New Courses Delayed

Monday 30 April

Tuesday 1 May

Wednesday 2 May

Thursday 3 May

Friday 4 May

Saturday – Sunday, 5 – 6 May

 

Jury Results and Curriculum Council Reply

20 CoS, including all but one "TEE replacement", delayed until [at least] 2009

Letter from Dave Wood to all principals, 3 May 2007

Dear Principal

The Curriculum Council will defer the introduction of 20 of 40 of its new senior school courses following deliberations by independent teacher juries.

Fourteen other courses will proceed as planned in 2008 and will incorporate all of the adjustments and further support requirements recommended by the juries.

Jury decisions are pending on three other courses and schools will be notified as the Council is advised of the verdicts.

Dr Christina Gillgren, an independent consultant from the Department of Premier and Cabinet, yesterday gave the Council a preliminary briefing on the “verdicts” reached so far. She said that final jury reports, including recommended improvements or changes, would be provided to the Council for a special meeting on 23 May. Copies of the report from each jury, together with public submissions, will be available on the Council’s website after this meeting.

The Council considered the preliminary report and elected to act on the “verdicts” immediately by adopting the initial recommendations and announcing which courses will proceed in 2008 and which courses will be deferred.

COURSES PROCEEDING IN 2008, WITH AMENDMENTS

Philosophy & Ethics
Plant Production Systems
Dance
Outdoor Education
Health Studies
Design
Chinese
Career & Enterprise
Business Management & Enterprise
Computer Science
Drama
Marine & Maritime Technology
Psychology
Materials Design & Technology
Italian

PENDING

Animal Production Systems
Visual Arts
Food Science & Technology


COURSES DEFERRED TO 2009

Politics & Law
Biological Sciences
Building & Construction
Economics
Music
Physics
German
Integrated Science
Automotive Engineering & Technology
Chemistry
History: Ancient & Modern
Literature
Religion & Life
Children, Family & the Community
Geography
Japanese
Accounting and Finance
French
Indonesian
Human Biological Science

Juries were not held for Aboriginal Languages of WA and Aboriginal and Intercultural Studies because an insufficient number of schools indicated that they would offer the course. Schools that decide they would like to offer one or both of these courses in 2008 are encouraged to contact Aileen Hawkes on 9273 6306.

Tertiary Entrance Examination (TEE) and Wholly School Assessed (WSA) subjects in all of the areas of study covered by the deferred new courses will continue until the new courses are introduced.

All of the changes recommended by the juries for those courses proceeding in 2008 will be completed in time for the teacher professional development day on 1 June 2007. Further details about professional development and timelines for those courses deferred to 2009 will be provided to schools after Council has considered the final jury reports on 23 May.

I believe the decision to announce jury verdicts now will provide greater certainty to schools as they plan for 2008. It will also allow Council to provide extra support for those courses that will proceed.

I hope the decision will help restore teacher and community confidence in the senior school reform by showing that Council is keen to listen and respond to teachers’ concerns and advice.

In June, juries will consider the two new mathematics courses to determine whether they are ready for implementation in 2009. Juries will also be convened in August to consider the eight courses already running and to seek feedback from teachers on what additional support, if any, is needed.

Yours sincerely

DAVID WOOD
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

3 May 2007

For a printer-friendly version, see The Official Word page.

 

Monday 30 April

• The Australian
  
  
  • Schools still fail on reading [Lead National Story]
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    Experts hammer the government for continuing full speed ahead with "whole word instruction", against the scientific evidence, and describes the Curriculum Corporation as "a body that clearly did not have the expertise..."
    
    "Schools are failing to provide students with the basic reading skills required to progress through their education as recommendations from a national inquiry into the teaching of reading are largely ignored.
    
    "A submission to the Senate inquiry into the academic standards of school education from three of Australia's leading literacy experts says most schools still fail to teach reading effectively, and accuses state and federal governments of being unwilling or unable to adopt evidence-based practice.

    "The submission by Kevin Wheldall, Max Coltheart and Molly de Lemos, and obtained by The Australian, says there has been no serious attempt to implement recommendations made almost 18 months ago.

    "(There is) in fact disturbing evidence that some of the initiatives that have been undertaken subsequent to this report are directly contrary to (its) recommendations," it says. "What has been done has been paying little more than lip service to the report's recommendations. Methods of teaching students in most Australian schools are not based on the scientific evidence relating to how children learn to read and the strategies that are most effective for teaching reading in the early years of school."

    "Professor Wheldall is professor of education and head of the Macquarie University Special Education Centre; Professor Coltheart is professor of psychology and director of the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science; and Dr de Lemos is an honorary fellow at the Australian Centre for Educational Research.

    "The three were among 26 signatories to an open letter in 2004 to then education minister Brendan Nelson, which was instrumental in establishing the national inquiry into the teaching of literacy.

    "The inquiry's Teaching Reading report, released in December 2005, recommended the dropping of the "whole language" approach to teaching reading, which is the most widely used approach in Australian schools.

    "The report recommended explicit instruction in synthetic phonics, under which children are taught letter-sound relationships and how to put them together to form words, and that teacher education courses include instruction in how to teach reading.

    "The Senate submission by professors Wheldall and Coltheart and Dr de Lemos singled out tutorial materials produced for the federal Government's $21million reading assistance program as evidence of the lack of change in teaching methods.

    "The Reading Assistance Kit was produced by the federal, state and territory government-owned Curriculum Corporation, which also administers the program that provides $700 worth of one-on-one tuition to children who failed to meet Year 3 literacy benchmarks last year.

    "We regard the decision to give the tender to the Curriculum Corporation, a body that clearly did not have the expertise ... as evidence of either the unwillingness or the complete inability of federal and state governments to allow education policy to be determined by the best available scientific evidence on how best to teach children to read," the submission says.

    "A review of the kit to be published in the Learning Difficulties Australia Bulletin says the kit fails to follow the principles of systematic instruction in reading." [emphasis added]
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Private schools hit list dumped
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Labor has dumped support for a private schools hit list and abandoned claims the Howard Government's funding arrangements are "unfair and divisive" in a new education platform.
    
    "Education spokesman Stephen Smith yesterday won support for a needs-based funding model that boosts accountability measures private schools must meet to attract taxpayer-funding.

    "But Labor remains under pressure from unions to increase spending on public schools and from private schools, which fear the ALP's pledge not to take "a single dollar" from any school will simply translate as an effective funding freeze for hundreds of wealthy schools.

    "This will enable Labor to go to the next election having put to one side, to the past, the so-called hit list," Mr Smith said.

    "Delegates did not debate the motion, instead agreeing without discussion to adopt the changes.

    "Mr Smith also promised more scholarships to encourage disadvantaged students to attend university and greater income support.

    "Too many of our young students are now being forced to work, to do too many part-time jobs," he said.

    "Mr Smith sought support for dumping a reference from the platform that "Labor rejects the Howard Government's unfair and divisive funding arrangements for schools, which have delivered the largest increases in commonwealth funding to some of the best resourced schools in Australia".

    "The new policy platform retains a commitment that funding will be "aligned to provide a coherent national approach to funding conditions, mechanisms and accountabilities".

    "It also pledges that public funding should be subject to non-government schools meeting quality standards for curriculum and teaching, planning arrangements that promote the economic use of public resources and accountability and reporting conditions that are consistent with those required by government for schools in the public sector.

    "Delegates also debated a push by former ALP president Warren Mundine to ensure specific policies to improve the "acute under-representation of indigenous students".

    "Earlier, Mr Smith said the Labor Party was committed to a greater investment in education at all levels.

    "Our intention is to improve the quantity and quality of investment in education at every level from early childhood through to universities," he said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Kevin Rudd is hammered in a series of Op Ed pieces, including Glenn Milne's PM buoyed as ALP caves in to unions, Paul Kelly's A bizarre blast from the past, Letters with titles like ‘Forward to the 1950s’, and the main Editorial Labor looks for its future in the past, perhaps best summed up by:

  
  
  © The Australian
  
  
  

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Values push for public schools
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Public schools would play a greater role in teaching values, and the richest private schools would continue to receive federal funding under Labor policies endorsed yesterday.

    "Labor made it clear that Coalition governments could no longer monopolise the discussion on values in education, and the support for private schools.

    "A NSW delegate, Deborah O'Neill, a Catholic, was yesterday successful in moving an amendment to Labor's statement on public schooling.

    "The amendment put the future direction of public schooling, which would continue to be free and secular, within a stronger ethical framework. "Secular does not mean without an ethical dimension," Ms O'Neill said.

    "We identify that schooling is deeply values-laden and we probably need to make that more explicit and understood by the people that deliver education and … receive that education.

    "Education has a responsibility to build socially capable citizens who understand the basic principles of democracy. It gives us a language and experiences of being part of a community in an ethical way."

    "The challenge would be to develop a language that included all religions, those without religious beliefs, and indigenous people.

    "Ms O'Neill said that as a Catholic she could contribute to one aspect of the values discussion. She is completing a PhD on values in pluralist Australia.

    "We need to find a language for all Australians to talk about values. Ethical literacy is important for all young Australians. Everybody has values. Our society depends on all of us debating what sort of country we have."

    "A NSW upper house MP, Greg Donnelly, who seconded the motion, said parents were looking increasingly to schools to help instil values in children.

    "The issue of values is one that I think is exercising the minds of parents," he said. "While they are the primary educators of their children and seek to instil those values, I think parents see schools as being very important partners … with them to transfer values."

    "The ALP national conference also officially revoked the so-called hit list of rich schools, which had been proposed by the former leader Mark Latham, and also endorsed a policy to not withdraw funding from any private school."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Top Teachers Issue Call for Revamped Pay Plans
    by Jay Mathews
    
    "Tired of reports by business executives and Cabinet officers on how to fix U.S. schools, 18 award-winning teachers produced their own recommendations this month, starting with a major overhaul of how teachers are paid.

    "The report, sponsored by the Hillsborough, N.C.-based Center for Teaching Quality, said teachers should be able to advance through three tiers -- novice, professional and expert -- and schools should stop paying teachers more just because they have more years on the job.

    "If you don't have a career ladder that encourages teachers to advance in their profession -- and be paid accordingly as they advance -- tinkering around the edges by providing $2,000 bonuses for a handful of teachers will not secure the stable, high-quality professional workforce we need," the teachers said.

    "In particular, the group said, pay plans should "reward leadership, not seniority." It said that "qualified teachers who take on additional responsibilities -- mentoring novices and peers and preparing new teachers, creating family- and community-outreach programs, serving on advisory councils and the like -- should be paid for their time outside the classroom." And the jobs should go not to the oldest teachers but to the ones with the best classroom results, the group said.

    "Taking North Carolina as an example, the group suggested an annual pay scale that started at $30,000 for a novice and climbed to $70,000 for an expert. But an expert with extra school improvement responsibilities could make as much as $130,000..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    

  • Keeping Kids in the Classroom
    by Nelson Hernandez, Michael Alison Chandler and Theola Labbé
    
    Area School Systems Tackling the Issue With a Focus on Prevention and Stronger Enforcement
    
    "The problem of truancy has drawn widespread attention this year, prompting some area lawmakers to call for tough measures to keep track of the most habitual offenders and leading school officials to crack down on those who constantly skip class.

    "In its recently concluded session, the Maryland General Assembly passed a measure that would make it possible to deny driver's licenses to students who have too many unexcused absences. Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) is expected to sign it.

    "During the same session, some lawmakers in Prince George's proposed strapping ankle bracelets on students to electronically monitor the whereabouts of those who constantly skip school. That bill did not advance. But the county's police announced April 11 that they had caught 425 truants in a crackdown that began in February.

    "At Rockville High School, officials led a crackdown of their own when they suspended 26 students after they were caught skipping class to attend a party at the house of two students whose parents were not home..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link

Tuesday 1 May

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Against the grain: parents push for teachers' merit pay
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "The national parents and citizens organisation has broken with tradition and its state counterparts, and will recommend a system of merit pay for teachers.

    "The Australian Council of State School Organisations, the umbrella group for state and territory P&C federations, will today unveil its plan for improving public school education.

    "The plan urges parent organisations to exercise more muscle as the "new players in the game" in helping shape the future of public schools.

    "The Blueprint for Tomorrow's Schools also recommends the establishment of a formal partnership between school communities and the Federal Government.

    "The executive director of the council, Terry Aulich, said parents and citizens groups raised up to $80 million a year in some states for public schools and had earned a stake in policymaking.

    "Mr Aulich said parents wanted principals to play a stronger role in marketing their schools "to make public education more attractive in the marketplace".

    "The council's national blueprint supports the idea that bonuses for teachers should be awarded to those who improve their skills and those who mentor and provide professional development to their colleagues.

    "ACSSO prefers teachers to be rewarded as a team and the criteria for those rewards should be very broad and include training of other teachers, working to bring the community into schools, curriculum design, extracurricular activities and improving their own skills through training," Mr Aulich said. "It should also include teaching in disadvantaged schools and isolated areas. To base it only on student results would be totally unfair."

    "On Sunday the Federation of P&C Associations of NSW rejected the model of performance pay proposed by the federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop. Ms Bishop said yesterday she welcomed the council's support for performance-based pay.

    "The paper also calls for a debate on training methods and professional development for teachers. Mr Aulich said many older teachers were leaving the profession because of a lack of new challenges." [emphasis added]
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    See below for the story in The Australian: same ACSSO Blueprint, totally different slant
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Homework is robbing young people of life's real lessons
    by Daniel Donahoo
    
    "Our secondary schools are piling on the homework, ostensibly in preparation for the discipline of university and the rigours of work. Yet as adults, we try to structure our workdays to avoid bringing work home, and quite a few university students balance periods in the semester fairly equally between cramming and time at the pub.

    "Regardless, junior secondary school students now must do homework to prepare them for later secondary years, and primary school students must do a certain amount of homework each night to prepare them for secondary school. It won't be long before preschoolers front up to their parents, saying, "Can you help me? I was supposed to make a necklace out of coloured pasta for homework. It has to be done for tomorrow."

    "The case for homework is so strongly presented that children can escape any other activity because of the pressing need to finish these assignments. Visits to extended family on the weekend, cleaning their room, playing with siblings, even eating with the family at the dinner table is not as important as the looming presence of homework. Because of the crucial nature of my final year of high school, 10 years ago, my parents had to leave me at home for a week of my second-term break, while they went on a family holiday. How can we support the development of compassionate and capable adults if we need to exclude children from the breadth of human experiences for the sake of homework?

    "And yet, despite the prevalence of homework, some children do not do it. In an internet survey of 1178 primary school children, the adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg found that 22 per cent said their parents did the homework for them.

    "More interesting, setting homework isn't even the choice of educators, but of parents. Carr-Gregg says it is not the educationalists who are against the idea of reducing homework. "You've got a clear group of parents who, I think, view homework as a babysitter."

    "Much homework is the antithesis of holistic learning because it brings the constraints and limitations of the education system into children's homes. Instead of asking parents to teach their children something they themselves know and are inspired by, we ask parents to fumble over calculus questions they haven't done for the past 20 years, or were never taught. If we respect children and support a holistic learning experience, we must realise they need time to "learn" to be part of a family and a community. They must learn their responsibilities in helping to maintain a household and participate in community life.

    "Homework in turn limits parents' growth by putting a restriction on their role in guiding their children's development. Homework impacts on the amount of time children and adults spend together. It means we lose the skills of developing and maintaining our relationships. This is never more crucial than during the teenage years as children are moving through developmental stages and into adulthood.

    "Yet this is the time that the amount of homework increases the most. We can't lament the lack of time fathers spend with their children if we are sending dads and children home with extra work to do. While we all believe our family relationships are an important part of our lives, the education system works to ensure young people spend more time at their desk or in front of the computer than learning to interact with their family and community.

    "Real "homework" should involve the work of the household. It should be participating in discussion at the family dinner table. It involves helping to prepare a meal or visiting a neighbour who needs a hand. School-directed homework, especially in later secondary years, is the perfect excuse for young people to not learn other vital lessons of life. Holed up in their bedrooms, young people are cut off from family interaction.

    "Many will regard housework and participating in family life as something children should be doing anyway. However, they fail to consider when, if ever, children get time to do it. Older children and young adults without basic life skills such as washing clothes, managing a household budget or cooking dinner are a result of children who never learnt how to do it simply because it wasn't expected of them.

    "Participating in family and community life shouldn't be regarded as homework: it isn't. It's far more important. And it's up to adults to make sure children have a choice about what they learn, and how.

    Daniel Donahoo is a fellow at OzProspect. This is an edited extract of his book Idolising Children.
    

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link [Same story also in The Brisbane Times]
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Public schools told: lift profile
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Government school principals must take responsibility for the profile of public education and challenge the private sector in wooing students.
    
    "The Australian Council of State School Organisations, the national umbrella group representing parents and the community, called yesterday for principals to receive training in marketing and communications to combat the recruitment of students by private schools.

    "Releasing a blueprint for school reforms, the council says it is identifying "the beginning of a sizeable backlash by parents supporting public schools".

    "Those parents supporting public schools are beginning to demand that authorities and school principals accept the responsibility to make public education more attractive in the marketplace," it says.

    "The Blueprint for Tomorrow's Schools, released yesterday, is the first of six proposals that ACSSO is to release in the months leading up to the federal election.

    "As an organisation representing education consumers, the council has been developing its credentials as a research body and think tank to ensure community opinions are part of the debate.

    "The blueprint calls for the establishment of a Family School and Community Partnership Bureau to train parents in school governance and management. This recognises a growing trend for schools to have governing councils, which include parents.

    "ACSSO recommends measures to improve teacher training, including lightening face-to-face teaching loads for experienced teachers willing to take on mentoring roles.

    "The blueprint says there is a need to keep experienced teachers engaged and recognise their skills to retain their services, which could be done by offering them other responsibilities such as mentoring, designing and implementing curriculums, or undertaking further training.

    "ACSSO executive officer Terry Aulich said education was now a marketplace as a result of Howard Government policies and government schools had to stake their claim for students.

    "Private schools put significant resources into marketing themselves, he pointed out, but government schools often failed to take basic steps such as creating well-designed and informative websites."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Whistleblower's lawyer backs rights charter (page 10)
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "The lawyer who defended a teacher who blew the lid on child sex abuse at a remote Aboriginal community says a national human rights charter would help protect whistleblowers.

    "John Hammond said whistleblowers in WA were not given enough protection under existing legislation.

    "Former Kimberley teacher Peter Gadeke was threatened with disciplinary action by the Education Department for emailing The West Australian about the rape of a young boy by another boy.

    "Mr Hammond says a human rights charter was worth exploring.

    "Former chief justice David Malcolm, who is now professor of law at Notre Dame University, agreed with Mr Hammond, saying that the existing legislation put potential whistleblowers in the difficult position of having to disclose to their superiors.

    "This meant they were often fearful of repercussions, including having black marks put against them..."

    "But Curtin University constitutional expert Professor Greg Craven, who has concerns about a human rights charter or Bill of Rights, said neither would be as effective as comprehensive whistleblower legislation..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Parents say 'yes' to merit pay for teachers (page 7)
    
    See similar stories in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian
    
    
    
    
  • New computers give remote students a reason to learn (page 32)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Computer technology has helped Aboriginal students at one of Australia's most isolated schools boost their reading and writing skills.
    
    "Attendance has also improved at Oombulgurri Remote Community School, 2000 km north of Perth and only accessible by air or boat, as students flock to class so they can use the new computers..."

    "To give the students a taste of city schooling, [newly qualified teacher Phil Lockhart] set up a virtual cultural exchange with his former training mentor, Hugh Scott, an information technology teacher at Como Secondary College, in which the Aboriginal students started using emails and instant-messaging for the first time.

    "But the program had unexpected results. Mr Lockhart said his students' literacy skills improved overnight because they had a real reason to practise their writing - their peers were reading it as well as their teacher.

    "They were increasing their literacy skill as a by-product of having to communicate with their friends - they suddenly saw a use for it," he said..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

• The New York Times
  
  
  • Views of Parents, Students and Teachers Sought
    by Julie Bosman
    
    "The Department of Education has begun a citywide survey of more than 1.8 million parents, students and teachers concerning their attitudes about the public schools, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced yesterday.

    "The $2 million effort is part of the Children First initiative, in which each school will receive a report card with a standard school grade, A through F. Data from the surveys will account for 10 percent of each school’s grade.

    "The Learning Environment Surveys are being mailed with postage-paid return envelopes to parents of middle school and high school students and are being sent home with elementary school children for their parents to fill out.

    "Students in the 6th through 12th grades and teachers at all grade levels will get their surveys at school. The parents, teachers and students invited to participate may also fill out the forms online at schools.nyc.gov/surveys [requires password to access]. The deadline is May 18.

    "The survey is intended to produce “hard facts about which schools are succeeding and which schools are falling behind,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference at Public School 76 in the Bronx..

    "For assessments of the results, the tentative plan is to give slightly more weight to the parents’ responses, officials said.

    "The parents’ survey consists of 14 multiple-choice questions, most of them about how much the respondents agree or disagree with statements about school quality, activities, course work and teacher support. Examples vary from “I feel welcome in my child’s school” to “Students use alcohol or illegal drugs during school.” The survey also presents parents with a list of 10 potential improvements, including more teacher training and smaller classes, and asks them to choose the ones they consider most important.

    "Students are quizzed on similar topics, with agree-or-disagree statements like “My teachers inspire me to learn” and “Most students in my school like to put others down.” ...
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link
    
    
    

• USA Today and CNN
  
  
  • Wisconsin 'covenant' opens access to college
    Associated Press
    
    "MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin is rolling out the nation's most expansive guarantee of higher education to students in hopes of raising aspirations and improving preparedness.

    "The state's 75,000 eighth-graders can sign the Wisconsin Covenant starting May 10. They promise to earn a B average, take courses to prepare for college and be good citizens.

    "In exchange, the state will guarantee a spot in one of its universities or technical colleges and a combination of work study, loans and scholarships to help low-income students pay their way..."
    
    Full story in USA Today at link
    
    
    

• The Times
  
  
  • Targets creating ‘results factories’
    
    Targets and league tables have reduced schools to little more than factories for producing good exam results, a government adviser will say today. The effect of Labour delivering its education promises through test results, says Alan Smithers, is that pupils are disaffected, employers complain about a lack of “soft skills” and heads refuse to take up posts for fear they will be sacked.
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Education campaign costs $1.5m to sell
    by Milanda Rout
    
    "Almost $1.5 million of taxpayers' money was spent selling the controversial new grading scale to parents and teachers.
    
    "Principals, parents and teachers have criticised the new A to E definitions, saying most students get a C and it is almost impossible to get an A.

    "The State Government has scaled down the A grade and spared prep students from the new system after bowing to public pressure.

    "Figures obtained by the Herald Sun through freedom of information laws show $1,473,814 was spent on a "communication campaign" for the new reports by the Education Department. A further $1.57 million was spent on software and $430,454 on other expenses.

    "Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Mary Bluett said spending $1.5 million to promote the new reports was ridiculous.

    "It is money wasted because it has not done the job of communicating to parents and helping them understand the new reports," she said.

    "It was more designed to promote the Government rather than inform parents on the new reporting system."

    "Ms Bluett said it was always going to be difficult to change perceptions on grade definitions.

    "People have very long-standing and well-held views of what A to E meant," she said.

    "This (campaign) gets an F in terms of communication strategy." ...
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
    
    
    

• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • Editorial
    An optimistic outlook
    
    "Concerns over literacy and numeracy levels, teacher shortages and low entry scores for the teaching profession are legitimate, but after a long and some times bitter education debate, the Newspoll survey for the Dusseldorp Skills Forum makes positive reading.
    
    "The fact that the overwhelming majority of young people leave school, TAFE and university are happy, confident and optimistic about their future careers shows good work is being done in classrooms. So does the fact that it is those who leave school early who are the least satisfied with life. Bravo for good teachers."
    
    From The Brisbane Courier Mail at link
    
    
    
    
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Superschools 'to stop' state student rot
    
    Superschools will help "stem the flow" of students into private education, according to controversial educational consultant Professor Brian Caldwell.
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • The big stretch [30 April late update]
    
    With private school fees soaring towards $20,000 a year, how much more sacrifice can struggling parents bear?
    
    
    
    
  • Arresting duo to hit the classroom
    
    It's one of the more unusual pairings to hit the motivational speaking circuit: the ex-con and the cop-turned-lawyer. Nick "the Golden Greek" (inset), whose house was burnt down by arch-enemy Chopper, and barrister Michael Kuzilny are embarking on a national roadshow for secondary students with the theme "Crime does not pay — love and honesty is the only way!" Apostolidis found this after spending 10 years in jail for offences spanning drug trafficking, armed robbery and rape, telling Diary he was a changed man since his wife died in a car accident and he was left to raise his two children. "Some leopards do lose their spots. These days I don't walk through a 'don't walk' sign," he said, adding about the school tour: "If I can put one kid on the right track in life, I've succeeded."
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Birth boom boosts schools
    
    The plummeting birth rate has stabilised in inner Sydney suburbs, helping to produce a major revival in public school enrolments.

 

Wednesday 2 May

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teacher no vote raises risk of more OBE delays (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "A series of new outcomes-based education courses which the State Government hopes to introduce into Year 11 from next year have been rejected by teachers, raising the prospect of further delays to the unpopular system.
    
    "A collection of "teacher juries" set up to assess whether 40 new OBE courses are ready to be imposed on students have returned numerous negative verdicts, The West Australian has learnt.
    
    "It is understood the courses deemed not ready include some of the most important, such as English literature, raising more questions about why Education Minister Mark McGowan is still insisting schools and parents will have to live with the controversial program.
    
    "Claims also emerged yesterday that teachers taking part in the juries had been intimidated and bullied.
    
    "The Curriculum Council, which has the final say on whether any or all of the new OBE courses are taught to Year 11s next year, referred all inquiries to the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

    "Christina Gillgren, a consultant from the department who is co-ordinating the juries, refused to say how many juries had returned a no vote since the process began last week, saying details would be released only after the last six juries sat tonight. [emphasis added] But she was disturbed by claims that some jury members had been harassed or received abusive phone calls from other teachers.

    "There have been concerns raised with me, both verbally and in writing, and I am incredibly disappointed by a very minor few and their lack of professionalism," she said.

    "She would not say if the bullies were opposing or backing the new courses. "Whether it's one way or the other it's harassment and bullying and that's not right," she said.

    "We entrust the teachers to manage bullying in the school yard so I expect the profession to actually regulate itself."

    "Dr Gillgren said the juries were given three options; to agree their course was ready to start next year, that it was not ready and why, or that it would be ready if certain concerns were dealt with.

    "What we've said is don't just give us a yes-no answer, we need a bit more information that allows us to identify the next steps," she said. "Both the Minister and the Curriculum Council have stated that they will be guided by that recommendation."

    "In February, burnt-out English teachers called for OBE literature to be delayed because they said they were still struggling with the botched implementation of OBE English, which was introduced to Year 12 this year, and they could not cope with another new course.

    "They claimed the new literature course pushed cultural studies and creative writing at the expense of literary texts such as novels, plays and poems."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Schools are too left wing, says Stoner
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Teaching materials in primary schools have become too politically correct in depicting single sex couples and a black armband view of Australian history, according to the NSW Opposition.

    "The Opposition's new spokesman on education, Andrew Stoner, accused the Labor Government of using schools as "a vehicle for left-wing indoctrination", saying it needed to "rein in the PC culture" within the Department of Education and NSW Board of Studies.

    "Under Labor, up to half the curriculum in some subjects focuses on a purely indigenous perspective, including emotive terms such as 'British invasion', as well as 'Survival Day' instead of 'Australia Day'," Mr Stoner, the National Party leader, said.

    "No one doubts the integral role indigenous people play in Australian history, but any teaching of our past must be balanced.

    "Labor's political correctness in education also extends to gay causes, including the funding of reading material for children as young as five, regarding gay and lesbian parents.

    "[The Premier] Morris Iemma should keep his promise and teach kids respect and responsibility, leaving controversial issues like same sex marriage and adoption to parents."

    "He said books about same-sex parents, used in some primary schools include My House, Going to Fair Day, Koalas on Parade and The Rainbow Cubby House, produced by the Learn to Include project, were funded by the Crime Division of the NSW Attorney General's Department.

    "The books tell the story of a young girl with two lesbian mothers and include a visit to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

    "A spokesman for the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, confirmed the department had funded the project in 2004 when the books were produced as a teaching resource to help combat bullying in schools.

    "The Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, said Mr Stoner had been highly selective in his use of examples from the curriculum. His strong views about Aboriginal history and sexuality "should be a case study on why you don't let a National Party politician desperate for votes write the primary school syllabus".

    "This syllabus was designed in consultation with parents, teachers and many professional and community experts and has been successfully taught for nearly a decade. Historical events can be seen differently depending on your view and the syllabus requires teachers to always present a range of perspectives."

    "The president of the NSW Primary Principals Association, Geoff Scott, said principals and teachers had the final veto on which books were used in schools.

    "Books that simply reflected the gay lifestyle, as opposed to espousing it, would generally be considered acceptable for children.

    "However, each school would exercise discretion in consultation with parents to decide whether a book was appropriate.

    "There would be a number of occasions when award winning books that are well written but have inappropriate content are not put on the shelves in schools," Mr Scott said.

    "The principal and teachers would be up to speed with what community expected. The books in primary school libraries are not espousing a particular point of view or pushing values on to children. If a story written about people in same sex relationships, that's real life and provided it is at an appropriate standard, then it can be available for children."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    

    • News Blog: Read / contribute feedback on this article
      
      
      
      
  • Boys turn over new leaf to find art of reading
    
    After 28 years the MS Readathon has covered a generation. Parents who once took part are now sponsoring their children.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Now our children are being force-fed warming hysteria
    
    Are sensible, balanced lessons on climate change too much to ask for in our schools? asks Janet Albrechtsen
    
    "Just when you thought some common sense was back in schools with the return of core subjects history and geography, it turns out there may be new nonsense on the agenda. Apparently the NSW Board of Studies is looking to introduce climate change classes for kindergarten to Year 6 children as part of its science and technology syllabus. At first glance, it sounds sensible. Climate change could be a critical issue for our children, as well as for us. The problem, of course, is what they will be taught..."
    
    "... it's time to ask serious questions about what our children will be taught about this issue. It will, no doubt, start at the silly, harmless end. Keeping it simple for kindy kids, will they be treated to entreaties by pop star cum global warming guru Sheryl Crow? Crow is calling on people to use only one sheet of toilet paper per visit, rising to two or three for "those pesky occasions" as she writes on her blog.

    "Then it will get more serious. Perhaps older students will read an extract from the Nicholas Stern report on global warming and be introduced to the growing fad of food-miles. They might be told that kiwi fruit is a climate change culprit because flying 1kg of kiwi fruit from New Zealand to Europe translates into 5kg of carbon being discharged into the atmosphere. Given the dumbed-down nature of other parts of the school curriculum, perhaps climate change lessons will involve excursions to the local supermarket where children, armed with a food miles calculator, will add up the environmental impact of food travelling long distances to our shops.

    "Don't laugh. British organisation Carboninfo.org has developed a software package to do just that because "it is essential that people are able to make informed choices about buying food and the effect on the environment of moving food around the planet". Echoing that call, Tesco supermarkets in Britain are making the exercise easier with its plan to introduce a carbon count on their products - little stickers that will allow you to spot the products that, as the Environmental News Network suggests, "only a carbon criminal would dare take ... to the checkout". Tesco is also planning to halve the amount of air-freighted fresh produce - a good green initiative that our own supermarkets ought to follow, the students might be told..."
    
    "Which brings us back to the core problem. Making students aware of climate change is necessary. Infusing hysteria is downright dangerous. If we do not encourage students to debate, dare one say, to be sceptical about global warming, we risk creating a generation that will demand policy responses that end up causing more harm than good. Even worse, they will be denied the essence of a good education - recognising uncertainty, challenging assumptions and asking questions in the quest for knowledge."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • The Higher Education Supplement has 18 articles, including:
    
    
    • Op Ed
      Talented have-nots
      by Aban Contractor
      
      "Latchkey kids became part of the everyday vocabulary in the 1960s as growing numbers of schoolchildren found themselves coming home to empty houses because their mothers were out working.
      
      "That kind of financial pressure has risen with the increasing cost of living in Britain. And while it is true that many families have a better standard of living than before, the number of those struggling to survive financially has jumped.

      "The effect is being felt in schools across the country, especially in the major cities where entire suburbs are seen as no-go areas and recruiting and retaining talented teachers is an uphill battle.

      "Finding a way to keep those children at school, let alone encouraging them to aspire to a university place, is exercising some of the best minds in the country..."
      
      Full story in The Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      
      

    • Op Ed
      Feeling the squeeze to compete
      
      No matter who is in government, much change looms as Australian universities move with the times, writes Steven Schwartz
      
      "The Labor party has staked out higher education as a battlefront in the forthcoming federal election, and the Government has responded vigorously. For those of us who work in universities, it is gratifying to be noticed. Yet the election outcome will have surprisingly little effect on our future. This is not because the political parties have identical policies, but because our fate will be determined by forces that are beyond the control of any government.
      
      "Today's universities operate in an international environment in which the rules are not established by Canberra but by intense cross-national competition. We compete for staff, students, grants, contracts and donations with universities from across the world. Our future depends not on politicians but on whether we stack up against the best in the world.

      "How will we fare? Predicting the future is always a dangerous business, and I have no crystal ball, but what follows are my predictions about where trends are likely to take us..."
      
      Steven Schwartz is the vice-chancellor of Macquarie University (and former V-C of Murdoch).

      Full stopry in The Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      
      

    • VCs call for budget bucks
      
      Next week's election year federal budget is the best chance in years for universities to win their claim of more than $1 billion in extra funding, according to the head of the universities' peak lobby group.
      
      
      
    • Green subjects shunned
      
      The global furore over climate change and water shortages is failing to resonate on campus, with environmental science enrolments dwindling.
      
      
      
    • Students poll as generally satisfied
      
      More than 85 per cent of students are highly satisfied with their overall university study and with the quality of their lecturers, tutors and course content.
      
      
      
      
      
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Reinforcing an elite attitude [1 May late update (not there on 1 May at 2:30 am)]
    by Farrah Tomazin, Education Editor
    
    "Glyn Davis was not kidding when he said Melbourne University's shift to a two-tier, United States-style model of teaching could either make or break his career. The vice-chancellor's decision to overhaul the university's curriculum is audacious, designed to place the 154-year-old institution on a par with some of the great universities of the world.

    "The problem with the so-called Melbourne Model, however, is not so much its educational merit - it's a question of access and equity.

    "First, the basic details. Over the next four years, 96 existing undergraduate courses at Melbourne will be scrapped in favour of six broad-brush bachelor's degrees: arts, science, commerce, environments, music and biomedicine. Highly sought-after professional courses - including law, medicine, and engineering - will be available only as second-tier degrees, such as a master's or doctorate.

    "If all goes according to plan, students who graduate from Melbourne will have the benefit of globally recognised qualifications aligned with top public institutions. If the plan fails, not only will Davis' neck be on the line, but it may damage Australia's reputation on the international higher education stage.

    "The good news for Davis is that most education pundits agree with the premise behind his reforms: that students at the age of 16, 17 and 18 are too young to decide what they want to do with their lives, let alone choose their university course accordingly.

    "Offering them the chance to spend a few years doing a broad degree first - and follow it up with a professional course - gives them more time to think about their careers.

    "But despite the pedagogic benefits, Melbourne's introduction of a two-tiered university system will inevitably make what is already an elite institution all the more elite.

    "Undergraduate entry will be a tighter squeeze as the university makes slight cuts to student numbers over the next 10 years. Some ENTER scores (most of which already hover in the high 80s and 90s) are expected to be "fractionally higher".

    "And getting a qualification, in many cases, will ultimately take longer and be more expensive for students already struggling with tertiary fees and living expenses. Over time, the proportion of full-fee paying students will shift from about a quarter to a third, and in some in postgraduate courses, such as law (which costs about $78,000), up to half the students will pay full fees..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • Dudded, say Melbourne Uni students
    
    Creative arts students will lodge a formal complaint against Melbourne University, claiming they are being short-changed and not getting the degree they were promised as it shifts to a US-style model.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Uni courses
      
      "Farrah Tomazin (Opinion, 1/5) seems to confuse the issues of course restructuring at Melbourne University with the funding for those courses. The move to generalist undergraduate degrees, followed by a professional postgraduate course, is far superior to the current situation of forcing 17-year-olds to make career decisions too early. How these courses are funded, whether by HECS or fee-paying, is a legitimate but separate issue.
      
      Sam Graves, South Melbourne
      
      
      
      
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Deciding When Student Writing Crosses the Line
    
    In the wake of the Virginia Tech killings, creative writing teachers across the country have been wondering what they would have done if the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, had been writing troubling stories in their classrooms. Perhaps no other teaching position offers as intimate a perch into the hearts and minds of students — and poses as many difficulties. These teachers ask students to write stories that reflect the wider culture or their own interior life, and the picture is not always pretty.
    
    
    

Thursday 3 May

• The Sydney Morning Herald [story also in The West Australian on 4 May]
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Literacy falls on Bishop's margins
    by Miranda Devine
    
    "If you could have seen the joyous faces and earnest dedication of Aboriginal children at Coen school on Cape York as they were taught to read using direct, systematic phonics instruction you could never fathom what cruelty would deny them such basic human knowledge.

    "It is not perhaps a deliberate cruelty but a wilful refusal by a handful of education ideologues to admit that the "whole language" or constructivist approach to reading they have pushed for decades, by force and later by subterfuge, has failed, and that its failure has been proved without a doubt by scientific research. Were they to admit the failure they would also have to admit their part in condemning a generation of the most disadvantaged children to illiteracy.

    "The 10-year-olds I saw on Cape York, where literacy levels are up to four years behind the Australian average, were learning to read in a pilot program devised by a Macquarie University education professor, Kevin Wheldall, and brought to the cape by the Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson. The MULTILIT program shows children how to link sounds with letters in order to "break the code" of reading, so that the word "cat" can be broken up into the sounds "kuh", "a" and "tuh". It does this in a logical way, including comprehension, spelling and regular testing of student progress.

    "The results of the program were extraordinary. After 20 weeks the Coen children gained 21 months in reading accuracy and 11 months in comprehension. They were reading abridged versions of Jane Eyre and Little Women.

    "They were the embodiment of all that the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (of which I was a committee member) had learnt and recommended in 2005.

    "The inquiry was ordered by the former education minister Brendan Nelson amid increasing concerns by Australia's leading reading researchers that so many young Australian students were struggling to learn to read. As many as 30 per cent of Australian children are leaving school functionally illiterate and less than 10 per cent of course time in university teacher education departments is spent training teachers how to teach reading.

    "While scientific understanding of how the brain learns to read had progressed enormously over 20 years, none of it was filtering through to Australian schools.

    "The Nelson report's major recommendation was that systematic, direct and explicit phonics instruction must be the basis for teaching children to read. It echoed recommendations by similar inquiries in Britain and the US.

    "But like so many government inquiries, it has turned out to be an expensive waste of time. Under the new risk-averse federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, the Nelson report has been ignored, and whole-language ideologues appeased.

    "The worst squandered opportunity so far is Bishop's disastrous handling of a $21 million reading assistance program, which is to offer $700 per head of personal tuition to struggling readers in year 3, in an attempt to arrest the literacy crisis. Bishop awarded the tender to produce the tutorial materials for the program to the Curriculum Corporation, an organisation owned by the state and federal governments.

    "But the tutorial materials the organisation produced do not include any direct systematic phonics instruction and have been criticised by critics as just another "rehash" of discredited whole-language approaches which expect students to magically learn to read just by being exposed to books. [emphasis added]

    "The phonics components of the tutorial material are a cursory nod to the recommendations of the Nelson report.

    "The chairman of the Nelson inquiry, Ken Rowe, of the Australian Council for Educational Research, has slammed the tutorial material as failing "to teach basic skills required to read, such as the relationship between sounds and letters".

    "And a review of the material about to be published in the Learning Difficulties Australia bulletin describes the program's teaching methods as a "lucky dip".

    "That the [material] is well presented, being very colourful, with attractive design and layout, is probably the most positive statement that can be made about the kit … Research has shown that exposing students who need support in learning to read to skills using a 'whole language' approach is ineffective. To design such a program based on exposure rather than systematic instruction, is far from being best practice," the review says.

    "It describes the phonics elements of the program as mere "fun practice activities for children who already have the necessary phonological skills. There is no reference to systematic instruction following a logical skill sequence." And it points out that assessment of reading skills before and after the program is inadequate so no accurate measure will ever be made of its effectiveness.

    "Further criticism came in a submission this month to the Senate inquiry into the academic standards of school education, from Wheldall, and two more of Australia's foremost literacy experts: Max Coltheart, a psychologist and the scientific director of the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, and Molly de Lemos, an honorary fellow with the council.

    "We regard the decision to give the tender to Curriculum Corporation … as evidence of either the unwillingness or the complete inability of federal and state governments to allow educational policy to be determined by the best available scientific evidence on how best to teach children to read. What has been done has been paying little more than lip service to the report's recommendations." [emphasis added]

    "Wheldall and Rowe both submitted tenders to develop the reading assistance voucher program. The decision by Bishop and her department not to accept either tender is inexplicable, logically, if not politically.

    "Bishop seems more interested in avoiding confrontation in an election year than rescuing children from a life on the margins."
    
    Miranda Devine was a referee for Kevin Wheldall's tender: devinemiranda@hotmail.com
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Teachers furious at site that rates them
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Teachers are trying to sue and shut down a website that names and shames them and gives them a mark out of five.

    "The website names individual schools and teachers, scoring their performance, and in many cases defaming them.

    "One Sydney principal, who is given a score of 1.7 out of five for "overall quality", is described as rude, condescending, pompous and arrogant.

    "Who could allow someone like her to run a school? … [she] is a terrible principal. She is a bully who does not care about the students or the school's wellbeing, but rather how they appear to the outside world."

    "The NSW Department of Education has blocked access to the site from all school computers, but is powerless to shut it down, because it is based in America.

    "The NSW Teachers Federation is looking at how it can take legal action against the company.

    "Its president, Maree O'Halloran, said a number of teachers had complained they had been defamed on the site.

    "The issue will be raised with the new director-general of education, Michael Coutts-Trotter, when Ms O'Halloran meets him next week.

    "It is clearly an absolute disgrace that people are anonymously able to make comments about teachers that are quite atrocious," she said.

    "We are aiming to have the site shut down. The problem is that it is legally based in the US. Our next step is to consider how we could use defamation action." [Sorry folks, an utter waste of effort and doomed to fail.  Web]

    "Comments about individual teachers and principals are posted anonymously and teachers are badged with either a smiley or frowning face, depending on their rating. One maths teacher at a Sydney school is described as being unable to control a class or spell.

    "He can't teach at all and going to his class is like having an unofficial free period. He can't control the class to save his life and his teaching is repetitive and boring. Yet he labours on and you have to wonder why."

    "The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said the Federal Government should block access to "scurrilous American websites".

    "It should be nipped in the bud as quickly as possible," he said.

    "I think it's a very sad world when people can be defamed using the shield of anonymity."

    "The NSW Department of Education has given legal advice about cyber bullying to all schools in response to the growing popularity of websites that also include YouTube, MySpace and LiveJournal.

    "One Sydney high school sent a memo to parents last year, asking them to monitor their children's access to the internet, after students were suspended for making threats against school staff on a website.

    "The principal of Wenona School in North Sydney, Margaret Hadley, who resigned this year, was the target of cyber bullying last year. The school's business manager, Catherine Gray, said the incident involved "unauthorised and inappropriate use of the internet".

    "A NSW Department of Education spokeswoman said the website was not available through any department or public school computer.

    "Placing derogatory comments on a website will not solve anyone's problems," the spokeswoman said.

    "It is important for parents to monitor their child's use of the internet to ensure they are using it constructively."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Homework is hard work

      "Having spent the last night of the recent school holidays blow-drying papier-mache on a compulsory holiday assignment, I thoroughly agree that homework is a really bad idea ("Homework is robbing young people of life's real lessons", May 1). So does my husband, who was gluing a shelf on the project at 2am, and my son, who had to get up early to attach the last few bits of plastic. At least we all got an "A".

      "What really sticks in my craw is that no research has shown homework to have any educational benefit. Next time homework encroaches on family time I'm sending my son to school with a pile of socks to sort in maths."

Belinda Keir, Hurlstone Park



• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Mentone Grammar sued for 'education failure'
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "A Melbourne man is suing an elite private school, claiming that it failed to educate his son properly.

    "Richard Taylor also claims that Mentone Grammar failed to protect his son properly, after a bullying incident last year proved "the last straw" for the family.

    "Mr Taylor, who will represent himself at a tribunal hearing next month, said his son, then in year 9, was bullied by some year 11 students at the bayside school. According to documents lodged with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week, Mr Taylor said the school's reaction was "insufficient", and that his son "once again felt threatened".

    "As a result, the Werribee man removed his son from the school and refused to pay the outstanding school fees of $9013.69 for the first term of 2006.

    "The school began legal proceedings to recover the fees, however, Mr Taylor made a counterclaim and both matters will now be handled in the same hearing.

    "The crux of Mr Taylor's civil claim is that the school, as a business, failed to provide the required service, under section 112A of the Fair Trading Act.

    "Mr Taylor said his son was a struggling student at primary school and that he and his wife purposely selected Mentone Grammar because the school had "a good reputation". He said the school was aware of his son's academic history and "they assured us what they could do".

    "However, in a statement lodged with VCAT, Mr Taylor said teachers failed to communicate a slide in his son's academic progress and failure to complete homework tasks. Mr Taylor said the aim of his legal action, in which he is seeking $9900, was to make the school accountable.

    "Lack of good management, poor decisions and changes made had affected the situation, he told The Age yesterday. "The communication wasn't what they promised," he said.

    "Mr Taylor's son, now 16, attended Mentone Grammar for two years until 2006. He now attends a public school. "I feel really let down," Mr Taylor said. "The opportunity for my son to really get ahead was just about lost."

    "Mentone Grammar would not comment when contacted by The Age yesterday.

    "This matter is the subject of legal proceedings, and accordingly I will not pass comment at this stage," acting headmaster Mal Cater said. The hearing is scheduled for June 4."
    
    From The Melbourne Age at link

    To provide feedback on this issue, contact scoop@theage.com.au
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Schools: too little, too late
      
      "While Brumby's budget invests in capital upgrades for many schools, the damage to public education, after years of investment and policy weakness, is severe. Despite our strong commitment to public education — and the laudable efforts of teachers in his high school to support him — we have had to transfer our child to a private school because he is socially isolated and insufficiently challenged. The relentless, pervasive and slick advertising assault by private schools has seen a middle-class flight from our local high school.

      "The lack of more selective high schools is another contributory factor pushing out clever children. It is clear that no Labor government will ever take on a policy that is leading to long-term social apartheid. The electoral risks of taking on the private school industry and its aspirational parents in many marginal seats are too great. Another interpretation is that the economic rationalists in Government and Treasury would prefer to push education into private hands along the Public Private Partnership model, despite the well-documented schools disaster that has occurred in the UK under New Labour."

      Name and address supplied
      
      
      

  • ALP pledges full-time voice for young people
    
    Young Australians will get a full-time advocate to pressure the government about their interests if Labor wins office.

Friday 4 May

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teacher juries' damning verdicts put 20 OBE courses on hold [Front Page]
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The State Government's push to introduce outcomes-based education has been dealt a blow with teachers rejecting more than half of the courses due to be phased in next year.

    "The Curriculum Council said it would defer 20 courses – including key subjects such as chemistry, history and literature – after ."teacher juries" found they were not ready. The damning verdicts mean the courses – some of which were meant to be in place this year but were already delayed amid the OBE furore – are now scheduled for 2009, provided teachers can be convinced they are acceptable.

    "Jury co-ordinator Christina Gillgren said four courses – literature, biological science, history and geography – were rejected because of serious content concerns. Others related to concerns that more preparatory work was needed. Decisions are still pending on three course but the council will push ahead with its 2008 timeline for 15 other courses that received conditional jury approval if changes were made.

    "These include subjects that students have never been able to use for university entry before such as dance, health studies and outdoor education. The latest delays come four months after Education Minister Mark McGowan tried to hose down the issue by telling teachers they no longer needed to include on reports the "levels" assigned in Years 1 to 10, instead needing to advise parents of only the final grades. This is despite the fact the grades are still linked to levels.

    "Mr McGowan was also forced to abolish the levels system of marking in Years 11 and 12 because it was deemed inadequate for ranking students for university entrance.

    "But all other aspects of OBE which caused the original furore remain up to Year 10. [emphasis added] Curriculum Council chairman Bill Louden said he was not surprised at the jury results. "We had plenty of feedback from teachers that they weren't happy with some of the courses but what we're clearer about now is what needs to be fixed, " he said. Teachers' group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes said the decision vindicated its stance that the courses were flawed."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Maths takes to mobiles (page 31)
    by Michael Hobbs
    
    "Mobile phones are now being used to teach children maths.
    
    "A trial, a collaboration between Murdoch University and the Department of Education, is running at two metropolitan primary schools using mobile phones programmed with education games to help children in Years 3, 5, 6 and 7.
    
    "Associate professor Renato Schibeci said traditional teaching methods were simply not keeping up with today's students' interests. "It was important to look at all the different ways children can learn basic maths skills, we need to use everything we can to engage children at all ages," he said.
    
    "Many adults have the perception that phones are just used for communicating but we believe that they can also help children to learn."
    
    "Students have been using the phones once a week for an hour, increasing to two hours this term.
    
    "The children have a choice of Tongue 'n' Groove, which teaches children about using money, and Plop Shop, which teaches numerical values.
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Literacy falls on Bishop's margins
    by Miranda Devine
    
    This story appeared in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald and is already on our news archive.
    
    
    

• The Geraldton Guardian
  
  
  • Special Report: Our Teacher Crisis
    Broome offers thousands in incentives... no wonder we're struggling.

    No incentive for teachers [Front Page Headline]
    by Lauren Holt

    "Teacher graduates are being offered permanent positions, thousands of dollars in incentives and rent subsidies to live and work in the resort town of Broome, while Geraldton is unable to offer them any inducements to leave their Perth city lifestyle.

    "Under Education Department criteria, Geraldton is classified as a country school but does not qualify for Country Teaching Program incentives.

    "Other towns in the Mid West eligible for the program include Meekatharra, Mount Magnet, Mullewa, Cue, Morowa and Eneabba, but Geraldton misses out.

    "A department spokesperson said teachers at Broome Senior High School, Broome Primary School, Cable Beach Primary School and the Roebuck Bay Primary School were eligible for incentives under the Country Teaching program.

    "They are being offered $931 extra for the first years continuous service, $1656 extra for the second year, $2070 for the third year and $1397 for four years of service.

    "Teachers in Broome are also offered subsidies for rent and air-conditioning and they can opt for salary packaging arrangements for their rent.

    "Teachers in Country Teaching Program schools also become permanent employees on appointment.

    "As a result of these incentives, Broome schools are fully staffed, whereas Geraldton's public schools are short of between two and four teachers.

    "Schools are included in the Country Teaching Program based on criteria including the desirability of the location for teaching staff and the number of applications for teaching positions," the spokesperson said.

    "The teacher at a local primary school said she taught in a school 150 km out of Perth and they were receiving incentives, whereas Geraldton is more than 400 km from Perth and received nothing.

    "Permanency and accommodation - or the lack of it in Geraldton - were causing many problems for teachers looking to teach at local schools.

    "The primary teacher said she was initially only offered one term's employment, which would have been fine if there had been accommodation provided for her in Geraldton.

    "I tried to rent but the real estate agents told me that no one would rent their property to me for 10 weeks."

    "The teacher only had a few days to search before she started her job.

    "I had four days to find a place to live, I ended up in a caravan in Greenough and there were all kinds of terrible things happening around me."

    "One night a lady was beaten up by her partner, I could hear her screaming and wanted to help but I was too scared to go outside, it wasn't pleasant at all."

    "The primary teacher is in her fourth year of teaching and has still not been made permanent.

    "She said Geraldton had been portrayed to her in a bad light before she came to work in the city but now she felt quite the opposite.

    "I think Geraldton is a really great place. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do because people told me awful things but I'm really enjoying it," she said. "If there were incentives, that would encourage teachers to give it a go."

    "The spokesperson said any changes to the program criteria would need to be considered by the department and the union as part of a Statewide review and would need to be negotiated before inclusion in future pay agreements for public teachers."
    
    From The Geraldton Guardian
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Parents pay for help as private schools fail test
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "Parents are being forced to seek additional help from private tutors and education specialists despite paying private schools thousands of dollars a year to educate their children.

    "Concern that private school parents are not getting value for money comes after The Age revealed yesterday that Mentone Grammar parent Richard Taylor was suing the bayside school, claiming it failed to educate his son properly. The case will be heard by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal next month.

    "A number of parents contacted The Age yesterday concerned that while they were paying thousands of dollars a year in school fees, they saw a need to pay for additional private tutoring to maintain their children's academic performance.

    "One parent, Andrea, moved her son, who has a learning difficulty, from Mentone Grammar last year after the grade 4 student fell two years behind his peers. She said for the previous three years, her son had performed in line with his age group.

    "We've got to pay extra now to get him back on track," she said.

    "Mentone Grammar acting headmaster Mal Cater said the school would not comment on Mr Taylor's case while it was before the court. He would not be drawn on other cases raised by The Age.

    "A parent from another private school said that on top of the $17,000 spent on her 13-year-old son's school fees, she spent another $6000 a year for a special education tutor and $600 for a education psychologist to assess her son's learning difficulty which had not been picked up by the school. "At the end of the day their core business is educating children," she said, "and while they're doing it for some, it's not for all and that doesn't seem right."

    "SPELD, an association for parents and children with specific learning difficulties, said the scenario was not uncommon.

    "General manager Deborah Zang said many schools were failing to identify learning difficulties, though she pointed out that this was not limited to private schools.

    "Her own nine-year-old son, Paul, was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2005, though the state school dismissed his learning difficulties as "just a stage".

    "One of the major problems is there is nothing in the university curriculum to my understanding on dyslexia or other learning difficulties."

    "She said this led to a low level of awareness in schools as to how to identify and manage children with learning difficulties.

    "The Victorian Parents Council, which represents parents of children at private and Catholic schools, said it was not uncommon for parents to seek additional help outside the school.

    "The school needs to work with parents and vice versa," chief executive Jo Silver said. "If the child needs additional support, the school needs to identify that and communicate it to the parents," she said."

    Further information about SPELD at http://www.speldvic.org.au
    
    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    • Have your - or your child - had a similar experience? MMS 0406 THE AGE (0406 843 243) or email scoop@theage.com.au
      
      
      
      
  • Op Ed
    The Melbourne Model will help students from all walks of life
    
    The university's changes aim at excellence without discrimination, writes Michael Crommelin.
    
    "Under the present tertiary admissions system, the ENTER is the major decider of undergraduate entry to Australian universities — and students from independent schools and selective government schools dominate.

    "This situation has prevailed despite vigorous access and equity programs, such as Access Melbourne, that most universities have introduced to ameliorate it.

    "But if you look at graduate professional programs in Australian universities you see quite a different picture.

    "For instance, graduate medicine has been offered in Australian universities for many years — often alongside undergraduate medicine — and there is substantial evidence that this model results in greater socioeconomic diversity among graduate students. These graduate students are more likely to have attended a government school, and their parents were less likely to be professionals or technologists.

    "The University of Melbourne believes it will have a similar experience of equity as it begins to offer its Melbourne Model graduate professional programs in 2008. It believes that — especially in high-profile courses such as law — we will see a critical shift to a more equitable model of higher education; that the Melbourne Model will make this university more accessible, not less, for students who have experienced educational disadvantage.

    "First and foremost, this is because of the very structure of the Melbourne Model.

    "It is well recognised that socioeconomic disadvantage affects the capacity of even bright students to get the very high ENTERs needed to gain selection into fiercely competitive degrees (such as law) straight out of school.

    "But research suggests that once these students enter a university, they find themselves on a more level playing field. Some of the effects of previous educational disadvantage are overcome at the tertiary level, and this is often reflected in students' academic results in their undergraduate degrees.

    "That is why selection into the graduate professional degree in law in 2008 and beyond will not depend on ENTERs, determined by performance in the final two years of secondary school. Instead, three selection criteria will be used: results in undergraduate studies, score in the law schools admission test, and a statement by the applicant relating to personal circumstances, work and life experience..."
    
    Professor Michael Crommelin is dean of law at University of Melbourne.
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    

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