The longevity of the controversy surrounding the Greens amendment to the NSW Education Act that bans the publication in this state of simplistic comparisons of schools is remarkable by normal media standards. It is particularly extraordinary for a debate where almost everyone claims to agree on the primary premise that league tables are misleading and damaging.

Good schools serving disadvantaged communities would be unjustly stigmatised. The evidence from the UK was that as teachers were forced to focus on boosting test results for fear of their school slipping down the league table, other curriculum areas would suffer.

Dr Ken Boston, formerly director-general of Education in NSW and later the officer in charge of gathering and reporting equivalent schools data in Britain, ascribed the decline in employability skills amongst school leavers in that country to the high stakes placed on the basic skills test.

Further, NAPLAN is a diagnostic tool which was not designed to rank students, let alone schools. Any attempt to compare schools by their basic skills results would be akin to judging GPs by the cholesterol level of their patients.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/lp97wr

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Research shows unregulated school choice exacerbates segregation & inequity

Trevor Cobbold, 13 July 2009

New research studies continue to demonstrate the harmful consequences of greater choice and competition in schooling.

The latest issue of Peabody Journal of Education delivers yet another blow. It contains several new studies of the consequences of school choice programs in the United States which broadly confirm the findings of many earlier studies.

First, uncontrolled or unregulated choice programs tend to exacerbate segregation of students along race, class and achievement lines. In contrast, regulated choice programs have the potential to increase social integration of students in schools and, at the very least, to prevent further segregation. Finally, there is little evidence that unregulated choice programs lead to improved academic achievement.

These conclusions show that the strategy of the Federal Government to increase choice and competition by encouraging parents to ‘vote with their feet’ by publishing school results is doomed to failure.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/nl2272

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Blocking school results a pointless exercise

Julie Novak, 3 July 2009

The sight of the New South Wales Opposition siding with the Greens last week to ban school league tables in the New South Wales parliament topped off a most bizarre period in Australian politics.

Last week the Government introduced an education amendment bill ensuring that NSW was in line with other states when it comes to reporting school academic performance.

All parties were in furious agreement that the publication of league tables ranking schools from top to bottom using raw test results could not be supported.

This position was consistent with a national protocol signed by the federal and state governments allowing each school to be compared with 'like' schools with similar student characteristics.

Despite this, the Greens forced a law that fines individuals and media outlets from publishing school rankings in the print media.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/ksarem

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FUNDING

Coalition Must Rule Out School Vouchers

Australian Education Union, 20 July 2009

The Australian Education Union today called on the Liberal/National Party Coalition to rule out the introduction of a policy that would cut public school funding and replace it with vouchers for individuals.

AEU Federal President Angelo Gavrielatos said a new report by the Liberal-aligned Institute of Public Affairs advocated the replacement of school funding with vouchers.

“Introducing school vouchers is the policy of the radical right-wing designed to undermine public schools and increase the privatisation of education,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

“Vouchers are a recipe for disaster in education. Even John Howard was not prepared to introduce vouchers acknowledging they 'undermined the fundamental value and strength of public education’.”

“It is time for Malcolm Turnbull to show whether he is prepared to support public school parents, teachers and students or turn his back on them."

Read entire release at: http://tinyurl.com/kq4zqr

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CYBER-SAFETY

Launch of Cyber-Smart Schools’ Gateway

Stacey Joyce, Project Manager, 16 July 2009

The Schools' Gateway has now been officially launched as part of the ACMA's new Cybersmart website: http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/ .

The Cybersmart website represents a single access point for cybersafety advice across a range of target audiences—children, parents, libraries and schools. The site includes comprehensive and practical advice for parents, interactive learning activities for children and information about safe social networking for teens. The website also includes a link to the Cybersmart Online Helpline for young people who have had negative experiences online, such as cyberbullying. The Helpline service is operated by Kids Helpline.

The Cybersmart Schools Gateway offers a wide range of resources for teachers, including guides to assist schools address cybersafety issues, information about how children and young people of different ages engage with online technologies (including videos of children explaining their use), extensive teaching resources (which we will continue to add to), and links to education department guidelines. The Schools' Gateway also offers online booking for the ACMA’s free and accredited professional development program for educators – Cybersafety Outreach.

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind agencies to replace any links they may have had to NetAlert (http://www.netalert.gov.au/), Cybersmart Kids Online (http://www.cybersmartkids.com.au/) or the ACMA's Cybersafety website (http://acma.gov.au/cybersafety).

Read more at: http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/

Read Minister Conroy’s Launch Speech 14 July 2009: http://tinyurl.com/kmr5xf

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DIGITAL EDUCATION REVOLUTION

Victorian principals claim “gag” on school computer scheme comments

ABC News, Jul 16, 2009

The Federal Government's computers for schools program has had its share of problems and bad headlines and now the Victorian Government is accused of trying to gag school principals from speaking their minds about the project.

The Principals Association says a memo has been sent to schools threatening to withdraw funding for computers if they do not agree in writing to refrain from criticising the scheme.

The Victorian Government says its deal with the Commonwealth requires it to protect the program from being dragged through the mud.

It was a set piece of the Federal Government's education revolution that had state governments worried they would be left holding the bill for rolling out the Computers in Schools program. The Commonwealth added an extra $800 million to the mix and the second round of funding is rolling out now.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/mo9qpf

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BUILDING THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION

Principals claim state regulations 'curb innovation' for public schools

Imre Salusinszky, the Australian, July 15, 2009

INNOVATION and leadership are being stifled in government schools as education authorities bully them into accepting one-size-fits-all projects under the Rudd government's education stimulus package, according to public school principals.

Meanwhile, principals in private schools are being encouraged to use their imagination in deciding how best to exploit their share of the $14.7 billion on offer under the Building the Education Revolution program, widening the gap between the public and private sectors.

The rollout of the largest tranche of the stimulus spending, across 1499 of the nation's primary schools, has discouraged a "culture of innovation and vision" in school leadership, according to principal Henry Grossek.

The principal of Berwick Lodge Primary School, in outer south-eastern Melbourne, Mr Grossek said government school principals had been forced to sign on the dotted line, accepting one of four basic "templates" and being kept in the dark on how the costings for their projects had been reached.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/nahedc

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OPINION

A renewed challenge to parents and families

President Barack Obama, Speech to the National Association for Advancement of Coloured People, 16 July 2009

There is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child's God-given potential.

But government programs alone won't get our children to the Promised Land. We need a new mind set, a new set of attitudes -- because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way we've internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little from the world and from themselves.

Yes, if you live in a poor neighbourhood, you will face challenges that somebody in a wealthy suburb does not have to face. But that's not a reason to get bad grades - that's not a reason to cut class - that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands -- you cannot forget that. That's what we have to teach all of our children. No excuses. No excuses.

Parents, we can't tell our kids to do well in school and then fail to support them when they get home. You can't just contract out parenting. For our kids to excel, we have to accept our responsibility to help them learn. That means putting away the Xbox – putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences and reading to our children and helping them with their homework.

It also means pushing our children to set their sights a little bit higher.

Read entire speech transcript & watch the video: http://tinyurl.com/nozl3w

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RESEARCH

The implications of poverty on child readiness to learn

Fiona Hilferty et al, Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, 10 July 2009

One in 7 Australian children - including half of all Indigenous children - grows up in poverty.

‘Readiness to learn’ is the ability of children to develop and learn at each stage of life. This process starts at birth and builds on the many different experiences through which young children learn language, physical, emotional and social skills.

Recent findings in neuroscience show that children’s interactions with people and objects in their social environment create connections in the developing brain, shaping their ability to learn long before they go to school.

Growing up in poverty can compromise children’s readiness to learn. Differences between children affected by poverty and others start appearing in their language and behavioural development at two years of age. This is not simply the result of low income, because families often cycle in and out of poverty over time.

There are a number of pathways through which disadvantage can affect children’s readiness to learn: the quality of the interaction between parents and the child; the quality of the home environment; the quality of early learning and care outside the home and the physical and mental health of the parents.

How parents relate to a child is the pathway with the greatest influence on a child’s ability to learn: warm supportive parenting can protect against the negative impact of poverty.

There is strong evidence that preventive programs – put in place before problems start – can make a real difference when they are of high quality, intensive and easy to access, and offer services to children and parents simultaneously at home and at childcare or school.

Access full report: http://tinyurl.com/kuv7fz

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Cultural Diversity, Cosmopolitan Citizenship & Education: Issues, Options and Implications for Australia

Andrew Jakubowicz, a discussion paper for the Australian Education Union, July 2009

Why is cultural diversity an educational policy issue?

Education forms the most important investment a society can make in its future – in terms of its economy, its culture and its social order. Education to a large extent determines personal well-being, health, and income, and social mobility, flexibility and innovation.

Education is thus both a personal and a social good; indeed it demonstrates more than any other area of our lives how dependent we are on each other to fulfil our needs and contribute to the wider community benefit.

Australia is a modern democratic society, built on the energy and contributions of people from over one hundred different countries. They have arrived, those who are not Indigenous, seeking fortune, hoping for survival, fleeing from threats of torture and death, or looking for adventure, for a new start. Each carries the histories of her or his communities of origin, and are actors in the transformation of those communities into the integral components of contemporary Australia.

Whether their forebears came as convicts or free settlers, seekers after the elusive fortune of gold, or refugees from wars and revolutions, they have fed their aspirations and skills into the melting pot of Australia.

Australia has become and continues to evolve as a society of diverse cultures oriented to a common core of political, social, economic and cultural institutions.

Read more at http://tinyurl.com/lv9vzj

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AROUND THE STATES & TERRITORIES

NSW: The lie of the land for our schools

Gemma Jones, Daily Telegraph, July 15, 2009

EDUCATION Minister Verity Firth was quick to deny that land from 690 schools was being considered for sale yesterday - before primary school students proved her wrong.

The students at Glenmore Park Public School, which was on a list revealed by The Daily Telegraph yesterday, arrived for class this year to find a fence cutting off their playground and a for sale sign.

St Marys South Public School was also on the list of schools deemed by bean counters to be too big and with prime land for disposal - it also has for sale signs on its fence. "I didn't know until they moved the fence up - they used that area for the kids to play," one parent from Glenmore Park said yesterday.

Greens MP John Kaye said the minister had misused her office. "Ms Firth has either deliberately hidden Treasury's requirement to sell $239 million of public school lands or she is appallingly ignorant of the budgetary process," he said.

"She said there is no plan to sell large quantities of school land. There is $239 million worth to be sold before July 2012 - is that not a large quantity of land?"

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/l2aoo8

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NT: Chris Sarra (mainly) hopeful about the future of NT education

David Coady, ABC News, 16 July 2009

The academic behind a damning review of the Northern Territory's education department says he was disturbed by the system's limited focus on growing Indigenous leadership.

Dr Chris Sarra from Queensland's Indigenous Education Leadership Institute says he found very little evidence of quality control measures.

The Territory Government says it is restructuring the department in response and will focus on high achievement and staff retention.

Dr Sarra says he is optimistic.

"I don't know that it's that useful to point the finger at anyone in particular and lay blame.

"What's most important now is to say, 'OK, we're a system now that's designed to collude with high expectations of Aboriginal children and we must be intent on delivering quality education'."

Source: http://tinyurl.com/nz3o3z

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QLD: Every Queensland state school to teach indigenous culture

Tanya Chilcott, Courier Mail, July 16, 2009

EVERY state school in Queensland will teach indigenous culture in a radical plan to reduce the education gap with their fellow Australians.

State school residential colleges where indigenous children board, but are close enough to their community to go home on the weekend, are also being proposed.

Indigenous educators say the plan represents ''a seismic shift'' within the Queensland Education Department and offers new hope for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Presented in the report, Closing the Gap Education Strategy, schools are told they need to halve the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Year 3 numeracy and literacy levels by 2012.

By 2013, schools are expected to lift indigenous retention and attendance rates to that of their non-indigenous students.

Education Minister Geoff Wilson said the goals were ambitious, but achievable, with a number of initiatives including pre-prep education and Queensland Health's Deadly Ears initiatives already achieving results.

He said while 42 schools had already embedded ATSI perspectives aimed at promoting a greater understanding of indigenous culture and a sense of pride in ATSI students the strategy would be implemented statewide.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/mvcpql

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QLD: Parents to face charges over truancy

ABC News, Jul 15, 2009

The Queensland Government says about 10 families are facing criminal charges for not sending their children to school.

A couple from Tully, in far north Queensland, are the latest to be charged for not sending their 15-year-old son to school and ignoring Education Queensland's attempts to discuss the issue.

They are due to appear in court next month.

Education Minister Geoff Wilson says there has been an increase in the number of students who are repeatedly missing school across the state and parents need to take responsibility for improving attendance.

"There are extreme cases, they do occur but there is a broader issue we're wanting to address to raise the profile and our expectation that parents do have their kids at school every day," he said.

QASSP president Norm Hart says parents have a responsibility to educate their children.

"I think where parents have been offered support, are being advised that what is happening is unacceptable and still, in many cases, refuse to be a part of the partnership that gets that child to school, they should be charged," he said.

"It's a parents' responsibility to deliver the child to school."

Source: http://tinyurl.com/mtnqbq

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SA: Public-Private Partnership to build six new schools

Hon Kevin Foley MP, SA Treasurer, 20 July 2009

Treasurer Kevin Foley says the contract to build six new schools in metropolitan Adelaide as a Public Private Partnership was completed today and that construction on the first of the schools will begin shortly.

Cabinet has approved Pinnacle Education – a consortium of Hansen Yuncken, Spotless, Lend Lease and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia – as the private sector developer of the new schools.

“As a result, site works will begin for the first two schools shortly after final development approvals are given and those schools at Playford North and Taperoo will be ready to open in time for the final school term in 2010,” Mr Foley says.

“This represents a massive investment in our public school system and builds on the hundreds of millions of dollars currently being invested in partnership with the Federal Government through the Building the Education Revolution program.”

The total value of the deal signed with Pinnacle is $323 million which includes not only the cost of construction but also the management and maintenance of the schools over a thirty year period.

Read entire release: http://tinyurl.com/munqmu

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SA: Port Augusta gets new children’s centre

Hon Jay Wetherill MP, SA Minister for Early Childhood Development, July 20, 2009

The Port Augusta Children’s Centre for Early Childhood Development and Parenting is the State’s first Aboriginal-focused Children’s Centre and is within the Carlton School grounds in Rupert Street. The Port Augusta Children’s Centre provides services for children from birth to eight. This will include a new preschool to be operating on site later this year.

“Port Augusta Children’s Centre for Early Childhood Development and Parenting is one of 20 centres being opened by 2010 as part of the State Government’s $38.5 million initiative to support families with young children,” Mr Weatherill said. “We know how crucial the early years are to a child’s development and children’s centres help parents give children the best possible start in life.”

Parents can attend Learning Together groups, such as the Tucker Time Cooking Group or book-making group to gain advice and skills in parenting in a fun and friendly environment. Learning Together@Home also supports parents and children in the family home.

“There are additional services for Aboriginal children and families, such as the popular Granny Group, where Aboriginal grandmothers volunteer their time to provide parenting support and advice to young mothers,” Mr Weatherill said.

Read entire release: http://tinyurl.com/munqmu

Further information is available at the Children’s Centre Website http://tinyurl.com/mztz5t

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TAS: Class sizes shrinking

ABC News: Jul 13, 2009

Tasmania's Premier has hailed a fall in class sizes in the state's public schools.

The average class size in most primary and secondary grades has fallen slightly in the past two years.

In particular, the average number of students in grade nine classes has fallen from 23.5 per cent to 22.7 per cent since last year.

The Premier - and Education Minister - David Bartlett says the improvement is due to increased education spending.

He says student learning is also improving but there is still more work to be done in some year groups.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/llctrb

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VIC: Unique Student Number Rollout Begins

Bronwyn Pike, Minister for Education, 15 July 2009

A unique student number which provides an ongoing record of student movement as they progress through school and into post compulsory education will be introduced from the middle of July.

A Victorian Student Number (VSN) will be allocated to every student in Victorian Government, Catholic and Independent schools. During the initial rollout in July, 50 Government and non-Government schools will implement the VSN.

The program will then be rolled-out to all Government and non-Government schools through the remainder of 2009.

During 2010, VSN’s will be assigned to students under age 25 who are enrolled in Victorian vocational education and training providers.

Education Minister Bronwyn Pike said the VSN will ensure that the government has accurate and up to date information about student movement and retention rates.

Read entire release at: http://tinyurl.com/lba2wd

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WA: School land sales to net $160m

Amanda Banks, West Australian, 21st July 2009

Land will be carved up from five state schools and put on the market as part of a sell-off by the Education Department expected to raise nearly $160 million.

The Opposition yesterday accused the Government of wastefully disposing of public assets in a bid to fix its Budget woes.

“What is most concerning is those schools where they are selling part of the campus and it is still a functioning school,” acting Opposition Leader Roger Cook said. “They are selling part of the campus out from underneath the students while they are studying there.”

Education Minister Liz Constable said the department had told her that all decisions about the land sales had been made by the previous government. Dr Constable said the sales were not related to the Government’s 3 per cent spending cuts.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/n3ezal

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WA: Teachers want police in schools to curb rising violence

Bethany Hiatt, West Australian, 18 July 2009

The teachers’ union has called for police to be stationed in State schools to combat rising violence as new figures show more than 11,000 students were suspended or expelled last year.

State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said yesterday about 100 teachers were seriously assaulted by students each year and the Government should reinstate police liaison officers in tough high schools.

“This should be part of the Government’s response to the issue of violence in schools,” she said.

Ms Gisborne said placing police in schools meant they could build relationships with students and intervene “if anything turned a bit nasty”.

“The kids are going to be out in the broader community as adults and if we don’t intervene in behaviours that are inappropriate in a school context, then what we’re doing is allowing criminals to be developed,” she said.

The union had put the request to the Government but not had any response.

School-based police officers were withdrawn by the former State government four years ago. The Liberals pledged to put junior police officers in selected schools as part of their pre-election platform.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/l3zppt

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WA: Assault reports in schools soar

Bethany Hiatt, West Australian, 16th July 2009

The number of critical incidents reported to the Education Department, including violent assaults, has soared 30 per cent in the past three years.

More than 2580 incidents were reported in State schools last year, up from 1994 incidents in 2006. The department attributed the increase to changes in the reporting system, which had made it easier for principals to record incidents and provide more detail.

Reports of physical and verbal assaults on teachers and students rose from 1081 in 2006 to 1185 last year. This included students kicking or hitting each other or teachers, with or without weapons ranging from rulers to bats, and parents abusing staff. There were 40 incidents of a sexual nature, including allegations of teachers touching children inappropriately, sexual contact between students or “sexting” on mobile phones.

Nearly 100 intruders were detected on school property last year, including abusive parents or non-custodial parents, compared with just 16 reported three years ago. Vandalism incidents, including damage to teachers’ cars in school car parks, graffiti and breaking and entering, increased from 45 three years ago to 104 last year.

WA Primary Principals Association president Stephen Breen said the number of incidents represented a small part of the school population.

Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/mx2jth

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CONFERENCES & EVENTS

ACER Research Conference 2009

16-18 August 2009, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre

The Australian Council for Education Research's fourteenth annual research conference will explore the information that can be gained from quality classroom and system wide assessment and how effective teachers use that information to guide their teaching.

It is recognised that quality assessments are an integral part of good teaching. Highly effective teachers have been identified as those teachers who use assessments of student learning to:

identify starting points for teaching;
diagnose errors and misunderstandings;
provide feedback to guide student action;
evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching; and
onitor individual progress over time.