Monday 5 May

Tuesday 6 May

Wednesday 7 May

Thursday 8 May

Friday 9 May

Saturday – Sunday, 10 – 11 May

 

Monday 5 May

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Internet the new classroom (page 15)
    by Bethany Hiatt and Beatrice Thomas

    "WA's teaching shortage is forcing more TEE students to study over the internet as specialist teachers become increasingly scarce.

    "The Flexible Learning in Schools program, in which students use computer technology to join in classes taking place in city schools, started with 17 pupils in three State high schools two years ago.

    "This year the program has been extended to nine schools and 80 students studying six TEE subjects, including physics, chemistry, geography, economics and mathematics.

    "Lance Twomey, who chaired a wide-ranging review into the teacher shortage last year, said it was another option that could help overcome the shortage of specialist teachers in areas such as maths and science. He said he could not pre-empt his report, which is still to be released by Education Minister Mark McGowan more than four months after completion, but it is expected to recommend extending flexible learning to other schools.

    "I think these are wonderful programs," he said. "From that perspective, it would be a bit strange if it wasn't in my report." [emphasis added]

    "Department of Education and Training Schools of Isolated and Distance Education director Jan Little said flexible learning provided a wider range of TEE subjects to Year 11 and 12 students.

    "Flexible learning differs from correspondence packages provided by SIDE in that the curriculum is taught by teachers using a "virtual classroom" instead of students working at their own pace through printed and computer resources supplied by SIDE. In a virtual classroom students and teachers talk to each other using video link-ups. Students are supervised at their own school by a non-specialist teacher and lessons recorded for future reference. They can also communicate with the specialist teacher by email, phone or post.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the scheme was just another way of hiding the true extent of the teacher shortage.

    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said while it would be ideal for every class to have its own teacher, it was better to study a course online than not to have the option of studying the subject at all.

    "The State School Teachers Union yesterday used a May Day rally in Fremantle to step up its campaign for better pay conditions by declaring it would take its message to the streets.

    "Speaking to a crowd of about 100 teachers before the May Day March, union president Anne Gisborne described the Government's handling of the teachers' pay dispute as short-sighted and in no way reflective of an Education Department in crisis.

    "The union also launched a new bus under the banner "teachers have had enough", which from tomorrow will pick up teachers after school and take them to marginal metropolitan and regional electorates for the next five to six weeks.

    "Mr McGowan yesterday maintained that the Government wanted to make sure WA teachers were among the best paid in Australia.

    "We are attempting to enter arbitration so that we can resolve this matter as soon as possible," he said."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • 'Melbourne model' woos State's top students (page 17)
    
    WA's brightest are chasing tertiary degrees with a difference
    
    The University of Melbourne is continuing to attract WA's top TEE students with large scholarships and its American-style liberal arts curriculum.
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Victorian teachers to be nation's best-paid [online update]
    by Farrah Tomazin [with AAP]
    
    "The education union has hailed a deal that will make Victorian teachers the highest-paid in the country as the best deal for its members in more than 25 years.

    "The agreement between the State Government and the Australian Education Union (AEU) resolves a 14-month industrial row, which included three statewide teachers' strikes and weeks of rolling half-day stoppages.

    "The unions had threatened to walk off the job from May 13 to 15, disrupting during the first national literacy and numeracy tests. The resolution of the industrial dispute means those tests are now likely to go ahead without disruption.

    "AEU Victorian branch president Mary Bluett said it was the best enterprise bargaining deal for teachers that she had seen in 25 years with the union.

    11% rise for some

    "However, there appears to be some contention over the increases announced by Premier John Brumby and Education Minister Bronwyn Pike this morning.

    "The Government says the deal will equate to a 4.9% pay rise in the first year and 2.7% in the second and third years of the agreement.

    "But the union believes some of biggest beneficiaries of the deal will get between 8% and 11%. [emphasis added]

    "It's a complex arrangement, but the least any teacher is going to get out of this is somewhere between five and six per cent per annum,'' Ms Bluett said.

    "This is the best outcome in terms of salary and career structure in my history as a union official of 25 years standing,'' Ms Bluett said.

    Pupil-free days to stay

    "A key sticking point in negotiations was the issue of pupil-free days, which the Government had originally wanted to abolish.

    "Under the new deal, three pupil free training days will be brought to the start of the term and become professional training days and only one will be held mid-term, in a bid to minimise disruption to parents.

    "It also includes an exits strategy to remove disengage teachers from classroom and find them new jobs.

    "Secondary students will get an extra six days of tuition each year under the deal, Mr Brumby said, describing it as a win for students and teachers.

    "A graduate teacher in Victoria currently earns $46,127 and under this agreement will become the highest-paid graduate teacher in the country earning $51,184, while an experienced classroom teacher will receive a $10,000 pay rise to $75,500."

    "Mr Brumby said the pay deal was consistent with the Government's wages policy of a 3.25% rise every year, plus increases off-set by service improvement.

    One-off payments

    "Teachers would keep one marking and report writing day at the end of semester one, Mr Brumby said.

    "Teachers also will receive a one-off payment of $1,000 and principals $2,000 at the agreement's start.

    "Ms Pike said the deal would increase all teachers' pay, make teacher graduates the highest-paid in the country, give high-performing principals executive contracts and create six more days tuition a year for secondary school students.

    "She said teachers would now implement a school reform process encouraging the best teachers to move to schools where they were most needed and encouraging high-performing graduates in other fields to enter teaching.

    Battle over

    "Victorian teachers had demanded that the Government match their salaries with those of NSW teachers.

    "They had sought a 10% pay rise each year for the next three years and a reduction in short-term contract employment.

    "But the Government had stuck to its offer of a 3.25% annual rise, in line with its public sector wages policy.

    "After a statewide strike earlier this year and weeks of rolling stoppages, teachers threatened to sabotage the national literacy and numeracy tests with a series of four-hour stoppages.

    "The Australian Education Union also won public support after an advertising campaign showing the disparity of incomes between teachers and other professionals and their interstate counterparts.

    "State Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu last month vowed to spend $396 million over three years on teachers' wages to boost them from being the lowest-paid teachers in the country to the highest-paid."
    
    From The Age at link

  Key points * State-by-state teacher salaries: * Maximum for a classroom teacher * Victoria - 2007: $65,414, 2008: $75,500 * NSW - 2007: $72,454, 2008: $75,352 * Queensland - 2007: $69,225, 2008: $71,994 * South Australia - 2007: $68,422, 2008: $68,422 * West Australia - 2007: $67,446, 2008: $71,206 * ACT - 2007: $71,767, 2008: $74,279 * Northern Territory: 2007: $70,047, 2008: $72,849 * * Graduate Entry * Victoria - 2007: $46,127, 2008: $51,184 * NSW - 2007: $49,050, 2008: $50,522 * Queensland - 2007: $46,950, 2008: $48,829 * South Australia - 2007: $49,605, 2008: $49,605 * West Australia - 2007: $44,618, 2008: $45,733 * ACT: 2007: $50,781, 2008: $50,781 * Northern Territory: $49,944, 2008: $49,944 * * Source: Victorian Government

  
  Similar AAP story at The West Australian online at link
  
  

  • The Monday Education Section has 12 stories (many offering advice to TEE students), including:
    

    • Larger classes not the answer
      by Geoff Maslen
      

      "Only an academic, safe in his book-lined office on La Trobe University's green campus, could argue that class sizes in schools should be enlarged almost 50 per cent and that teachers should confront 35 hormone-charged and often obstreperous teenagers for six or more hours every day.

      "You have to wonder whether Dr John Hirst (as reported in The Age, 23/4) has ever taught in a school or been in a classroom since he left one 50 or more years ago. To suggest that children's education would be improved by cramming 35 big or even little children into a room, just to increase teachers' salaries, ignores the effect this over-crowding has on teacher and taught.

      "Dr Hirst argued that class sizes were not a "strong determinant of good education: the key factor is the quality of the teachers". He said the importance of good teachers was now generally acknowledged, as was the need to pay them much more; so he proposed that if class sizes were increased from 25 to 35, teachers could be paid 50% more from existing funds, without any strain on the state budget.

      "But no adults, outside the military or prison, would tolerate being forced to squeeze behind a desk and told to be quiet and get on with their work for hour after hour each day. Only because children are not grown-ups and have no rights can society condone them being incarcerated in school for 40 weeks a year for 13 long years.

      "That more young Australians don't rebel against the restrictions school places on them - the demand that they wear uniforms, to line up before going into class, to sit in not always quiet, ordered rows, to accept the knowledge meted out to them in steady doses by their teachers - is because they have been taught passivity. They have come to accept that being there is part of the business of stepping across childhood's threshold, even if the relevance of school to their present needs or their future aspirations remains obscure.

      "Dr Hirst backs his argument for bigger class sizes by claiming research shows class sizes are not a strong determinant of a good education. That depends on what a "good" education means and how it is assessed; if the measure is success in tests or examinations, then it ignores the effect of a crowded classroom on children's emotions, on their creativity and spontaneity, on their capacity to grow and develop as individuals, to become independent learners and thinkers.

      "More than 20 years ago, the then Australian Schools Commission called for more effective schooling, not approaches that were aimless or lacking in concern for excellence, or which might be regarded as soft options. The commission rejected the idea of students as empty vessels to be slowly filled with knowledge, instead noting that people - not just children - learn only when they are actively engaged by what is being taught.

      "But actively engaging students in what is being taught gets harder the more students the teacher has to confront. I began my teaching career in front of 45 wild-eyed boys at Footscray Tech in the late 1950s and continued taking large classes for mathematics in the years that followed, before the teacher unions began forcing a reluctant Education Department to accept smaller class sizes.

      "I was rated an outstanding teacher by the teams of inspectors that used to visit schools in those days but I never believed that good teachers could achieve as much with 40 or 50 students as with 20 or 30. How could you spend more than a minute or two helping a child when you had to watch what the other 35 or 40 were doing all the time?

      "How could you possibly get to know something about each student, what their learning problems were, how to boost their enthusiasm for learning when, in secondary school, you might only see them for a few hours each week and then not for an extended period?

      "Few academics and few parents can really appreciate the sorts of demands a large class makes on a teacher, or the effect being in one large class after another has on the youngsters. Academics protest when their tutorials have more than 15 students and become alarmed if the number exceeds 20, arguing it is impossible for a genuine intellectual exchange to take place. And, of course, they are correct.

      "Parents panic when their child announces that 20 other children are coming to the birthday party. A couple of hours of celebratory, sugar-charged juveniles is enough to exhaust most adults, so imagine what it is like for teachers who have to face that exuberance every day.

      "No, bigger classes are not the answer, although different ways of organising schools could be. As the commission argued all those years ago, schools should be liberating institutions, places that set their students free rather than shackle them to images of their own inadequacy or mistaken perspectives about the nature of learning."

      Geoff Maslen is a former education editor of The Age and now edits University World News - a global online higher education newspaper.

      From The Age at link

    
    
    • GAT - a form of protection
      by David Philips
      

      "Each year, with the mid-year VCE examinations, comes the General Achievement Test, known as the GAT. You are required to take the GAT if you are enrolled for even one VCE Level 3-4 sequence, including a Level 3-4 VET (vocational education and training) unit.

      "If you begin your Level 3-4 studies in year 11, you will take the GAT in that year, and again in year 12 if you take more Level 3-4 studies in year 12.

      "International Baccalaureate students also sit the GAT, and their notional ENTER score can be calculated from it.

      "Because the GAT is the only VCE assessment common to all students, the VCAA can use it to protect you against misfortune in the assessments that matter most to you.

      "You can gain advantage from good GAT results, but your overall standing in the VCE will not be affected if your results are poor.

      Essential information

      "This year the GAT will be held at 10am on Friday, June 13. It will run for three hours plus 15 minutes of reading time. It consists of three sections:

      • Writing Task 1, in which you will be asked to put into your own words the main information in material given to you in written and graph form (suggested time 30 minutes);
      • Writing Task 2, in which you will be asked to express a point of view on a particular topic, and to present reasons and arguments in support of your view (suggested time 30 minutes);
      • Seventy multiple-choice questions, covering mathematics, science, technology, humanities, the arts and social sciences.

    "The questions will not require any specific knowledge. Questions are presented in groups, usually of four or five. Each group of questions will be based on information presented as text, or in pictures, graphs or tables, and will test your understanding of the material presented, and your ability to reason and to draw appropriate conclusions from it (suggested time two hours).

    "All responses to the GAT, including responses to multiple-choice questions, should be written in the GAT Answer Book.

    "Before you start to write any responses, carefully read the instructions on the cover of this book which may be seen on the VCAA website (see the link under the heading "latest new" on the home page).

    "Managing your time is important, so don't allow one section to run overtime, at the expense of others. It is important to answer every question, even if you're not sure of the answer. "

    From The Age at link

    
    

• The Times
  
  
  • Fishing head’s job on the line [2 May]
    by Irena Barker
    
    He awaits decision on fitness to run school after angling licence expired

    "The relaxing burble of a river, coffee from a flask and the satisfying sensation of catching a really big one. What could beat an afternoon of fishing after an active week as an urban primary headteacher?

    "That is what Bob Yeomans thought as he set off with his rod to his favourite spot on the River Dove in Derbyshire last summer.

    "Little did he know that his innocent weekend outing would result in an experience he has described as “child protection gone mad” – and which has still not been resolved.

    "As he fished, Mr Yeomans was spotted by a water bailiff, who pointed out that his rod licence had expired. Horrified at the oversight, he came clean, pleaded guilty and later paid a £50 fine and £70 costs.

    "Nearly a year later, the offence popped up on an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check.

    “The chair of governors was notified that there could be an issue with a CRB check in the school and rang to tell me,” said Mr Yeomans, head of St John’s CofE Primary School in Walsall, West Midlands.

    “I said, ‘Is it a member of staff?’ and he said, ‘No, it’s you.’ I was shocked. He had to visit me, and in effect, he was being asked if I was fit to work with children for forgetting to renew my rod licence.”

    "The chair then submitted a form to the local authority panel that decides whether a member of staff can continue teaching. The school is still waiting for clearance to retain Mr Yeomans as head, although he has not been suspended.

    “It’s a bit of a joke in the school now,” he said. “But if you think of the amount of time that was wasted filling in forms and on the phone, you’d have thought someone would have had some common sense at an earlier stage. It was just child protection gone mad. It was clear the offence was irrelevant.”

    "Mr Yeomans is by no means the first teacher to be left red-faced by such a check. One teacher, who was reported to police by a neighbour for walking around his house naked, later found the incident recorded on his enhanced check, even though no criminal proceedings were brought.

    "A Home Office spokesman said there was no way for situations such as Bob Yeomans’ to be avoided.

    “If you have an enhanced CRB check, everything will appear and it is then up to the employer,” he said. “It’s better and safer for any contact the person has had with the police to be mentioned. Otherwise, where do we know to draw the line?”

    "The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) is today calling for more clarity on the checking of employers who offer work placements for diplomas.
    
    "The work-related qualifications will mean many more pupils carrying out long-term work experience, which the association fears may lead to an explosion of adult employees needing expensive checks."
    
    [Perhaps as long as he doesn't teach fishing???  Web]

    From The Times at link
    
    
    
    
  • Determined to head for the private path [4 May]
    
    More middle-class parents are opting for private schools, despite the huge costs, viewing it as a necessity
    
    Figures published last week show private school numbers at their highest level for five years. Despite fee rises of more than 6% last year, which pushed the average annual cost of private schooling to more than £11,000 [A$23,400], the number of pupils has climbed to a record 511,677.
    
    
    
    
• The Daily Mail [UK]
  
  
  • Parents are 'dumping' children on schools as Labour pushes for longer working hours, say teachers
    by Laura Clark
    
    "Ministers were yesterday accused of promoting a back-to-work culture where parents dump their children on schools and nurseries.

    "A head teachers' leader warned that plans for a massive expansion of childcare and a 50-hour week in schools encouraged parents to hand responsibility for bringing up their children to teachers.

    "Mick Brookes said: "Some parents do abdicate responsibility for their children. They dump their children early in the morning at school and are late picking them up at the end of the day." ...
    
    Full story in The Daily Mail at link

 

Tuesday 6 May

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Students face travel for classes (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "State high school students could be forced to travel between schools to study a range of Year 11 and 12 subjects under a desperate plan presented to principals yesterday as a way to cope with an expected worsening of the teacher shortage.

    "Education director-general Sharyn O'Neill called 185 high school principals to a crisis meeting and admitted that more schools would not be able to provide a full program of traditional academic subjects within four years.

    "She also conceded that, by 2010, without urgent action, half the State's high school students would be educated in private schools as parents continued to abandon the State system.

    "Principals were urged to find "local solutions" and adopt innovative programs used elsewhere - which could include "clustering" schools to offer a selection of TEE subjects at different schools within the same local area. Students would travel by bus between schools.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said such proposals were an acceptance of defeat and showed up the Education Department's complete lack of foresight and planning.

    "There is going to be a very real push on behalf of some schools to counsel their students into some subjects," he said. "Students are going to be seriously restricted in their subject choices."

    State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said plans for teachers to work flexible hours so students could attend classes at other schools had been raised in pay negotiations. "There is no doubt that there is a desire to be able to operate in a more flexible way," she said. "We have some concerns ... about industrials conditions for teachers and ... duty of care for students."

    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said the department had told him of the proposal to rationalise classes.

    "Transporting students would raise challenges. "Some parents won't be happy with it," he said. "It's no different at the moment when they go to the local swimming pool for some of their sports activities, I think it can work like that."

    "Ms O'Neill said the department could deliver more as a system than as a collection of autonomous schools but stressed she was not advocating clusters as the sole solution. "Strategies will vary between districts and depend on the location of the school," she said. "My guiding principle is one of co-operation between schools, rather than competition."

    "Principals were also told the teacher shortage in high schools would ease in 2010, when fewer Year 8s than usual would enrol because of the change to the school starting age in 2001. It is understood Ms O'Neill told principals that hundreds of teachers would not be required that year.

    "The department said Ms O'Neill had told principals expected savings of about $30 million caused by the need for fewer secondary teachers in 2010 had already been spent by Treasury on building new kindergarten and pre-primary classrooms.

    "By 2011 we will have serious shortages of both primary and secondary teachers," Ms O'Neill said in an email to schools yesterday."

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • ABC News
    
    
    • Radical new plan to address teacher shortage
      
      "Students in Perth may have to travel between different schools to study a range of year 11 and 12 subjects under a new plan put forward by the Education Department.

      "The idea was one of a range of strategies put forward at a meeting between the department and high school principals to address the teacher shortage.

      "The Education Department's Director-General, Sharyn O'Neill, says the idea could help students whose schools are not able to provide a full range of subjects.

      "But she says the proposal will only be adopted in situations where it is best for the students.

      "Decisions and solutions will all be based on what's best for students," she said.

      "We're moving forward, we have a positive opportunity here to address some issues and we're going to do it with parents, we're going to do it with schools, and we're going to do it together with students as the focus point."

      Desperate plan

      "The Opposition Education spokesman Peter Collier says the plan demonstrates just how desperate the teacher shortage has become.

      "Mr Collier says it will have a negative impact on students.

      "We are being told that we are going to have to clusters of schools that are going to be forced to combine to offer a full raft of subject choices," he said.

      "Now inevitably students will be counselled against taking particular subject that are not available at their school. Now these subjects will almost be exclusively be the more difficult TEE subjects."

      From ABC News at link
      
      
      
      

  • New pay deal for Victorian teachers beats McGowan's offer, says union (page10)
    by Kim MacDonald

    "A generous new pay deal for Victorian teachers has put further pressure on Education Minister Mark McGowan to boost the Government's pay offer to WA State school teachers.

    "The Victorian Government said yesterday that most of its long serving teachers would get $81, 806 annually by early 2011.

    "State School Teachers Union general secretary David Kelly said the gap undermined claims by Mr McGowan that the Government's offer, if accepted, would have made local teachers Australia's best paid.

    "Mr Kelly said that up to three-quarters of the State's 22,000 teachers were paid according to an automatic pay scale, which was capped at the seventh year.

    "He claimed only a relatively small number of local teachers were able to meet requirements to move beyond the automatic pay scale. Mr McGowan said WA teachers could make thousands more than those in Victoria with the same experience if they did a professional development course to qualify for a higher pay scale, known as the senior teacher level.

    "His office said only 40 hours of professional development was needed to qualify."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • ABC News
    
    
    • Teachers pay win in Victoria set precedent: SSTU
      
      "The State School Teachers Union (SSTU) says it hopes the state government takes note of a pay deal for teachers in Victoria.

      "A long-running industrial dispute in Victoria has ended with teachers winning significant pay rises and a one-off bonus of $1,000.

      "Teachers in Western Australia want a 20 per cent pay rise over three years and improved working conditions.

      "The President of the SSTU, Anne Gisborne, says the teacher shortage in Western Australia puts them are in a strong position to negotiate.

      "Teacher supply problem in WA as we speak is worse than any other state in Australia and the predictions that we have on the table certainly indicate that that problem is only going to grow," she said.

      "They're getting ahead of the game in Victoria and we would certainly be urging our government to look at this decision and reconsider the position that they're in at the moment which is putting ourselves in a stalemate." [emphasis added]
      
      [Wow – what a STRONG stance!  Web]

      From ABC News at link
      
      
      
      
      

  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • "I believe the State's teachers richly deserve improved pay, conditions, career structure and, most of all, status. That said, any deal reached must do away with the iniquitous and socially disruptive pupil-free days.

      "No other essential-service group just blithely takes a day off from its responsibilities. No matter how they wish to dress them up, pupil-free days are virtually indistinguishable from rolling strikes in the problems they cause for working parents.

      "A patient-free day for nurses? A blaze-free day for firemen? Come on!"

      Ian Nowak, Subiaco
      

      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • School's in as teachers strike a deal
    by Farrah Tomazin and Bridie Smith
    
    "Victorian teachers will jump from being the worst paid in the country to the highest paid under a landmark deal designed to lure more talent to the profession and stem the tide of those leaving for other jobs.

    "After three statewide teacher strikes, five weeks of rolling stoppages and 14 months of negotiations, public school teachers at the top of the classroom scale will now get an annual salary of $75,500 a year — an increase of about $10,000 — while graduate teachers will earn $51,184 — a jump of $5000.

    "To boost productivity, secondary school students will get 10 minutes of extra instruction a day, while three out of four pupil-free days — which currently take place in the middle of the term — will be replaced by professional development days at the start of the term.

    "Secondary principals yesterday warned that it would not take long before interstate teachers, some of whom are also locked in wage negotiations, struck new agreements and overtook their Victorian peers as the nation's best paid.

    "But Premier John Brumby, Education Minister Bronwyn Pike and Australian Education Union state president Mary Bluett hailed the agreement, believed to be worth about $2 billion, as the best enterprise bargain since state Labor won office nine years ago.

    "The move means some of Victoria's newest teachers will get a wage rise of 38% over the next 3½ years, and senior teachers will eventually earn almost 33% more as the Government creates a new salary increment for "expert" teaching staff. [emphasis added]

    "They've been long negotiations, but I think they've been worth it," said Mr Brumby.

    "This is, I think, the best EBA by a long way, that we've signed in government. It's about building a better education system. It's been about rewarding teachers properly too. I've been a teacher, Bronwyn's been a teacher — so we know about teaching, we know about the demands … it's important that we pay our teachers well, and that's what this EBA does."

    "Ms Bluett said the package would help attract more people to the profession, and reduce the number of teachers leaving for the private sector or interstate. The deal, starting on May 11, also includes:

    • A one-off bonus of $1000 for teachers and $2000 for principals.
    • Executive contracts for high-performing principals.
    • A $10.5 million package to help principals provide "exit strategies" for disengaged teachers.
    • A guarantee that teachers on short-term contracts will find it easier to move to full-time employment if the person they are replacing does not return to the school after 12 months.

  "The Government and the union spent the weekend locked in negotiation, with both parties keen to stop a potentially crippling strike during Australia's first national literacy and numeracy test, involving more than 1 million children from May 13 to 15.

  "Until now, Victorian teachers were the worst paid in the country, earning $65,414 at the top of the classroom scale, compared with about $75,000 in NSW. Publicly, the Government argues the average increase will effectively be around 4.9% in the first year of the agreement and 2.7% each year thereafter — closely in line with its public sector wage policy of 3.25% a year.

  "However, under the deal, the lowest two bands on the teachers' salary scale will be removed and a new level introduced for the state's most experienced teachers, allowing for some increases of more than 30% during the life of the agreement.

  "Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Brian Burgess said his initial reaction to the agreement was "whoop-de-do".

  "He said teachers had not had a pay rise for 18 months and that the one-off payments of $1000 for teachers and $2000 for principals were minimal.

  "It's taken far too long for too little achieved," he said.

  "Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu accused Mr Brumby of dragging his feet during negotiations."
  

  From The Age at link
  
  

• Editorial
  After the pay must come the performance, by all
  
  Common sense prevails and Victoria's teachers win a much-needed salary increase. Now for a lift in performance.

  "The two sides of the education war — the State Government and the teachers' union — may have both hailed the declaration of peace yesterday, but the breakthrough will mean nothing if it is not followed up with a sustained, well-resourced campaign of improvements.

  "The deal has delivered to the highest tier of Victoria's classroom teacher $148 more than his or her NSW counterpart. It has been long overdue.

  "The Age has argued forcefully that one of the planks in improving Victoria's education system is to pay its teachers on a par with teachers elsewhere. For years Victoria's teachers have languished as the worst paid in the country, both in their immediate graduate entry salary into the profession and as they progressed up the ladder. This scheme of things, first, meant that there was little incentive to go into the classroom and second, for those who did, little encouragement and incentive from their employer, the State Government, to see it as a career.

  "Under yesterday's deal, a graduate teacher's salary will rise from $46,127 to $51,184 and the top category of classroom teacher will earn $75,500. The increases are, on average, 4.9% for the first year of the new arrangement, then 2.7% for the following three years. The Government had been sticking to a 3.25% annual increase; the union to 10% annually. The agreement lifts teachers' graduate salary above that of the police force and nursing. However, even allowing for the extra money, a constricting factor in keeping teachers doing what they do best, and motivated in doing what they do best, is the narrow band from entry to top of the class: just $24,000 from entry to ceiling. After that, teachers must take themselves out of the classroom or take on extra duties to earn more.

  "The breakthrough ends more than a year of, at times, acrimonious negotiations between the two parties, which have spilled onto the streets in teacher protests and strikes, and threats from both sides. Facing what it believed to be an intransigent Government, the Australian Education Union embarked on a five-month industrial campaign that involved rolling stoppages, demonstrations outside the electoral office of the Education Minister, Bronwyn Pike, and the latest, a threatened walk-out during the national literacy and numeracy tests this month that would have disrupted thousands of children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

  "That negotiations had descended to such a level brings credit to no one. The ultimate, driving goal of all concerned is this: how to best provide an education for children. Lamentably in the past few years, both at a state level and federally, education has been hostage to ideology where, for instance, funding is linked to flagpoles, or dialogue is shut down because of a government mentality derived from purely public service scales of vision.

  "The teaching of children is an investment unlike any other that a government provides. The Premier, John Brumby, must know this. He was, after all, a teacher for three years in the 1970s in Bendigo.

  "Mr Brumby says he has placed education as one of his top priorities, and it is laudable that he has done so. (As has the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.) The State Government's five-year blueprint, unveiled last month, is an ambitious reform of the system, and its second in five years. Perhaps the two most startling aspects of this latest revamp are the state encouraging bored teachers to leave the profession, and the demand for greater accountability of a school's academic achievements to parents. Now that a pay deal has been struck, the first point may be less of a problem.

  "Another element of yesterday's deal and equally important in bringing certainty to teaching is the agreement to move away from contract employment. A statewide survey last year found that 75% of first-year teachers were on short-term contracts and that 60% of teachers who had been working for three years were still on contracts.

  "A career path cannot be forged in such conditions and, more broadly, the future of the profession, as a consequence, is put at risk.

  "While the dispute may be over, it does not resolve the wider question of how to measure a school and its teachers' performance. There are valid reasons relating to resources as to why a blanket approach to performance and pay is wrongheaded, and equally valid reasons why some sort of performance pay structure should be considered. The Brumby plan to give teachers financial incentives to work in underperforming schools is worthwhile, and a move in the right direction.
  

  From The Age at link
  
  
  
• Wage deal a step in the right direction
  by Farrah Tomazin
  
  "Yesterday's wage deal might not be the silver bullet for solving teacher shortages, boosting teaching quality and improving students' results. But it will certainly help.

  "Four years ago, when Victorian teachers brokered their last enterprise bargaining deal, some received pay rises of up to 21%. The latest agreement goes even further, with graduate teachers set to earn 38% more over the life of the 3½-year deal, and some of the state's most experienced teachers earning up to 33% extra over the same period.

  "How that is possible — given that the Government's public sector wage policy tries to keep increases to about 3.25% a year — is through a very complex overhaul of teacher pay scales in Victoria, and some well-targeted productivity "trade offs".

  "As part of the new deal, the Government will remove the two lowest bands on the salary scale, immediately giving teacher graduates the best starting wage in the country. It will also create an entirely new "expert teacher" band at the top of the scale, in which the most experienced staff can earn up to $81,806 a year.

  "In return, teachers will be required to do at least 25 hours a week of face-to-face teaching, and three pupil-free training days will be moved to the start of the school year, in a bid to minimise the disruption to parents and students.

  "The result is a win-win for the union (which wanted higher wages, better career structures and less contract employment), the Government (which wanted teachers to be more productive) and, most importantly, students (who get extra teaching time, less disruption due to pupil-free days, and slightly happier teachers).

  "Graduate teacher wages will increase to $51,184, in an annual salary that could help encourage more people into the profession. Those at the top of the classroom scale will get $75,500, eclipsing NSW — the nation's highest-paid state, and one that was becoming an increasingly attractive option for teachers near the border.

  "Teachers on contract employment should also find it easier to move into full-time employment. And in terms of the bigger picture, the Government can now go ahead with its crucial "education blueprint" — a five-year shake-up of schools that teachers had threatened to boycott unless they were given a better wage deal.

  "Not everyone will be happy with the deal; in fact, some secondary principals said yesterday that it did not go far enough.

  "But most would agree that, in dollar terms alone, it's a good starting point to stop the so-called hemorrhaging of the profession, to attract and retain more talent, and to move — united — towards the bigger goal: a high-performing public education system in Victoria."

  From The Age at link
  
  
  
• Pay deal ends the teacher rumblings
  by Bridie Smith
  
  "Primary teacher Andrea Halden will be almost $10,000 a year better off under the wage deal struck yesterday between the State Government and teachers' union.

  "It's enough to keep the 34-year-old in the profession that she considered abandoning a few years ago..."
  
  "In recent years Victorian schools have weathered a teacher shortage and recruitment campaigns from the private sector, interstate and overseas.

  "As the lowest paid teachers in the country, earning $65,414 at the top level compared with $75,352 in NSW, Victorians were prime targets for recruitment. As a result, yesterday's agreement came too late for many teachers. Miss Halden said that at her school alone, five teachers left last year, either to pursue overseas teaching jobs or leave the profession..."
  
  Full story in The Age at link
  
  
  

• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers' rise a risk to inflation
    by Brad Norington and Milanda Rout
    Additional reporting: Ashleigh Wilson, Siobahn Ryan, David Uren
    
    "Victoria's 43,000 public school teachers will receive immediate pay rises of up to 15.2 per cent, fuelling a potentially inflationary wage push as public sector unions across Australia make catch-up claims.

    "The Brumby Government yesterday caved in to union wage demands after a 14-month battle that will take Victorian teachers from the nation's lowest-paid to the highest.

    "The Australian Education Union's Victorian president, Mary Bluett, described the pay deal as the best in 25 years, with experienced teachers receiving an extra $10,000 and new graduates an extra $5000.

    "Victorian Premier John Brumby conceded that the agreement, which will carve $2billion out of the state budget, would breach his Government's policy of pay rises averaging 3.25 per cent a year for state public servants.

    "But Mr Brumby said the rises would be offset by some productivity improvements, with teachers required to spend an additional 10 minutes a day in classroom time.

    "The Victorian pay deal comes as public servants across several states, including Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania, get set for negotiating new pay rounds. Teachers in NSW are due for a new agreement in January.

    "Tasmania's Government was confronted yesterday with a 20 per cent pay claim for 17,000 public servants, amid union demands for parity with other states and threats of industrial action if rises were refused.

    "West Australian public servants are campaigning for a 23 per cent pay rise over three years, and plan a protest rally on Thursday after the state Government offered them 11.5 per cent. While NSW nurses and some other state public servants want an annual 5 per cent increase, university staff are seeking 9 per cent.

    "The Victorian teachers' pay rises are far outside the current inflation rate, riding at 4.2 per cent, and also outside the Reserve Bank's inflation target of 2 to 3 per cent.

    "The bank has been forced to raise interest rates four times to a 12-year high since the middle of last year in an effort to contain inflation, which economists fear could be fuelled by excessive wage claims across the economy.

    "Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said the Victorian public teachers' wage increase had to be kept separate from other sectors and states, as well as from the private sector.

    "Any significant increase in public sector wages would need to be justified and economically responsible," he said. "And while we need to value our teachers and make sure that we retain good teachers, it's equally important that our industrial relations system does not allow leap-frogging off one public sector into other states, other sectors or other jurisdictions without their specific circumstances being applied."

    "With the Rudd Government warning that pay rises should be matched by productivity gains to stem inflation, Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard last night urged restraint across the economy.

    "A spokeswoman for Ms Gillard said wage rises should be based on productivity gains, but signalled that the Government would not directly intervene to temper demands for higher wages, even from public sector staff.

    "Access Economics director Chris Richardson said public sector wage settlements had already been higher than in the private sector. He said the latest figures showed commonwealth and state public sector workers were awarded increases of 4.2 per cent in enterprise deals struck in the December quarter, compared with 3.8 per cent for the private sector.

    "Under yesterday's Victorian pay deal, the state's most experienced teachers will get a pay rise of $10,000 a year, to $75,500, from next month.

    "Salaries for graduate teachers will increase by $5000, to $51,184.

    "The agreement includes a restructure of teacher pay scales and will result in an average wage increase of 17.8 per cent over four years, with graduate teachers getting up to a 20 per cent rise.

    "All teachers will also receive a one-off payment of at least $1000, with principals receiving $2000.

    "In return, secondary school teachers will work the equivalent of an extra six days a year, with two pupil-free days moved to the start of the school year to minimise disruption to parents.

    "The wage deal follows a lengthy battle between the Brumby Government and the Australian Education Union that included statewide strikes by 25,000 teachers and demands for improved pay after significant increases given to nurses and police. In September, the Victorian Government agreed to give police pay rises of between 14 per cent and 31.4 per cent over three years and eight months.

    "Ms Bluett said she was thrilled with the pay agreement. "This is the best outcome in terms of salary and career structure in my history as a union official of 25 years' standing," she said. "The combination of salary increases and changes in the conditions of contracts provides an incentive to stay in Victoria to teach.

    "It also helps provide encouragement for university graduates to consider becoming teachers."

    "Teachers in Victoria's Catholic private schools will now seek the same deal, after their union demanded "parity".

    "Mr Brumby said the deal would include removing the lowest two classifications on the teaching salary scale and providing more money for principals who work at struggling schools.

    "Defending an apparent breach of his Government's wages policy, Mr Brumby said the average 3.25per cent annual rise would still be met because of productivity offsets, with staff teaching for an extra 10 minutes a day, which equated to six days a year.

    "Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu, who last month vowed to make the state's teachers the highest paid, claimed Mr Brumby had been shamed into the wage deal."
    
    [I'm sure all FIVE authors of the story have volunteered to take an immediate pay cut to help fight inflation!  Web]
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • Victorian teachers get $1000 bonuses
    
    Teachers will get a one-off $1000 bonus and principals $2000 as part of a new pay deal the Brumby Government has struck to end a long-running industrial dispute.
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Teachers alone to gain
    by Kevin Donnelly
    
    "In justifying taxpayer-funded largesse to pay teachers more, the Victorian Government argues that parents and students will be the winners.
    
    "In giving into the demands of the Australian Education Union, which consistently mounts campaigns to get ALP governments elected, Education Minister Bronwyn Pike suggests that standards will improve as teachers do a better job.

    "Wrong. While research shows that teachers - along with a rigorous and effective curriculum - are critical to improving standards, the reality is that paying teachers more, while failing to tie any increase to improved performance, is a recipe for dumbing down the system.

    "Parents and students know there are dud teachers, and the word quickly gets around every school's community when children suffer because of ineffective teaching and slack classroom management and control.

    "The present system for dealing with underperforming teachers is excessively bureaucratic, time consuming and cumbersome. Instead of the rights of students being paramount, an antiquated industrial relations system and teacher union power ensure that teachers' rights are pre-eminent.

    "One need only take note of the NSW Teachers Federation's opposition to government plans to make the statewide staffing system more open and flexible, by giving school principals the power to hire staff, to see how the union places teachers before students.

    "No wonder a review of staffing carried out by the NSW auditor-general concluded that teacher promotion appeared to be automatic, as so many teachers were successful in moving up the pay scale and little was being done to identify and deal with underperforming teachers.

    "Julie Bishop, as education minister in the Howard government, put performance on the agenda when she argued that not enough was being done to make teachers accountable.

    "Before the 2007 federal election, as part of Kevin Rudd's education revolution, the ALP argued that it would address the issue and ensure that any increased education spending would be tied to monitoring and evaluating learning outcomes.

    "As part of Federalist Paper 2, the education blueprint endorsed last year by state and territory ALP governments, the statement was also made that individual teachers and schools had to be held accountable for their performance.

    "Fast forward to this week's pay rise in Victoria - with the inevitable flow-on effect to teachers in other states and territories - and it is obvious that ALP governments' talk about accountability and putting students first is more about spin than substance.

    "Instead of a blanket pay increase, a real education revolution would focus on raising standards and improving learning outcomes by identifying the best way to deal with underperforming teachers and to attract and reward successful teachers. [emphasis added]

    "Overseas practice in the US and Britain provides several models, ranging from rewarding teachers who are able to lift standards - as measured by improvements in test results - to paying more to those teachers who act as mentors to others or who take on additional qualifications.

    "An essential aspect of overseas innovations, whether the British city academies or the US-inspired charter school movement, is to empower school communities by giving them control over staffing.

    "Closer to home, it's no secret that parents are voting with their feet in turning to non-government schools, a critical aspect explaining that such schools' success is their autonomy when it comes to staffing.

    "It makes sense that, instead of imposing on schools teachers who may not agree with the school's educational philosophy, the power to hire, fire and reward staff should be at the local level, allowing those most affected by decisions to have a say.

    "Publications such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Education at a Glance 2007 and McKinsey and Co's report How the World's Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top agree that investing more in education, by itself, is not enough.

    "Stronger-performing education systems, as measured by international mathematics and science tests, spend less on education as a percentage of gross domestic product than those countries they outperform.

    "Investing an additional $2 billion to pay teachers more smacks of a return to the old ways, symbolised by the John Cain-Joan Kirner years, when Victoria outspent other states on education but with little, if any, return in terms of higher standards or confidence in the public school system."

    Kevin Donnelly is the director of Education Strategies, based in Melbourne.

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Real education revolution
    by Helen Hughes
    

    "Marion Scrymgour, the Northern Territory Minister for Education, is to be congratulated for taking responsibility for the crisis in Northern Territory indigenous education by directing her Department of Education, Employment and Training to post national literacy and numeracy test results on its website.

    "All Australian children will be sitting years 3, 5, 7, and 9 literacy and numeracy tests from May 13 to 16. In the past most children in remote areas did not sit these tests because their teachers knew that they could not pass them. In May, all children will be required to sit the tests. By insisting that the numbers of children enrolled, the numbers who sit the tests and their pass rates are posted on the internet, Scrymgour is leading Australia. This school-by-school information will provide essential data for school reform, and will enable Kevin Rudd to give his promised report about the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students on the first day that parliament sits in 2009.

    "Scrymgour's education plan unfortunately does not include curriculum and teaching reforms that are essential to ensuring that indigenous children's test results start to move towards those of non-indigenous children. But she has also taken a brave step in promising to establish community partnership education boards that will presumably replace existing school councils, whose main function seems to be to collect fees for the councillors. If the new education boards consist of volunteer mums, dads, and others concerned with community educational outcomes, Scrymgour will learn what concerns remote parents.

    "Mums and dads in remote communities are worried because, despite attending school for years, their children still cannot speak English, read, write or count. These children are being shut out of jobs in remote communities and in nearby mining, tourism, and other industries. Non-indigenous staff are still being recruited for semi-skilled jobs, and they dominate all skilled employment.

    "Mums and dads want their children to be able to take jobs as teachers, nurses, and real rangers and also as lawyers, doctors, and administrators.

    "The new education boards will soon convince Scrymgour that except for a small dysfunctional minority, parents try to send their children to school, but ineffectual, often chaotic classes kill off attendance.

    "Competent teachers do not have attendance problems, but they complain they have to teach decent curriculums surreptitiously. Mums and dads in remote communities are illiterate, and they cannot count very well, but they are not stupid.

    "The recognition that there is a crisis in Northern Territory education is due to their concerns. They know that their children have to learn English from preschool to get decent jobs, and they want disciplined schools open for full school days, weeks, and terms, with sport, music and other after-school programs.

    "Most remote communities have some internet communication. As the mums and dads see the test results for each of their schools posted on the Education Department's website, they will be able to judge their school's performance. Scrymgour should not be surprised if they insist on curriculum and teaching reforms and want their children to attend mainstream secondary schools alongside non-indigenous children instead of being relegated to ghetto "community education centres".

    "The weakest component of Scrymgour's education plan is the 'rithmetic. Scrymgour's budget includes $4 million to turn two remote "learning centres" into primary schools.

    "The $2 million needed per school indicates the parlous state of these learning centres. But there are more than 50 of these centres, and with a budget of $4 million a year, Scrymgour's plan would take more than 10 years to give children in all of them basic facilities such as ablution blocks and resident teachers.

    "Scrymgour's proposal confirms that no thought has been given to housing for the 200 additional teachers for whom Jenny Macklin, the commonwealth Minister for Indigenous Affairs, has contributed funding to 2011. Most additional teachers in remote schools will continue to drive in or fly in. Many children will still only be taught for 25 to 30 per cent of each school term. Can reasonable benchmark passes be expected from these children? No budget has been allocated to the 10,000 teenagers and young men and women in their 20s whose schooling was so negligent that they are illiterate and innumerate, and hence not employable. A request to Julia Gillard, the commonwealth Minister for Education, to let the $700 tutorial vouchers available for children that do not pass benchmark tests be used in remote communities, did not even elicit the courtesy of a reply. This scheme is evidently to be ended. Yet remedial teaching for these youngsters is urgent.

    "As a supplement to public funding, student and "green nomad" volunteers could be mobilised for literacy and numeracy campaigns. Students could camp in remote communities during their vacations. Green nomads could pull up their caravans for two or three months of literacy and numeracy tutoring in remote communities so that there would not be housing problems. But the Northern Territory Department of Education strongly discourages volunteer efforts.

    "Mainstream schools that want to help remote schools by student, teacher and parent interaction are asked to enter into such detailed and complex legal agreements with the Northern Territory government that twinning mainstream schools with remote ones is not possible.

    "Qualified and experienced teachers volunteering for remedial teaching for three months in a remote community have been prevented from doing so by the Northern Territory Department of Education.

    "The illiterate and innumerate indigenous youngsters who have been failed by past education cannot be allowed to become a "lost generation". Surely Gillard, Macklin, and Scrymgour, the federal and territory ministers responsible for education and indigenous affairs, have the wit, the energy, and the political power to ensure that a campaign to rescue literacy and numeracy in remote communities is budgeted for and that federal, state and territory bureaucrats are told to stop obstructing volunteer efforts to supplement it."

    Helen Hughes is a senior fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies. Her report Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory is available at www.cis.org.au.

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Top uni's peace corps subject
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    

    "All students at a leading university will have to undertake volunteer work and study subjects from the arts and sciences under an overhaul of its curriculum designed to provide a broader education and more socially aware graduates.

    "In a first for an Australian university, Macquarie University vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz today will announce a partnership with Australia Volunteers International that will create a mini peace corps, giving undergraduate students the opportunity to do volunteer work overseas.

    "Called the Global Futures Program, it will develop programs with local communities throughout Australia, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Some form of community work will be compulsory for all undergraduate students at Macquarie under the new curriculum, to start in 2010.

    "In addition, the university will require all undergraduate students to study subjects from the humanities, social sciences and sciences so that arts students must take science subjects and science students must take arts subjects.

    "The university, in northern Sydney, had also considered making the learning of a foreign language compulsory but it was not feasible at this stage.

    "Professor Schwartz told The Australian that the new curriculum was based on three themes of place, planet and participation, and was designed to provide students with a broader education than one geared solely to a vocation and getting a job..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Hi-tech children tuning out
    by Karen Dearne
    

    "Education is stuck in the days of the horse and buggy to the detriment of schoolkids who live in a world of virtual gaming, YouTube and Google, says Jim Goodnight, co-founder of business analytics leader SAS.

    "We either take all the electronics away from the kids so they'll be interested in school, or you have to put the electronics in the school and I don't think you're going to take their iPods and cellphones away," he said.

    "Today's kids are so used to this interactive world, but when they go to school they have to leave all that behind and watch a teacher at a blackboard.

    "It's very boring, and it's not going to get anything other than more boring."

    "Dr Goodnight said the school system was a product in need of an overhaul.

    "School hasn't changed in 100 years," he said. "You can't continue offering the same product; people's expectations change over time and you have to constantly update and come up with new offerings. The problem is that the consumers, the kids, are not finding it to be a very good product right now.

    "Unfortunately, it's a government monopoly for the most part, and they don't have to respond to changing consumer demands."

    "Dr Goodnight established a private school, Cary Academy, in Cary, North Carolina, for grades 6-12, to experiment with new forms of schooling based on smaller class sizes and the use of technology. Every child has their own tablet computer - the note-taking and stylus format is better than screen and keyboard for classroom work including maths and science projects.

    "The kids are all crazy about it," he said. "Even 12 years ago, when we built the school, it was very clear that this generation was very technically savvy.

    "I see that even more of today's kids think about their experiences with MySpace and YouTube, their SMS and text messaging, their Nintendos and Wiis, the online games they play with kids around the world.

    "Quite frankly, this generation of kids is very bored with the education system, and many are dropping out."

    "Dr Goodnight said the US was ranked 13th or 14th in the number of students graduating from high school, compared to other developed nations.

    "And in a world where technology is advancing as rapidly as it is, we don't need kids who haven't even graduated from high school," he said.

    "We need kids with college degrees. We need to have a workforce that understands the technologies available to us and can truly grasp the potential that data provides, and do things quicker and better."

    "Dr Goodnight warned that hi-tech, high-paying jobs would "move to where the talent can be found, and if it can't be found in the US or Europe, those jobs will migrate to countries where people have the skills".

    Karen Dearne travelled to London as a guest of SAS

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Scandinavian lesson
    by Maria Rankka
    

    "Universal child care? Increased taxes on alcohol? Is Kevin Rudd trying to turn Australia into the Sweden of the South Pacific? Scandinavian social democracy with sunshine? If Rudd wants to take a leaf out of Sweden's book he should take a look at the Swedish school voucher system, which gives parents the right to choose between public and independent schools.

    'It differs markedly from the Australian system that features publicly financed public schools and largely privately financed private schools. The voucher system is designed to make choice possible for all, regardless of a family's financial situation. Authorised independent schools are tax-funded and extra fees are not allowed.

    "Although the reform was simple in structure and didn't affect most pupils when first launched in 1992, it has had an enormous effect and opened the Swedish education system to entrepreneurship, new ideas, alternative educational approaches and choice. Indeed, it is the most interesting reform carried out in Sweden since the beginning of the1990s.

    "It is important to understand that school choice is more about power - that is, shifting power from politicians and bureaucrats to parents and pupils - than anything else. This power dimension has made the reform strong and resistant to efforts to water it down.

    "The proportion of students attending independent schools has grown considerably since the voucher system was introduced, although public schools still dominate. In the school year 1990-91, less than 1 per cent of all Swedish pupils in compulsory education (ages 7-15, approximately) were enrolled in independent schools, whereas today the number has increased to about 10 per cent. The same trend may be observed in upper secondary education (ages 16-18, approximately), where the share has grown from 1.5 per cent to 15 per cent during the same period. An even bigger share of families exercises the right to choose a public school other than the one closest to where they live.

    "Authorised independent schools are financed by a voucher system, by which the local council provides school resources equivalent to those provided to its own schools, on a per-pupil basis. For pupils who require extra resources (children suffering physical or mental disabilities and those with learning and behavioural difficulties), extra funding may be provided at the discretion of the local school board, which may refuse on budgetary grounds and refer the child to one of its own schools.

    "The National Agency for Education processes applications to found an independent school in two stages. First, to begin activities as an authorised school, then to obtain funds through the voucher system. The main criteria are that independent schools conform to a nationally provided curriculum and that they espouse the same democratic values as schools run by the school boards.

    "When an independent school starts teaching, its performance and the quality of its education are evaluated against a nationally provided curriculum, through nationally provided tests and through inspections. Within this framework, schools are free to organise their own programs and timetables.

    "Where comparisons have been made, independent schools have performed better in terms of knowledge and skills than local council schools. This has inspired some local community schools to improve their organisation and teaching in order to improve results.

    "Recent research shows not only that the independent schools produce the best results, but that school choice and the mere existence of independent schools (read: competition) has improved the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the school system.

    "Opponents often claim that independent schools have drained the public schools of resources as well as motivated students and teachers, but the fact is that the existence of independent schools and the establishment of competition have helped public schools to improve.

    "It is very rare that public schools have had to close due to the establishment of one or several independent schools in a certain area. It would probably be beneficial to overall quality and efficiency if schools that produce mediocre results actually had to close at some point. But so far the pressure brought to bear by competition has been insufficient.

    "Another common argument offered by school choice opponents has been that independent schools increase the average per-pupil cost. That also has proved to be incorrect. There are regions with independent schools where the average cost has decreased as well as those where it has increased marginally.

    "A great deal of the debate about independent schools has been about segregation. Proponents have argued that independent schools are the key to breaking down school segregation. Opponents have pointed to the fact that it is very often the best students in an area with one socioeconomic structure who exercise their right to choose a school in another area with another socioeconomic structure. The truth is that the independent schools have neither increased nor decreased school segregation. For instance, if an excellent student living in an area dominated by immigrants chooses a school in a wealthy area dominated by ethnic Swedes, has segregation increased ordecreased?

    "Students are not the sole beneficiaries of school choice. Teachers now have more than one employer to choose from. Salaries are competitive in the independent schools and they often offer better working conditions.

    "Are independent schools uncontroversial in Sweden? Not at all. With exception of the debate on the Swedish EU membership in the beginning of the '90s, the independent schools have probably been the most discussed political issue of the past 15 years.

    "Politicians and opinion-shapers either hate them or love them, yet there is no scientific evidence to support the objections of opponents to the school voucher system.

    "Governments of varying political hues have left the school voucher system relatively intact. There have been marginal changes, but the fundamentals are unthreatened. This could stem from the difficulty of stripping power from people once they have grown accustomed to it. This irreversible aspect of the school voucher reform makes it especially interesting."

    Maria Rankka is president of Timbro, a Swedish free-market think tank and worked for thegoverning Moderate party in the '90s.

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Rhee Moves To Dismiss Up to 30 Principals
    
    [Washington] D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, continuing a series of aggressive personnel moves, has started notifying principals -- possibly as many as 30 -- that they will not be reappointed for the 2008-09 academic year, officials said yesterday.

Wednesday 7 May

• The West Australian
  
  
  • New 'super schools' to tackle lack of teachers (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The State education system would be radically reshaped to create "super schools" for Years 11 and 12 students under a new proposal to alleviate the teacher shortage.

    "The plan would enable high schools to offer subjects to students without having to resort to transferring them between schools because there' were not enough teachers to cover each subject at every school.

    "University of WA education dean Bill Louden said yesterday other options could include closing some smaller schools, selling their sites and sending the students to bigger schools and expanding the number of schools in which students studied TEE subjects over the internet.

    "The West Australian revea1ed yesterday that education director general Sharyn O'Neill told 185 high school principals on Monday that many schools would be unable to offer a wide range of subjects within a few years because of a lack of teachers and, from 2010, a big drop in student numbers.

    "She urged principals to find solutions to fit local circumstances, which could include schools working together as clusters to offer a range of subjects across several schools, forcing students to travel to a neighbouring school for some classes.

    "Professor Louden said that it was most important that all students had the chance to take academically difficult subjects, no matter where they lived.

    "Building a limited number of a new sort of super school with very big upper school populations was an option, he said.

    "I think we're going to end up with some confederations of schools, that's what is more likely," he said.

    "Three schools might operate separate middle schools or lower schools but operate a common Years 11 and 12 program with some subjects being offered on some campuses and some on others.

    "Schools like Mirrabooka and Morley are quite close together - it ought to be possible to run some common upper school (timetable) grids across groups of such schools."

    "Professor Louden said consolidating schools by closing some and turning others into middle schools catering only to Years 8 to 10 was unpopular but sometimes necessary if they did not have enough students to offer a full range of subjects.

    He said the problems had not arisen because of a lack of planning but because populations served by schools changed over the years, so big school buildings were left in neighbourhoods that no longer had many children.

    "I think there needs to be some balance of consolidation of school sites, which is electorally difficult but important, confederations of schools so you can hold a big upper school (timetable) grid together and building of some new big super schools that offer everything," he said.

    "Ms O'Neill said a range of options was possible and schools and their communities would decide how best to tackle the problems caused by the worsening teacher shortage.

    "Some strategies could be in place as early as next year.

    "This is about Years 11 and 12 subject choices, specialist courses like calculus, physics and chemistry," she said.

    "Where only a few students choose to study that subject, we're going to find other ways to make sure they can continue to study that subject and in fact, to have more choice."

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said the department had to be flexible in its approach."

    From the West Australian
    
    

    
    
  • 'Poor school' scores for upgrade (page 17)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    Julia Gillard says good work of teachers and schools in disadvantaged areas may be acknowledged by scaling scores

    "Results of the first national reading, writing and maths tests, which begin next week, could be manipulated by the Federal Government to take into account the socioeconomic backgrounds of students in poorer suburbs.

    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday that information from the program would inform the Government about the best way to help schools that might be struggling.

    "Asked if the Government would manipulate results to show the "value adding" supplied by schools in disadvantaged areas, Ms Gillard said conversations with States and Territories would continue.

    "We're going to have that as part of a broad set of conversations about teacher quality, about improving the circumstances of disadvantaged schools," she said.

    "What we can certainly say is that the testing results will be available to schools and to parents so that they know how their child is going."

    "But Ms Gillard refused to reveal when the results of the tests of Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students would be released.

    "Labor election commitments included publishing the individual results of primary and secondary schools as part of a "comprehensive, sophisticated reporting system which shows how well schools are doing and reflects the different circumstances in which they operate".

    "We have got a series of discussions afoot with our State and Territory colleagues about education," Ms Gillard said.

    "We have the schools agreement to renew at the end of this year, we want to have two new national partnership arrangements around disadvantaged schools and teacher quality.

    "We'll be talking about national testing and the publication of-data in the course of those discussions.

    "But the time cycle for the discussions is all of those agreements need to be concluded through the COAG process at the end of this year."

    "WA Education Minister Mark McGowan said last year that he backed plans to allow parents to compare results of State, independent and Catholic schools, provided they were adjusted to determine the value added by schools.

    "He believed comparisons of raw scores were unfair.

    "The Department of Education and Training has published individual school results for WA tests for the past two years.

    "The new national tests replace the WA testing program.

    "A department spokesman said the national testing data would also be available online. "When we get the data we will publish it," she said."

    From The West Australian
    
    Full transcript of the interview available at this link
    
    

    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • For the Record

      "Your report ('Melbourne model woos States top students, 5/5) does not tell the full story. It ignores the many hundreds of top students who chose to stay in WA and the significant number of Eastern State students who choose to move to WA to study.

      "In fact this year, WA's top TEE student - Beazley Medalist Neil Thomas - turned down a Melbourne scholarship choosing instead to study at UWA.

      "The University of Western Australia annually provides more than $20 million in scholarships. Unlike some Eastern States universities we do not offer a small number of students very large scholarships, preferring instead to reward many hundreds of excellent students with smaller scholarships.

      "In addition, your readers might be interested to know that there were 287 WA students with TER above 99 in 2007, of which nearly all are studying at WA universities. If you were to look at the top 5 per cent of school leavers in WA, almost 1400 students, again the vast majority, are staying in WA.

      "What is also worthy of note is the big number of high-quality students from the Eastern States seeking to study here. Some 171 students with TER over 99 from the Eastern States sought to study in WA this year. We can all take pride in the academic success of our young West Australians.

      "We can also be proud of the fact that the State's Universities are of a quality and reputation that so many students from the Eastern States want to study here."

      Alan Robson, vice-chancellor, the University of Western Australia
      

      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • Angry teachers slam pay deal
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Victoria's powerful education union and the State Government are facing a backlash from angry teachers who say they were "screwed over" in this week's $2 billion wage deal.

    "A day after Premier John Brumby announced that graduate teachers and senior classroom staff would jump from being the worst paid in the country to the best paid, many other teachers have lashed out or quit the union.

    "Under the agreement, hailed by both parties as the best enterprise bargain in almost 10 years, graduate teachers will get an annual salary of $51,184 — about $5000 more — in a bid to lure more people into teaching. Those at the top of the classroom scale will get a $75,500 pay packet — about $10,000 more — as the Government tries to stem the tide of teachers leaving the job.

    "But some younger teachers and staff in senior "leading teacher" positions yesterday said they had been "sold down the river" because their increases did not amount to parity with NSW, or could lock in wage rises below inflation in the final years of the 3½-year agreement.

    "Leading teachers are senior teachers who take on extra responsibilities such as curriculum co-ordination or timetable management.

    "At Carwatha College in Noble Park, student services manager Adrienne Koss, a single parent, said she went on strike several times in the push for more pay, but felt she had been dudded. "What I was hoping for was a more considerate deal for every level of teaching," she said.

    "Her colleague David Wakham was equally outraged. "Leading teachers are the ones who are supposed to drive through all the education reforms the Government wants, and yet we're being royally screwed," said Mr Wakham, Carwatha's personnel manager.

    "Ms Bluett defended the deal, saying no teacher in Victoria would get a pay rise of less than 15% over the next three years."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • If that's the best my union can do, then I quit
      
      "While delighting in expert teachers receiving some pay justice, spare a thought for our most senior classroom practitioners, the leading teachers level 2. These are the staff who not only teach but have major leadership roles. They are sub-school co-ordinators, daily organisers, timetablers, student welfare co-ordinators, curriculum co-ordinators — these people do essential tasks within schools, as well as delivering exceptional teaching.

      "We celebrate the $10,000, or 15.4%, rise achieved by the expert teachers. However, the leading teacher level 2 received $3855, or 4.9% — barely above inflation. This is really a relative pay cut, as presently they receive about $51 a day above the expert teacher, but will now receive only $27 a day more — all before-tax dollars. Why would anyone undertake these tasks? So while Mary, John and Bronwyn engage in their self-congratulations, I would like to say on behalf of all leading teachers — thanks for nothing. What you have given us is nothing short of insulting.

      "Mary, you can take this as my resignation from the union — you certainly do not represent the interests of senior staff who have proven their abilities and skills over many years."

      Lynne Ramsay Bedford, Port Melbourne
      
      

    • In reality, it's a pay cut
      
      "During our campaign for better conditions, I've been hurt by the Government's refusal to acknowledge the value of Victorian teachers. The proposed agreement has not resolved this and I now also feel betrayed by my union's willingness to comply with what is, in reality, a pay cut for the majority of teachers.

      "It's easy to be seduced by the Government's offers, but under careful consideration they don't provide true value. The agreement locks in 2.7% increases in 2009 and 2010, significantly below the consumer price index rate, which is rising by 4.2% a year. It's true that in 2008 first-year teachers will be the highest paid, and teachers at the top of the regular pay scale will be paid $148 a year more than their NSW colleagues. But apart from those two categories, all other Victorian teachers will be significantly worse off than NSW.

      "This is particularly concerning as the majority of people leaving teaching are in these categories. While the agreement may attract new teachers, it will do nothing to retain experienced teachers who are dissatisfied with salaries that don't compensate their efforts. I have been a proud union member since I began teaching, but if this agreement is signed I will no longer be proud of the union."