|
|
|
Breaking
News: Week of 20 April 2009
|
Saturday – Sunday, 25 – 26 April
- The Age
- Full reporting of school funding not easily achieved: report
There is little chance of fully reporting schools' financial resources because current funding arrangements are too complex, according to advice presented to the nation's education ministers.
- Editorial: Crossing the chasm, but by a series of routes
The vision of federal Education Minister Julia Gillard of an Australia where the differences between school systems do not raise issues of social equity may be becoming more challenging to achieve, but it does not stop people from trying — with encouraging results.
- Early learning is no game: it's a bumper start in life
[A] story illustrates how critical the first years of a child's life are. Get those years right, and a child has a good chance of doing well at school. But if damaged in the early years, a child risks falling far behind.
- The Monday Education Section has been updated and contains eight new items, including:
- Testing times for reporting regimes
A backlash in Britain could influence new school reporting requirements here.
- Op Ed: Sex lessons no sniggering matter
Say it straight when it comes to lessons on the birds and bees.
- A web of intrigue
Issues in the News: Is the national broadband plan visionary or doomed?
- Letters to the Editor
- Stumped for ideas
"It does not come as a great surprise to read of a strong link between socio-economic status and educational outcomes (The Age, 18/4). What is surprising is the apparent inability of policymakers to decide what to do about this problem.
"Two strategies that may make a difference would be to improve teacher pre-service training so teachers start out better equipped, and to properly resource in-service training for teachers, particularly those in challenging schools, so they can develop the skills needed to improve student outcomes.
"A strategy that will fail, and one of the most dim-witted education ideas I've ever heard from a government, is to publish more school performance data. The consequences will be the further marginalisation of schools with a greater proportion of underperforming students as those families with the resources to do so migrate to apparently successful schools."
Peter Hendrickson, principal, Sunbury College, Greenvale
- Don't put up with it
"We have known for years that the poorest schools in Melbourne, resource and results-wise, are in Labor-held electorates. Why don't people in these electorates pressure their local members in the lead-up to elections instead of blindly returning ALP candidates?"
Peter D. Surkitt, Hawthorn
- ABC News
- Union pleads for teachers wage boost
"The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) says it will be even harder to fill vacancies at schools in southern Queensland if teachers' wages are not increased.
"Teachers across southern Queensland will hold meetings today to decide if they will take industrial action if their demands for a wage increase are not met.
"The QTU says its teachers are the lowest paid in Australia
"Regional organiser Kevin Bates says some vacancies at high schools have not been filled because of the wages on offer.
"Schools within the south Queensland area have gone for more than 18 months with a number of vacant positions for secondary teachers," he said.
"One of those examples being Charleville, but even schools as close to Toowoomba, Dalby have had significant difficulties in attracting teachers to secondary teaching positions."
From ABC News at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Letter to the Editor
- Unkind cuts for bosses
"I look forward to Michael Coutts-Trotter, director-general of the Department of Education and Training, making a similar 10 per cent pay cut to executive pay as Ralph Norris, chief executive officer of the Commonwealth Bank. The bank's workers as a result will receive a 1.5 per cent pay increase during straitened times.
"Michael's salary of more than $300,000 was increased last year without the stress of a year-long campaign by NSW teachers, who finally achieved a staffing award that maintains the fall in wage status that has occurred in relation to other professional occupations over the past two decades. A 1.5 per cent pay rise to teachers in 2009 would go a small way to recruit and encourage teachers to stay during times of fearful under-resourcing. Students are flocking back to public education from private education due to the financial downturn. Meanwhile, an estimated 16,000 teachers are due to retire in the next three years. The department has released no plan to alleviate this significant teacher shortage."
Margaret McDonald, Dubbo
- Of Possible Interest
- Heckler: Let kids be kids, homework can wait until later [The Sydney Morning Herald]
- The Age
- Push to consider national school certificate
by Dan Harrison, Canberra
"Australia should consider developing a national certificate to replace the VCE and other state-based secondary school qualifications, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says.
"The idea is one of several educational measures the OECD recommends that Australia take in a report released yesterday.
"The report says there are significant differences between states in the basic structure of schooling, which create difficulties for people who move interstate.
"It praises the national curriculum — which is due to be introduced in 2011 — but says a national certificate is "likely to be more effective at standardising the content and the outcomes of Australian secondary schools than the national curriculum alone".
"The report's main author, Vincent Vandenberghe, said a national certificate did not need to mean central intervention in how schools were organised.
"But with a nation where people tend to move across jurisdictions, making sure that the degrees mean the same thing is something that should be at least discussed in Canberra, and it should be implemented from Canberra I think."
"A spokeswoman for Education Minister Julia Gillard said the Government was "not currently considering changes" but the new Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority would advise "on the best way to ensure world-class curriculum and assessment outcomes for all Australian school students". [emphasis added]
"Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike was not available for comment yesterday.
"Stephen Lamb, an associate professor in the graduate school of education at the University of Melbourne, questioned what benefits a national certificate would offer.
"It could remove the flexibility states and territories needed to meet the needs of their communities, he said, noting that Canada, one of the best-performing nations in international tests, had school certificates determined by provincial governments.
"In the Howard years, coalition education ministers Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop pushed the idea of an Australian Certificate of Education but opposition from states and territories scuttled the plan in 2006.
"The OECD report endorses the direction of the Rudd Government's education policies but urges it to intervene to reduce the impact of the global recession on young people, who have borne the brunt of previous downturns.
"The latest labour force figures released earlier this month showed 245,000 teenagers were not engaged in either full-time work or full-time study.
"To avert a big spike in youth unemployment as the global slowdown bites, the OECD says Australia should focus on lifting its rate of students completing secondary school — which is low by OECD standards — and make the Youth Allowance conditional upon finishing, or committing to complete secondary school.
"The report also suggests the Government offer financial incentives for indigenous children to attend preschool and extend universal preschool — which the Rudd Government has promised for four-year-olds — to three-year olds."
From The Age at link
- Views split on needs of Koori students
by Farrah Tomazin and Carol Nader
"It was meant to be one of the Brumby Government's flagship plans to improve the chances of indigenous students — by placing them into mainstream schools.
"But seven months since announcing the closure of Victoria's only public Koori college, some insiders have questioned whether the shift will really make a difference.
"For Education Minister Bronwyn Pike, the answer is simple: "We see a place for alternative education for Koori young people, but the main game is to have them within the mainstream education system because that's where they've got the best chances of getting the best results."
"The contentious decision to close the Victorian College of Koorie Education came after a review last year found it was delivering unacceptable results.
"Too many students were failing to meet basic standards in literacy and numeracy, and expectations of the children were low..."
Full story in The Age at link
- ABC News
- Teachers slam 'insulting' recruitment scheme
"Teachers say a $550 million Federal Government program to recruit young teachers is an insult.
"Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced a scheme which gives university graduates the chance to undertake intensive teacher training and work in the public school system.
"It will begin in Victoria before being rolled out across the country.
"The Australian Education Union's federal president, Angelo Gavrielatos, denies Ms Gillard's claim that similar programs in the US and UK have improved student outcomes and lifted the status of the profession.
"That is demonstrably not true," she said.
"The assertion that it would lift the status of the profession is demeaning and insulting to teaching and the profession as a whole.
"Evidence from the US shows that these programs that fast-track teachers do not improve educational outcomes for students."
From ABC News at link
- Unions step up campaign for Qld teachers' wages
"Teacher unions in Queensland have taken out a large press ad coinciding with today's first sitting of the State Parliament, campaigning for better wages.
"The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) and the Queensland Independent Education Union (QIEU) say their teachers are the lowest paid on the Australian mainland and unless that is addressed, the state will face a chronic shortage.
"QTU president Steven Ryan says teachers' current enterprise agreement expires in nine days, but the State Government is yet to make any offer.
"Neither party in the state election made any commitment around talking about teacher pay rates and unfortunately that's why that ad has appeared, because it would indicate to teachers that they don't value them and we wanted to put a reminder in today's media," he said."
From ABC News at link
- The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- First look at Federal Government's new school reports [20 April]
"The first look at the detailed school performance data all parents will have access to under the Federal Government's radical new education scheme that judges individual schools on strict criteria has been revealed.
"The mock-up is a replica of what the controversial online report will look like when it is rolled out later this year.
Click here to see the mock-up.
"But it seems parents will be the only ones happy with the report as education groups, including teachers and independent schools, give it an F for fail.
"For the first time parents will be able to look up critical performance data about their children's schools, including information about where their funding is generated and the school's previous academic results.
"The scorecard will also reveal information never before released publicly including academic comparisons with other schools as well as information on how many children come from low socio-economic backgrounds and the percentage of children who are Aboriginal, have a disability or speak a language other than English.
"In a move sure to send shockwaves through the independent sector, private schools will be forced to reveal exactly how much they get from other sources.
"The new blueprint was last night slammed by a number of education groups, some of whom were signatories to a letter sent by 15 professional associations to the Government last month.
"Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos yesterday said the reporting system would foster "a culture of blame-shifting", with parents boycotting schools that returned poor results.
"NSW Teachers Federation president Bob Lipscombe warned that schools could be victimised by having their information released.
"We're not opposed to teachers using diagnostic data to address particular needs of students, but it's the publication and the potentially very damaging impact that it will have on communities and on schools and the students who attend schools in those communities that really concerns us," he said.
"The Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, which comprises all state and territory education ministers, agreed to release all of the 12 performance indicators on the report. It will be published on a national website later this year."
From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
- Business Council of Australia News Release
- Teach for Australia Will Help Turn Around Disadvantage
The Business Council of Australia has welcomed the announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Victorian Premier John Brumby, that ‘Teach for Australia’ will recruit high-achieving graduates to contribute to the community by teaching for two years.
BCA Chief Executive Katie Lahey said business supported giving Australia’s most talented graduates an opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills in disadvantaged schools.
“This initiative has the potential to make an important contribution to lifting the status of teaching and to improved education outcomes,” Ms Lahey said.
“Teach for Australia, which is an independent body, will also develop a generation of future leaders who understand the requirements and the challenges of school education.
“The skills and dedication of school teachers are vital to realising our future aspirations for young Australians and for our nation.
“However, the profession is not valued to the extent that it should be, given the importance of giving Australia’s children the best possible education.
“These issues have been highlighted in research undertaken by the BCA in collaboration with the Australian Council for Educational Research. Last year, our Teaching Talent report named the recruitment of talented teachers as the first of five essential school education reforms.
“Teach for Australia’s innovative approach will provide an additional source of enthusiasm and ideas to which students will be exposed.
“Importantly, it will assist in building wider business and community linkages and support for the teaching professions and school education over the medium to long term. In this way, we can lift the status of teaching as a career and a profession.
“We look forward to the rapid and effective implementation of other Council of Australian Government reforms to school education. These include recognising and rewarding excellent teachers, improving leadership development within school education and improving learning outcomes in lower socioeconomic communities,” she said.
For further information contact:
Scott Thompson, Manager, Public Affairs, Business Council of Australia
Telephone (03) 8664 2664, mobile 0403 241 128
From BCA at link
- The Australian
- Millions for remote communities
Remote Aboriginal communities will receive millions of dollars within a few years to bring services and conditions to the same standard as those in similar-sized communities anywhere in the nation, under a Rudd government push to end indigenous disadvantage... The funding will be used for everything from schoolteachers to street lights... Today [Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny] Macklin Macklin will announce that in Western Australia, the commonwealth will implement the new Remote Service Delivery Strategy in Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek and on the Dampier Peninsula, including the communities of Ardyaloon and Beagle Bay.
- Op Ed: Private hurdle for kids
by Jennifer Buckingham
"The number of school students with disabilities is increasing every year. The government school sector has the largest number of these children. In 2007, students with disabilities accounted for 5.7 per cent of enrolments in government schools. In the non-government school sector, the proportion was 2.5 per cent.
"That non-government schools have fewer students with disabilities is not in dispute. What is debatable is the reason. It is not a case of non-government schools actively seeking to avoid enrolling children with educational disadvantages, but rather that non-government schools are denied the level of public funding that is available to these children in public schools.
"A child with severe physical and intellectual disabilities is eligible for additional education funding of close to $36,000 if they are enrolled in a mainstream public school, as well as access to a variety of support services such as hearing and sight therapies and aids. With the notable exception of Western Australia, the same child would receive about $6000 additional education funding in a mainstream non-government school and would have limited access to support services. It varies slightly from state to state, but there is a gap of about $30,000 annually for each student.
"Parents unable to come up with this extra money are effectively locked out of the non-government school system. The funding gap is largest for the most severely disabled children, but the problem also exists for all children with mild to moderate disabilities, whose families are often already under significant financial stress..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Leighton in schools PPP to ease dual pressures
The Queensland Government has reacted to twin pressures of rapid population growth and declining budget revenues by letting a $1.1 billion contract to build and maintain seven new schools to a consortium based on Leighton Contractors.
- Letters to the Editor
- The teaching of music in schools is in safe hands
Three Letters at that link
- BBC News
- Struck-off teacher 'was suicidal'
A teacher who became the first in Scotland to be struck off for incompetence has told the BBC the event drove her to the brink of suicide... During a hearing, Mrs Barnard's colleagues claimed they could not find one activity she did not mess up in some way.
- Of Possible Interest
- Academic quits amid blistering dispute [The Sydney Morning Herald]
- The Age
- Ask what you can teach your country
by Miki Perkins
"Young, talented and passionate about education, Lizzie Calder is the sort of newly minted university graduate the Government hopes will revive struggling schools.
"Victoria will be the first state to adopt an international scheme that places top non-teaching university graduates into disadvantaged schools, Education Minister Julia Gillard announced yesterday.
"High-achieving recruits from any field of study must commit to two years' teaching in a government school after six weeks of training.
"They will emerge with an accredited teaching qualification and get a salary of about $45,000.
"The hope is that they will develop a taste for the rewards and challenges of teaching, but many experts say the scheme will do little to overcome the long-term problems of an ageing workforce.
"The Teach for Australia graduates are expected to go on to careers with corporate partners of the program or continue their involvement with education, Ms Gillard said.
"I want to see the pathways into teaching become broader and more flexible," she said.
"The first intake of about 90 graduates will go into Victorian schools next year. More than 200 people have applied so far, Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike told a launch at Debney Park Secondary College.
"But the Australian Education Union has reacted angrily to Ms Gillard's claims that similar programs — such as Teach First in Britain and Teach for America in the US — have improved student achievement and helped raise the status of the profession.
"Federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said this was untrue and "demeaning" to qualified teachers, pointing to a study by eminent US academic Linda Darling-Hammond that found certified teachers produced stronger gains in student achievement, compared with uncertified teachers.
"We have countless surveys by beginning teachers who tell us that they don't believe their teaching education courses have properly prepared them, so it beggars belief that a six-week program would be enough," Mr Gavrielatos said.
"Based on overseas evidence, many educators are not persuaded that unqualified teachers would be able to sustain themselves in the long haul, said Sue Willis, president of the Australian Council of Deans of Education.
"Teaching at struggling schools would also present challenges. "At the period when they are at their most vulnerable, they are teaching the most vulnerable students," she said. "Personally I wish the students well — and I don't want to undermine them — but this is a big challenge." [emphasis added]
"In the penultimate year of a commerce degree at Melbourne University, Ms Calder, 21, wants to be a part of Teach for Australia and hopes to learn from experienced teachers.
"Some of my strongest memories are of amazing teachers I had at school — I'd like to try and bring that enthusiasm to my students."
From The Age at link
- Editorial
National school certificate is a logical evolution
"The Australian population has become more transient, with families now more likely to move from state to state. A reflection of this flexibility, as it affects the secondary education system, can be found with the new national curriculum, due to be introduced in 2011.
"This central part of the Federal Government's so-called education revolution is, as The Age has said, long overdue and eminently sensible — especially given that for a country of only 21 million people, it makes little sense to have methods of syllabus and assessment change from state to state.
"It is logical, therefore, and just as sensible, that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has recommended developing a national certificate to replace the VCE and equivalent state-based qualifications. The OECD report, released on Monday, says there are sufficient differences between state schooling structures to create difficulties for people who move interstate — an argument that is sounder than those who say a national certificate would make the states less adaptable in meeting community needs. Broadening the system is not simply a matter of widening the geography, but also ensuring that students nationwide will benefit from the refocus on content and relevance of what will be taught.
"A national certificate is not such a radical step, considering the scope and ambition of the national curriculum proposals. Yet the Government appears to be reticent, saying of the OECD recommendation that it was "not currently considering changes" and would rely on advice from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. Perhaps it is wise to proceed cautiously; but the recommendation should not be dismissed."
From The Age at link
- Integrating kids with disabilities
In Victoria, thousands of children attend about 80 special schools. Although there is a push to integrate children with disabilities into the mainstream, there are many barriers.
- Cash to narrow gap between rich and poor students
Schools in Melbourne's poorest suburbs will get measures such as literacy coaches, breakfast programs or more teaching staff as the State Government moves to narrow the divide between high and low-achieving students.
- Promise for economy in spending on unis
Raising government spending on higher education would increase Australia's economic output by $1.6 billion a year over the next decade, according to modelling commissioned by universities to bolster their case for a funding boost in the May budget.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Fast-track teaching plan given a caning
by Anna Patty, Education Editor
"The head of the University of Sydney's education faculty has criticised a Federal Government plan to appoint top university graduates to disadvantaged schools after six to eight weeks of intensive teacher training.
"Robyn Ewing, the dean of education and social work at the university, said the program would "demean" teaching and contradict the Federal Government's rhetoric on improving the quality of teaching.
"The assumption being made is that anyone who achieves strong results in an initial generalist degree will make a good teacher," Professor Ewing said.
"An eight-week program cannot adequately prepare prospective teachers for the range of school contexts they will encounter, especially those that are most challenging.
"I am not arguing that pursuing innovative pathways into the teaching profession is a bad thing, but to follow programs that have been unsuccessful overseas does not seem a sensible or cost effective way to improve the quality of the profession or support children in disadvantaged areas." ...
"The president of the NSW Secondary Schools Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said HSC students performed better with longer-term teachers: "Students deserve teachers who are committed to them, rather than two-year tree-change experience teachers." [emphasis added]
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Editorial
So much haste, so much waste [late 21 April pickup]
"It was depressingly predictable that the NSW Government, when confronted with a gift horse, would look it in the mouth. Given the unexpected bonus of a multi-billion-dollar windfall from Canberra, in the form of Kevin Rudd's manic dash to spend on education, the State Government has typically deflected and diluted the impact of the project by squandering money. Once again, the Labor Government's behaviour creates the impression it is a patronage machine first, with public service coming second and public sector efficiency a distant third.
"A pattern of misallocation, over-spending, over-charging, over-pricing, and generally slovenly standards in the implementation of the $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution stimulus package is beginning to emerge in NSW. Some egregious examples have been encountered by the Herald's education editor, who is hearing from aggrieved school principals. The worst examples are bloated centralised costings from the NSW Department of Education of $2 million for constructing prefabricated buildings, when permanent structures could be built by local contractors for half the price.
"One school has been quoted $850,000 for a prefabricated library when local builders could construct a permanent library for much less. The source of the problem is the decision by the department to place bulk orders for prefabricated libraries and classrooms from companies in Victoria and western Sydney. School principals claim they could contract local builders to construct cheaper and more durable buildings.
"As usual, a centralised bureaucracy is imposing costly, one-size-fits-all micro-management on school principals. The department's response to criticism is that it achieves cost savings by buying in bulk. A fair point, but in doing so the State Government appears to be failing to meet several directives of the federal program, which wants local workers at every project, permanent structures instead of demountables where possible, and no tolerance for price-gouging. The NSW Government scores low on all counts.
"This apparent waste can be attributed, in part, to the unseemly haste with which the Rudd Government has embarked on a project of such scale. Why the rush? Does the Government believe it can spend its way out of a recession if it spends quickly enough? A more logical answer would be a more cynical answer, that Kevin Rudd wants to go to the next federal election saying he protected Australia from the worst of the recession by dramatic and timely federal intervention. Given all the haste and all the waste, we are entitled to some cynicism."
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Letters to the Editor
- Quality installations
"In your editorial ("So much haste, so much waste", April 21) [transcribed above] you identify our quick decision to order pre-fabricated libraries and classrooms as "the source of the problem" in what you see as our mishandling of the delivery of the stimulus package in schools.
"We have ordered about $40 million worth of pre-fabricated buildings in a $3.3 billion building program. We will probably order more, but most buildings will be bricks and mortar.
"The buildings you deprecate as "demountables" are high quality and will never be relocated. The libraries, for example, have solar panels, interactive whiteboards and high-speed broadband links.
"As to value for money, principals can provide quotes from local suppliers to the contractors that will manage delivery of most of the building program. Where local suppliers provide the best value they will get the job."
Michael Coutts-Trotter, director-general, NSW Department of Education and Training
- "Over the past few years public school communities and volunteer professionals have initiated master planning and design, and sought council support for school improvements.
"Demountable, temporary buildings do not address the needs of our schools. Buildings designed fit for use, in context with the environment, and buildings with longevity should not be too much to ask.
"State government should respect and harness skills within communities and empower principals to partner with their communities' professionals and contractors.
"We already know we can build quality facilities for less than a demountable, so let's embrace the intelligence in the communities, and spend the federal funds wisely."
Juliette Churchill, Balmain
- ABC News
- Education union slams Federal teaching shortage plan
"The ACT Education Union says the Federal Government's plan to use high-achieving university graduates to address the national teaching shortage will fail.
"The scheme gives graduates from a range of disciplines a six-week teaching course before they enter the classroom for two years.
"The union's Penny Gilmore says that is grossly inadequate, particularly for teachers placed in disadvantaged schools, as the plan proposes.
"We've got a Government that is proposing to import a program that has demonstrably failed, but even if it had succeeded, the aim of this program is to keep the graduates in teaching for two years," she said.
"All that does is put a bandaid on a running sore."
From ABC News at link
- Of Possible Interest
- The Australian's Higher Education Supplement
- Churches oppose Islamic school [The Sydney Morning Herald]
- Overseas students abused by bosses, landlords: union [The Sydney Morning Herald]
- Op Ed: From struggle street to a degree [The Sydney Morning Herald]
- Op Ed: Channel the rage: teach boys to fight [The Sydney Morning Herald]
- ABC News
- 'Boys with knives' lockdown Gold Coast school
"A school on Queensland's Gold Coast was placed in lockdown today after two year nine boys reportedly threatened each other with knives.
"Police say the incident happened after an argument at the Upper Coomera State College.
"Investigations are continuing."
From ABC News at link
- The Age
- Letters to the Editor
- It doesn't add up
"Let me get this straight. Teach for Australia will put graduates of accounting, law and science through a six-week summer school where they will learn to teach, before sending them to work in the most disadvantaged schools. After two years (if stress hasn't killed them), these underqualified "teachers" will have two options. The first is to accept a job with a prestigious firm that sponsors the program. The second is to remain in their tough, underfunded, under-resourced, presumably lowly league-table-ranked school and continue to earn about $50,000 a year. Who has gone crazy? Me or the Government? Help."
Glenn Fowler, Australian Education Union, Barton, ACT
- Lemme at it
"Forget Teach for Australia. Bring on "Perform Brain Surgery for Australia". I've always wanted to have a crack at it. I've got my own knife and I've got six free weeks over summer."
Glenn Fowler, Holder, ACT
- The Australian
- Letter to the Editor
- Disabled funding in schools
"Jennifer Buckingham’s claim ("Private hurdle for kids”, Opinion, 21/4) that students with disabilities in private schools are funded far less than those in government schools is incorrect. They in fact have a large advantage over government schools. The claim only takes direct funding for students with disabilities into account. It fails to take into account the federal grants to private schools which are linked to average government school costs. These costs include funding for students with disabilities in government schools.
"Different private schools receive different proportions of government school costs. If their funding proportion is higher than their proportion of students with disabilities relative to that in the government sector, they effectively have more to spend on students with disabilities or to divert to mainstream students. This is generally the case because private schools enrol less than half the percentage of students with disabilities than do government schools. Overall, a rough estimate shows that private schools receive 35 per cent more funding per student with a disability than does the government sector. This advantage extends to over 40 per cent when direct funding grants for these students in private schools are taken into account.
"The funding advantage received by students with disabilities in private schools was noted in a bi-partisan report of the Senate Education Committee in 2002. It concluded that the needs of students with disabilities in this sector would be more appropriately served if the sector made better use of its current resources. This conclusion stands today."
Trevor Cobbold, Macarthur, ACT
- BBC News
- No confidence in bonus row head
"Teachers at a north London secondary school have declared a vote of no confidence in a head teacher awarded £80,000 in bonuses last year.
"Unions members at Copland Community School in Wembley also voted to ballot for strike action, claiming some staff were suspended for leaking the details.
"Sir Alan Davies' bonus payments were revealed during a national teachers conference earlier this month.
"The head teacher has previously said he believed he deserved to get the bonus..."
Full story at BBC News at link
- Of Possible Interest
- Kinder parents oppose 'land grab' [The Age]
- Op Ed: Lack of empathy failed a boy [The Sydney Morning Herald]
- Letters to the Editor [The Sydney Morning Herald] Several Letters mention education issues
- The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- Union defends teachers over report refusal
by Paul Lampathakis, education reporter
PROTEST: Teachers rally outside the Industrial Relations Commission in Perth today. Picture: Kerris Berrington © The Sunday Times"The Education Department has agreed to refrain from disciplining two WA teachers who refuse to write end-of-term school reports and say they've been bullied.
"At a conference with the teachers' union convened in the WA Industrial Relations Commission this afternoon, the department agreed there would be no disciplinary action while the dispute was before the commission.
"The commission said the State School Teachers Union and the department would have discussions next week to deal with the issue.
"There would be a report back to the commission next Friday.
"Following the IRC ruling, Education Department deputy director-general of schools Margery Evans said no action had been taken against the two teachers and the matter was currently before the IRC.
"Before the IRC conference today, Union president Ann Gisborne said the department had acted unlawfully by threatening to sack the Eastern Hills Senior High School teachers after they refused their principal's orders to write end of Term One interim reports,
"Ms Gisborne said the teachers' enterprise bargain agreement obliged teachers to provide only two written reports to parents each year, at the end of Semester One and Two.
"But she said the department had threatened the teachers even though the interim reports were extra to the EBA conditions.
"Their (the department's) action is actually unlawful,'' Ms Gisborne said before the IRC conference.
"In actual fact, the members, by saying no to doing extra reporting, are really complying with their current agreement.''
"The union said it could not comment further after the IRC conference. But it has always maintained that the interim reports created an additional and unnecessary workload which took teachers away from direct teaching and learning programs, and created an unnecessary assessment process.
"One of the teachers threatened for not doing the reports was Carol Carey.
"At a protest meeting outside the IRC today, she told PerthNow: "I'm very proud of the union's support and I was bullied.''
"She told the protest meeting of about 50 teachers that the matter was about all members and their EBA, and she thanked members for their support.
"It (the support) has been uplifting and it's got me through these couple of weeks,'' she said.
"Union executive member Marko Vojkovic warned at the protest that "the respect and good will'' that had been built up between the union and the WA Government was potentially threatened by the dispute and he called on Education Minister Liz Constable to intervene.
"Dr Constable, who is in China, has yet to respond, but said earlier today that she would wait for the IRC conference outcome before commenting."
From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
- The West Australian
- 'Secret' school data to go online
by Andrew Tillett, Canberra
Educators fear national website will be used to create de facto ranking tables
"Parents will be able to use a new national government website containing a raft of information to compare schools.
"Education ministers have agreed to publish for the first time 12 key performance indicators including academic results, the socioeconomic background of students and sources of school income, despite educators worrying that the data will be used to create league tables ranking schools.
"The information will allow parents to compare their child's school with neighbouring schools as well as schools with students from similar backgrounds. The new measures are designed to make schools more accountable to parents, students and governments by highlighting poor performers for remedial action..."
Click here for an image of the proposed report [If I try to fit it into the homepage window 'frame', it must be reduced and becomes unreadable... Web]
Full story in The West Australian
Similar story from The Sunday Times online / PerthNow on 20 April
- Teachers buy their own class essentials
by Kim MacDonald
"Teachers are spending up to $2000 a year from their own pockets on essential school materials and they feat the Government's 3 per cent budget cuts will put further pressure on their wallets.
"The State School Teachers Union said school budgets were already tight and called for more funding to cover materials used to support the curriculum and special projects, as well as activities such as art and sport.
"President Anne Gisborne said principals had been told to rein in expenses, and the union feared costs would fall increasingly to individual teachers.."
Full story in The West Australian
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Aggrieved paramedics abandon union to join breakaway group
Hundreds of angry paramedics have quit their union and formed a breakaway group to fight for pay rises and stop endemic bullying, which has plagued the service for decades and driven some staff to suicide.
- University staff planning to walk out
by Josephine Tovey
"Staff at the University of Sydney are planning to walk off the job next Thursday over plans to introduce teaching-only at the institution, roles that experts warn will lack the prestige of traditional academic jobs and could be a "dead end" for employees.
"At a meeting with union delegates on Monday, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Michael Spence, proposed the formal introduction of a limited number of teaching positions for casual staff which would have little or no research component.
"The university would be among the first in the country to employ academic staff in this way. The president of the university's branch of the National Tertiary Education Union, Michael Thomson, said members voted on Wednesday to strike over concerns the introduction of such places would, over time, lead to two-tiered staffing. "People who are less powerful would be pushed towards these teaching-only positions," he said. "They wouldn't then have the support to do the research which is really important if they want to be a career academic." ...
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Letters to the Editor
- Teach the children well. Lesson one: tolerance
Eight Letters on opposition to an Islamic school, and faith schools in general, at that link [the last one is at the very bottom of the column].
- The Age
- School fees rise most in Melbourne
Melbourne secondary schools raised their fees more than schools in any other Australian city this year, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- Letters to the Editor
- Preferred choice
"How audacious to describe these graduates (The Age, 22/4) as young, talented and passionate about education. If they're so passionate about education, why did they not choose education in the first place.
"This attitude undermines those who chose teaching as their preferred study and spent at least four years learning how to teach — they have talent and enduring passion.
"By all means encourage graduates from other fields to enter teaching but make sure they are taught how to teach first. Six-week-trained teachers will not be better teachers than those already in the profession, many of whom gained degrees, followed by a full teaching degree or who teach while studying for further degrees in their spare time."
Delia Brodrick, South Frankston
- Cuts to specialist services hit hard
"Only parents of children with disabilities and their advocates would spot the irony in Bronwyn Pike describing students with disabilities with challenging behaviours as being "through no fault of their own" (The Age, 22/4). Ms Pike's descriptions seems to be at odds with typical school responses to these behaviours — detention/ suspension/expulsion.
"Discrimination complaints against the Department of Education are at an all-time high because schools are not resourced to deal with students with disabilities. Ask Ms Pike about the cuts to speech pathology and occupational therapy services to schools, then ask her why schools can't even manage to draw on expertise for behaviour management plans for students. It will be of little comfort to them and their parents upon their expulsion when they learn this is "no fault of their own".
Julie Phillips, Disability Discrimination Legal Service, Melbourne
Plus three Letters on children with disabilities at that link
- BBC News
- Teachers report 'racist bullying'
Nearly half of teachers say racist bullying is a problem in their schools, a survey has found.
- ABC News
- Minister brushes off teacher pay talks 'argy bargy'
"Queensland Education Minister Geoff Wilson says the "argy bargy" that has started with the state's teachers is a normal part of the enterprise bargaining process.
"Teachers say they are waiting for an offer from the Government, with their current agreement set to expire in less than a week.
"Mr Wilson says he is confident that if all parties take a positive approach to negotiations, an appropriate agreement will be finalised in due course.
"Queensland Teachers Union president Steve Ryan says members are angry there has been no offer.
"The one thing I would agree with the Minister with [is that] I believe both parties should come to the table in good faith," he said.
"We're quite prepared to do that from our part."
"But Mr Ryan says teachers have been asked if they are prepared to strike in their campaign for a new enterprise agreement.
"Teachers are currently being balloted to see if they will take industrial action," he said.
"Certainly the results are very strong so far, but that ballot doesn't close until at the end of next week and I can't comment on that until that time."
From ABC News at link
- The Australian
- Letter to the Editor
- Funding ‘misrepresented’
"It's disappointing that Trevor Cobbold (Letters, 23/4) has misrepresented funding arrangements for school students with disability. Students with disabilities in independent schools receive significantly less government funding for their educational support needs than if they were educated in a government school. The funding difference is greater for students with high-level support needs. The gap in funding for these students can be over $40,000 per student per year.
"Cobbold’s argument does not account for the reality that a non-government student attracts only a proportion of what a government school student is funded for general recurrent purposes from state and federal governments. This can be a little as $2540 per annum while governments provide on average $11,874 per annum towards the cost of educating a student in a government school.
"The most recent relevant Australian government inquiry, “Investigating the Feasibility of Portable Funding for Students with Disabilities”, notes that funding levels of students with disability in government schools are substantially higher than students with disability in mainstream non-government schools.
"Clearly there is a case that students with disability require additional support because of the nature of their disability, not because of the school they attend. Misrepresentations about funding arrangements do little to achieve this goal."
Bill Daniels, Executive Director, Independent Schools Council of Australia, Deakin, ACT
- Of Possible Interest
- Climate change science isn't settled [The Australian]
Worth a look
- Editorial: Rudd response shrinks 2020 summit's big picture [The Age]
Saturday – Sunday, 25 – 26 April
WAIRC Rally: Slide show by Michelle Westlake
- The West Australian
- Teachers in report-writing rally
by Kim MacDonald"The teachers' union wants a ban on interim reports in a show of support for two teachers who face the sack for refusing to write them.
"A State School Teachers Union rally in the city yesterday protested against disciplinary action imposed on two teachers from Eastern Hills Senior High School who refused to comply with their principal's demands to write first and third-term reports.
"SSTU president Anne Gisborne said only second and fourth-term interim [sic] reports were compulsory under the teachers' enterprise bargaining agreement.
"Many teachers provided the extra interim reports but she called on them to stop.
"Ms Gisborne said the reports took up time that could otherwise be used for core teaching duties. High school teachers, for example, had to write hundreds of interim reports.
"We would say 'don't do it'," Ms Gisborne said at the rally, which was attended by 60 teachers.
"We have been working with members and encouraging them to be aware of the conditions of the agreements and to pull back their reporting to what is required of them." Deputy director-general of schools Margery Evans said the two Eastern Hills teachers were the only ones who did not follow the principal's directive.
"Ms Evans said no action had been taken against them and the matter was before the Industrial Relations Commission.
"The Education Department did not respond to the union's campaign to stop teachers writing first and third-term reports. The department's executive workforce director, John Serich, met the two teachers this week [sic] and said their failure to follow the directive could lead to disciplinary action."
From The West Australian
- The Wall Street Journal
- Review and Outlook
Teach for (Some of) America
Too talented for public schools.
"Here's a quiz: Which of the following rejected more than 30,000 of the nation's top college seniors this month and put hundreds more on a waitlist? a) Harvard Law School; b) Goldman Sachs; or c) Teach for America.
"If you've spent time on university campuses lately, you probably know the answer. Teach for America -- the privately funded program that sends college grads into America's poorest school districts for two years -- received 35,000 applications this year, up 42% from 2008. More than 11% of Ivy League seniors applied, including 35% of African-American seniors at Harvard. Teach for America has been gaining applicants since it was founded in 1990, but its popularity has exploded this year amid a tight job market.
"So poor urban and rural school districts must be rejoicing, right? Hardly. Union and bureaucratic opposition is so strong that Teach for America is allotted a mere 3,800 teaching slots nationwide, or a little more than one in 10 of this year's applicants. Districts place a cap on the number of Teach for America teachers they will accept, typically between 10% and 30% of new hires. In the Washington area, that number is about 25% to 30%, but in Chicago, former home of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, it is an embarrassing 10%.
"This is a tragic lost opportunity. Teach for America picks up the $20,000 tab for the recruitment and training of each teacher, which saves public money. More important, the program feeds high-energy, high-IQ talent into a teaching profession that desperately needs it. Unions claim the recent grads lack the proper experience and commitment to a teaching career. But the Urban Institute has studied the program and found that "TFA status more than offsets any experience effects. Disadvantaged secondary students would be better off with TFA teachers, especially in math and science, than with fully licensed in-field teachers with three or more years of experience."
"It's true that only 10% of Teach for America applicants say they would have gone into education through another route, but two-thirds stay in the field after their two years. One program benefit is that its participants don't have to pass the dreadful "education" courses that have nothing to do with what they'll be teaching. Those courses are loved by unions as a credentialing barrier that makes it harder to get into teaching.
"Some districts may be wising up. Mississippi's education superintendent has asked Teach for America to double the size of its 250-member corps in the poor Delta region and is encouraging local superintendents to raise hiring caps. Since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has also sharply increased the percentage of corps members among its new teachers, to 250.
"But why have any caps? Teach for America young people should be able to compete on equal terms with any other new teaching applicant. The fact that they can't is another example of how unions and the education establishment put tenure and power above student achievement."
From The Wall Street Journal at link
- Comments on Teach for Australia from the PLATO Forum
- Australia is not New York City
Given that Julia Gillard’s Teach for Australia [or the “6-week wonders” course] was inspired by Joel Klein’s supposed success with it in New York City, I’d like to point out a couple of differences.
Item 1: “Teach in a disadvantaged school” in NYC means a minority school in a minority neighbourhood [or slum, or ghetto, to be blunt].
Most Caucasian teachers don’t want to teach in a predominantly black or Hispanic school / neighbourhood.
Perhaps more importantly, the residents don’t really want a Caucasian teacher either. Unsurprisingly, they’d like role model teachers from their own race.
Item 2: HECS has brought a reasonably level playing field to tertiary education in Australia. It’s very different in the US, where the “comprehensive fee” (tuition + room and board) for a top uni can exceed $50,000/year (and all degrees are 4 years, or $200,000 all up].
A minority student who attends a top uni probably received a scholarship. Such students are (I hope) amenable to the suggestion:
“You got a break and were able to make something of yourself. How about doing something for your brothers and sisters who also need a break? It’s only for a couple of years...”
Item 3: A black (Hispanic) uni graduate, teaching in a black (Hispanic) school, is a good fit. S/he will also get a fair bit of automatic respect from the students and especially from their parents.
An Aussie nerd teaching in “No Hope College” isn’t a good fit.
Surely the federal minister is sufficient intelligent to see these fundamental differences?
Steve Kessell, 25 April 2009
- Five points:
1. Australia is not America.
2. America gave us OBE; we don't want our politicians to import another "solution".
3. We want trained teachers in all our schools, not untrained ones in some of them.
4. We don't want the American health "system" either.
5. Most teachers who work in Australian schools are educated, trained and competent.
Let us build on that.
"SET", 26 April 2009
- Top graduates in Australia who want to try their hand at teaching for a few years can do a HECS funded Dip. Ed. which takes about 10 or 11 months of full time study. Granted, when I did mine I had to waste a lot of time telling people what they wanted to hear in order to get good grades, but the teaching pracs were invaluable. There is no substitute for seeing a master of their craft in action and having them there to help you pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong.
If Teach for Australia graduates have a modicum of self awareness, they will realise very early on that they are woefully under prepared and need some serious help. But who will help them?
Here's the predicament for their competent and experienced colleagues:
1. Donate $1,000.00s of dollars worth of their precious 'free' time helping these graduates through their first year, only to have the program lauded as a success (with no credit to the teachers who provided their expertise and resources freely); or
2. Sit back and leave the graduates to work it out for themselves at great personal expense to the graduates and their students. It could be particularly damaging to primary students who rely on the one teacher for most of their school year.
There's plenty of room to improve teacher education and the calibre of education students in Australia, but I don't think a quickie fly-in fly-out scheme will provide a lasting solution to any of these problems.
"Parent", 26 April 2009
- Spiked Online
- Book Review
It’s time to move beyond the nature/nurture divide
by Helene Guldberg
In advising parents to ignore hectoring experts, Judith Rich Harris’s book still packs a punch 10 years on. But its use of evolutionary theory and social psychology to explain how people are ‘shaped’ leaves much to be desired.
Earlier this year, on the tenth anniversary of its first publication, The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out The Way They Do by Judith Rich Harris was revised and updated. The book is a welcome antidote to the increasingly shrill voices lecturing us today about the ‘right’ ways of parenting. But as an insight into what it means to be human, and what shapes our development, Harris’s book raises more questions than it answers.
- The Age [Saturday]
- Students waver off course
by Dan Harrison
"About one in three tertiary students seriously consider dropping out of their courses before graduation, according to a survey.
"The finding from the Australian Council for Educational Research - based on a survey of 25,000 students from 29 Australian and New Zealand universities - underestimates the problem, because it does not include students who have already aborted their studies.
"The proportion of students who considered leaving before graduation varied considerably between fields of study, with architecture, education and creative arts students the most likely to leave their studies, and science and agriculture students the most likely to continue to graduation.
"Students from remote backgrounds, those with disabilities, and international and indigenous students all reported higher-than-average intentions of leaving their studies before completion.
"Students were more likely to consider leaving for practical or financial reasons than due to the quality of their course, the study found."
From The Age at link
- Letter to the Editor
- Insult to teachers
"A program that places inexperienced graduates in their early 20s into classrooms where they are teaching difficult students only a few years younger is not only flawed but an insult to the teaching profession. The Government should instead be trying to stem the flow of high-quality teachers and even entice experienced professionals into teaching.
"I have an honours degree in economics and after working for six years in Federal Government departments I decided to become a teacher to achieve a greater sense of satisfaction. However, I find myself in the unenviable position of being a fourth-year teacher earning $54,000, $20,000 less than what I was earning five years ago sitting at my desk all day.
"I am financially stressed and emotionally and physically exhausted. I constantly have to remind myself that monetary reward was never my motive. However, it is enticing to go back to sitting at a desk creating policy because it seems the Government may need some help."
Cristy Williams, Hawthorn
- The Sunday Age
- The call of the child: kids get upwardly mobile
There was a time when children's telecommunications meant two cans connected with string or, for some, a set of walkie-talkies. But today the mobile phone has become ubiquitous in school playgrounds, with children as young as five owning a handset.
- The Sunday Times
- Make hats compulsory in high school: WA Cancer Council
WA high-school students will have to wear wide-brimmed hats to protect them from the sun if the Cancer Council gets its way. The council is urging the WA Government to make it compulsory for students to wear the hats during recess, lunchtime and while participating in sport.
- Editorial
Hat options
"All parents should support the Cancer Council of WA's latest plan to protect young people from skin cancer.
"The council wants new school rules to make sure students wear wide-brimmed hats during recess, lunchtime and when playing sport.
"The council points out that while the state's primary school students were forced to wear brimmed hats when they go out in the sun, WA high schools failed to promote sun awareness.
"Some young people believe it's "uncool" to wear the wide-brimmed hats, which give much more protection than the popular baseball caps. But what they should accept is that it's better not to look cool in the fashion sense and opt for better sun protection. It's safer."
From The Sunday Times at link
- Thousands of West Australians to miss out on super-fast broadband
by Joe Spagnolo
"Thousands of West Australians will miss out on Kevin Rudd's super-fast broadband revolution.
"Broadband, communications and digital economy Opposition spokesman Nick Minchin released figures yesterday showing that 53,697 people living in 113 WA towns would be excluded.
"The Government has declared that towns with around 1000 people or more will get fibre-to-the-premises connections and the rest won't,'' Senator Minchin said. "So smaller communities quite rightly want to know whether or not they will be included.
"For a proposed spend of $43 billion, taxpayers living outside major centres quite rightly expect a degree of parity, but comparatively Mr Rudd's plan will widen the digital divide in WA, rather than bridge it.''
"A statement released by the Federal Government two weeks ago said the new super-fast network would extend only to towns "with a population of around 1000 or more people''...
Full story in The Sunday Times at link
- ABC News
- Education Dept claims some success from welfare-truancy trial
The Northern Territory Education Department says there has been a slight increase in school attendance since the welfare-truancy trial began.
- BBC News
- Ministers and 'troublesome priests'
"It is rare that we get a real peek inside the working relationship between ministers and their education advisers.
"But this week we were given a revealing glimpse when the former head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), Dr Ken Boston, angrily spilled the beans at a Parliamentary hearing.
"He exposed the extent to which ministers have more control than ever before over what is taught in schools and how it is tested.
"Although the headlines focused on a row between Dr Boston and England's Schools Minister Jim Knight over who was responsible for the chaos of last year's national tests, there was a deeper story.
"It exposed how little independence is allowed to those responsible for advising the government on school standards..."
Full story at BBC News at link
Worth a look
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Op Ed
Room for more than one faith at the inn
by Nadia Jamal
"From a Muslim to the Christian religious leaders of Camden who have united to oppose an Islamic school in their neighbourhood: you are right. You are right to say that the Quranic Society, the group behind the plans for the school, would eventually advocate "a political, ideological position" that you might not agree with.
"Why wouldn't they? Religious schools and groups of all persuasions do this all the time. Australians can't stop anyone, including institutions such as private schools, from holding religious or political views with which they might not agree.
"The idea that Australian religious groups don't hold political views is a myth, as is the idea that we keep religious views completely out of politics.
"Australians like to trot out lines about the separation of church and state, but in reality the meshing of religion and politics is everywhere to be seen in our way of life..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Letter to the Editor
- Those who can, should
"That academics without power may find themselves with more teaching hours is perhaps unfortunate for academics ("University staff planning to walk out", April 24). A bigger misfortune is that academics without an aptitude for teaching are in teaching roles.
"Students, the ones with the least power in this debate, need teachers who enjoy teaching and want to spend time to help students think, learn, reflect and improve.
"As a master of public health student currently weighed down by pedagogical mediocrity, for me the prospect that universities might employ specialist educators is refreshing."
Barbara Donaldson, Darling Point
All Alston cartoons are © The West Australian Newspaper
All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers
This page last updated 26 April, 2009 10:32 PM
