Farrah Tomazin and Carol Nader
    
    "Most students from Melbourne's poorest families struggle to improve in reading and maths as they move through high school, with State Government research showing that being rich or poor affects how well you can break the cycle of under-achievement.
    
    "The confidential study of schools in Melbourne's working-class northern and western suburbs has confirmed that a person's chances of getting ahead is linked to family capital: students from better-off families move forward much more quickly than those from poor backgrounds.
    
    "The study found 70 per cent of north-suburban children from poor families who struggled to read in year 7 still lagged behind their peers by year 9. But for students from better-off families, only half of those who struggled to read in year 7 continued to struggle two years later.
    
    "When it comes to numeracy, the gap is even more profound: four out of five children from poor homes who struggled with maths in year 7 continued to lag behind their peers two years later, compared with 57 per cent of children from better-off homes.
    
    "The findings come as the Federal Government prepares to roll out $1.1 billion for 1500 of the nation's most disadvantaged schools over the next five years.
    
    "Education Minister Julia Gillard told The Age schools would get more money if they implemented reforms to lift results, such as literacy and numeracy coaches, breakfast clubs or schemes to reduce absenteeism..."
    
    "Melbourne University education expert Richard Teese, who did the research on northern and western schools for the state education department, said his findings should be a wake-up call for authorities — but "not a sentence of death" for disadvantaged students.
    
    "Just because you're poor doesn't mean you can't progress," Professor Teese said. "It does mean, however, that a big effort needs to be made to support the schools where a majority of kids are from poorer backgrounds.
    
    "We need better targeting of resources… and greater awareness of the gaps."
    
    "Tony Vinson, honorary professor in the faculty of education and social work at Sydney University, who has mapped social disadvantage across the country, said the best and most experienced teachers should be encouraged to work in the most disadvantaged schools, and free preschool for the most disadvantaged should start at age three..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    • Behind the learning curve
      
      
      
      
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • D.C. Schools Gearing Up for Standardized Tests
    
    [Washington D.C.] police will be deployed to pick up truants and deliver them to classrooms. Administrators are urged to schedule testing in the morning when students tend to do better. But not too early for high school kids, not generally known as morning people.
    
    
    
    
• Of Possible Interest
  
  
  • Revealed: Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking [The Weekend Australian]
    
    
    • Editorial: More heat than light [The Weekend Australian]
      
      
  • A media centre in the home [The Weekend Australian]

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All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers

This page last updated 20 April, 2009 0:44 AM