Monday 3 September

Tuesday 4 September

Wednesday 5 September

Thursday 6 September

Friday 7 September

Saturday – Sunday, 8 – 9 September

 

Monday 3 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Too many students squeezed into State's shabby schools (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Perth's western suburbs are in urgent need of a new State high school because the closure of four schools in eight years has left the few remaining schools bursting.

    "Shenton College and Churchlands Senior High School are the only two State high schools west of the freeway between John Curtin College of the Arts in Fremantle and Carine Senior High in the north. The area has 11 private secondary schools.

    "Hollywood, Swanbourne, Scarborough and City Beach schools were all closed and most of the land sold to pump money into State coffers.

    "Perth Modern School was made an academically select school this year so new pupils from its catchment were forced into increasingly scarce places at the Shenton, Churchlands and Mt Lawley high schools.

    "Churchlands school council has taken the extraordinary step of warning parents at feeder primary schools against sending their children there because it is battling to cope with overcrowding from booming enrolments. It says the lack of facilities could affect the quality of education.

    "Shenton College was built to replace Hollywood and Swanbourne high schools but has been at its limit of about 1200 students since it opened in 2001. More than 70 students from outside its boundaries are on a waiting list but only nine are expected to be offered places next year.

    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said seven years ago he was concerned about selling school land to reduce the Education Department's deficit.

    "We are letting public schools slip out of these areas and it will be impossible to reinstate them again because the land will be out of reach," he said in 2000.

    "Mr Keely said yesterday his prediction had come true and it was a shame if the State had sold off the birthright of students.

    "Basically what it means it that's a whole group of students who have very difficult access to public education," he said.

    "Education Department deputy director-general finance Peter McCaffrey said western suburbs students would not miss out on a place at a public school. Shenton College had an enviable range of academic and specialist programs and new facilities not available at the old schools..."

    "Churchlands MP Liz Constable said the department had never been good at planning for demographics [or anything else? Web] and should consider re-opening the school at City Beach,

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier agreed. He said a significant proportion of parents in the area wanted their children to go to State schools but they had few options.

    "This lack of forward thinking has placed enormous pressure on schools in the western suburbs," he said.

    "Churchlands school council chairman Neil Rae said enrolments were increasing rapidly and were expected to be about 1850 next year. But the school was shabby and dilapidated, even though it had one of the highest State school TEE rankings last year.

    "The council would be "seriously misrepresenting the truth" to stand by while people sent their children to the school under the illusion its good results were related to its amenities.

    "We will be telling all prospective parents of students considering enrolment at CSHS of the parlous state of the school," Mr Rae said in a letter to Education Minister Mark McGowan.

    "Churchlands has more than 14 transportable classrooms, which would be expanded to 20 within two years, and most students refused to use its 20 transportable toilets.

    "Classroom and office ceilings leaked in heavy rain, the canteen was too small and the staffroom was not big enough to hold all the teachers at one time..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Educators round on English syllabus [late pickup from 1 Sept]
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "English teaching in schools is in danger of losing its richness and emphasis on literature in its growing obsession with improving student test results, a group of education leaders believes.

    "The State Government often boasts about improvements at the top end of its annual literacy test scores for children in years 3, 5, and 7. But the Federal Government routinely criticises the gap between the best and worst performing students.

    "Yesterday a group of education leaders, some of whom helped shape the English teaching syllabus during the past 50 years, met to address what they see as an attack on the quality of the curriculum.

    "Senior lecturers in English education at the University of Sydney, Jacqueline Manuel and John Hughes, hosted the meeting, which was attended by the NSW Board of Studies English inspector, Don Carter.

    "Dr Manuel said the meeting was held to address concerns that the quality of the English curriculum was being compromised, with a growing emphasis on basic literacy test skills.

    "Paul Brock, an adjunct professor at the University of Sydney and senior bureaucrat for the NSW Department of Education, said that while basic literacy and numeracy were important in the teaching of English, the "bigger picture" should not be ignored.

    "My view is that we absolutely must focus on basic and critical literacy," he said.

    "But it is important to remember that the subject English is far broader in its scope, aims and aspirations than just basic literacy.

    "Similarly, the subject mathematics is far richer than just basic numeracy."

    "Ros Arnold, an honorary professor of education at the University of Sydney, said teachers of English had full confidence in the profession in 1980.

    "Something went wrong after 1980 … we lost momentum and vision," she said.

    "Professor Arnold said the profession had "allowed the field to be colonised" and it now needed to rebuild the discipline.

    "We do not have to reinvent the wheel," she said. "The old one is waiting in the grass ready to be picked up again."

    "A round table participant, Graham Little, who wrote the 1972 NSW English syllabus for years 7 to 10, told the meeting the Department of Education's current English syllabus was "garbage" because it was filled with information about how to set a test that was compatible with computer marking.

    "It is not a human document," he said. "The lunatics have taken over the asylum."

    "Robert Walshe, who contributed to methods of teaching writing in schools, said the profession needed to do more than reminisce about the glory era between the 1960s and 1980. He said generational change should not be overlooked in assessing the needs of today's youth.

    "The essence of good teaching is to awaken inquiry in the student," he said."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Unis want happy Muslim students
    
    Universities are being challenged by a growing number of Muslim students to make special provision for their cultural and religious beliefs, the director of equity and diversity at the University of Western Sydney, Sev Ozdowski, says.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Pueblo Chieftain [Colorado USA]
  
  
  • Reading, reading and more reading
    by Peter Strescino
    
    Bessemer renaissance gets back to basics
    
    "It was the worst of times.

    "And then - suddenly - it was the best.

    "In 1997, just 11.8 percent of Bessemer Elementary fourth-graders scored proficient or better on Colorado Student Assessment Program reading tests; that pitiful tally seemed immense when compared with their writing proficiency scores, an anemic 2 percent.

    "We were so embarrassed," recalled Rita Marquez recently. Marquez taught at Bessemer for about 14 years before her retirement almost two years ago. "Those scores reflected what we were teaching, not what the kids needed."

    "Often, when results are so bad, people jump ship or are pushed. At Bessemer, a venerable South Side school, most teachers remained and the steps they took, along with the changing attitude of the times in education, led to a turnaround that caused both joy and envy.

    "Joy because the next CSAP round, released in 1998, revealed a jump to 64 percent of the students scoring proficient and better in fourth-grade reading and to 48 percent reaching that level in writing. Those are increases of 500-plus percent in reading and 2,400 percent in writing.

    "In other words, the school's improvement was dramatic.

    "Envy was in the air because the word around certain schools was that District 60, now called Pueblo City Schools, ran to Bessemer's rescue with money and master teachers to turn the school around.

    "Bessemer teachers and administrators and key district administrators said the effective use of grant money and a back-to-basics approach, replacing thematic units and the feel-good, high-esteem philosophy that had infiltrated public education for much of the previous three decades, made the turnaround happen.

    "Before its surge, Bessemer was one of several Title 1 Pueblo schools that struggled to reach an increasingly disinterested student base. Prior to the accountability factor that began to re-enter American education circles in the 1990s, resulting in testing such as the CSAP, Bessemer was set up like many schools: multi-age classrooms, making sure kids felt good about themselves and trying to keep them interested with thematics, such as the now-widely cited and criticized "Dinosaur Week."

    "For the uninitiated, Dinosaur Week, and its cousins "Oceans Week," "Forest Week" and other themes, were used to engage children in reading, writing and math, using a motif to hold their interest while sneaking in a little knowledge.

    "We truly believed in what we were doing," said teacher Laura Maldonado, who has been at Bessemer for 13 years. "So we were devastated when those scores came out. We thought we were doing the best we could."
    "The sad part is, we thought we were doing the best we could for the kids," echoed then-Bessemer teacher Rhonda Holcomb, who now is principal at Haaff Elementary. "But the scores proved we were not. We just did not do the job we were supposed to do. We felt bad for the kids."

    "Our curriculum was all over the board," Marquez said. "There was not a general focus."

    "In a staff meeting after the scores were released, feeling like the sixth-place team in a five-team league, Bessemer teachers and then-Principal John Huff sat down and began to plan a new future.

    "John helped us get over the wounds," Holcomb said.

    "There was no finger pointing," Marquez said.

    "I was disappointed," said Huff. "I knew we could do better."

    "Few of the staff departed, and those who remained resolved to make changes. Under Huff's leadership, reading time was doubled to two hours a day, multi-aged classrooms were discontinued and the school was a recipient, shared with 10 other Pueblo schools, of a grant from the Educational Trust.

    "We visited the school," said Henry Roman, who was District 60 superintendent at the time. "The national standards movement was taking place, and we embraced it. We asked Bessemer for a team (of teachers) to be trained in standards-based procedures."

    "It sounds trite, but what we did was get back to basics," Marquez said. "We were using whole language (a reading theory) and not enough phonics. So we dusted off the old phonics books.

    "We used those phonics. We read, read and read. We got parents more involved."

    "We put in more time for reading and writing," said Huff, now principal of Pitts Middle School. "We focused on the standards."

    "So with those changes, thematics trashed and an expanded reading program, the teachers and Huff took the old school to new heights.

    "And people took notice..."
    
    Full story in The Pueblo Chieftain at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Melbourne Uni warned over new model 'hype'
    by Farrah Tomazin and Adam Morton
    
    "Melbourne University has been warned it risks failing to live up to its own hype and, unless it reins in spending, compromising quality as it shifts to a US-style teaching model.

    "Confidential documents dated March 2007 show that the elite university faced a "serious mismatch" between costs and revenue of up to $25 million, but was well placed to attempt the biggest transformation in its 154-year history.

    "According to a risk analysis, potential pitfalls associated with the plan included scaring off top undergraduates, compromising quality if costs grow faster than revenue, and failing to match "Melbourne Model hype" due to exaggerated branding.

    "Internal economic modelling shows the university expects to improve its bottom line in the medium and longer term, but that several faculties, including law and architecture, face a financial hit during the transition period.

    "Under the new model, the university will from next year gradually replace 96 undergraduate courses with six "new generation" degrees and move professional programs such as law to postgraduate level..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Bio-fingerprinting? Who needs it?
      
      "In "Schools to fingerprint students for security" (Sunday Age, 2/9) the Victorian Principals' Association president says that the introduction of biometrics (such as fingerprinting) for identification and monitoring of students in schools is only a matter of time. Vladimir Ostashkevich, of Academy Attendance Systems, says "it is about a school's duty of care to their students and knowing where they are in the school".

      "We have got along without this technology since the history of schools began just fine, thank you very much. Surveillance and computing technology is becoming cheaper and advancing at exponential rates. The Government, even if well intentioned, is more concerned at exploiting these advances to monitor and analyse us. It seems unconcerned that this trend is itself insidious. Mainstream society has finally awakened to concern about pollution of the physical environment now that global warming demonstrates this concern may well be too little too late. The creation of a web of surveillance to pry into every detail of our private lives is something else it seems we may well realise was a mistake only when it is too late."
      
      Sean Fremder, Caulfield

Tuesday 4 September

Director-General Media Statement [29 August] CEO unveils Classroom First plan to refocus public education system Students and teachers will come first in a bold new plan to shift the focus of public education in WA back to the classroom Speaking to the State's education leaders, DET DG Sharyn O'Neill has detailed her new system-wide Classroom first strategy which she said would guide all decision making, planning and implementation in public education. "Our goal is a strong public school system which earns the respect of the community for the quality of the education if offers," Ms O'Neill said. "To achieve this we need to break from the past and have an integrated strategy with a clear educational rationale." "The Classroom First strategy differs from previous Department decision making which was primarily 'managerial' focused and which treated all schools the same. "The evidence suggest that these approaches have suffered from a tenuous link to educational improvement and have generally fallen short of penetrating the classroom," she said. "It is about time the Department as an organisation mapped out the kind of education system it wants and needs for the public we serve." Ms O'Neill said the focus of the Classroom First strategy was the teacher and his or her students. "It directly targets all decision making and planning towards improved teaching and learning in classrooms," she said. "It is the quality of what goes on between the teacher and their students that counts and every decision we make must support what happens each day in each classroom. "Everything the Department does must be to create the best possible environment for our teachers to teach and help make the quality of that teaching as good as it can possibly be. "We need to be more alert to decisions we make that inhibit good teaching and seek to make decisions that will facilitate it." Ms O'Neill said the Classroom First ethos was consistent with the best evidence available about school and teacher effectiveness. "It acknowledges that different schools will benefit from different forms of support and schools will require different levels of intervention," she said. "Rather than thinking of the public school system as a whole, this strategy takes one school at a time. I want to get rid of the one size fits all approach. "We will have a measured approach to change so that the public can be reassured that we will only be adopting programs and methods that have a proven track record of effectiveness. "New initiatives will be trialled and evaluated before their widespread adoption. In describing the three main objectives of the strategy, Ms O'Neill said it was important for the Department's leaders to have a shared understanding of what was meant by successful students, effective teachers, and the characteristics of a good schools. The two-day State Education Executive meeting also discussed in detail the six key elements of the DG's strategy. 1. A FOCUS ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: SUCCESS FOR ALL Actions, programs and decisions will be judged by their impact on student achievement, not merely classroom and school processes. Student achievement does not only refer to academic success. We want our schools to produce well rounded individuals who possess values, social and personal competencies and so our measures of success will encompass these outcomes we well. 2. A CLASSROOM ORIENTATION: SOUND TEACHING The strategy has an initial phase of minimising the distractions and workload of system requirements which over time have complicated teachers' work without adding value to the students' classroom experience. We will reduce the squeeze on teachers by getting rid of those things that have complicated and cluttered their work. 3. CONTEXT SPECIFIC: DISTINCTIVE SCHOOLS We will provide sufficient flexibility to enable each school to develop their own unique ethos. We want each local community to feel that their neighbourhood public school is their school, embedded in their community, reflecting their values and aspirations for their children, not a stock standard Government issue school that is so rigidly defined by the centre that it can't be shaped into the community's school. 4. PRACTICAL SUPPORT: MAKING IT POSSIBLE The support provided to school staff needs to take account of the difficulties they face and the priorities they feel they need to address. Support resources will be allocated to the school in a flexible form so that each school can decide upon the particular support that it requires. 5. MEANINGFUL ACCOUNTABILITY: ASKING THE HARD QUESTIONS School accountability mechanisms must serve educational purposes,they should require staff to ask the hard questions of themselves in terms of their school's performance; and they should enable others outside the school to have confidence in the standards being achieved. 6. PUBLIC CONFIDENCE: TRUSTING PUBLIC SCHOOLS We will assist each school to maximise parent involvement in the work of the school and their children's education. For parents this will not only benefit their children but will serve to increase their awareness of the tremendous work that is done everyday in public schools.

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Mind boggling fiasco in school planning (page 20)
    
    "The closure of 4 high schools in the western suburbs has revealed a mind-boggling lack of bureaucratic foresight.

    "The plan for the series of closures was hatched about 8 years ago and the result is pressure on the schools that are left.

    "Much of the land was sold for housing and the proceeds went into the public coffers.

    "Did it occur to anyone among the planners that many new homes would lead to – yes, more students?

    "And now there is a struggle to meet demand.

    "If that sort of planning makes sense to anyone, it is only those who enjoy the shelter of government."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • School’s in at home as more parents opt out (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Home schooling is gaining popularity among Perth parents, with new figures revealing an increase of nearly 20 per cent in the number of children being taught at home in the past five years.

    "Education Department figures show there are 916 children from the metropolitan area registered as home schooled students this year, compared with 771 in 2003. The biggest jump was between 2006 and 2007, with an increase of 92 students.

    "The number of country school children has dropped slightly in that time, from 642 pupils registered in 2003 to 548 this year.

    "However, it is possible that the number of home schooled children is even greater, because not all parents register with the department even though they are obliged to.

    "Australian Home Education Association president Esther Lacoba said there were many reasons why parents chose not to send their children to school, including disillusionment with State and private school systems, bullying problems and a wish to have more influence on their children’s lives.
    
    “The major advantage is an enjoyment of family,” she said. “It’s a lifestyle choice, I’m not rushed every morning to get out the door and in that school gate and we can customise what our children learn.”
    
    "Home-schooled students who are registered with the Education Department are visited by a moderator once a year to check if their lessons cover all eight learning areas in the curriculum framework. They also have the option to sit Statewide literacy and numeracy tests so parents can see how their children’s results compare with others at the same level.
    
    "Children who learn at home until Year 12 can apply to sit the TEE as a private student or submit the details of their upper secondary studies to universities for individual consideration.
    
    "Kensington mother Karen Simpson, who is a trained primary school teacher, said she and husband Gary made the choice to home school their children Thomas, 13, and James, 10, so they could have more input into every facet of their development.
    
    "Thomas went to pre-primary for a year but both boys have studied at home since. The Simpsons are considering whether to send the boys to a mainstream high school in the next few years.
    
    “We just felt that four and five was very young to wave goodbye to your children for the bulk of the day,” Mrs Simpson said.

    “It’s not that we were unhappy with schools, we just felt that we had an option and we liked the idea that we could be more flexible and more involved.”
    
    "Mrs Simpson said many parents who taught their own children did not have formal teaching qualifications but they were highly educated. Others had no qualifications but still did a brilliant job.
    
    "Most people assumed that homeschooled children missed out on socialisation.
    
    “But it’s really not a problem,” she said. “They’re socialising with children beyond their own age and a lot of adults. There is positive and negative socialisation and I think they get a lot less of the negative and more of the positive.”
    
    "Edith Cowan University education head Greg Robson said the added value available at schools was difficult to match in a home environment."

    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Turn City Beach back into school: Barnett (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Former City Beach high school should be converted to a middle school linked to Churchlands SHS to ease pressures in the western suburbs, former Liberal education minister Colin Barnett said yesterday.

    "The West Australian revealed yesterday that parents of children from Churchlands' feeder primary schools would be warned of overcrowding there. Many of its 1764 students are in 16 transportable classrooms.

    "Churchlands and Shenton College are the only two State high schools between Fremantle and Carine.

    "City Beach was closed in 2005 by the Labor Government. Scarborough, Hollywood and Swanbourne were closed by the Liberals and replaced with housing. Shadow education minister Peter Collier and Churchlands MP Liz Constable have urged the State Government to re-open a school at City Beach because children from new housing developments would put more pressure on Churchlands and Shenton College.

    "Mr Barnett stood by his decision 8 years ago to replace two run down schools with Shenton College. It had boosted western suburbs public education facilities and academic programmes and forced private schools to upgrade.

    "But Churchlands had been allowed to grow too big and had too many transportable classrooms. "The only way you could probably do anything with it would be to run a middle school programme on the City Beach site as part of Churchlands," he said.

    "Mr Barnett said the western suburbs closures in 1999 and 2000 were part of a big modernisation programme of schools in Mandurah and south east suburbs. The Labor Government had not done enough since then.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said the Labor Government had opened 44 new or replacement city schools in 6 years, the Liberal government opened 22 in 8 years.

    "Far from neglecting northern suburbs we have built three new high schools at Kinross, Ellenbrook and Mindarie, and a replacement high school at Mt Lawley," he said.

    "Churchlands recently got $190000 to improve its carpark."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Rise in full fee students in WA (page 18)
    by Rhianna King
    
    "The number of Australian full fee paying students in WA has risen about 16% in the past three years, thanks to a surge at the University of Notre Dame.

    "According to figures obtained by the West Australian, the number of Australian students paying as much as $107000 for an undergraduate degree has risen from 3710 in 2005 to 4434 in 2007.

    "This year, 4384 of those students were from Notre Dame, which has experienced a jump of 723 since 2005.

    "Murdoch university had just two undergraduate full fee paying places this year, compared with 14 in 2006, while UWA had 48 places in 2007.

    "Curtin and Edith Cowan universities did not offer any full fee paying domestic places this year.

    "Full fee places are offered to domestic students after Commonwealth funded places have been filled and students can borrow up to $100000 from the Government under the FEE HELP scheme.

    "Notre Dame academic services division executive director Murray Alessandrini said the increase reflected overall growth in student numbers at the university. He said while the numbers were growing, the 20% loan fee attached to FEE HELP was a disincentive to many students choosing full fee courses.

    "The figures come after the 2008 Good Universities Guide, released last month, revealed that WA's most expensive university course had broken through the $100000 barrier.

    "A medical degree at the University of Notre Dame will set back students $107200.

    "The increase in full fee paying students is certain to continue after the Federal Government announced in the May Budget that it would remove the cap on full fee domestic enrolments.

    "Education minister Julie Bishop said there were more Commonwealth supported places than eligible students to fill them.

    "There is no need for any eligible domestic student wishing to gain a university qualification to take up a full fee paying place," she said.

    "The Commonwealth has funded 50000 places since 2004 and a further 21000 will be available next year.

    "Ms Bishop said some students were passing up Commonwealth funded places to pay full fees at their preferred university.
    "Students are discerning and make decisions based on their assessment of the long term career benefits they will gain from particular studies," she said.

    "Shadow education minister Stephen Smith said the rapid growth in the number of domestic full fee paying students had been brought about because the Howard Government had failed to invest in universities.

    "This has forced our universities to increasingly rely on income from other sources, including revenue from full fee students," he said.

    "Labor will phase out domestic full fee places from 2009, claiming the current system is costly and unfair."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Please Explain (page 22)
      
      "With the extreme teacher shortage at present one would assume that every effort was being made to get teachers back into classrooms with speed and efficiency. In my very recent experience this is apparently not quite the case.

      "As a 4 year trained teacher having worked full time for 7 years in the public sector before beginning a family and doing small amounts of relief, I would have expected re-entry to the profession to be fairly straightforward. Instead I have spent several exasperating months dealing with WACOT and a big amount of time, paper and money trying to prove my previous worth.

      "Now finally working relief in the private system, my next round of frustrating paperwork will be to re-apply for my teaching license with the Education Department (which has apparently lapsed with no notification from the department). This process will take another 6 to 8 weeks once my application is lodged. What I'm wondering is whether there is actually any synchronisation or sense in all of this. Certainly no incentive."

      Jacqueline Nieuwkerk, Maida Vale
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • 'Panic' over whole language
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Supporters of the whole language approach to teaching reading have launched a strident defence of the theory, accusing politicians and the media of creating a moral panic about literacy standards.

    "Writing in the latest issue of the International Journal of Progressive Education, Wayne Sawyer and Susanne Gannon, from the University of Western Sydney, argue that the media have launched a "simplistic and demonised version" of whole language.

    "A sense of moral panic around literacy instruction in particular, and education in general, fomented by the media and supported by influential political figures, threatens to derail significant advances in theoretical and practical understandings of the multi-faceted nature of literacy development," they say.

    "Associate Professor Sawyer and Dr Gannon also criticise the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy held by the federal Government and sparked by an open letter to The Australian from 21 academics lamenting the way reading was taught.

    "Yesterday, the chair of that inquiry, educational researcher Ken Rowe, dismissed the idea that opponents of whole language were creating moral panic.

    "It's not moral panic, it's absolutely necessary panic," Dr Rowe said.

    "This is commonsense, it's not rocket science, it's just so fundamental. Direct explicit instruction of phonics is a necessary first step." [emphasis added]

    "Professor Sawyer and Dr Gannon also report that international test results suggest Australian students are among the best in the world, "yet 2004-06 saw one of the most sustained public campaigns of crisis rhetoric around education that Australia has ever seen".

    "Their article singles out The Australian, analysing 55 articles published between April 2004 and August 2006 as representing a media campaign of "vituperative flavour and breadth" to evoke a moral panic.

    "The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy report emphasised the need for children to be explicitly taught phonics, the letter-sound relationships, as the starting point in learning to read. [emphasis added]

    "Professor Sawyer and Dr Gannon dispute the criticism that whole language abandons phonics, arguing that whole language begins with meaningful language in whole texts to derive sub-skills, such as phonic understanding, while a phonics-centred approach "begins with bits of language and builds up from them".

    "One of the signatories to the letter that sparked the reading inquiry, Kevin Wheldall, professor of education at Macquarie University, said supporters of whole language didn't believe in empirical evidence "because it doesn't fit with their view of the world". [emphasis added]

    "You would think we pay teachers to instruct students but apparently we pay teachers to watch students construct knowledge for themselves," he said.

    "Dr Rowe said the debate between whole language and phonic approaches to teaching reading represented the dichotomy in education research between qualitative and quantitative research.

    "While the gold standard in scientific research was empirical evidence collected in randomised, controlled trials, the qualitative approach dominated education research."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Universities told to set up overseas
    
    Universities must head offshore to have any chance at being ranked among the world's best and should stop waiting for the "world to come to us".
    
    Similar story in The Melbourne Age
    
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • The "Monday Education Section" is available online this week, and has 12 articles [but nothing sufficiently exciting to link directly]

Wednesday 5 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Private schools feel staff pinch (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "WA’s teacher shortage has become so dire that even private schools are failing to attract applicants, a senior education academic has warned.

    "Notre Dame University education lecturer Keith McNaught said many private schools in country WA were getting no takers for teaching jobs, despite advertising nationwide.

    "State schools in rural areas have been forced to teach key subjects such as science, maths and English by correspondence courses because they cannot attract enough specialist teachers. But wealthier private schools have generally been immune from the crippling shortage.
    
    "Dr McNaught said he knew of Catholic schools finding it difficult to find staff in towns such as Geraldton, Northampton, Kalgoorlie, Mullewa and Esperance. Schools in the Pilbara and Kimberley areas also were hit by shortages as teachers moved into wellpaid jobs in the mining sector.
    
    "He told a rural education conference in Perth last week the price of rental accommodation in country towns had seen some of last year’s graduates turn down teaching jobs.
    
    “Independent and Catholic schools in many towns do not provide accommodation, or a housing subsidy, or location allowances, and the quality of country rentals can be poor and yet expensive,” he said.
    
    "Dr McNaught said the problem would be worse next year because State schools had started their recruitment drive for new graduates in July instead of waiting until November. Private schools have traditionally scooped the graduate pool by then.
    
    "The number of students enrolling in teacher education courses was also down this year at all WA universities.

    “So the problem over the next few years is going to get significantly worse,” he said.

    "Michael Friday, principal of St John’s School in Rangeway, Geraldton, has been without a specialist music or language teacher all year.
    
    “Unfortunately, it’s a sign of the times,” he said. “Getting relief teachers is extremely difficult and if we have people going on long service or maternity leave, getting a full-time replacement is exceptionally hard as well. It’s only going to get worse.”
    
    "Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said some schools had trouble getting teachers but positions were filled eventually. Many remote Catholic schools recruited teachers from the Eastern States.
    
    “In this climate it’s hard to get anybody, anytime but I’m certainly not aware of any school that hasn’t got a full complement of teachers,” he said.
    
    “I do know that in some schools the principals are teaching, but we believe principals should be teaching anyhow.”
    
    "Association of Independent Schools of WA deputy director Valerie Gould said the number of applicants for teaching jobs at independent schools was “severely reduced”, but that did not mean they were struggling to find enough teachers.
    
    "She said independent schools had started advertising for teachers for 2008 a month earlier than usual to compete with the State schools’ earlier recruitment campaign.
    
    "Principals of high-fee Perth schools had also reported more difficulty in encouraging interstate teachers to move west. “Now the cost of living and the cost of housing here is so expensive they’ve lost that as a carrot for national recruits,” Ms Gould said."

    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
    
  • Education shake up puts focus on classrooms (page 4)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "A shake up of the upper echelons of the Education Department is in store as new director general Sharyn O'Neill stamps her authority on the organisation.

    "As part of her new "classroom first" initiative, Ms O'Neill is changing the structure of the top level of the bureaucracy.

    "No jobs are being axed but their focus will change to put more emphasis on supporting schools. Ten of the 13 executive positions that are now filled by people in an acting capacity will soon be advertised.

    "The corporate executive group, which has the final decision making power on education policy, will be slashed from 15 to 5, comprising Ms O'Neill and 4 deputy directors-general.

    "Ms O'Neill said her new strategy would guide all future decision making , planning and implementation in public education. It differed from previous department decision making which had been focused on management and accountability and treated all schools the same.

    "Students and teachers would come first under her plan to shift focus back to the classroom. "We need to be more alert to decisions we make that inhibit good teaching," she said.

    "A top priority would be reducing the squeeze on teachers who were expected to juggle the immediate demands of their students with other demands imposed by the system, such as compliance paperwork and assessment requirements. "Over time these demands have created clutter and noise for teachers and distracted them from their core business of teaching students," she said.

    "Ms O'Neill said the department would continue to use "imaginative approaches" to ensure enough teachers were available to staff schools during the growing teacher shortage.

    "Technology was likely to play a bigger role in delivering distance education because of the dwindling number of teachers willing to move to country schools.

    "She said she wants to get rid of the one size fits all approach to public schooling and tailor schools to the differing needs of their communities. A full range of subjects would not be available at all schools, with high schools encouraged to work together to offer different programmes across a cluster of schools."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    Full text of Sharyn O'Neill's statement
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Employers hold key to public education (page 21)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    School bureaucrats must be made aware that there are end users of their products
    
    "A few weeks ago, the Secondary Schools Executives Association in this State published a paper which warned that unless serious changes are made in our public schools, they would inevitably become “schools of last resort”, catering only for the poor.
    
    "Their prediction was substantiated in another report from a few weeks before, which showed the inexorable growth in private enrolments in WA, and predicted that the time would come when more students were enrolled in private than in public schools. Indeed, if one concentrates on secondary rather than total enrolments, because Year 8 is the point at which most parents still make the choice, the point of balance will come sooner than most people might think.
    
    "The principals talk of changes needed, without which there will continue “the downward spiral in reputation, enrolments, staff morale and effectiveness”. The recommendations are perhaps less than adventurous, as one might expect from a consensus document, but the warning is there. The phrase “schools of last resort” is one I have used in my columns, and for the same reason as the principals: it is a convenient way of conveying the seriousness of the problem facing the public system, a situation for some time now eligible for the term “crisis”.

    "The WA Government’s response was trite and dismissive: “The State Government,” said Education Minister Mark McGowan, “sets education policy, not the Executives Association.” That is perfectly true, but completely beside the point: if principals, directly or indirectly, can’t make a rational contribution to the debate about this crisis, then the Minister’s bunker mentality seems now to have got as bad as his predecessor’s. Having had the iceberg’s position clearly explained to him, he seems still to be resolved to go full steam ahead.
    
    "The weird feature of this one-sided debate, in which the Government steadfastly refuses to answer its many critics, is that, unlike most such situations, competition does not seem to work. Given the flow of students to private schools, one would rationally expect the public system to respond by doing better. With the exception of a handful of very good high schools and some very good principals, those in authority seem not to know how.
    
    "Clearly the combined effect of unhappy parents, disillusioned teachers, concerned principals and too many poorly educated students is not enough to persuade the Government to some radical action.
    
    "So last week’s reports of an initiative by the Business Council of Australia to improve Australia’s schools were perhaps more than usually interesting.
    
    "Some of the news coverage picked up on the notion that companies might sponsor schools, and this does indeed feature, but it is only one option covered in the BCA’s discussion paper (which is available online). It is, indeed, a very middle-of-the-road document. The overall argument is rather like Kevin Rudd’s: that we are in danger of losing the next wave of productivity gains by neglecting perhaps the most obvious source of those gains — good education.
    
    "It argues strongly for more investment in the public system and identifies areas in which this would have most effect: more autonomy and improved training for principals; a standard national, competency-based teacher certification program; some form of variable compensation for the highest performing teachers; more engagement between business and secondary schools aimed at helping make students “job-ready”; a standardised national curriculum; and early childhood development and early school education.
    
    "Perhaps the only novel aspect of the paper is its stress on the importance of governance in all this, saying that management systems in many cases have not much changed in 40 years, and taking the obvious line that managers (or principals) need to be able to manage and hire and fire. This is, nevertheless, part of the official policy of both parties at the Federal level; as is the emphasis on a national core curriculum.
    
    "Apart from some trivial concerns about the possibility that schools might be disfigured by billboards, there was not much outrage. Perhaps the seriousness of the situation has finally penetrated. If that is the case, then perhaps the BCA should have been a little more strenuous and radical in its recommended strategies. As it is, it is pitched rather too close to the current consensus which prevails in Canberra.

    "While international comparisons of public investment in schooling are not particularly flattering to Australia, while too much school infrastructure is in decay, and while good teachers certainly need greater rewards, it is still not clear that greater public investment is the principal answer to the present crisis. That State governments are not much inclined to accommodate greater spending anyway is somewhat beside the point. What is precisely to the point, and what Australia’s business community can do something about, is the resistance of education bureaucrats to the notion that there are, to put it crudely, end users of their products.

    "Too many, perhaps most, students leave public schools now with inadequate equipment, whether they are going into the workforce, into training or into university. In this respect, the reported comments last week of BCA chairman Michael Chaney are perhaps more to the point than much of the discussion paper: his remarks about the central importance of literacy and numeracy and the ability to think generally, represent the sum of what is lacking, particularly in Western Australia. Those skills do not in fact need much more investment: they do, however, require the education bureaucracy to rejoin the real world, and that is something that will require a great deal of hard work by the BCA or anyone who wants the public sector to achieve its potential.
    
    "The fact that one of Australia’s peak business groups has decided to act will shift the debate a little in a useful direction, but if the BCA’s intervention is to be successful, it needs to be much more pointed and much less dependent on the acceptable status quo of policy."

    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • In Short
      
      "When I started high school in 1969 some of our classes were held in transportable classrooms (Too many students squeezed into State's shabby schools, 3/9) . They were freezing in winter and boiling hot in summer.

      "Thirty eight years on and nothing has changed."

      Ros Bruhn, Martin
      
      

    • Official Line
      
      "Much has been written and claimed in the past few days about the state of public schools in the western suburbs (Too many students squeezed into State's shabby schools, 3/9, and Turn City Beach back into school: Barnett, 4/9).

      "Anybody who has visited Shenton College and Churchlands SHS would know these state of the art public school are certainly not "shabby" and "bursting". Shenton College was built in 2001 for $38.7 million and boasts an enviable range of academic and specialist programmes and first rate facilities.

      "Shenton College is not "at its limit" of enrolments. This year it was able to accept students from outside its boundaries because there were more than enough places for local students.

      "Churchlands SHS had a major $10.4 million upgrade in 1999 and was last year selected by an Oscar nominated film producer as the setting for a new television series because of its outstanding amenities.

      "In the past, Churchlands SHS has enrolled too many students who do not live locally and this has now placed pressure on facilities.

      "There are places for these students at their own local schools, and Churchlands SHS has since reviewed its enrolment practices to fit Department of Education and Training guidelines.

      "Numbers at Churchlands SHS are expected to decline once the school adheres to the local area intake policy."

      Margaret Collins, Acting executive director, Teaching and Learning, North, Department of Education and Training
      
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Labor sets school-funding plans
    by Jewel Topsfield
    
    "Principals would not be given the right to sack underperforming teachers under a Labor government, states would not be forced to introduce performance pay for teachers and schools would not be compelled to fly the Australian flag.

    "After months of being accused of copying the Government's education policies, the Opposition has revealed key points of difference in what objectives it would make a condition of federal funding.

    "Under a Coalition government, the states, in order to receive their share of $42 billion in federal funding over four years, would need to introduce from January 1, 2009:

    • Public year 12 exams in each state.
    • A common national curriculum in key subjects.
    • Performance-based pay for teachers.
    • The power for principals to hire and fire.
    • National teacher training.
      
      

  "Education Minister Julie Bishop has also flagged that compulsory Australian history in years 9 and 10 will be made a condition of funding.

  "Plain English A-E report cards, literacy and numeracy testing in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 and every school flying the Australian flag were imposed on the states at the last round of funding.

  "Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said a Labor government would link federal funding only to improved education.

  "He said he had grave reservations about principals having the sole power to fire teachers, and the Government's approach to performance-based pay was flawed.

  "Labor supported the flying of the Australian flag at schools, but it would not insist on it as a funding condition because it had no impact on children's results.

  "Federal Labor would not force Queensland and the ACT to introduce public year 12 exams by 2009 and a Labor government would establish a national curriculum board to advise on whether history should be made compulsory, he said.

  "A Labor government would link Commonwealth funding to controversial conditions including plain English A-E report cards, a common national curriculum from kindergarten to year 12 and literacy and numeracy testing in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

  "The states would be asked to publish school league tables comparing student performances in these tests. This will put Labor at loggerheads with the powerful education union, which opposes tied funding.

  "I don't think federal funding should be conditional at all, because that is an example of coercive federalism," Australian Education Union deputy federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said. "What we need is far better co-operation between the states and territories but not in the form of coercion where they are forced to embrace the ideological agenda of the Commonwealth."

  "Labor has cautiously mirrored many of the Government's education policies, anxious to avoid a repeat of the disastrous hit-list of former leader Mark Latham, which would have resulted in 67 of the wealthiest private schools losing federal funding.

  "Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike backed most of federal Labor's policy. But her government would not support school league tables and would need to see the detail of a national curriculum before it could support it."

  From The Melbourne Age at link
  
  
  

• Teachers on the border learn lesson over pay
  by Bridie Smith
  
  "Teacher Fiona Sawyer knows she does not have to travel far for a pay rise. Just across the Murray River from her Cobram home is a kind of teachers' nirvana when it comes to pay.

  "NSW teachers are the highest-paid in the country, while their counterparts in Victoria languish at the bottom of the national pay scale.

  "We can't compete at the moment," said Ms Sawyer, an English, IT and media studies teacher at Cobram Secondary College. Watching her peers pack their bags and head over the border has become a familiar sight. Some teachers do not even leave the Victorian riverside town, but commute 25 minutes to nearby NSW towns such as Finley.

  "It is a trend that is having a crippling effect on the local schools. With teachers in short supply, it has becoming increasingly common for schools to cancel classes, excursions or staff professional training days because of a lack of teachers. Class sizes are increasing and teachers like Ms Sawyer, who is not a trained IT teacher, are taking subjects outside their area of qualification.

  "If you don't attract people by offering a decent wage, people won't do it," Ms Sawyer, 44, said.

  "The pay dispute between Victoria's teachers and the State Government is set to intensify today, before a union vote on Friday when the council will vote on whether or not to strike later this year.

  "The Australian Education Union is pushing for a pay rise of 30 per cent over three years, while the Government is offering the standard public sector wage policy of 3.25 per cent . It is anything but an ambit claim, according to Victorian branch secretary Mary Bluett, who points to interstate wage rates as proof Victorian teachers are underpaid. [emphasis added]

  "In NSW, a beginning teacher salary is $49,000 — almost $3000 more than in Victoria — and senior teachers take home just over $72,000, compared with Victorian teachers who get a top salary of $65,414.

  "It is because of this disparity that Ms Sawyer backs an industrial campaign.

  "I am astounded that they think 3.25 per cent is an acceptable amount to offer teachers," she said.

  "If education is a priority, let's see them show us that it is a priority … politicians keep giving themselves pay rises and then showing how fiscally responsible they are by not giving anyone else one.

  "It's just insulting, particularly given that Brumby and Bracks were teachers."

  From The Melbourne Age at link
  
  
  
  
• Op Ed
  Innovation is the key to our future
  by Joshua Frydenberg, a former senior adviser to John Howard and is a director of a leading international investment bank.
  
  ... Australians must demand world's best practice in science and maths teaching in schools and universities, in the creation of regulatory and taxation frameworks that provide incentives for business investment in research and development and in the delivery of premium information technology infrastructure.
  
  
  
  
• Study laments school racism
  
  The effects of racism experienced by students of Arab and Muslim background have been underestimated, according to a five-year study of almost 300 year 9 and 10 students.
  
  
  
  
• The Australian
  
  
• Cabinet ignores own school reports
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "The Government has commissioned 40 reports on teaching courses over the past decade at a cost of millions of dollars but lacks the political will to implement the recommendations.

  "Former dean of education at Deakin University Richard Bates said the reports made recommendations for changes to entry requirements, length and content of courses, practical training, standards, induction and professional development. The most recent report was released in February.

  "Cabinet has again clearly ignored the report of its own inquiry, though it is one of the best reports to be produced in 20 years," said Professor Bates, a former chair of the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) and now a researcher at Deakin.

  "There is no lack of advice or understanding of the issues facing teacher education; there is however a significant lack of political will in addressing them."

  "Professor Bates' frustrations were echoed by the sitting chair of the ACDE, Sue Willis from Monash University, who said governments had held 100 inquiries into teacher education over the past 30 years.

  "Almost none of them have led to change," Professor Willis said. "One gets the impression of inquiry shopping, with recommendations selectively interpreted and adopted out of context if they suit the mood of the day.

  "The recommendations are almost always ignored or chosen selectively and therefore not capable of bringing about the needed improvements."

  "Neither Professor Bates nor Professor Willis thought the federal Opposition had a better record. Professor Willis said Labor had said nothing to indicate it would do any better.

  "Relative to the higher education sector generally, that is in relative funding terms, teacher education is significantly worse off than it was three years ago, and even than it was a year ago," she said. "I believe that the quality of teacher education in Australia is at considerable risk."

  "Education Minister Julie Bishop accused the deans of not taking responsibility for the quality and standard of teacher education in their faculties.

  "While the Howard Government has taken a leadership role through the establishment of Summer Schools for Teachers and funding for increased practical experience for teaching students, the Deans of Education have been their own worst enemies," Ms Bishop said.

  "Their claims about a lack of funding are simply a smokescreen to cover their own inaction.

  "If the deans want the federal Government to directly intervene in the structure and content of education courses at universities that is a task that I accept with relish. At a time when universities in general are calling for less government regulation, the Deans of Education are inviting increased government intervention in many aspects of the management of their faculties."

  "Professor Willis outlined the deans' concerns in a letter sent to state teaching authorities and professional associations in June, in which she questioned the characterisation of the federal budget as an education budget."

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Editorial
  Reading the riot act
  
  Critical literacy is about indoctrination, not education

  "IT may surprise readers of The Australian to discover that they have been the victims of a campaign to create moral panic fomented by none other than this newspaper. According to an article published in the International Journal of Progressive Education by Wayne Sawyer and Susanne Gannon, 55 articles this newspaper published about literacy between April 2004 and August last year were part of a "vituperative" media campaign to create moral panic and demonise the "whole-language approach" to teaching English. In fact, The Australian is proud to have waged a campaign not just for three years but two decades, going back to the 1980s, to bring back phonics and ensure that children learn how to read.

  "It is convenient for Dr Sawyer and Dr Gannon to pretend that concern about whether children are learning to read is just a media beat-up by The Australian manipulating the fears of gullible readers. In fact, as the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy found in 2005, a significant minority of children in Australian schools continue to face difficulties in acquiring acceptable levels of literacy and numeracy. The inquiry, chaired by Ken Rowe, examined the way reading is taught in schools, as well as the effectiveness of teacher education courses in preparing our teachers for reading instruction. It found that a large volume of local and international evidence-based research consistently indicates that instruction in phonics makes significantly greater contributions to children's progress in reading, writing, spelling and comprehension, than do alternative approaches such as the whole-language approach advocated by Dr Sawyer.

  "The inquiry found that the predominant whole-language approach to the teaching of reading in Australian schools is problematic because it assumes that children teach themselves, with little or no explicit instruction. In fact, there is a strong body of evidence that a whole-language approach is not in the best interests of children learning to read, especially those experiencing reading difficulties.

  "Dr Sawyer steers clear of this large body of empirical evidence which supports using phonics, preferring instead to examine "the media and political landscapes". The reasons for this are twofold. On the one hand, the empirical evidence doesn't support his argument. On the other, he is not so much interested in literacy but, as he writes in his resume, in "the politics of literacy". Those naive enough to imagine that teaching children to read should in fact be an apolitical activity will be somewhat taken aback. But Dr Sawyer has made it quite clear that he is more interested in the political views of his students than whether they learn to read or how to teach others to read. In 2005, when he was president of the NSW English Teachers Association, he wrote on the website of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English that the Howard Government's 2004 election win showed that teachers were failing in their mission to produce children who have the mind and ethics to vote against John Howard. "My main concern is with what the election tells us about us as a profession," he wrote. "Critical literacy holds out as its central premise the education of the student to be able to suss out how they are being worked over: by advertisers, by politicians, by the media ... What does it mean for us and our ability to create a questioning, critical, ethical citizenry that that kind of deception is rewarded?" Dr Sawyer is clearly more interested in indoctrinating his students than teaching them how to read and it is a sorry indictment of Australian education that he remains so influential in shaping the minds and pedagogical skills of so many Australian teachers." [emphasis added]
  

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Fund to benefit the best
  by Catherine Armitage, Higher education editor, and Bernard Lane
  
  "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop has admitted for the first time that not every university can expect money from the $6 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund, which she said was a mechanism meant to catapult more universities into the top 100 in the world and perhaps two into the top 10.

  "Ms Bishop used last Thursday's launch of the L.H. Martin Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Management at the University of Melbourne to renew her criticisms of Australian public universities as whingeing ne'er-do-wells, in the clearest indication yet that Coalition election promises are unlikely to include substantial new funding.

  "The minister said Australian government funding to universities had increased by 26per cent in real terms since 1996, universities had access to higher than ever levels of income, they were recording surpluses and had net assets of almost $26billion and cash reserves of $7 billion. But Ms Bishop challenged the assumption that all universities would get grants under the HEEF.

  "She said all universities were free to apply, "but the idea is for the Higher Education Endowment Fund to support the emergence of world-class institutions; it is not for renewable funding, it is not for everyday capital items. We are trying to leapfrog universities above the norm." ...
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Emergency unions in party bid
  
  Emergency services workers will set up their own political party in Victoria to target what they claim are "fat cat" state politicians out of touch with local communities. Representatives from Victoria's police, ambulance and firefighter unions voted unanimously yesterday to found the Safer Communities Party and field candidates in the next state election.
  
  Could teachers be next?  Web
  
  
  
  
  
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Professor calls on universities to find religion
    
    Universities have been urged to abandon their long-held commitment to secularism and incorporate a better understanding of religions in their teaching programs.
    
    

 

Thursday 6 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • The wrong school of thought

      "I would like to respond to the Official Line of Margaret Collins (5/9) with respect to the student population and facilities at Churchlands SHS.

      "Churchlands is a flag bearer of government school education in WA. Enrolment is highly sought after from local students, students out of area and from overseas students due to its outstanding academic, sporting and cultural success. It has some excellent facilities but the recent increase in student population has placed pressure on many facilities.

      "Ms Collins says that Churchlands had a $10.4 million upgrade in 1999. Such a statement is not only misleading but quite insulting given the money was spent replacing existing buildings that had been gutted by fire two years earlier. This money used for rebuilding 70% of the school also included $2.5 million from the closure of Scarborough SHS which had been allocated to Churchlands for the construction of a performing arts centre. Not only has that centre never been built but some might suggest a level of funding was insufficient, which would account for the leaking roof, stained carpets and blocked drains.

      "It was also stated that Churchlands has enrolled too many students who do not live locally and this explains the need for demountable classrooms and toilets. As a renowned, specialist music school we have enrolled up to 200 students from outside the local area. Before 2007 the local intake boundary extended as far north as Beach Road. Because this was recently amended to Karrinyup Road, it stands to reason that many current students in Year 9, 10, 11 and 12 are now showing up as students who don't live locally but were in the school's intake at the time of their enrolments. However, our growing student population is driven by local area demand which is up by 50% over the past three years.

      "That Churchlands was the school of choice for an Oscar nominated film producer says more about the excellent reputation of our students and teachers than for the amenities. It is certainly not the criterion for a state of the art school."

      Neil Hunt, Principal, Churchlands Senior High School
      
      

    • Please Explain
      
      "According to Margaret Collins (Official Line, 5/9), Churchlands Senior High School received a $10.4 million upgrade in 1999. Mr brain may be getting fuzzy in my old age but didn't half the school burn down in 1999? Can Margaret Collins clarify whether or not that money may have been used to replace the part of the school that burned down? [The Churchlands SHS principal just clarified that! Web]

      "Education Department policy and strategy-makers should take a drive around the Churchlands catchment area and have a look at all the new housing springing up. Where are all the children from these developments going to go? Not everyone can afford private education and not everyone wants it."

      Ann Johnsen, Woodlands
      

      
      

    • Wise words from the past

      "I think the current situation with regard to education in this State was succinctly summed up in a recent conference (From Welfare to Social Investment, Feb 21) where speaker Eric Sidoty commented: "We must move beyond the entrenched positions that have left education policies imprisoned by captive minds." This comment could well be applied to more than one ministry.

      C Williams, Stratton
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    Poor pay sees teachers break for the border
    
    "What a difference a few kilometres make, especially if you are a Victorian school teacher comparing your weekly pay packet with that of your NSW counterpart. As The Age reported yesterday, teachers at Cobram Secondary College — or any other Victorian teacher for that matter — need only make the short trip across the Murray to a job in NSW to receive an immediate annual salary hike of several thousand dollars. This is explained by the fact that NSW teachers are the highest paid in the country, while those working in this state languish at the bottom of the national pay scale.

    "The numbers highlight this significant discrepancy: in NSW, a senior teacher earns up to $72,000 a year while the top salary in Victoria is $65,414. Understandably, Victorian teachers are seeking to leaven this substantial disparity with a pay rise of 30 per cent over three years. The response of the Government has been to offer the standard public service sector increase of 3.25 per cent. Given its fiscal rectitude, this, too, is understandable. But since the Government has bellowed its commitment to improving education standards, and the ramifications for an already troubled public system should teachers' current remuneration levels persist, it is, perhaps, a false economy.

    "The Premier, John Brumby, has effectively shouted from the school bell tower that education is the Government's leading priority, as indeed it was under the leadership of Steve Bracks. It has demonstrated this by committing $1.9 billion over 10 years to rebuild or modernise all Victoria's public schools. It has also made genuine efforts to recruit teachers, reduce class sizes to boost student achievement, and has provided extra money for schools to employ teacher assistants and welfare officers. But the Government still is playing catch-up. Since the end of 1999, Victorian government schools have generally been the most underfunded in the nation, with Productivity Commission figures showing that funding for each government-school student in Victoria has been consistently below the state and territory average. By comparison, per student funding in NSW has been consistently above average. Another concern has been the anachronistic state of affairs whereby Victoria's public schools are compelled to raise hundreds of million of dollars each year from their local communities to cover what teachers and parents say is the shortfall in State Government funding. This, they say, worked out last year to an average of $713 for every student in taxpayer-funded education. This is no way to run a modern education system with an eye to the future.
    
    "In what may have been a prescient pointer to the current pay dispute between teachers and the Government, recent research by the Australian Education Union found that school principals have major problems in filling teacher vacancies. Could this be explained by the fact that Victoria's teachers are heading interstate, overseas or into the private system in search of better pay and conditions?

    "Clearly, in addition to existing Government commitments, there needs to be more investment in public schools. If Victoria is to be the "smart state" the Government wants it to be, then there is no better investment to be made than in attracting and retaining the best teachers available. During the past 10 years, Victoria has been a major economic success story, and providing the necessary financial support for education is the key to maintaining that economic wellbeing. After eight successive budget surpluses, the Government is awash with money, and irrespective of the implications for current pay negotiations with nurses and police officers, it has to offer a real and meaningful pay rise to teachers, delivered in increments over an agreed period. Either that, or we wave our teachers, and our future economic prosperity, goodbye at the border."

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • VCE exams strike threat by teachers
    
    Thousands of teachers could strike during VCE exams in November, with the education union set to intensify its industrial campaign after pay negotiations with the Brumby Government failed to progress yesterday.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Private schools get more than unis
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "The federal Government spends more money on private schools than universities, with the independent and Catholic school sector receiving almost $1.5 billion more than tertiary institutions in 2005 alone.

    "Chairman of higher education at Melbourne University Simon Marginson said commonwealth funding for private schools had outstripped its funding for universities since the late 1990s.

    "His analysis of funding between 2002 and 2005 showed federal government funding to universities rose 9 per cent to $3.5billion compared with funding for non-government schools, which rose 30 per cent to almost $5billion.

    "Professor Marginson said the withdrawal of public funding from universities had undermined basic research at a time when countries such as China were fast approaching the level of investment made by Australia..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    

    • What would teachers know?
      
      "According to your editorial writer, critical literacy is about indoctrination, not education ("Reading the riot act’’, 5/9).

      "This may be true in the mind of a well-informed journalist but, apart from being insulting, it doesn’t tally with the lived experience of conscientious English teachers across the country. But, hey, what would mere teachers know about what goes on in school classrooms?"
      
      Garry Collins, President, English Teachers Association of Queensland
      
      

    • Bishop can’t carry Cabinet
      
      "Julie Bishop’s adversarial approach to teacher education is surely an excuse for her inability to persuade Cabinet to support the recommendations of the House of Representatives Top of the Class Inquiry, submitted last February ("Cabinet ignores own school reports’’, 5/9).

      "The minister has failed to deliver the recommended educational research fund; she has failed to deliver the $20million recommended for a teacher education diversity fund; she has failed to deliver the $20million national teacher education partnership fund; she has failed to deliver the funding recommended for a national teacher induction program; she has failed to remove the prohibition on education faculties charging fees in addition to HECS; and she has failed to deliver the national clearing house for educational research. In view of such failure, it’s perhaps not surprising that she should blame the victim by threatening direct federal intervention in teacher education courses in the pursuit of "quality’’.

      "One of the first reports presented to the Howard Government, in December 1997, was a commonwealth-sponsored report from the deans of education on guidelines for initial teacher education. It provided the basis for the very things that Bishop claims to be seeking through Teaching Australia. It was shelved by the then minister, David Kemp.

      "There is a record of failure among successive federal education ministers, a record to which the present minister makes a significant contribution. When will the political will to act on the recommendations of successive reports on teacher education be found? It’s urgently needed."
      
      Professor Richard Bates, Faculty of Education, Deakin University
      
      
      

  • Bullying court deal
    
    A 12-year-old schoolyard bully has made a plea bargain with West Australian prosecutors, agreeing to give evidence against four schoolmates who are accused of terrorising and abusing a boy over six hours.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Evening Standard [UK]
  
  
  • Children taught synthetic phonics can see their reading improve in just two weeks
    
    "Children who struggle with reading can make dramatic progress in just a fortnight when they are given traditional lessons, a report reveals today.

    "The study by a think-tank showed that primary school pupils increased their reading ages by nearly two years in as many weeks when they were given intensive "synthetic phonics" lessons.

    "The back-to-basics method involves teaching the letter sounds of English and how to blend them together to work out unfamiliar words.

    "Civitas, which carried out the study, said phonics had the potential to end the "apartheid" between the educational haves and have-nots.

    "It said thousands of children had been consigned to the educational scrapheap by the failed reading schemes promoted in schools over the past decade.

    "Synthetic phonics was not made compulsory in schools until last September, despite evidence from Scotland that it can transform literacy standards.

    "For the research, Civitas held a summer "supplementary school" with the help of charitable donations. Its pupils were 15 children between six and eight, all from disadvantaged areas.

    "Many had already fallen behind in their reading.

    "The youngsters were given intensive lessons in synthetic phonics for a fortnight using a course designed by literacy authority Irina Tyk.

    "After two weeks of whole-class tuition, as opposed to onetoone, the average improvement in reading age was one year and nine months.

    "The report said: "The progress made by the pupils was so striking that the project has decided to make the course textbook, Irina Tyk's The Butterfly Book, available for the first time in a commercial format."

    "Synthetic phonics was eclipsed during the Sixties and Seventies by theories which required pupils to memorise whole words.

    "The Government did put some synthetic phonics into its flagship literacy hour but critics claim that for years it was mixed with less effective methods.

    "In a dramatic climbdown, ministers last year put a legal duty on schools to use synthetic phonics "fast and first" when teaching four and five-year-olds.

    "The Civitas report said the technique should also be used with older children who are slow readers.

    "Anastasia de Waal, head of family and education at Civitas, said: "Teaching children to read via synthetic phonics can bridge the gap between those from disadvantaged and advantaged homes like no other method."

    "Her report goes on to say: "Weak reading lies at the heart of the educational apartheid between the advantaged and the disadvantaged, and of England's low social mobility.

    "The inability to read properly is the single greatest handicap to progress in school and adult life.

    "Poor achievement, related poor behaviour in secondary schools and the vast increase in the number of young people not in education, employment or training connect directly to poor literacy teaching at primary school level."

    "Children who shun junk food in favour of fruit, vegetables and oily fish do 11 per cent better in exams, a study claims.

    "The survey of more than 10,000 children found unhealthy diets were linked with poor performance as well as bad behaviour.

    "The research was carried out by Patrick Holford, visiting professor of mental health and nutrition at Teesside University and funded by the organic food firm Organix.

    "Professor Holford, who is also director of the Food for the Brain Foundation, said: "The brain is 60 per cent fat.

    "Children who eat good fats, from raw nuts, seeds and oily fish, double their chances of high performance."

    From The Evening Standard at link [which also provides reader comments on the article]
    
    The "Ready to Read" report cited in the article
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Little Australians need more than Harry Potter
    by Rosemary Johnston
    
    Children's books are produced by a nation for its most precious commodity, its posterity. Though contemporary Australian children's literature is highly respected, I am not sure that Australians value its rich provenance, or the diverse ways it has contributed to ideas of nation and national identity.

    Australia's top 10 best-selling children's books are all unabashedly British Harry Potter titles, says figures from Nielsen BookScan. When Angus & Robertson asked children around Australia to vote for their all-time favourite book, only two of the top 10 books were Australian..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

Friday 7 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    New era in education should include honesty
    
    "New State education boss Sharyn O'Neill says one of her first tasks will be to change the structure at the top level of bureaucracy at the Education Department.

    "She might also turn her attention to making sure her senior staff do not mislead the community when trying to defend the department.

    "In commenting on complaints about the shabby state of Churchlands SHS, senior executive claimed that $10 million had been spent on campus improvements in 1999.

    "There is no argument that the money was spent. But it took a letter to this newspaper from the principal of the school to point out that it was used to replace building destroyed by fire two years earlier and not on upgrading facilities.

    "Such blatant distortion of the truth does little to improve the public's already shaky faith in the department."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Give us a fair go

      "With all due respect to Margaret Collins (Letters 4/9) and Mark (crisis, what crisis?) McGowan, I would like to recount a brief experience. I teach at one of the best secondary schools in Perth. I work with highly professional and supportive colleagues and I have a dedicated principal.

      "The children whom I am fortunate to teach are wonderful and are a credit to their parents. My classroom, however, has a regular leak in the ceiling and this week one of my students drew my attention to the fact that I was standing underneath it while checking assessment tasks. Well, Mr McGowan, I hope that I did the right thing by telling the children that we were indeed lucky to have a water feature in the classroom; in fact, we were very fortunate where it was placed because it is good feng shui.

      "When visiting Perth