Monday 10 December

Tuesday 11 December [WACOT election results]

Wednesday 12 December

Thursday 13 December

Friday 14 December

Saturday – Sunday, 15 – 16 December

 

Monday 10 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Students fail on 'three Rs' test [Front Page Headline]
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "One-quarter of Year 7s attending the State's public schools cannot spell and almost one in five are not reaching the minimum benchmarks for reading and numeracy, the latest annual school test results have revealed.
    
    "The alarming statistics, which demonstrate the gap in academic performance between State and private school pupils, come despite Education Minister Mark McGowan vowing last year to oversee a renewed emphasis on reading, writing and maths in the wake of poor results last year.

    "Mr McGowan yesterday released this year's WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessment results for Years 3, 5 and 7, which show the percentage of students who met or exceeded the so-called minimum benchmark level required in reading, writing, spelling and numeracy. But the Education Department has refused to release the benchmark figures.

    "A spokesman told The West Australian the figures were "never normally available". But in previous years, including last year, the department has provided the figures to The West Australian. [emphasis added]

    "Last year, the results needed to meet national benchmarks for students in Years 3, 5 and 7 ranged from 22 per cent to 44 per cent, with an average of less than 34 per cent.

    "According to figures released by the department last year, Year 3 students needed to achieve only 22 per cent for reading, 39 per cent for numeracy and 30 per cent for writing to be classified as meeting the minimum acceptable standard. The department has previously defended the low benchmarks, saying the assessment tests were not marked using percentages and did not equate to a pass or fail.

    "This year, more than 80 per cent of State school students achieved the benchmarks in every subject and every year level except Year 5 spelling, which was 78.7 per cent, and Year 7 spelling at 75.5 per cent. In State schools, 80.9 per cent of Year 7s reached the numeracy benchmark, while 81 per cent made the reading benchmark.

    "Mr McGowan's press release combined State, Catholic and independent school WALNA results but statistics provided on the Education Department's website showed the percentage of State school students reading the benchmarks, which were lower in all areas.

    "As a combined figure for all schools, 87.6 per cent of Year 5s reached the writing benchmark, while 82.4 per cent of public school students reached the same benchmark. About 70,000 Year 3, 5 and 7 students from across the State sat the WA assessment in August.

    "The Minister's press release also said the annual Year 9 Statewide testing results, known as MSE9, were available online to the public by The West Australian was later told by a spokesman for the department that they would not be made available. [emphasis added: Nice to see who's really running things, Minister! Web]

    "Mr McGowan said this year's WALNA results revealed mainly consistent levels of achievement across the board and "dispelled myths of falling literacy and numeracy standards in Western Australian schools". He said it was important to remember the percentage of students not meeting benchmarks included pupils with disabilities, children from Aboriginal communities and those with English as a second language. "I'm quite pleased with these figures but what I would say is they show that we need to continue our efforts to keep improving," he said. [Sorry Minister, but without the cut-off levels, we could assume they were set wherever it was necessary to get the results you wanted. This is Yes, Minister statistics, Minister (as Peter Collier was quick to point out)! Web]

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier described the assessment results as disturbing, saying it was meaningless to release the WALNA results without the minimum benchmarks. "Parents may be delighted that their child has reached a benchmark but then if you were to say, 'Well your child just received 23 per cent', I wonder if they'd be equally as delighted?" he said. "We don't know how low the bar is. If the Minister has nothing to hide, why doesn't he release the benchmark?

    "We can shout from the rafters, as the Minister is doing at the moment, to say things are rosy but the reality is we don't know because we don't know what the bar is." [emphasis added]

    "Next year, WA students will join a new national literacy and numeracy testing program, which will replace WALNA."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • We Disagree

      "When our State has a surplus of over $2 billion and our schools are likely to be 600 teachers short at the start of next year, how does our Government resolve the problem?

      "By offering a CPI increase in wages. Supply and demand are the basis for our free market economy, but the Government is not willing to listen to what the market is telling it.

      "The quality of people entering teaching is greatly affected by the salaries offered. The WA Government is not interested in employing quality teachers."

      Ian Middleton, South Greenough
      
      

    • Deal is an insult to teachers

      "It was interesting to read "Teachers offered new deal" (6/12) and to read of the Government's bullying of teachers. This second deal offered by the Government is an insult to thousands of dedicated teachers, who are bullied by their employer.

      "Instead of offering veiled threats, the Minister for Education could offer teachers the allowances outside the negotiations. He has with entry level teachers' salaries and allowances, and could show compassion to his charges and demonstrate good faith.

      "If he is dinkum about solving the looming crisis, he could bit the bullet; work with the Premier and Treasurer and direct real increases into the Budget in the new year.

      "I won't hold my breath."

      C Kelly, Hazelmere
      

      
      
      
  • Islamic school closure a warning to others [late update, online only]
    AAP
    
    "The closure of a Muslim school by the West Australian government was a warning to other Islamic schools, the former head of Australia’s peak muslim body says.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan yesterday shut down the Muslim Ladies College in Kenwick for a series of “serious concerns” revealed during a departmental investigation.

    "It was found the school failed to follow the State’s curriculum, it employed unregistered teachers, there were serious questions about the school’s financial viability and some school buildings consisted of sea containers.

    "A spokesman for the minister said at one time, students at the school were being given religious instruction 43 per cent of the time.

    "In addition, the school’s acting director Zubair Sayed has been arrested and charged with fraud over the alleged theft of almost $356,000 in federal funding from the school.

    "Ameer Ali, an academic at Murdoch University and former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said the government took the right step in closing the school.

    “After several warnings, the government has taken action. No one can blame the government for this,” Dr Ali said.

    “I think it’s a good lesson for the other (Islamic) schools across the State.

    “They want to enter the field of education and provide some services to the community, they must be up to scratch.

    “They should follow the rules of the State to the word and they should not exploit the community.” [emphasis added]

    "Dr Ali said Australia’s Muslim community already was under the spotlight and this had not helped.

    “This is completely tarnishing the image of the community, and already we are in the hot seat ... and this adds to our predicament."

    From The West Australian online at link
    
    Similar stories on ABC News and today's Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • One in five students fails literacy test
    by Elizabeth Gosch
    
    "Almost 20 per cent of West Australian Year 7 students failed to meet key literacy standards this year, and their performance in numeracy tests slipped.

    "The state Literacy and Numeracy Assessment shows results from students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 improved in some areas including reading, but fell in others such as writing and spelling.

    "The figures show the literacy and numeracy results in the state are stable over time," state Education Minister Mark McGowan said. "I'm quite pleased with these figures but what I would say is they show we need to continue our efforts to keep improving."

    "Year 7 students across the state returned the worst performance, with only 78.4 per cent achieving the required level of competence in spelling. Reading and numeracy skills also dropped compared with last year's results. In the reading section of the assessment, 83.7 per cent of students met the benchmark, marginally down on last year's result. [emphasis added]

    "The results for Year 3 students showed 95.2 per cent passed the reading assessment, an improvement on last year, but the number who met the spelling benchmark fell to 82.3 per cent.

    "While there was weakness in Year 7 results, Mr McGowan said there was a notable improvement in some Year 9 results, particularly in the writing assessment.

    "There was a 9 per cent jump in the percentage of public school students who met or exceeded the standard in writing, from 51 per cent in 2006 to 60 per cent in 2007," he said.

    "We are doing things right, but there are some students who we can do better for and that's what these results are about - they are a diagnostic tool to identify students who need additional support."

    "The assessments identified a continuing problem in literacy and numeracy standards among indigenous students.

    "Indigenous student performance is still far below other students in all areas," Mr McGowan said. "It is clear more needs to be done to help them catch up."

    "The University of Western Australia's dean of education, Bill Louden, said the assessment results showed a long-term trend of stability in the numeracy and literacy performance of West Australian students.

    "What these results show is that students are doing about the same this year as they did last year and the year before, so we can feel confident kids are doing well at school," Professor Louden said.

    "More than 70,000 West Australian students were assessed on their literacy and numeracy skills this year.

    "Next year, the students will be tested under the new federal national assessment program in literacy and numeracy."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Gillard promises unis compensation
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Education Minister Julia Gillard has pledged to deliver compensation to universities for the abolition of full-fee degrees but failed to offer a guarantee it will not result in an overall reduction in places.

    "In an interview with The Australian, Ms Gillard also played down universities' hopes that Labor would announce a big-spending policy to index university grants to reflect academics' salaries in Treasurer Wayne Swan's first budget.

    "And she confirmed Labor would now consider how it would distribute funds from the $6billion higher education fund for capital investments, including lecture theatre halls and other infrastructure.

    "While Labor announced two days before the election that it would deliver 11,000 more HECS places to compensate universities under a pledge to abolish full-fee degrees, it has failed to offer many details about how these places would be allocated.

    "Declaring an end to degrees that can cost more than $200,000 for students who miss out on marks for prestige medicine degrees, Labor has pledged to phase out full-fee degrees from 2009.

    "The degrees have allowed hundreds of students who failed to secure the marks required for a taxpayer-subsidised HECS place to enter university under the user-pays system..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

    
    
    
  • Higher education groups to pull together
    
    Peak bodies representing research, technical and new-generation universities, which became divided and ineffectual under the Howard government, have hammered out a unified front to put to Education Minister Julia Gillard.
    
    
    
    
  • School closed as director charged
    by Elizabeth Gosch
    
    "... A Perth Muslim school has been shut down for focusing too heavily on religious instruction, as its director was charged with fraud over the alleged theft of $355,934 from the college's federal funding..."
    
    "Yesterday, Mr McGowan said the school, which had been inspected by the Education Department at least eight times this year, was not teaching students the subjects required under the curriculum.

    "The school was not meeting the curriculum framework, with some of the students there undertaking religious instruction on a daily basis for 43 per cent of their time at school," he said.

    "At all schools around the state we expect they will spend at least 50 per cent of their time on literacy and numeracy so when a school is spending 43 per cent of its time on religious instruction it is not meeting that requirement. [emphasis added]

    "I have taken strong action, the strongest action really available to me, and that is to close that school."

    "Mr McGowan said staff at the school had reported the problems to the department, which began its investigation in December last year.

    "I am not aware of any complaints from parents but there have been complaints from staff at the school about the use of money and the payment of staff and so forth," he said.

    "The report showed that some of the teachers have a limited authority to teach, and they are receiving no professional development. Many of the teachers are unregistered and there was no indication that they were going to become registered. When you add all these things up, there is layer upon layer of failure at that school." ...

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    See similar story in yesterday's Sunday Times
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Discourse of failure
      
      "Julia Gillard is missing the point if she thinks the Howard Government deliberately exaggerated the threat of the culture wars in order to obscure falling literacy standards (”No education blank cheques”, 8-9/12). Having been through the school system myself during this era, I can tell her that the failure of students to “get literacy”, as she puts it so eloquently, is due in large part to the fact that their “English” lessons are spent analysing the discourse of femininity in Dolly magazine or bemoaning the marginalisation of minorities by the “Nazis and chauvinists”, as our teachers call anyone in government to the right of Stalin. Julie Bishop is spot-on in identifying the real problem. The inability of our children to read, write and do sums is a direct result of the time devoted to brainwashing them with left-wing ideologies."
      
      Hilary Martin, Toowong, Qld
      
      
      
    • Kids take after parents
      
      "In global rankings, Australian children rate sixth in mathematics, fourth in science, and ninth in reading.

      "In worldwide rankings, Australian adults rank third in alcohol consumption, first in cricket, first in rugby league, first in Australian Rules football, fifth in obesity, second in swimming, fifty-fifth in soccer, second in poker machine playing, first in male chauvinism, and rate nothing in bed.

      "Obviously, Australian children take after Australian adults. They are chips off the old block rather than off the computer. The education revolution has now begun."
      
      Jane Wallace, Riverwood, NSW
      
      
      
      

• The Age
  
  
  • Move to woo graduates for problem schools
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Top university graduates could be given incentives to work in underperforming schools under a plan being considered by the Victorian Government.

    "Premier John Brumby has asked Education Minister Bronwyn Pike to investigate a British teaching program that encourages graduates to work in some of England's toughest schools. The program, known as Teach First, provides students with intensive training to work in challenging areas.

    "They also attend a seminar called "the cock-up club" at least three times a year, where business leaders and educators talk about their biggest failings and how they recovered. Those who work in difficult schools are provided with mentoring and financial incentives.

    "With teaching quality in the spotlight after OECD figures this week showed Victoria was the lowest-performing mainland state in literacy, maths and science, Mr Brumby described the plan as "very positive".

    "I actually think that's a very good idea and it's something that we might even have a look at here," he said.

    "Ms Pike told The Age that her department was examining the program and she would report back to the Premier in coming weeks.

    "She pointed out that universities, and not the Government, had the overall responsibility for the type of courses they offered, but it was important to "keep an open mind" about ways to lift standards in schools.

    "It was equally important that teaching graduates were encouraged to work in challenging areas, she said. "I think it's really important to help people see that in many ways, it's a real test of their professional skills to work in tough situations, and it can be incredibly rewarding. I think we need to keep talking about it … and looking for ways that we can incentivise that."

    "Ms Pike's comments come after leading education expert Brian Caldwell last week called for teachers to be required to undertake a master's degree in order to lift teaching quality across the school system.

    "Professor Caldwell, a former dean of education at Melbourne University, welcomed the Government looking at options "outside the box" to help struggling schools.

    "Australian Principals Association president Andrew Blair said he supported the Teach First program, and would welcome it being adopted in Victoria — provided teachers were adequately equipped to deal with the challenges involved.

    "It's a very different gig teaching in, say, Sunshine than it is at Melbourne High School. So it's one thing to offer incentive programs, but it's another thing to get the university training right," Mr Blair said."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Needs, not fashion, must drive IT plans
      
      "I worked with computers in many roles for nearly 30 years, testing systems, fixing systems and lastly, buying computers. We bought laptops for the executives in the department in which I worked. They were left on planes, trains, buses, in taxis, in restaurants, in toilets. They had coffee, tea, orange juice, fizzy drinks spilled on them. They were dropped from tables, fell from the roofs of cars. Within a year we had replaced or repaired more than half, at a large cost.

      "These people were executives in a major Commonwealth department, since closed.

      "Mr Rudd wants to give laptops to schoolchildren. If responsible adults can lose equipment and do the damage I saw, what can kids do? By all means, give schools some real broadband and put a terminal on every desk.

      "A good desktop PC costs about half to two-thirds the price of a laptop and desktop units can be easily upgraded, whereas a laptop is hard and expensive to upgrade. Look at what schools need in IT, Mr Rudd, not what's fashionable." [But I don't think the PM actually specified "laptops" in contrast to desktop PCs. Web]

      George J. King, Wheelers Hill
      
      

    • Great Scot! How much evidence do we need?
      
      "Your editorial (The Age, 8/12) asks that public-private partnerships to build schools be given a chance, while quoting a Scottish expert, who says they have been a disaster in Scotland. In addition, the Scots will pay $A51 billion over 40 years to fund their PPPs, including cost blow-outs. Some of us would have reconsidered the value of PPPs in light of this, but not The Age. Apparently, the benefits of providing more schools quickly and the fact that our country will "sort out its own needs in relation to PPPs" is sufficient to counter the Scottish experience.

      "Meanwhile, commercial-in-confidence rules will stop taxpayers from knowing where their money is being spent, while private operators are allowed to make their presence on campus worth their while.

      "In answer to the closing question in the editorial — "What value do you place on your child's education?" — could it be that the Government is simply trying to put a layer of responsibility between itself and the education system, regardless of the cost?"

      Evert de Graauw, Wantirna
      
      

    • PPPs? Oh, please

      "In contrast to the quite clever title, "Give PPPs a chance", your editorial failed to make a single coherent argument in favour of them.

      "The sole recurring theme was that "the demand in this state is so urgent and the shortage so chronic that engaging in PPPs seems an eminently sensible method of solving the problem" of school infrastructure.

      "It is offensive to counter those who oppose PPPs with the rhetorical question "what value do you place on your child's education?" The choice of PPP or full-government provision is essentially one of financing. It has nothing to do with urgency. Indeed, it would be quicker for the Government to simply go it alone.

      "Debt is typically cheaper for government, but the idea that government should not be in debt has taken on the status of urban myth. PPP ideologues maintain that private is more efficient compared to the intrinsic incompetence of government. Yet PPPs rely, for their success, on governments outsmarting the very best Macquarie bankers. We have only to look at the two examples you quote, Southern Cross Station and EastLink, to see the results."

      Chris Lloyd, Carlton
      
      

    • Premier and the paradox

      "Bent Flyvberg, a Danish planning professor and an international expert in mega-projects and risk management, addressed senior managers on this subject at the University of Melbourne last month.

      "His message was unequivocal: the worldwide boom in mega-projects is despite their poor performance. Nine out of 10 PPPs overrun projected budgets, the failure borne with rare exception by taxpayers. Flyvberg explains this "mega-projects paradox" with the following formula: underestimation of costs plus overestimation of revenue plus undervaluing environmental impacts plus overvaluing economic development effects equals project approval.

      "To assert that our need for schools is so dire (through government neglect) that we must accept Treasury's all-or-nothing offer is an argument consistent with those put elsewhere.

      "Flyvberg argues that a combination of "strategic misrepresentation" by the proponent and optimism bias by government promotes such ill-considered and unaccountable decision-making. He and his associates have developed methods to counter this misinformation that are independently monitored, drawing on the past performance of comparable projects, rather than fanciful projections at time of bid.

      "Premier Brumby seems to exemplify the phenomenon of optimism bias, pressing on with PPPs despite his Government's independent evidence of their failure in Victoria to date. He should not be allowed to get away with it."

      Angela Munro, North Carlton

Tuesday 11 December

• The WACOT election results

  Government Sector
  Fiona Walker
  Denis McMahon
  Jacqueline Varris
  Marko Vojkovic
  Glyn Parry
  Ross Paton
  Christine Kelly
  

  Catholic Sector
  Greg Williams
  Peter Bothe

  Independent Sector
  Bruce Hancy

  Full voting details available at the Electoral Commission website
  
  

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Test benchmarks as low as 17pc (page 6)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "WA Primary school students were considered to be performing adequately in this year's Statewide literacy and numeracy assessment, even if they scored as low as 17 per cent in some of the tests.

    "Using figures on the Department of Education and Training website, The West Australian has calculated that the minimum benchmarks students had to reach in the WALNA ranged from as low as about 175 to about 49 per cent.

    "The department refused to release the national benchmarks in percentage form, even though it has done so for the past three years. Instead, a department spokeswoman pointed to conversion tables on its website that show the minimum benchmark in Year 3 reading equated to just 6 questions correct out of 31 and 7 out of 42 for writing.

    "This converted to those students needing a score of just 19 per cent for reading, 39 per cent for numeracy and 17 per cent for writing to achieve the benchmarks. Year 5 students needed 29 per cent for reading, 32 per cent for numeracy and 26 per cent for writing. Year 7s had the highest benchmarks at 49 per cent for reading, 34 per cent for numeracy and 33 per cent for writing to be classed as meeting the minimum acceptable standard.

    "There was no benchmark for spelling because part of the assessment included how well students performed in their writing task.

    "About 70,000 students sat the WA assessment in August. In each subject and each year level more than 80 per cent achieved the benchmarks, except for Year 7 spelling, which was slightly below 80 per cent.

    "The results for State schools were slightly lower than scores achieved by all students in all schools. Private schools have refused to release their results separately.

    "The department refused to check The West Australian's calculations because it said it did not mark in percentages. Acting curriculum standards executive director David Axworthy said feedback from parents showed they preferred the WALNA individual report. "A percentage point also does not provide a clear indication of a student's performance in comparison to others in the same year," he said.

    "But shadow education minister Peter Collier said the data were meaningless if parents did not know where the minimum had been set.

    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said the bar seemed to be very low. "Parents need to have the information so they can make a value judgement on where their child actually sits in terms of their educational achievements and it's very difficult if you don't know what the benchmark is," he said.

    "However, University of WA education dean Bill Louden said the data was based on complex psychometric test and the benchmarks should not be interpreted as being a low score.

    "Minimum benchmarks were a level of performance, not an absolute score, and varied slightly from year to year, to reflect the difficulty of the testes," he said.

    "The WALNA tests were designed to spread the achievements of all students along a continuum - "and then to figure out how far up that chain of increasing difficulty each kid is," Professor Louden said.

    "The tests included a range of questions that almost everyone could do, up to those almost no one could do. Classroom tests where teachers might aim for a 50 per cent pass mark would have more easy questions to allow students to practise their skills." [emphasis added]

    From The West Australian

    
    

  • Boys tend to sum it up better than girls, but can't spell it out as well (page 6)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Boys are doing better at maths and girls better at reading and writing, the latest annual primary school tests show.

    "The WA Literacy and Numeracy results show that boys have failed to narrow the gap in communications skills in the past decade.

    "The 2007 data also reveal a decline in the reading and writing skills of indigenous Year 7 students since 2001, a trend education experts say is of grave concern.

    "The tests showed that students from non English speaking backgrounds achieved higher scores in writing at all year levels than their English speaking peers but did not do as well in reading. In maths, those children did better than their peers in Years 5 and 7 but not as well in Year 3.

    "The Kimberley, Mid West and Pilbara districts contained the highest proportion of students who failed to reach the minimum benchmarks.

    "University of WA education dean Bill Louden said this year's data show similar patterns to earlier years.

    "There's no significant evidence of decline in any of the groups," he said. "But nor is there any evidence of dramatic improvement."

    "Professor Louden said gender differences were small. "I think it just reflects a mild social preference of boys towards mathematical things, and girls towards communication," he said.

    "Department of Education and Training acting curriculum standards executive director David Axworthy said the differing rate of language development between boys and girls reflected worldwide trends. He said the poor performance of indigenous students at school was something that could be tackled only by a whole of government approach. Children who had health problems and did not attend school regularly could not be expected to do well academically.

    "Professor Louden said schools were working hard to turn around the difference in Aboriginal literacy and numeracy scores, but they had to contend with huge social problems. "The important thing about it is that early success in literacy is a protective factor," he said. "Indigenous kids who learn quickly and well at school, it really helps them overcome other difficulties."

    "Professor Louden said children from non English speaking backgrounds covered a wide range, with some students coming from very poor cultural backgrounds with other coming from families that strongly valued education."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 23)
    

    • Drastic Measure

      "I have been a teacher for 33 years and your headline (Aussie teens fall further behind world's best in reading and maths, 5/12) saddened me deeply but also made me very angry. Sad because it is only the beginning of our decline and angry because we need to arrest this trend, but all we get is rhetoric and spin.

      "I recently came across mathematics programmes that were set for our Years 8, 9 and 10 students in the early 90s and, comparing them to the programmes of today, it is blatantly evident that we have lowered our expectations quite dramatically in the past 15 years. The present lower secondary curriculum is comparatively simple. Why has this been allowed to happen? The obvious answer is that we are teaching to the lowest common denominator. What has happened to convince us that it is no longer desirable to expect students to come up to a standard.

      "I have two children in my Year 9 class who have the comprehension and numeracy age of Year 4 students. My anger for their inadequacies is directed at a system that has allowed them to get to this stage in their lives without any meaningful intervention. Sure, they have an aide who sits with them in the classroom to help them survive the lesson but very little is being done to build the skills they should have.

      "An even greater indictment is that it is no longer unusual to have kids like these in our high school classes. There are also a seemingly greater number of students who are happily oblivious to the meagre demands of the watered down curriculum and just drift lazily through most lessons. Their skills get weaker and we keep feeding the downward spiral by adjusting the content to suit their agenda.

      "Drastic measures are needed now to stop the slide into deeper mediocrity. Is there someone out there brave enough to insist that students have to earn their promotion to the next year of schooling and not just automatically follow their peers because there is a chronological fit? A return to the rigour demanded of previous generations would surely give the social engineers masquerading as our educators a collective heart attack!"

      Duncan Sandison, Canning Vale
      
      

    • Real Learning

      "Humans thrive on encouragement, recognition and achievement. However, from the youngest age we will quickly make excuses for our misdemeanours, errors or lack of success. Fundamentally, we tend to function at the level expected of us, seeking the easy road whenever possible - a logical human trait.

      "To revolutionise Australian education, I believe it is necessary to make students accountable for performing at their optimum level.

      "Clearly the Australian system currently provides and environment for students to achieve way below their potential and capabilities. Accepting mediocrity and rewarding minimum accomplishments has created a "soft" and vulnerable generation of young people evolving in our country.

      "Many parents have "dropped the ball" and schools have become social rather than academic institutions. This is very evident in public schools.

      "A warm and fuzzy environment is fine until one is faced with reality. We live in a highly competitive world which has little empathy for the unprepared and naïve. If we are to change direction it is imperative that the students are made accountable for both their academic performance and general behaviour. Far too many classes today are geared towards managing student behaviour rather than producing academic excellence.

      "A national core curriculum must be introduced, supported by a contracted viable mechanism to facilitate real learning. I suggest money invested in improving the quality and number of "assistant" teachers would enhance the quality of instruction at all levels as the students requiring assistance would be accommodated. I agree that technology must be embraced but a computer in each student's hands will not suffice, Mr Rudd."

      David Ross, Perth
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
• Remote students lagging in maths
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "Maths students in remote areas of Australia are falling behind their overseas counterparts, with an international ranking showing them below US children and on a par with those in Italy, Portugal and Croatia.

  "The results mean students in country Australia are failing to match the standards achieved in the top 30 OECD nations.

  "Scores from the Program for International Student Assessment tests of 15-year-olds conducted by the OECD show scores in the maths test fell 25 points between 2003 and 2006.

  "Overall, remote students scored 58 points lower than their peers in the cities in maths skills, 50 points lower in reading, and 57 points lower in science skills.

  "The PISA results, released last week, show Australia's students are failing to keep pace with their international peers.

  "While Australian students performed within the top 10 of the world in reading, maths and science skills, their ranking has dropped over the past six years.

  "The reading scores of Australian students fell about 15 points, with the decline mainly caused by a drop among the top-performing students.

  "In maths, Australia's mean score remained about the same, but the OECD report says this was due to an improvement among the weakest students, which counteracted the fall among the top students.

  "An analysis by the National Centre for Science, ICT and Mathematics for Rural and Regional Australia at the University of New England in northern NSW shows the biggest drop in maths skills occurred among remote students.

  "Centre director John Pegg said the only way to arrest Australia's slide in the international rankings was to lift the improvement of rural and remote students.

  "Professor Pegg said the city students had maintained their scores over the past three years, with the biggest drops in maths skills attributable to rural and remote students.

  "The PISA report says the maths scores for city students fell marginally, from 528 to 526, while provincial students dropped from 515 to 508 points, and remote students fell from 493 to 468 points.

  "An analysis of PISA results by the Australian Council for Educational Research says remote students were achieving about 18 months behind their counterparts in metropolitan schools in all the assessment areas.

  "It is recognised that schools in remote areas face problems such as attracting and retaining qualified teachers, maintaining services and providing resources, and in their capacity to send staff to participate in professional development, which may impinge on the quality of student outcomes," the report says.

  "Professor Pegg said more than 120 projects supporting teachers and students in rural communities had been initiated since 2005, but a more cohesive approach was required. One of the main challenges was to attract and retain teachers qualified in maths and science." [emphasis added]
  
  From The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Editorial
  Misreading history
  
  "It's not full moon for another fortnight, but the opinion page of The Age is already in lunar orbit. The "culture warriors", according to columnist Ray Cassin yesterday, have been "vanquished" and left to bray "impotently at the moon while the rest of Australia gets on with life". The Australian's columnists Christopher Pearson's and Janet Albrechtsen's appointments to Howard government boards were noted, although similar or greater largesse advanced by Labor to mates such as David Hill, Brian Johns, Rod Cameron and John Bannon went unmentioned.
  
  "While consistent with The Age’s status as the bastion of mainstream Left opinion for 40 years, this world view is disjointed from Australia’s present-day realpolitik. Regardless of the rewriting of history by the Melbourne Left, electors in areas such as Caboolture and Bribie Island were not endorsing the discourses of Guy Rundle and Robert Manne when they voted former indigenous affairs minis-ter Mal Brough out of Longman at the election. Their motives owed more to the view advanced by then-Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd in October last year that Labor’s response to the Howard government needed to be grounded in ‘‘Adam Smith and the market with social responsibility, rather than in Karl Marx and madness’’. From the NSW central coast north to Cairns, where the culture wars are largely ignored, voters on November 24 responded to Mr Rudd’s mantra that ‘‘working families’’ battling to make ends meet missed out too much on the fruits of the economic boom. Many of the same voters, including those whom John Howard won over from One Nation, felt reassured by Mr Rudd’s pre-election commitment to The Australian’s Paul Kelly that a Labor govern-ment, too, would turn back refugee boats headed for our shores. These factors contributed to a victory for the politics of pragmatism, which was quite the reverse of a new dawn for the Left.

  "And however unpalatable for some, the ‘‘culture warriors’’ have carried the day on significant matters such as the teaching of narrative history in preference to ‘‘justice’’ studies, and the restoration of rigour in maths and English in a national curriculum. [emphasis added] Rarely advanced even a decade ago, such positions are now mainstream and bipartisan, with the Rudd Government committed to action rather than rhetoric. This position came about after prolonged, vigorous and compre-hensive debate, to which this news-paper is committed. Unlike those who would silence one side of vital argu-ments, The Australian’s opinion page prides itself on its pluralism, and values Phillip Adams, Mike Steketee and Michael Costello every bit as much as their ideological opponents. But far from ‘‘baying impotently at the moon’’, those in the front lines of the culture wars have been vindicated far more than they have been van-quished. To argue otherwise is to misread recent history."

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Letter to the Editor
  
  
  • First Byte
    
    "It’s not surprising academic standards in Australian schools have dropped. Almost every Australian child has an ipod, a TV and a computer — substitutes for books, facts, rigour and reality."
    
    Mervyn Myhill, Annandale, Qld
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Rudd's bid for peace with states
    by Katharine Murphy and David Rood with AAP
    
    "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has moved quickly on his election promise to make peace between Canberra and the states, setting up a landmark meeting with premiers and territory leaders next week..."
    
    "The December 20 summit will be a watershed — the first official gathering of the federation where the leaders are all from the Labor Party — and it will seek to draw a line over John Howard's combative approach to Commonwealth-state relations..."
    
    "What I'm signalling firmly, strongly today is it's time for the buck-passing to end and it's time for the real work, with sleeves rolled up, to begin," Mr Rudd said yesterday.
    
    "The meeting will cover [amongst other agenda items]: Education and the so-called "productivity agenda", which includes early childhood education, a national curriculum, providing computers to schools, lifting year 12 retention rates and introducing the promised trades training centres in schools..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Dissent for Brumby's school plan
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Premier John Brumby is facing internal ALP dissent over his decision to use public-private partnerships to build new government schools.

    "In a contentious policy shift for the Government, Mr Brumby announced last week that 10 schools in Melbourne's outer suburbs would be built in partnership with private companies for the first time in Victoria.

    "The Government insists the move would allow schools to be built more efficiently and free up time for principals who would otherwise have to deal with maintenance issues.

    "But senior Labor figures have raised concerns about the value for money of PPPs, and have warned that the move could become the subject of heated debate at next year's state Labor conference. One senior member of the ALP economics policy committee questioned the Government's decision to use the private sector to finance new schools rather than debt funding, which he argued would be less risky.

    "Another senior Labor source said Labor's long-standing debate over PPPs was certain to "rear its head" and spark "a level of angst" among the party's rank and file leading up to the state conference next year.

    "If you can mount the case that PPPs are better value for money, more efficient and more effective, then no one is going to oppose that. But I don't think that argument has been sufficiently made by the Government as far as PPPs in schools go," one source said.

    "Under the Government's plan, a yet-to-be-chosen private sector consortium will build 10 new schools around Melbourne and then be responsible for maintaining them over the next 25 years. The company would receive payments for the school once it was built and approved by the Government, and would then be paid annual operational costs.

    "Taxpayers will spend up to an estimated $200 million to build the new schools in suburbs such as Cranbourne, Point Cook and Lyndhurst over the next four years, while the rest will be financed through private investment.

    "But the use of PPPs for major infrastructure projects has been a political sore point for Mr Brumby, who was rebuked by Labor's rank and file at the last state Labor conference amid claims there was too much Government secrecy surrounding PPPs.

    "Mr Brumby subsequently promised to be more transparent over PPP contracts. The Government must now provide a summary of each PPP within three months of a contract being signed.

    "Education Minister Bronwyn Pike's spokesman, Matt Nurse, said yesterday schools would only be approved as PPPs "if they represent good value for money".

    "The best thing about these projects is that they will allow principals and teachers to focus on what they do best — helping our students to learn," he said."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Academics want in on Rudd's plan
    by Bridie Smith with Jewel Topsfield
    
    "More than 140 senior academics have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over concerns that universities could be overlooked in Labor's "education revolution".
    
    "La Trobe University professor of philosophy and Academics Australia spokesman Andrew Brennan said that after a decade of underfunding universities had become so desperate for revenue that they were treating full-fee paying international students as "cash-crops", rather than focusing on providing quality courses.
    
    "Professor Brennan said this not only made local institutions vulnerable to outside forces such as the high Australian dollar, it could also see Australia's reputation as a desirable destination for foreign students collapse within a decade.

    "The reason that overseas students keep coming is because of the prestige attached to having a degree from Australia," he said. "But if things continue the way they are, that won't last."

    "Foreign students represent about 25% of the student population.

    "Professor Brennan said federal funding had failed to keep up with the cost of educating students. He said because of this universities were increasingly reliant on full-fee paying international students.

    "The academics have also called on Labor to repeal the Howard government's voluntary student unionism legislation, reduce administrative costs and increase funding for research as well as fund postgraduate places.

    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard, who yesterday met the peak representative body for vice-chancellors, Universities Australia, said the Government wanted to "make sure that across the education spectrum we are investing in more resources".

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Call for report cards to record exercise
    
    School report cards should include time spent exercising as one way of tackling the obesity epidemic because taxes on fatty foods and television advertising bans will not work, a health policy expert has said.

 

Wednesday 12 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • Alarm as teachers dwindle
    by Guy Healy
    
    "Entry scores for future teachers are predicted to fall despite criticism they are already too low, as demand for teaching places plummets across the nation.

    "Applications for teaching places had plunged by 30 per cent over two years in Queensland, and Western Australia is unlikely to fill places for the coming year.

    "A leading educator, University of Queensland academic Ken Wiltshire, said teaching wasn't "attracting enough knowledgeable or intelligent people".

    "It's a crisis. The tertiary entrance ranks are too low. The status of the profession is too low. We need to be talking it up and offering performance pay," said Professor Wiltshire, who ran the Queensland Government's curriculum review.

    "Latest figures for Queensland show applications this year were down almost 23 per cent on 2006, on top of a 7 per cent to 8 per cent drop the previous year, adding up to a total drop of 30 per cent.

    "In Victoria, applications for entry in 2007 and 2008 were down 12 per cent, after increasing by 2.5 per cent the previous year.

    "The numbers in WA fell by 15per cent between 2006 and this year, and there is a further 2per cent decline in entrants for next year, which means the available places cannot be filled. At the University of Western Australia, teaching is reportedly at 75 per cent capacity.

    "In NSW the picture is mixed: some institutions have indicated double-digit drops in applications, while others are holding steady.

    "Steve Dinham, research director (teaching and leadership) at the Australian Council for Educational Research, described the latest figures as "quite startling", as demand had been building strongly in the previous five years, and this was reflected in rising entry requirements.

    "Potential student teachers were sensitive to media portrayals of the profession, especially press reports about violent and disengaged students, he said. He suggested the ABC's hit drama Summer Heights High might have promoted a "that looks too tough for me" effect.

    "UWA education dean Bill Louden said there had been numerous government inquiries into teacher education since 1979, "but to surprisingly little effect.

    "Teaching is looking less attractive as a profession than it has been in the past. The profession and employers will have to work much harder on persuading the kinds of altruistic young people who have always entered teaching that it's a worthy occupation," Professor Louden said.

    "He said key research had shown that the proportion of women from the top 40 per cent of ability entering teaching had halved during the past two decades as they chose other professions, and the proportion from the second lowest 20 per cent going into the profession had doubled. [emphasis added]

    "Australian Council of Deans of Education president Sue Willis said the most important thing Education Minister Julia Gillard could do was to read the report of the inquiry into teacher education, tabled in parliament last February, and "use that as a starting point".

    "Professor Willis also hoped Ms Gillard would revisit the embargo on variable HECS for education and boost the base funding for teacher education.

    "ACER chief executive Geoff Masters said it was well known that "if you really want to makea difference in schooling, you need to improve the quality of teaching by attracting more and better teachers, and keeping them".

    "Under present arrangements, they hit a ceiling at about $60,000 to $70,000, and go into management or go outside teaching," Professor Masters said. "But we need to pay our better teachers to stay in the classroom (and) to continue to develop as highly accomplished teachers."

    "The Business Council of Australia has called for an increase in top teacher salaries to $130,000. Barry McGaw, former Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development education director and now director of the University of Melbourne Education Research Institute, said "the barrier to entry isn't the cost of training, it's the reward upon graduation. Maximum pay is reached (by) about age 30 and is only 1.7 times the starting salary." [emphasis added]

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Maths and science students drown in debt
    by Guy Healy
    
    "The country's deans of education have challenged the incoming Labor Government to provide basic detail on whether the $111million pre-election promise to boost student recruitment to maths and science faculties will help aspiring teachers who are already studying.

    "Australian Council of Deans of Education president Sue Willis told the HES yesterday that the deans welcomed the promise to effectively cut HECS payments for maths and science teachers by about $3000 a year.

    "In one of the few substantial election promises concerning universities, Labor leader Kevin Rudd also promised to provide a further 50 per cent reduction on such students' HECS fees if they stayed in maths and science after graduating.

    "We welcome the recognition to address these issues, but since we haven't seen any detail we don't know whether it will come in time to assist young beginning teachers who have already racked up considerable debt," Professor Willis said.

    "Monash researcher Ian Dobson recently told the Australian Council of Deans of Science in a commissioned report that despite a significant increase in science enrolments in the period from 2002 to 2005, the long-term absolute decline in chemistry, physics and mathematics should ring alarm bells.

    "Dr Dobson, describing the extra charges as discriminatory, estimated that science teachers with a bachelor of science and a diploma of education were likely to enter the workforce with a HECS debt about $5000 higher than an equivalent bachelor of arts plus DipEd graduate as a direct result of differential HECS, introduced from 1997.

    "Newly minted science teacher Kelly Fraser is among the pool of thousands of altruistic young people who have done the hard yards of study and now face life in the classroom with a HECS debt, in her case of about $22,700.

    "Ms Fraser, 21, said she was unaware of the extra charges for science: "They have kept that quiet. I wasn't aware of that. None of my friends in science was aware they were paying more for their degrees. But I am a bit blase about it. I paid what I had to."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Concerns over work readiness prompt Curtin overhaul
    by Brendan O'Keefe
    
    "There is a disconnect between what employers want from their graduate recruits and what universities deliver, an industry analyst has told the HES.

    "Employers have, to some extent, unrealistic expectations as to what graduates should be able to do," Australian Association of Graduate Employers chief executive Ben Reeves said.

    "The AAGE, in its annual survey of bosses' hiring habits, found that one in six companies thought universities had not prepared their graduates well. Only 2per cent of the 180 surveyed employers thought graduates were "very well prepared" for work; 82 per cent thought graduates were "quite well prepared".

    "Employers feel graduates should be work-ready from day one and able to perform at a high level," Mr Reeves said.

    "Universities come from a different perspective. They say (their) role is to educate from an academic and theoretical standpoint."

    "At Curtin University in Western Australia, the curriculum is undergoing an overhaul to make graduates more employable. The long-term plan aims to change all courses by 2010. [emphasis added]

    "Curriculum 2010 manager Beverley Oliver said: "In every course in every unit, all learning outcomes are to be aligned with graduate attributes."

    "Professor Oliver said a pharmacy student, for example, would be assessed on communication skills in "writing lab reports and communicating with patients in the pharmacy and hospital".

    "Collette Swindells, a journalism student, Student Guild president and a member of the 2010 committee, praised the program's focus on "thinking skills, communication and understanding of technical and professional skills".

    "It's about being ready in the sense that what you've studied ... can be applied straight away," she said."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Top charity shifts focus to education
    
    One of the nation's biggest charities, The Smith Family, has quit welfare to focus on education in recognition that traditional efforts are failing to tackle the root causes of social disadvantage.
    
    
    
  • Talks to soothe nerves
    
    The higher education sector's peak lobby group has moved to reassure an increasingly nervous academic community of the Rudd Government's focus on universities and its willingness to consider proposals aimed at realigning funding with real costs.
    
    
    
  • The good times roll for uni graduates
    
    Australian university graduates have enjoyed their best year for employment since 1990, and pay rates first year out continue to rise, according to Graduate Careers Australia.
    
    Similar stories in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers suspended over non-payment of fees
    
    "Thirty-eight Western Australian teachers are to be banned from teaching after failing to pay a $70 annual registration fee.

    "The educators, from 37 schools, did not pay the fee by yesterday afternoon's deadline and will be deregistered by the WA College of Teaching.

    "College Director Suzanne Parry says most of the teachers no longer wanted to work in the system and the deregistration was a formality.

    "Dr Parry says only a handful refused to pay as a sign of protest.

    "We have a few people who continue to see the non payment of their fees as a protest," she said.

    "How it will be resolved for those individual people really is in the hands of their employers."

    "The State School Teachers Union says it will not support teachers who refused to pay their annual membership fee as a sign of protest.

    "The union's Anne Gisborne says registration is necessary to protect the integrity of the profession.

    ""The matter on which people were objecting, which is their right to be represented by a dually elected teacher body, is now no longer something that is available as a reason," she said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Money, time theories don’t make the grade (page 21)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    "The bad news on the education front just keeps coming. In the past week or so, there have been new reports raising yet more concern for standards in our schools.
    
    "The latest report from the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment — the well-known triennial PISA study — shows that, in testing conducted among 15-year-olds last year, Australia’s results were not up to previous standards. In reading, we slipped from second place internationally to sixth; and in maths, from second to ninth.
    
    "Western Australia, as in the ABS study released last month, did relatively well within Australia. It seems that Australian students actually did not perform as well as before, rather than that students from other nations made up ground.
    
    "This was closely followed by a story about the crisis in our public schools based on a book newly published by the respected former Melbourne dean of education, Brian Caldwell. And now there is some very interesting analysis of the standards being used in our literacy and numeracy testing.
    
    "All of this is timely: we have a new Federal Government dedicated to major improvements in school education.
    
    "The prevailing policy context in Australian education is curiously closed. Accepted wisdom is still reluctant to consider problems of curriculum content and teaching method, particularly in the teaching of reading and writing and basic arithmetic. That wisdom concentrates instead on two old warhorses — that more money will fix almost anything and that more schooling will improve outcomes for students and society.
    
    "As to the first, Professor Caldwell has noted that even though we have trebled per capita expenditure on students in the past 30 years, there has been no commensurate improvement in outcomes. We can also refer now to the recent report by the international consultant, McKinsey and Co., which shows that per capita expenditure — at least among the wealthy nations — doesn’t make the vital difference at all. The study, incidentally, shows that Australia increased its real school expenditure by a bit more than 40 per cent from 1995 to 2003, only to see its PISA test scores decline. (The study concluded that three matters counted: getting the best teachers, getting the best out of those teachers, and intervening before students fall too far behind.)
    
    "The second notion, that more schooling will improve outcomes, is no more firmly founded.
    
    "It really took off as a part of the progressive educational credo in the late 1980s. By that time, it had been fairly widely demonstrated in the academic economics literature that higher educational skills correlated well with higher income and, as a bonus, with greater economic productivity. That notion still lies behind much that Kevin Rudd said during the election campaign. And it is, in general, still very roughly true; and it is powerful because it seems to be the simplest common sense. It is largely unquestioned as orthodoxy among educationalists, industry groups, unions and governments. But the picture needs to be drawn with much finer detail.
    
    "That detail is what makes a new paper from the Centre for Independent Studies so instructive. Written by Professor Peter Saunders, it is the first part of a longer study on “what are low ability workers to do when unskilled jobs disappear?”. In this first instalment, Professor Saunders explains why more education and training are not the answer.
    
    “Not everyone,” he says, “can benefit from extra schooling. Bright students who stay on at school tend to benefit by getting better jobs at higher pay, but it does not follow that their less able contemporaries will fare just as well if they too stay on longer. Indeed, pushing lower-ability people into courses designed for those of higher ability may even prove counterproductive.
    
    “In higher education, extending access further down the ability range has increased wastage and drop-out rates. And in schools, increased Year 12 retention rates have begun to produce diminishing — and even negative — returns.
    
    “A bright student who stays at school from Year 10 to Year 12 increases his or her full-time earnings on entering the labour market by 2 per cent a year, but an average student who does the same thing decreases their earnings by 3 per cent. Students who stay at school beyond Year 10 but do not complete Year 12 fare worse than those of comparable ability who leave at Year 10.
    
    “Among relatively low-ability students, more time spent at school correlates negatively with hourly wage rates, total earnings, and employment rates when they leave school. If your literacy and numeracy scores are below those considered necessary for successful completion of Year 12, your risk of unemployment rises by 3 percentage points if you decide to stay at school for two more years, and if you manage to find a job, your weekly full-time earnings will be 2.4 per cent lower for every additional year you spent at school.”
    
    "The whole study promises to make fascinating reading. But, there are several lessons already to be learnt from it. The first is simply that we need to concentrate resources where they will make the biggest difference. The second is that theory always needs to be verified by good research. The third, however, is perhaps less obvious.
    
    "Bright kids and kids from good homes with interested parents, will cope with almost anything and survive most of what dysfunctional school systems come up with. The markedly less able will not.
    
    "Basic skills need to be rock solid for two reasons. We need to be sure that the ones who do leave the system early are doing so for the right reasons, not just because their schooling has betrayed them and they present as less able rather than suffering from boredom, bad behaviour and underachievement simply because they can’t read.
    
    "Those students, mainly boys, now form an unacceptably big part of Year 11s and 12s. Whatever they finish up doing — laying bricks or holding down simple clerical or manual jobs — they must still be able to participate in a society which increasingly demands quite high standards of literacy and numeracy. When scarce educational resources are allocated, these students need to come pretty high in the queue." [emphasis added]
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Year 9 reading standard slips (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "More than half of Year 9 students in WA State schools failed to achieve satisfactory standards in reading, maths and science in this year's annual tests.
    
    "The tests, known as Monitoring Standards in Education Year 9 assessment, show that just 46 per cent of students who sat the reading test this year reached the standard, compared with 48 per cent in 2005.

    "Maths and science scores showed no significant change over the same period, with 46 per cent of students reaching an acceptable standard in maths and 45 per cent in science.

    "Writing scores improved dramatically, with 60 per cent of students achieving the acceptable standard compared with 50 per cent two years ago, but it would appear that was partly because the bar was set lower.

    "The Department of Education and Training said the MSE9 test standard represented "satisfactory achievement" but would not say what percentage a student needed to score to achieve the standard..."

    "But calculations by The West Australian using a table on the department's website show that students needed just 40 per cent in the writing test to achieve the standard, down from 49 per cent last year..."

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the level of cynicism in the community would increase if the department continued to release figures on student achievement without providing information on what the standard meant.

    "What we've seen over the past week will do little to dispel parents' concerns with regard to the performance of their children," he said.

    "But University of WA education dean Bill Louden said the Year 9 standard was set about the middle so it would be expected that half would fall below and half above the standard..."

    "What's helpful is to know where the kid is in the distribution." [Louden said] ...

    Full story in The West Australian
    

    
    
    
  • More overseas pupils to offset uni fee ban (page 4)
    
    See similar story in last Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
• Media Statement by Education Minister Mark McGowan
  
  
  • Back to basics as new K-10 syllabus unveiled
    
    A major new initiative to introduce higher standards and more rigorous course content in Years Kindergarten to 10 was unveiled by Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan today.

    Mr McGowan said the reintroduction of the Kindergarten to Year 10 syllabus at the beginning of the 2008 school year would mark the end of content-free and woolly objectives in education.

    “We want to assure parents that students are being provided with the highest standard of course content possible,” he said.

    “The fad of the 1990s to dispense with syllabus caused considerable anxiety among teachers, many of whom were left without any clear guidance about what to teach or how to assess students.

    “While the new syllabuses won’t be mandated, those who want the comfort of the syllabus and the range of resources that back it up, will be pleased to know they will have them at hand.”

    The Minister said the syllabuses were developed after extensive consultations with teachers, administrators and some of Australia’s finest academics.

    “In fact, more than 6,000 teachers and administrators, including practising early childhood, middle childhood and early adolescence teachers, were consulted as part of its development,” he said.

    Professor Gordon Stanley, who chaired a national panel of academics which reviewed and endorsed the K-10 syllabuses, said they placed Western Australian schools in an excellent position for the introduction of greater consistency in national curriculum.

    “These syllabuses have set a benchmark for other States, providing teachers with the flexibility and direction they need to give students the best learning experiences,” Professor Stanley said.

    “WA now has a curriculum framework and syllabuses with support materials of a quality and standard equal to international best practice.”

    Mr McGowan said the national panel had commended the WA syllabus for its inclusion of historical content as a sound basis for a greater emphasis on the teaching of history.

    “The panel also commended the explicit reference to play in the Early Childhood (K-3) syllabus as a means of supporting learning in the early years,” he said.

    The Minister said the reintroduction of the K-10 syllabus was one of a number of initiatives unveiled this year to ease teachers’ workloads and improve standards in WA schools.

    Other initiatives included:

    * directing schools to devote 50 per cent of teaching time on literacy and numeracy;
    * establishing randomly selected ‘teacher juries’ to review 50 new courses being introduced into senior school;
    * allowing teachers to assess students’ work using traditional percentage marks and grades (not levels and bands);
    * introducing compulsory exams for the majority of Year 11 and 12 students;
    * introducing more rigorous course content, including suggested text lists for English and Literature and compulsory Australian history in the modern history course; and
    * offering a pay deal to teachers - the biggest in the State’s history - that recognises those teachers who are in the most difficult and remote locations.
    
    The syllabuses and resources could be accessed by public school teachers online at portal.det.wa.edu.au. The syllabuses could also be accessed at http://k10syllabus.curriculum.wa.edu.au/project_home_view

    Mr McGowan said the Government would also be making the syllabus available to WA private schools.
    
    

  • I thought I'd put these ABC News and Sunday Times / PerthNow items here, since they're basically a cut and paste of McGowan's press release. Web
    
    ABC News
    

    • OBE a 90s fad: McGowan
      
      "The State Government has made a significant move away from the Outcomes Based Education by reintroducing a voluntary school syllabus for children from kindergarten to year 10.

      "The Government says the decision to abandon the syllabus in 1998 left teachers without clear guidance about what to teach or how to assess students.

      "The new course content will be reintroduced next year and will be available to public and private schools.

      "The Minister for Education, Mark McGowan, says while it will not be mandatory, he expects most teachers to take advantage of the new syllabus.

      "This is the end of a system that was in place which relied on an overarching framework with objectives, and allowed teachers just to use their skill and ingenuity, that was a philosophy, a fad, which was in place in the 1990s, we have now moved back to a syllabus."

      "Mike Keely from the State School Teachers' Union has welcomed the move, saying it will provide teachers with much needed support.

      "Well look, these are things the union has been pushing for for 6 years," he said. [emphasis added]

      "Teachers need good advice, they need advisory documents. My understanding is that's what these syllabuses are, thousands of teachers have been involved. Are they perfect? I have no doubt they're not, but they will give some certainty to teachers, they will give some support."

      "The Opposition's Education spokesman, Peter Collier, describes the move as a step in the right direction but says the Government should go further.

      "As far as I'm concerned, we need to remove the levels, the levels were never intended as a determinant of student progress," he said.

      'They are the final bastion of the outcomes based system. Remove the levels and return to student progress through traditional means." [emphasis added]

      From ABC News at link
      
      
      
  • The Sunday Times / Perth Now
    
    
    • WA dumps Outcomes Based Education (OBE)
      AAP
      
      "Western Australia has officially dumped the controversial Outcomes Based Education (OBE) program with the introduction of a new syllabus.
      
      "WA Education Minister Mark McGowan today announced the reintroduction of a kindergarten to year 10 syllabus at the beginning of the 2008 school year.

      "In a reference to the controversial OBE program, which was heavily criticised by teachers, Mr McGowan said the new content would mark the end of "content free and woolly objectives in education''.

      "We want to assure parents that students are being provided with the highest standard of course content possible,'' Mr McGowan said.

      "The fad of the 1990s to dispense with syllabus caused considerable anxiety among teachers, many of whom were left without any clear guidance about what to teach or how to assess students.''

      "The minister said the new syllabuses were developed in consultation with more than 6,000 teachers, administrators and academics.

      "Among the changes, the new syllabus places a greater emphasis on history teaching, and the importance of play for kindergarten to year three children.

      "State School Teachers Union of Western Australia president Mike Keely welcomed the move, saying it would bring certainty and support to teachers." [emphasis added]
      
      From The Sunday Times / Perth Now at link




• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
• Op Ed
  Love of reading opens up a world of possibilities
  by Tanya Plibersek
  
  "The novel Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austen's less read works, has a gentle dig at the contorted plotlines and melodramatic expression of the gothic novels popular in the author's day.

  "But still Austen offers a defence of the novel, having her hero Henry Tilney say, "the person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid".

  "Today's students need Jane Austen (and other authors who have stood the test of time) as much as ever. Good fiction is not a waste of time..."
  
  "Studying English should be more than just learning to communicate. It should be learning to love language. Of course, students need the basic skills of literacy - spelling, punctuation, grammar, a broad vocabulary - but complex and creative thinking relies on a playfulness with language that is bred by immersion in all its possibilities..."
  
  "In a world where teenagers are exposed to consumerism, early sexualisation, self-destructive behaviour and the prevailing message that if they want something they should have it (and happiness lies in getting everything you want), diving into a world that confronts them with moral dilemmas can open up parts of their minds that are otherwise not challenged. How many young people first thought about apartheid in South Africa after reading Alan Paton's great novels?

  "We want young Australians exposed to the best the English language has to offer, including the best colloquial expressions of it, because we want to develop the part of the brain that feeds creativity and complexity, that understands subtlety and wit, that allows higher communication and an ability to see things from the perspective of another.

  "Several years ago the Singapore Government realised that the education system of Singapore, while excellent, did not foster creativity in students. Since 2004 the Government has adopted a policy of "teach less, learn more", which aims for "less dependence on rote learning, repetitive tests and a 'one size fits all' type of instruction, and more on experiential discovery, engaged learning, differentiated teaching, the learning of life-long skills, and the building of character …"

  "One of the reasons cited for this change was that students needed to be better innovators for the good of the economy. Well, there is that, but reading good literature happens to be delightful, too."

  Tanya Plibersek is a Federal Government minister and the federal member for Sydney.
  
  Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
  
  
  

• Letters to the Editor
  

  • The low-paid casual academics who carry the university burden
    
    "Associate Professor Michele Scoufis has drawn attention to the problem of grade inflation in universities ("Casual teachers inflating grades" December 7). She attributes this to the poor monitoring by the universities of an increasing number of casual academics. If only it were that simple.

    "Universities generally do not value quality teaching. Their international rankings and, by extension, the status of their chancellery staffs, come from research. For tenured academics, research brings with it promotion, attendance at prestigious overseas conferences, and relief from the tedium of teaching. Yet much of this research is industry sponsored and is not related to the social and educational needs of the community.

    "The difficulty of recruiting quality tenured academics for the salaries universities are able to pay must be having an effect on the quality of both teaching and supervision. Casuals can carry out the equivalent of a full-time teaching load on less than half the salary of a tenured academic - hence their attractiveness. They are not necessarily less qualified than their tenured academic supervisors; in some areas they are more experienced and better able to relate subject matter to students. Yet they have no input into the content or the assessment of the courses they teach.

    "Despite this, casual academics are subject to evaluations by students that often bear no relationship to the syllabus, and which do not allow a critique of the adequacy of the facilities provided by the university - facilities over which a casual academic has no control. Until evaluation is related to specific measurable academic results students will be able to use it as an opportunity to exact revenge on a lecturer who has sought to impose rigorous standards.

    "With more than 25 per cent of university income coming from fee-paying students - many with hard luck stories - the pressures on all academic staff, but particularly casuals, to go soft on assessment are heavy and pervasive.

    "Perversely, some universities seem to have recognised that if they can raise their international rankings, albeit by meeting criteria that do not address teaching quality, they can ensure a supply of fee-paying students and raise entry levels. The better the inputs, the easier the educational task. The rising use of casual academics is one part of this bigger picture."

    H.E. Hayward, Turramurra
    
    

  • Parents know best about flab

    "Yet another policy that delegates parental responsibilities to government institutions ("Call for report cards to record exercise", December 11). Surely a parent can tell if a child is active or lazy and doesn't need to read a school report to assess the situation. Spending time with your children should be sufficient."

    V. Gilmore Hornsby Heights
    
    
    

• The Age
  

  • HECS 'should be paid from abroad'
    
    University graduates who go overseas for longer than six months should have to pay the minimum HECS repayment every year while they are away, according to the architect of the deferred loans scheme, Bruce Chapman.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Contracts 'a kick'

      "I would like to express my anger and disgust at the treatment of Victorian teachers. My wife, who, for the past three years, has given her all to the thankless task of teaching, has now been effectively sacked.

      "Not for performing poorly, but for havi