From Monday 18 December 2006 through Sunday 21 January 2007, PLATO's Breaking News coverage is on "Summer Holidays", and will be limited to Western Australian OBE - Courses of Study articles, plus other local "high-profile" education stories, with the occasional education article from The Australian. The home page will be updated only once a day, normally in the evening.

Full coverage will resume on Monday 22 January 2007.

Monday 1 January 2007

Tuesday 2 January

Wednesday 3 January

Thursday 4 January

Friday 5 January

Saturday – Sunday, 6 – 7 January

Monday 1 January 2007

• PLATO's New Year's Resolutions
  
  
  
  
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Spell test results to go public (page 10)
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "The State Government has pledged to release the spelling results of each State primary school from Statewide literacy and numeracy assessments – the only ones yet to be made public.
    
    "A spokeswoman for Education Minster Mark McGowan said last night the Minister was happy for the Education Department to release the spelling results and would ensure the information was available soon..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Sunnies set to join school uniform (page 6)
    by Gabrielle Knowles
    
    "Schoolchildren should wear sunglasses in the playground to reduce their risk of eye disease, medical experts say.
    
    "Following a push in NSW to make sunglasses a compulsory part of students’ uniforms, local practitioners are encouraging WA schools to become more sun smart.
    

    "Australian Medical Association WA president Geoff Dobb said sunglasses should join the slip-slop-slap requirement for outdoor summer activities.
    
    "While hats were a compulsory playtime accessory at most WA schools, experts claimed hats did not stop UV light or radiation reflected from the ground or water..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Australian uni study budget cut to pieces (page 14)
    by Adele Horie
    
    The Howard Government fosters overcrowded education on the cheap
    
    "... Massive cuts in public funding of universities that began 20 years ago and were sharpened under the Howard Government have taken their toll. Australia is an outlier in its approach to universities, singled out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for its remorseless cuts.
    
    "Other OECD countries have increased real funding to universities but amazingly, even as student numbers rose here, the Howard Government cut the total level of its grants; more dramatically, it slashed per student funding 30 per cent.
    
    "But that is not all. Compared with baby boomer days, few students today qualify for living allowances since the Federal Government tightened the rules for the Youth Allowance. All but the poorest parents are expected to support their student offspring until they are 25.
    
    "Most students wanting to be independent of their parents work often excessive hours. About 30 per cent of full-time students have full-time jobs, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Others work long hours in part-time jobs that interfere with their studies.
    
    "The result is campuses devoid of life. Some campuses are more like supermarkets where students drive in, grab the items they need and drive off to jobs.
    
    "As a result, academics complain that many students are disengaged from their studies. With no time to discover and pursue their intellectual passions, many do the minimum to pass.
    
    "It is unsurprising plagiarism is such a huge issue given the pressures, the disengagement and the technology. It is another way the university experience has been debased..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Plan to send parents back to school
    by Jo Prichard
    
    "Western Australia's new Education Minister wants to send parents back to school in an effort to improve the reading, writing and numeracy skills of their children.
    
    "Mark McGowan said yesterday there was "anecdotal evidence" that giving parents the right teaching skills would improve their children's education. The state's smartest student, Christopher Mofflin, 17, from Hale School, Perth, yesterday credited parental support for his 99.95 Tertiary Entrance Examination score, saying they encouraged his reading at an early age.

    "I first started really reading in Year 3 when they gave me a copy of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings," Christopher said, after being awarded one of two Beazley medals in the state.

    "Mr McGowan said pilot programs could be made available to all parents, but they should be targeted at those who had children with learning difficulties.

    "Where children aren't doing as well as they could ... we could invite parents back, work with them, show them how to teach their children these basic skills," he said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • Same story, plus highly critical Readers' Comments, in The Sunday Times
    
    Some examples:

  Dear Mr McGowan, Unless there is a clear syllabus and standards from kindergarten to year 12 a child's education will be compromised. The present OBE train wreck offers none of these. OBE is a manifestation of career education bureaucrats who will promote any hare brained scheme to entrench and advance their careers away from the classroom. Scrap OBE, initiate a clear kindergarten to year 12 syllabus, increase teacher wages and adequately resource state schools. Savings can be made by savagely pruning the bloated education bureaucracies in district offices, head office and Curriculum Council.
  Posted by: Dick
  
  Parental involvement is important in the education of any kid. But that is for the parent to decide. What a minister of education should be focussing on is overseeing a workable system of education within WA. OBE is clearly not such a system and shuld be abandoned before the ill-conceived "Courses of Study" are unleashed on the states senior school classrooms. Mr McGowan, you should listen to what teachers and parents and students want in education, they are the only stakeholders that matter.
  Posted by: stephen of south of river

  While I am not sure of what exactly is intended by the new Minister, I totally support the notion that parents must take the ultimate responsibility for their children's education. Furthermore, I would argue that if they did so the OBE debacle would not have occurred in the first place. If parents insisted on reliable research showing that the new educational approaches are thoroughly tested and have been demonstrated to improve literacy and numeracy standards then the WA version of OBE would never have been implemented. A parent must never abdicate their ultimate responsibility for the education of their child, and if remedial work is required an appropriately trained parent may be the best option.
  Posted by: Igor Bray

  Mr McGowan will make some headway in this portfolio if he starts listening to parents and real teachers not bureaucrats. Those who ran away from the classroom as soon as they could do not know what is going on and were often failures at teaching. They are full of useless advice and controls for teachers and quick to blame anyone but their poor policies. They have created this mess by always looking for a way to keep themselves in an office and away from kids. Noone ever created a bureaucratic empire by saying, "Things are going well; just keep doing the same thing." They had to identify a non-existant problem and then offer a complicated solution and then spend many more millions of dollars fine tuning something that was never going to work. Real teachers told them this years ago but they think we are too stupid to be listened to because we stayed in the classroom doing the most important job in education - teaching students rather than creating paperwork and soft jobs for ourselves!
  Posted by: Barbara

  OBE Good program that one
  Posted by: Ron V of Nollamara
  
  He's started well. Get as much attention away from OBE as possible. A good politician this one.
  Posted by: matt

  WA Primary schools have had OBE for 8 years. If it is so good, why are the latest test results so poor and why is McGowan suddenly looking to parents to make up the shortfall?
  Posted by: Mark Harris of Perth

  So the blame game has started already. The previous minister blamed those in her department (somehow they never kept her informed), and this one wants to blame parents. If OBE is as great as his department thinks, why are the WALNA results so bad?
  Posted by: emma johnson of WA

  Missed the point already, McGowan - or is this simplistic twaddle just the predictably evasive blatherings of yet another Labor spiv? You said you'd listen to parents and teachers in order to get a handle on your new portfolio. Then listen to this. Education in WA has been degraded to the point of morbidity by years of neglect and abuse by unintelligent, ignorant, self serving, opportunistic politicians and their appointees, their coterie of parasitic, dishonest, greasy pole-climbing, fad-peddling educrats who have swollen the Education bureaucracy. ABANDON THE RIDICULOUS "CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK" , ABOLISH THE INCOMPETENT AND DYSFUNCTIONAL CURRICULUM COUNCIL and ABOLISH OBE! Did you hear THAT Mr. McGowan? If there's no sign of you listening, then don't expect anyone to listen to you.
  Posted by: Peter

  This should be interesting! As if the Education department can cope with more drama. Do they want MORE people to sit and be entertained under the useless OBE? Educating our kids should be his priority, feeding them should be ours.
  Posted by: martha of perth
  
  What a load of tripe.It is about time that the education department started to take some responsibility for failing to teach children to read and write.Get back to the basics and teach the child to read and write and spell.Then math and then all the other things that we all must know, like history and religious beleifs and computer skills etc.Stop blaming the parent for all the ills of the world.Scrap that stupid new outcome based system too,means nothing if it doesn`t stand the child up against the child next to him.....in the real world we are all compared to the fellow next to us so let`s get real.
  Posted by: kerry hayes of cottesloe

  Does this Government actually do anything other than rely on spin? McGowan is in this much harangued portfolio of Education for all of five minutes and all we hear from him is what he expects parents do. Does this mob actually take the blame for anything themselves? Education in this State, in Australia for that matter, is being dumbed down actively by both levels of Government. This is obvious when you look at the recently released Public Primary School's 3r's results where, as it is now known, pass marks are levelled at between 22% and 44%. This means that if a grade three student gets one question right in five he or she is deemed to meet the expected national standard of excellence in education! What the hell is this country under its current political leadership aspiring to? Mediocrity?
  Posted by: John van Berkel of Kwinana
  
  Labor have replaced one idiot for another, but then what's new.
  Posted by: Mel

  Mel I was laughing my head off with your comment. To call McGowan an idiot is an insult to all idiots who exist.
  Posted by: Charles of Thornlie
  
  I thought that we sent our kids to school to learn? If we as parent have to start 'teaching' our kids at home then we may as well save our money (on fees, uniforms etc) and start home schooling our children! I already read to my children but feel the goverment is trying to pass the buck onto the parents instead of giving the teachers better training!
  Posted by: jan of perth
  
  
  

  • PM flags battles ahead in poll year
    by Steve Lewis, Chief political correspondent
    
    "John Howard has placed the states on notice that he plans to vigorously pursue water reform and measures to boost education standards in the election year..."
    
    "In another challenge to the states, Mr Howard called for a greater commitment towards "very high standards" in education, in addition to just pumping money into the system. "The education of the young of Australia is an investment in every way in the future development and growth of this country," he said..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Fraser pondered OS student fees
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "The Fraser government considered a plan to charge foreign students for degrees and reintroduce tertiary fees for Australian students four years after they were abolished by Gough Whitlam..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Look on the bright side and it will all add up
    by Chee Chee Leung
    
    "Having a sunny disposition may not only be good for the soul, it may also help in the classroom.

    "A Melbourne researcher has found that optimism is a key ingredient for success in school mathematics.

    "Students who perform well with unfamiliar maths problems have the drive to persist with difficult tasks, even when previous attempts had failed.

    "These students saw the setbacks as temporary and specific," said Gaye Williams, a maths education lecturer at Deakin University. "When they couldn't solve a problem they didn't just stop and say, 'I'm stupid'. They persisted." ...
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

 

Tuesday 2 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Year 7 test fuels fear on '3Rs' (page 6)
    by Kim Macdonald
    
    "Teachers claim the move away from "the three Rs" in the upper primary school curriculum is the potential cause of the alarming drop in student performance in the WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessment tests at the Year 7 level.
    
    "Vice-president of the State School Teachers' Union Anne Gisborne said upper primary teachers could not give the same attention to reading, writing and arithmetic as staff in the lower years because they had many more subjects to teach..."
    
    "Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said the fall-off at Year 7 was due partly to a lack of resources..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Some homework truths
      
      "I heartily support Education Minister Mark McGowan in his endeavours to encourage more parents to take greater responsibility for and interest in their children's education (The suburban kids who can't read this, 30/12).
      
      "Perhaps his initial steps to achieve this might be the provision of clear, jargonless syllabuses from which teachers can construct their programs and the removal of burdensome, meaningless levels in which teachers report to parents.
      
      "I have been a mathematics teacher for 25 years. I have three university degrees in mathematics and education so I am fairly well equipped to assist my 12-year-old daughter in her studies of mathematics, but I struggle to do so.
      
      "There is no Year 7 mathematics syllabus to which I can refer. She has no text book (because there is no syllabus, authors don't write text books). She is rarely asked to engage in drill and practice of her basics for homework; homework, in the main, is "complete the worksheet", which requires her to fill in the missing number. These worksheets give no provision for demonstration of understanding or working through essential algorithms. In short, I just don't know where to start to be of assistance to my daughter.
      
      "When it comes to reporting, all I want is a mark, an average, perhaps a grade and definitely a comment. Levels are totally meaningless to anyone not in possession of the progress maps, and of dubious value to anyone unfortunate enough to be aware of their existence.
      
      "We have had several years of going backwards in education in WA. I hope Mr McGowan is true to his word and will start making it possible for parents to start helping their children again."
      
      Greg Williams, Bicton
      
      
      
    • Parents' role
      
      "I have worked in the south and the north of WA with children who are not reaching the desired levels. The conclusion I came to a long time ago was that for many children it made little difference how many programs were in place, how many specialists were involved and how much money we spent trying to get these children to acceptable levels of achievement, it just wasn't going to happen.
      
      "Irrespective of your suburb or your parents' financial status, if there is not a genuine interest on the part of parents or family in seeing children regularly attend school and do as well as they are able, then we will continue to see poor results in far too many schools. Lack of interest in schooling is the single most important factor, apart from physical or health issues, that may cause learning difficulties.
      
      "Parents have to be made accountable for the non-attendance of their children at school – and early on, not when they have already been absent too often. By the time children are in mid-primary, some have missed so much school and feel so apathetic about it we can do little, as much as we try, to improve their educational outcomes. By Year 7 indifference to learning for many students has set in and the dream of a fulfilling future will be denied them because no one said: "Go to school every day and do as well as you can."
      
      Sue Collins, Broome
      
      
      
    • I Agree
      
      "Thank you for publishing the excellent article by Stephen Murray (Recipe for restoring value of teachers, 28/12) about the undervaluing of teachers. He has succinctly put the case for hundreds of frustrated and undervalued teachers.
      
      "I am married to a primary-school teacher who has recently resigned, partly due to this very situation of being undervalued and overworked. Unfortunately, teachers, like nurses, police and other essential-service delivers, are expendable commodities as far as out political leaders are concerned. Strangely enough, however, to educate a population well, you need plenty of teachers – the more, the better the outcome – but because there are many teachers, the cry from politicians is always that there isn't enough money to go around.
      
      "The very fact that those brought up in Australia have been through a school system makes them armchair experts about something they believe to understand, forgetting about which side of the equation they have experience of – that is, as a student and not as a teacher.
      
      "It will be up to all teachers, and their supporters, to raise the awareness of this problem. Their unions fail them by virtue of the fact that they are too close to the Labor Party and successive governments have failed them for decades.
      
      "In the 1970s, degree-qualified teachers earned about the same as backbench politicians. Now there is a huge gap but the workload and accountability compared with 30 years ago has increased significantly."
      
      Stephen Ferrier, Kingsley
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Science scores mock clever country
    by Justine Ferrari
    
    "Studying traditional Chinese medicine, fashion design or sports management at university requires a higher score than undertaking a science degree, fuelling concerns among leading scientists that Australia risks losing its "clever country" status.
    
    "A comparison of tertiary entry scores at Australian universities shows the score needed to qualify for a bachelor of science degree is among the lowest for any degree.

    "This reflects weak demand for science courses. As reported in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, science graduates leave university carrying heavier student debt than engineers and accountants, despite their lower earning potential.

    "High school students wanting to become sports teachers need a higher score than those aiming to become science teachers or even research scientists. Prominent scientists and science educators say the low scores detract from the prestige of science and raise grave concerns about Australia's ability to maintain its level of scientific knowledge..."

    "International Organisation for Science and Technology Education chairman Terry Lyons said the quality of people wanting to teach science was declining so the standards required to teach science were also declining.

    "We don't have the supply we once had. The standards required aren't the same as they were previously for teaching chemistry or physics," Dr Lyons said.

    "While tertiary entrance scores were based on demand rather than academic rigour, Dr Lyons said the low levels made science even less attractive to students.

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said there was a need to encourage more students to take up studies in science, to ensure the future needs of the nation are met.

    "Increasing demand by encouraging and supporting students to consider a career in science will result in higher entry scores for science courses at university," she said.

    "The co-ordinator of science and maths education at Edith Cowan University, Vaille Dawson, said Year 11 and 12 physics or chemistry teachers should ideally have passed at least two units of the subject at third-year level.

    "But Dr Dawson said education departments around the nation now defined "qualified" as passing one unit at second-year level. [emphasis added]

    "It's about the perception of science in the community and it's about the perception of teaching, and that's where science teachers have a double whammy," she said.

    "Based on last year's cut-offs, the entrance scores required to study science vary from 60 at the University of Western Sydney to 83 at the University of Sydney. The required score at the Australian National University was 85, and it was about 70 to 75 at Melbourne University.

    "By comparison, enrolling in a bachelor of applied science degree in traditional Chinese medicine at UWS needs a score of 70.

    "At the University of Technology, Sydney, the entry score for a science degree was 76.9, compared with 88 for fashion and textile design, 80.25 for sport and exercise management and 84.15 for an arts degree. [emphasis added]

    "Dr Lyons believes the lack of prestige attached to science careers is due to the rise of market-driven courses such as tourism studies, communications and exercise science."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [See following Editorial on this story]
    
    

  • Editorial
    Science and success

    Australia deserves a full-time chief scientist
    
    "As in so many other fields, Australia has a long history of punching above its weight in the world of science. Australians can boast more Nobel prize-winners in science and medicine in proportion to its population than any other nation. The discoveries of men from Howard Florey, instrumental in the development of penicillin, to Barry Marshall, who discovered the real cause of peptic ulcers, have saved and improved countless millions of lives. But according to Australia's chief scientist, Jim Peacock, the country is in danger of deskilling itself, as scientific careers are held in less and less esteem and as the required university entry marks for science degrees drop in comparison with less rigorous subjects such as fashion design.

    "Nor is this the only bad news concerning the state of science education in Australia. Dr Peacock's comments come fast on the heels of news that around the country young people are being denied the chance to get their hands dirty in the laboratory, due to shrinking budgets, a classroom emphasis on theory and restrictive health and safety concerns. And this is when real science is being taught at all. Nobel laureate Peter Doherty last month lamented the way the subject is taught in Queensland, where students are asked to analyse the lyrics to such songs as Cat Stevens's Where Do The Children Play. None of this is good news for Australia's long-term future, which will require qualified scientific minds. The fact that Dr Peacock's position is a part-time, three-days-a-week job sends a distressing message -- especially given that in 2004 a Senate inquiry recommended making the post full-time. While mining and the extractive industries are often thought of as low-tech, low-skill affairs, nothing could be farther from the truth. A host of scientific skills are required to get resources out of the ground and to the market. The development of clean-coal technologies will only increase the need for such skilled brains. And according to Ziggy Switkowski's recent inquiry into a potential Australian nuclear power industry, one of the major barriers to exploiting atomic energy here is a lack of appropriately trained scientific minds.

    "All this reinforces the need for a fundamental overhaul of the way science is taught in this country. Among the sensible suggestions that have been mooted are merit pay and giving science teachers time in professional labs to help hone their skills. Science is more than just another cultural construct, it is a disciplined way of thinking that has the power to change the world. And it should be presented to our children as an honourable and worthwhile career." [emphasis added]

    From The Australian at link [scroll down to second editorial]
    
    
    

  • We must deregulate or perish: uni chief
    by Lisa Macnamara
    
    "The head of Australia's elite universities has called for second-wave reform, fearing a tertiary education recession will gut funding-strapped public institutions hit by falling international student numbers and competition from private providers.
    
    "Melbourne University vice-chancellor and chair of the prestigious Group of Eight universities Glyn Davis has warned that Australian campuses must be allowed to become "aggressive competitors" in a rapidly changing tertiary sector.

    "We're going to have to compete and compete on a range of fronts. We're looking for the flexibility to be much more responsive to our markets ... in order to stay viable," Professor Davis told The Australian.

    "If international (student) numbers remain flat and demand for public institutions falls, then yes, all the signs are there (for a recession)," he said.

    "The latest enrolment data suggested demand from domestic students was "patchy" and the once-reliable revenue stream from overseas students had stalled, Professor Davis said..."
    
    "Professor Davis's comments follow federal Education Minister Julie Bishop's recent announcement of a review into university funding and the 2003 system of funding introduced by her predecessor, Brendan Nelson.

    "Professor Davis said universities must be able to set their own fees and shift student load to cover shortfalls in demand for some courses.

    "Our system sets us quotas for each area each year and we get punished financially if we don't meet our quotas," he said.

    "The effect of that is it locks us into a profile that makes us not incredibly responsive to changes in student demand.

    "It's that sort of flexibility to be able to respond to markets ... we're going to need in the public sector to be competitive with the private sector."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Labor's plan to boost services
    by Patricia Karvelas
    
    "Labor will take bold plans about which level of government would be responsible for health, education and water to the next federal election, and could include more areas for radical reform if the states make convincing arguments..."
    
    "Mr McMullan, Labor leader Kevin Rudd's chief adviser on federalism, said he would strongly suggest that voters must be told exactly how the party will solve the problems..."
    
    "And with education, it's clear the Howard Government's made it worse - they've set up their own set of technical colleges to duplicate what's going on at the state level.

    "They make direct grants to the schools, and yet the Treasurer says the states should take full responsibility. But what does he say about the Australian technical colleges he set up?" ...
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • UWA pushes for more course, quota control

    "The vice-chancellor of the University of Western Australia is calling for universities to have more control over the courses they run.

    "Professor Alan Robson says universities should be freed of the Federal Government quotas set for the number of students in each course.

    "He says this would allow universities to take on more students in areas of high demand.

    "Professor Robson says universities should be free to decide what they teach.

    "Individual universities are regulated to an extent that makes it difficult to actually meet the needs of the community and the students in the best possible way."
    
    From ABC News Online at link
    
    
    

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Montessori, Now 100, Goes Mainstream
    Once Considered Radical and Elitist, Method Creeping Into Public Schools

Wednesday 3 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Students set up to fail: Bishop (Front page)
    by Ben Ruse and Bethany Hiatt, Canberra
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has launched a scathing attack on WA State primary schools, saying poor literacy and numeracy standards revealed in recent tests showed they were setting students up to fail at high school and beyond.
    
    "Ms Bishop said yesterday she was concerned about results which showed that in some schools less than 50 per cent of students reached the benchmarks in some tests, and that there was a drop-off in performance between Year 5 and Year 7.
    
    "Ms Bishop said that if State and Territory governments failed to ensure students achieved adequate standards by Year 7 they had not met their responsibility to provide young people with the skills they needed for future education and entry to the workforce.
    
    "Figures released last week by the Education Department showed that for some of the WA literacy and numeracy tests sat last year students needed to score only 22 per cent to be deemed acceptable.
    
    "Ms Bishop's attack came as a new report revealed that more than 60 per cent of WA Year 6 students from State and private schools did not know basic facts about Australia's history and system of government, scoring lower in a civics and citizenship test than students from every State except Queensland.
    
    "A spokesman for Ms Bishop said the Minister receiver regular complaints from universities that the literacy standards of incoming students were falling and that some universities had been forced to introduce remedial English courses..." [emphasis added]
    
    "WA Education Minister Mark McGowan said yesterday civics courses were important, and WA was also putting more resources towards reading and numeracy than ever before.
    
    "It would be better if the Commonwealth was more constructive and provided more resources rather than making politically motivated attacks," he said.
    
    "Social studies teacher and Geographical Association of WA president Mike Fazio said the Year 6 results were poor because many primary school teachers ignored social studies, which included civics.
    
    "In some schools where the teacher is very interested then it's well taught and there's a lot of time, energy and effort given to it but if the teacher is not interested, then they focus on other areas," he said.
    
    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the teaching of civics had suffered in primary schools because it was left to the discretion of individual teachers.
    
    "Education acting director-general Sharyn O'Neill said when the civic tests were taken in 2004 students in WA were up to nine months younger and had experienced one year less of formal schooling than students in some other States. The department was increasing its focus on civics and history and new syllabus documents and resources would be provided." [That sounds SO lame...    Web]
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Homework lesson for McGowan (page 17)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    New Minister must consult wider than teachers and bureaucrats before trying to solve WA education problems
    
    "Perhaps the most sensible words coming from a politician lately were those spoken a few weeks ago by Mark McGowan, a day or so after he was sworn in as the new State Minister for Education.
    
    "The new Minister said that he was in no hurry to make up his mind about the many issues he faces, and that he was first going to "listen and learn". Those issues are all difficult, and they come swathed in clouds of controversy.
    
    "To make it more difficult, some now go back quite a few years, and changing course – on something like OBE, for instance – would come at quite a cost.
    
    "It was perhaps a pity that he had to spoil the impression by remarking that first among those to be consulted was the State School Teachers' Union, which has, on a number of the most basic issues, failed to offer the leadership that its members deserve.
    
    "That is not a mere bit of sniping at the union and its leadership. There are a lot of people easily accessible to whom the new Minister should be talking, and the union doesn't come very high on that list. [emphasis added]
    
    "He could do worse, for instance, than talk to those businessmen who were surveyed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry: 60 per cent of them registered their dissatisfaction with the Government's performance in education and training..."
    
    "And, in the midst of a continuing debate about issues based on not much more than theory – again, OBE is the example – he would be well advised to seek out those who are skilled in practice rather than those who prefer the consolation of slick theorising, which may or may not be capable of being translated to the classroom.
    
    "The advice holds good even after Mr McGowan has begun to find his bearings. A good rule for ministers, in education or wherever, is to seek advice outside the charmed circle of senior bureaucrats and party-based advisors.
    
    "Part of this rule involves always asking the obvious (but too often neglected) question, who benefits? What agendas are being pursued? Whose career stands to be advanced? What ideological barrows are being pushed? In all this, as in most things, he should avoid the example of his predecessor..."
    
    "Ljiljanna Ravlich took refuge from the results of her own incompetence in a sad and ludicrous fortress of stubborn and taciturn martyrdom, in which all legitimate criticism became indistinguishable from persecution.
    
    "One of the lessons she failed to learn was that, unlike many other ministries, a great number of people have a great interest in education, and are perfectly entitled to dissenting views. If the media, entirely appropriately, act as vehicles for that dissent or concern, it's not a good idea to shoot the messenger..." [emphasis added]
    
    "The socioeconomic distribution implied by those results should be a shame for any government, but especially a Labor government. Most children in most of the better-off suburbs and towns can basically look after themselves; or at least their family background will see them through, whether because of family attitudes, or the availability of coaching, or the ethos in the school that can depend on parental reinforcement."

    "Those that cannot rely on that sort of help after precisely the ones being failed by the Minister's department. And while that department fiddles with the introduction of irrelevancies like OBE, those children's futures are being utterly neglected. And while that department (of Education) fiddles with the introduction of irrelevancies like OBE, those children's futures are being utterly neglected."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 19)
    
    
    • "Give me a class of students who have all had breakfast, have a decent lunch, have a book read to them before bed and go to sleep at a decent time and I will teach them to read. They will have to attend school to take advantage of this offer and fewer than 32 children would be helpful."
      
      Rebecca Rourke, Innaloo
      
      
      
    • "... WALNA data ignore the cultivation of important traits such as perseverance, intuition, adaptability, responsibility, sensitivity, empathy, self-control, honesty, trustworthiness, healthy self-confidence, motivation, effective communication skills, open-mindedness, generosity, creativity, originality, co-operativeness, kindness, commitment, loyalty, friendliness, emotional maturity and inventiveness..." [A Letter or a spelling test?    Web]
      
      "Unfortunately, in the Australian context, the assessment tools currently being used and the testing regime are not capturing the best indicators of the traits, characteristics and skills we need to encourage in our young people in their future learning." [So hire a friendly, co-operative etc. etc. young person who can't read, write or do sums?   Web]
      
      Steffan Silcox, Darlington
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • 'Reduce HECS' to save science
    by Justine Ferrari and Ilya Gridneff
    
    "Science students at university should have their HECS debt reduced and greater resources should be invested in school science to boost the appeal of the subject.
    
    "The Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia, which represents about 25,000 science and technology-based professionals, yesterday accused the Howard Government of ignoring the declining numbers of science students.

    "APESMA acting chief executive officer Geoff Fary said the Government had to make a concerted effort to build the prestige of science and technology-based courses.

    "The problem hasn't really been on the Government's radar and it needs to be," he said.

    "Mr Fary said the association was concerned by the high level of HECS paid by science graduates and the low tertiary entrance scores required to study a science degree, as reported yesterday in The Australian.

    "A comparison of university entrance scores reveals that a science degree has one of the lowest, reflecting the fall in demand but also the lack of prestige attached to the field.

    "To redress the shortage in scientists and related professions, Mr Fary said the Government had to lower HECS to reverse the decline in university study and to encourage Year 11 and 12 students to study maths and science.

    "There's a view among some kids at secondary school that science is nerdy. We've got to make it sexy.

    "Science is a vital area for our national economy and we need more bright young Australians going into this area," he said..."

    "Mr Fary said APESMA had been recommending for years that governments investigate ways of using professional scientists to address the shortage in qualified maths and science teachers. He estimated that hundreds of the association's members nearing retirement would welcome the opportunity to retrain as maths and science teachers if there was an alternative to spending a year studying a diploma of education."

    * The entry score required to study science at Melbourne University published in The Australian yesterday was incorrect. The score required in 2006 was 85.05 not 70-75. The error was made during the production process.
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Minchin dismisses Labor's savings plan
    by David Uren, Economics correspondent
    
    [Included because yesterday's Breaking News had the original article putting Labor's position.   Web]
    
    "Labor could bolster its election war chest only by axing programs, closing agencies or cutting payments to the states, Finance Minister Nick Minchin said yesterday as he dismissed claims that Kevin Rudd's reforms of the federal system could deliver a $1 billion windfall.
    
    "Responding to a report in The Australian yesterday that the Labor leader expected big gains for the budget by eliminating duplication between the commonwealth and states, Senator Minchin said there was no "magic pudding" in the nation's finances..."
    
    "Labor spokesman for federalism Bob McMullan yesterday said Labor's priority was delivering better results on health, education and water, and it had not claimed specific savings..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

 

Thursday 4 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Time to cane OBE and can levels (page 15)

    New Education Minister Mark McGowan must abandon the myths peddled by his predecessor, says Steve Kessell

    "Education in WA is at a crossroads, evidenced by poor literacy and numeracy results, angry parents, frustrated teachers and a totally botched implementation of outcomes-based education.

    "Our new Education Minister, Mark McGowan, has an excellent opportunity to rectify the problems created by his predecessor Ljiljanna Ravlich, the Curriculum Council and the Department of Education. He must examine all the evidence against OBE and levelling, listen to classroom teachers, and abandon the myths and untruths peddled by Ms Ravlich and bureaucratic vested interests.

    "Firstly, he must accept that three of the Government's major claims about OBE are fundamentally wrong:

    • Levels and the process of "levelling" are valid for student assessment.
      
    • OBE has been successful in WA in Years K-10.
    • OBE has been implemented successfully across Australia and in most OECD countries.

  
  "Levels are meant to replace percentage marks and letter grades, but in fact are way too coarse for student assessment.

  "Each learning area (formerly called "subjects") is divided, quite arbitrarily, into eight levels of achievement. These are meant to cover all learning from kindergarten through Year 12, so a single level covers more than a year and a half of schooling, and these are meant to replace traditional marks.

  "The Curriculum Council commissioned a study of levels by international assessment expert Professor David Andrich. The Council buried his report for a year, but it finally emerged in September.

  "Dr Andrich concluded that levels can only be used as a very rough guide to student achievement, and that they are totally inappropriate for detailed assessment and reporting to parents.

  "The Curriculum Council has tried to refine them, by dividing each level into bands of first, middle and high. Professor Andrich says this is totally invalid:

  "I am recommending strongly against this process for all courses for the following specific and additional reasons. First - the levels are generic, that is, general and abstract, and cover a wide range of achievement, both in breadth and in the range between levels. Therefore, the tasks that are provided for assessment will not fall naturally into the 3 sub-levels any more than they will fall naturally into levels….

  "Second, and very importantly, this kind of approach gives the impression that the distance between levels is the same in some sense - that is, that the difference in achievement between levels 5 and 6 is the same as between levels 6 and 7. This is not the case." (Andrich Report)

  "As an example, a student obtains these marks in four Year 12 TEE subjects: levels 6H, 6F, 5H and 7F.

  "From this, you must now calculate a Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) to two decimal places. Do a 6H, 6F, 5H and 7F produce a TER of 82.67? Or should it be 67.82? You might as well try to average "good, good, OK and very good", and then attempt to create a mark valid to two decimal places. It is utterly impossible and totally invalid.

  "Worse, your child could miss out on the university course of her choice with a TER of 78.56, while a friend gets in with a mark of 78.57. In my opinion, this is a criminal misuse of invalid assessment, which can arbitrarily destroy a student's intended career.

  "More recently, the Curriculum Council commissioned another report on levelling, by Professor Jim Tognolini. It came to the same conclusion: levelling is invalid for fine-grained assessment and utterly useless for reporting to parents.

  "Levels and the levelling process must be abolished. [emphasis added]

  
  Image © The West Australian

  "Ms Ravlich waxed lyrical about how successful OBE has been in years K-10, but there is not one shred of evidence to support this blatant assumption.

  "The recent WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessment revealed that about 20 percent of Year 7 students do not meet even the most minimal benchmarks, which were set as low as 36 per cent.

  "These Year 7 students have been subjected to OBE throughout their primary school careers.

  "There has been absolutely no independent evaluation of OBE in primary school, and the Curriculum Council and the Department of Education clearly do not want any independent evaluations performed.

  "The single piece of evidence offered by the former Minister for Education is this: All principals were asked, in 2004, if their school was implementing the Curriculum Framework. It's no surprise that all said they were (Hansard 2/11/06). I'm sure that any principal who said he wasn't would have been given an immediate management-initiated retirement. There was no mention of OBE. No one was asked if OBE had improved anything.

  "This is the single datum upon which the claim that OBE has been successful in K-10 rests. The WA Literacy and Numeracy results suggest that it has failed utterly.

  "The former minister also touted OBE as "world best practice", claiming that it has been implemented across Australia and throughout OECD countries. The last part of that statement is technically correct: OBE was implemented in many of those places, and virtually all of them are now abandoning it as a failed experiment.

  "The United States has suffered terrible student results since OBE was first implemented. In the Washington D.C. area, 81 per cent of schools failed to meet basic literacy and numeracy standards (Washington Post, 27/9/06). Students were obtaining excellent school marks but failing national standardized tests (Washington Post, 21/11/06).

  "The prestigious US National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is now recommending a complete "back to basics" program (New York Times, 14/11/06). The State of Texas is now requiring all students to take four years each of maths, science, English and social studies in order to receive a high school diploma (Dallas Morning News, 19/11/06).

  "The situation in the UK is similar; it's back to basics and a wholesale abandonment of OBE and student-directed learning (The Times, The Guardian and The Independent, June - Dec 2006). The UK Office for Standards in Education has even recommended drafting business executives into schools to help raise standards (The Times, 23/11/06).

  "Closer to home, the NSW and Victorian curriculums are OBE in name only; they have returned to assessment using marks and have implemented proper syllabuses.

  "Tasmania abandoned its OBE-style Essential Learning system, and introduced plain English descriptions of student literacy and numeracy, after it cost the education minister her job and nearly cost her seat in state parliament (Hobart Mercury, 18/11/06). South Australia similarly has introduced a new Certificate of Education based on "rigorous and detailed performance standards" (SA Certificate of Education website).

  "Here in WA, Kelmscott Senior High School teachers unanimously voted a motion of no confidence in the Curriculum Council's implementation of OBE and levelling.

  "Teachers at TEE flagship Rossmoyne Senior High School told the Education Department that letter grades derived from levels are meaningless: students, who are performing a full year behind their grade level, are receiving grades of A and B under OBE.

  "In conclusion, all of the available evidence says that OBE is a very poor and widely discredited method of teaching and learning, that the proposed assessment with levels is utterly meaningless but can arbitrarily deprive students of a university place, and that virtually every education department that has implemented OBE or something similar is abandoning it.

  "Mr McGowan now has the opportunity to rectify the mess made by his predecessor. 'Getting it right' is much more important than political or bureaucratic face-saving.

  "The essential first step is to abolish levelling and return to meaningful reports that parents can understand."
  
  Steve Kessell retired as Associate Professor, Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University in 2004.
  
  From The West Australian at link
  
  For a printable / email-able version of this article: [as Word .doc] [as .rtf file] [as .pdf file]
  
  Reader Feedback in The West Australian

  Readers' Comments on this article at PerthNorg, including:

  • Well said Steve, the sooner OBE and the meaningless levels used by this farcical system are abandoned, the better.
    posted by Darren
    
    
  • Great article. I think the best I've read on the subject. One question, maybe the teachers among you can answer - is the level system part of OBE?
    posted by Newshound [several replies]
    
    
  • Well spoken, Steve. The whole OBE campaign has been a scandal and a disaster. I hope the new minister realizes how it has been bullied through, in spite of nobody wanting it. As a parent I am amazed that we, the consumers in the system, are not heard, and, like teachers, our feedback has been ignored.

    It's time we had some say as it's our kids who are the victims of this stupid system. We receive the meaningless reports, and we have to hope the assessment gets improved so our kids don't miss out on their uni places.
    posted by Mia

    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (pages 16 – 17)
    
    
    • "How can the Government and its education bureaucracy possibly claim that OBE is working when 20 per cent of our primary school students fail to meet literacy and numeracy benchmarks set as low as 22 per cent (report, 30/12)? Surely this result justifies the widespread opposition to OBE by teachers and parents?"
      
      Steve Kessell, Willetton
      
      
      
    • "Should we be surprised by this front-page headline (The plan for us to drink treated sewerage, 2/1). After all, this Labor Government has been feeding it to us since it was elected. At least the government-controlled body concerned plans to treat it."
      
      Hugh Reason, Kinross
      
      
      
    • "My son has many of the important traits mentioned by Steffan Silcox (Important qualities are ignored, 3/1). He cannot, however, get a job because, among other things, he can't do long division.
      
      "He has a minor intellectual disability and employers have all wanted educational qualifications, not kindness and previous experience, not politeness and punctuality. All my son's qualities come either from his genes or his upbringing. His schooling did little to contribute to his personality and moral values. But he did learn to read, write and do simple maths. As to whether I would rather he could do long division than be a nice kid, well, I like to think that even if he'd been born brilliant, we'd have brought him up to be as nice as he is."
      
      Valerie O'Neill, East Perth
      
      
      
    • "In the funny little world of Steffan Silcox, kids come home from school and say: "Mum, today, while the other kids were learning long division, I was learning empathy and sensitivity." In the real world, kids who are not participating in the learning experience being delivered by the teacher (long division) are hardly likely to be gaining any "value adding". In fact, they are much more likely to be disrupting the learning experiences of their fellow students.
      
      "Attending to the fundamentals of education helps students attain the skills to enable them to independently learn the qualities of which Steffan Silcox speaks. Failing to do this leaves kids incapable of understanding concepts such as self-control and honesty, let alone learning them."
      
      Nick Bruechle, East Fremantle
      
      
      
    • "WA politicians need a reality shake-up. It annoys me how much time, energy and enthusiasm is being wasted on trivial matters such as daylight saving and longer shopping hours.
      
      "Daylight saving went from a non-issue to a reality in a few short weeks and now extending shopping hours is a major priority for the State Government.
      
      "This irks me. State Government priorities for 2007 should be to fix hospital emergency department overcrowding; surgery waiting lists; children's welfare issues; education standards; water problems; and crime and the justice system. These are the things that affect people's lives and futures.
      
      "I have to say that I have never seen politicians so determined and work so hard and with such speed as they did to push the daylight-saving issue. I see none of that same determination or enthusiasm when it comes to issues that are so much more important, such as the quality of life; environmental issues and children's futures.
      
      "Wake up to yourselves and deal with the things that matter. When problems with hospitals, schools and crime are being addressed and brought under control then minor issues can be looked into and discussed."
      
      John Palmer, Forrestfield
      
      
      
    • "It looks as if schools will be blamed for poor literacy and numeracy rates again. However, I believe that children are not being stimulated enough at an early age to make any significant difference. Let's support families by working with them to talk to their babies and children more, read to them more and discourage so much non-interactive television watching. Children's brains develop more in the first three years of life than at any other time. By the time children begin attending kindergarten it is (almost) too late for schools to make much difference."
      
      Barbara Alcock, Marmion
      
      

  
  From The West Australian

   

• ABC News
  
  
  • State schools feature in top 10 list
    
    "The Curriculum Council has released a list of Western Australia's top 50 schools, based on the Tertiary Entrance Examination (TEE) performance of students.

    "Methodist Ladies College is the highest ranked, followed by Saint Mary's and Christ Church.

    "For the second year in a row, two state schools are ranked among the top 10 in the state.

    "Public school Shenton College came in fifth and Manjimup Senior High School was seventh.

    "The top Catholic School was Saint Joseph's in Albany.

    "The acting director general of the Education Department, Sharyn O'Neill, says regional schools performed very well in 2006.

    "What is means in public education is that regardless of where you are living, there is terrific support for you in your TEE," she said.

    "There is quality education being provided no matter where you are in the state."

    "About half of all Year 12 students completed the TEE, and about one third completed Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualifications.

    "Chisholm Catholic College, the WA College of Agriculture in Denmark, John Paul College, Saint Mary's and Saint Mark's all topped the list of VET schools.

    "Seventeen schools had a 100 per cent graduation rate, up from six the pervious year."
    

    From ABC News Online at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Howard takes a razor to this year's budget [Lead story]
    by Steve Lewis and David Uren
    
    "Billions of dollars in potential budget measures - including a costly schools and science package - have been dumped as the Howard Government puts the squeeze on spending..."
    
    "One of the Government's rising stars, Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop, received a particularly bruising reception when she proposed a raft of measures.

    "These included a big-spending program for school education. Senior ministers rejected the program, worried that it involved too much commonwealth subsidy to the states.

    "Ms Bishop has also been forced to dump plans to boost spending on science after senior ministers instead decided they wanted her to focus on higher education. [emphasis added]

    "This is a tactic to blunt Labor's expected push to make the cost of university education a centrepiece of its campaign pitch to voters, including measures to ease the cost of HECS.

    "But Ms Bishop is not the only minister feeling the wrath of the budget razor gang. Other ministers contacted by The Australian confirmed they had also received significant knock-backs as they put in their budget claims.

    "Decisions to curtail spending spread across health, welfare, indigenous policies, agriculture and industry.
    
    "This is a very, very tough budget," said one senior government figure. "It's very tight and there's not much joy for new (spending) initiatives."

    "Another Coalition figure said: "Some ministers have been pretty bruised. Julie got a real going-over."

    "But another frontbencher said the list of spending proposals brought forward was "absurd", with costs running into the tens of billions of dollars..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [See following Editorial on this story]
    
    

  • Editorial
    Election budget high ground fight begins

    The battle lines are drawn on economic management

    "The federal election year budget charade has begun with bluff and bluster as the Government and Opposition jockey for the fiscal high ground. Senior ministers are taking the razor to the big spending budget proposals from junior ministers, making a virtue of fiscal responsibility, which remains a key weapon in the Government's armoury. Meanwhile a campaign is under way to paint Labor leader Kevin Rudd as a Keatingesque social democrat who shares Noam Chomsky's fears of unbridled capitalism..."
    
    "However, the bigger election-year fiscal charade is doubtless being played out on the Government side, where, as The Australian reports today, junior ministers are being told to tighten their belts and voters are being warned not to expect any tax relief this year, despite the healthy budget surplus. This will allow the Government to make the charge of fiscal ill-discipline against Labor whenever the Opposition makes a promise..."
    
    Full Editorial in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Maths, science figure low in student plans
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "The number of school students studying science across the nation has dropped by one-third in five years, and the proportion of university graduates with a maths qualification is less than half the OECD average.
    
    "The National Report on Schooling for 2005, the latest figures available, shows the number of Year 12 students studying to enter a science degree fell from 147,000 in 2000 to about 107,000 in 2005.

    "OECD figures show only 0.4 per cent of university students in Australia graduate with qualifications in maths or statistics, compared with the OECD average of 1 per cent. [emphasis added]

    "Opposition spokesman on industry, innovation, science and research Kim Carr said the problem was exacerbated by a dramatic rise in the level of HECS fees incurred by science students. While science graduates in 1996 paid $3000 a year, they now faced a bill of $7118 a year. "We have the ludicrous situation where a science graduate working in a school classroom is paid the same rate as other teachers, yet faces a much higher HECS debt," he said. A survey by the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia found that 60 per cent of graduates with science and technology-based degrees intended to work overseas within three years of leaving university.

    "Association acting chief executive officer Geoff Fary said a large proportion never returned to work in Australia, with one study estimating the nation has lost about 20,000 such professionals during the past decade.

    "In a bid to hang on to a diminishing pool of qualified workers, employers are offering retention payments worth up to 30 per cent of an employee's income if they agree to stay in a job for one to two years. Mr Fary said retention payments were becoming standard industry practice, as was offering employees an extra week or two in annual leave and more flexible working hours such as part-time or working from home.

    "Mr Fary said companies hoping to replace departing employees had to advertise the position with a 15 to 20 per cent premium, particularly in parts of Queensland and Western Australia.

    "Some companies were now also paying their new employees' HECS debts and were targeting students in their second or third year of their degree instead of waiting for them to graduate."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Job qualifications defy PM's line on degrees
    by Patricia Karvelas
    
    "Two-thirds of jobs created under the Howard Government have needed a university degree as a prerequisite.
    
    "Since 1996, jobs requiring a university degree or higher increased by 42 per cent, while Australian undergraduate enrolments increased by less than 5per cent, an analysis by the parliamentary library reveals.

    "The analysis found that while an overwhelming proportion of jobs required a degree, the Government had failed to increase enrolments of Australians in undergraduate courses.

    "Labor frontbencher Craig Emerson, who commissioned the study, said the Government had sharply increased the intake of foreign university students to help fill the gap, but acute skill-shortages remained.
    
    "Based on Immigration Department figures, the study estimates that since 1996, 63 per cent of settlers in Australia have had university-level qualifications.

    "Labor is positioning itself as the pro-university party, while the Coalition has argued that university is not for everyone.

    "John Howard said last year: "Not everybody is suitable for a university education, and we have to get back to the time when a prized and valued technical qualification was as important tosomebody's future as a university degree." ...
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

 

Friday 5 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Private schools top TEE ranking [Front Page Headline]
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The State education system was dealt another blow yesterday when a new analysis revealed private schools performed twice as well as State schools on last year's TEE.
    
    "The analysis, based on information from the Curriculum Council, showed that although State schools made up more than half of the 161 schools in the annual high school league table, two-thirds of those in the top 50 were from the independent and Catholic sectors.
    
    "Just 17 State schools – out of 84 public schools listed – appeared in the top 50, against 33 independent and Catholic schools..."
    
    "The decline in the rankings of State schools has come despite the Government's investment of more than $500,000 annually over the past three years into a special TEE squad aimed at lifting academic achievement. Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said it was important not to draw simplistic conclusions about schools based solely on the school performance data or by focusing on one specific table. Education Department acting director-general Sharyn O'Neill said the TEE squad had been instrumental in lifting students' academic achievement. [I wonder if they have a single piece of evidence to support this.  Web] Its role had been expanded to help introduce new outcomes-based education courses. [Perhaps that answers the question!]
    
    "All students had different needs and public schools had successfully got the most out of their students.
    
    "Association of Independent Schools executive director Audrey Jackson acknowledged that parents often chose schools based on academic achievement, which had an impact on that school's academic culture.
    
    "Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said education was about more than TEE."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
  • Four education [TEE] stories: page 11
    
    
    • Results reveal a two-tiered system
      Analysis by Bethany Hiatt
      
      "The State Government probably cannot wait to get the first set of Year 12 results posted by academically gifted students who start at Perth Modern School in Year 8 this year.
      
      "There will be a lot riding on the future of the first batch of students to enter the new selective school because yesterday's release of the 2006 TEE results hardly instils confidence in the academic performance of State schools.
      
      "The domination of the top ranks by high-fee schools is perhaps to be expected, given the privileged background from which many of these students come. But the success of low-fee independent schools such as John Calvin Christian College, which topped one of the tables and came fourth in another, indicates to parents they may receive a better education for their children as well as all the other attractions of a private school, such as uniforms, discipline and religious values, without paying enormous sums. Other low-fee schools, St Joseph's College, Albany, and Winthrop Baptist College, featured in the top 20, ranked sixth and 20th respectively.
      
      "The West Australian also recently revealed that last year's TEE was the first in which the number of private school students sitting the exams outweighed State school students, indicating that WA is fast moving towards a two-tiered system in which parents of academically able children choose to send them to a private school.
      
      "Research shows that student achievement depends on a host of factors, including students' socioeconomic background and their parents' level of education.
      
      "It also depends on the quality of the teaching they receive.
      
      "Despite the fantastic achievement of many students from State schools and the focus the Education Department has put on trying to boost academic performance, the facts show that more needs to be done.
      
      "Parents have a right to know what non-government schools are doing so differently from their local public school."
      
      From The West Australian
      
      
      
    • Resources count for high-flyers
      by Martin Philip
      
      "With only a fraction of the resources of Perth's most exclusive private schools, Armadale's John Calvin Christian College has topped one of the key indicators in the 2006 school league table.
      
      "The independent school achieved the highest proportion – 71.44 per cent – of top-third students in the State who completed more or more TEE subjects.
      
      "From a small eligible student base of 14, the school also ranked fourth on the main table, with 50 per cent of its TEE students scoring above 75 per cent in at least one subject.
      
      "Principal Alwyn Terpstra said the school's innovative funding structure enabled it to deliver high quality, affordable education.
      
      "A member of the Free Reformed School Association, John Calvin Christian College relies on weekly contributions of thousands of contributors, rather than direct school fees. For $35 a week parents can send all their children to any of the association's six WA schools..."
      
      Full story in The West Australian
      
      
      
    • Girls win battle of the sexes
      by Bethany Hiatt
      
      "WA’s elite girls’ schools have continued their domination of the TEE rankings, but just two of Perth’s prestigious boys’ schools made the top 10 this year.
      
      "The top-ranked boys’ school was Christ Church Grammar, third behind Methodist Ladies College and St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School, while Hale School came in at number nine. Four girls’ schools were in the top 10.

      "Curriculum Council statistics released yesterday also show that girls consistently outperformed boys based on the school work done during the year, which made up half of their final assessment.
      
      "Association of Independent Schools WA executive director Audrey Jackson said the system was weighted in favour of girls because they were more likely to complete work set over a period of time.

      "Boys often did better in exams and tests but failed to hand in assignments on time.

      "WA boys’ education consultant Ian Lillico agreed the results were not surprising, saying that when girls were put together in groups they nearly always performed better.
      
      “They tend to share ideas more, whereas boys together won’t always do better. Boys are more competitive,” he said.

      “We have to try to get more women teaching in boys’ schools.”

      "He said the curriculum now called more for writing and literacy skills, at which girls were more likely to excel.

      "David Gee, principal of Wesley College, which was 26th on the main table but 17th on another that measured the percentage of students with marks in the top third, said boys’ schools performed extremely well in comparison to co-ed schools.

      "He said the second table was a better measure of performance because it took into account a students’ overall performance across all subjects.

      "Education director general Sharyn O’Neill said early results from a pilot study of single-sex classes showed the quality of teaching was more important than whether pupils were taught in groups of the same sex.

      "Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said that each year there was a mix of single-gender and co-ed schools that did well.

      “Boys have traditionally done very well in general exhibitions and other education awards, including the Beazley Awards for TEE and VET, which were both won by boys this year,” he said.
      
      “But we shouldn’t be complacent. There will always be issues to address and room for improvement and we should be constantly striving to do better.”
      
      From The West Australian at link
      
      

    • Maturity gives females edge: principals
      by Debbie Guest
      
      "It is no surprise that the two top-performing schools in the TEE are girls' schools because at 17, girls are generally more mature and will outperform boys, according to the schools' principals..."
      
      "While boys caught up at university, MLC principal Stephen Lee said it made sense girls' schools were top performers and it should be accepted that girls would do better in the TEE.
      
      "Girls mature academically ahead of boys at age 16 or 17 and so the kind of exams that we give kids at 17 favour the intellectual development of girls," he said.
      
      "The TEE is a fairly traumatic event to go through and girls are just better organised and more motivated towards these kinds of tasks at this particular age."
      
      "St Mary's principal Lynne Thomson said at 17 girls were more prepared than boys to work consistently hard to do well in the TEE."
      
      Full story in The West Australian
      
      
      
      
  • TEE League Tables: 8-page Liftout
    
    
    • School results put on the table
      by Bethany Hiatt
      
      "These are the tables that parents eagerly await each year, though principals argue that using academic league tables to compare schools in unfair.
      
      "The tables reveal the academic performance of every WA high school – public and private – based on students' results in Year 12. And though many schools claim they oppose the tables, they still use them to promote their achievements to parents.
      
      "Last year was the first time the State Government voluntarily released the information, ushering in a new era of accountability.
      
      "While most principals have reluctantly accepted the tables are here to stay, they say focusing too much on a school's academic achievement could lead parents to choose the wrong school for their child.
      
      "Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood warned against making "simplistic interpretations" as many factors influenced students' achievement.
      
      "Perth's most expensive schools are still dominating the ranks of the top 20 schools in the TEE rankings – despite this year's surprise inclusion of Armadale's John Calvin Christian College [see separate story].
      
      "Christ Church Grammar School principal Garth Wynne said... the tables were a "nonsense measure" that eroded confidence in poorly performing schools. "If you don't put in some sort of socioeconomic factor, because that has a huge impact on educational success, then it's not legitimate or fair," he said...." [emphasis added]
      
      "In the first table, which measures the proportion of students sitting four or more TEE subjects to score at least 75 per cent in at least one subject, just four public schools made it to the top 20, compared with six last year.
      
      "Of the four, just three – Churchlands and Manjimup senior high schools and Shenton College – also made it to the top 20 in the second table which measures the proportion of students from each school whose average score was in the top third of the State..."
      
      From The West Australian TEE Liftout "How Your High School Rates"
      
      
      
      
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Check IQ levels
      
      "Much has been made in the media about the published school-by-school results of last year's WALNA testing.
      
      "It seems to be implied that those schools with the highest percentage of students achieving well must be the best schools with the best teachers. Conversely, those schools with low percentages of children achieving must be staffed by uncaring and inefficient teachers.
      
      "The latter concept is something that really upsets me because I know from experience that nothing could be further from the truth.
      
      "Back in the years when I was teaching, I used to argue that the only way that published WALNA results and also TEE results had any real meaning was if the average IQs of the classes involved were also published.
      
      "However, in today's society, IQ levels seem to be a forgotten and almost ridiculous concept. All children are expected to achieve that mathematically impossible target of "above average results". [emphasis added] If my belief was applied, however, I fell sure that most of those classes with the high results would have average IQs of 110 plus, while the majority of those with low results would possibly be battling to have an IQ average of even 90."
      
      L J Butcher, Morley
      
      Note: I am reminded of the Texas education minister who announced, several years ago, that "no student in Texas was to achieve below-average results"!   Web
      
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Anatomy studies given an F
    by Adam Cresswell, Health editor
    
    "Almost three in four medical students say they are taught too little anatomy during their medical degree - and more than a third don't even think they have been taught enough about how the body works to be a competent doctor when they graduate..."
    
    "And nearly 90 per cent of students agreed that the traditional, guided style of anatomy teaching was "more effective" than the alternatives.

    "In many medical schools, traditional teaching has been increasingly replaced by a self-directed process where students research topics themselves in groups..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [See following Editorial onthis article]
    
    

  • Editorial
    Anatomy of a crisis
    Medical students vent spleen at substandard teaching
    
    "Eight months ago, The Australian reported that anatomy training was in many cases so poor that students could make it to the last year of medical school and not be able to visually distinguish between a beating heart and a liver, or correctly identify the location of the prostate gland..."
    
    "... Culturally, too, medical schools have, like so many other institutions, fallen victim to the fashion for dismantling traditional structures without replacing them with anything similarly useful or