In the News, May 2010
In the News for week ending 30 May, 2010
Scripted lessons start a classroom revival Miranda Devine, Sydney Morning Herald May
29, 2010A radical US teaching method is lessening the
education gap.
If you want to see a real Education Revolution then
you should go to the remote Cape York town of Aurukun, where Aboriginal
leader Noel Pearson has imported a radical teaching program into a
school in which more than half of the students were barely reading at
kindergarten level, if they could read at all. In terms of indigenous
disadvantage, Aurukun was at rock bottom, with NAPLAN test results 70
per cent below the national benchmark, and every year the achievement
gap widening. The social dysfunction of the Cape's most violent town,
driven by gambling, drugs and alcohol, was being played out in the
schoolyard. But Pearson says the children's backgrounds has always been
used by principals, teachers and education department bureaucrats as an
''alibi for schooling failure''. His philosophy is that if a student is
at school and ready to learn, ''a learning failure is a teaching
failure''. Already, after just one-and-a-half terms, the
American-designed Direct Instruction program in which teachers deliver
scripted lessons, according to a strictly prescribed, methodical program
in literacy and mathematics, has surpassed even Pearson's
extraordinarily high hopes. It is a program on which he has staked his
reputation, forced into being against the will of much of the
educational establishment, and on which his legacy will be judged.
Teachers quit over 'US-style' program at
Aurukun, Coen State Schools Evan Schwarten , AAP, March 05, 2010 SEVEN teachers
have left a Cape York school following the introduction of a
controversial teaching program. Aurukun State School is one of two
schools running a trial program of "direct instruction" based on
competency rather than age. "Instead of just bumping the kids up year to
year it gives a much greater interrogation of their skill level,"
Education Queensland deputy director-general Ian Mackie told AAP. "They
are pushed harder in competence, they have to master their literacy and
numeracy before they move forward."
However, the Queensland Teachers
Union vice-president Julie Brown said some members were unhappy with the
program and had left the school. Seven teachers have walked in the past
five weeks while another teacher has left the other school in the
program, Coen State School.
More teachers walk over US-style lessonsStephanie Harrington, The Cairns Post,
Saturday, March 6, 2010THE head of a Cape York school who did
not embrace controversial "American-style" teaching has been asked to
move to another school. The acting head of campus at Coen was offered an
alternative position at another school on Thursday, sources told The
Weekend Post yesterday.
The State Government confirmed the acting
head at Aurukun State School accepted a similar transfer to Cooktown
about a fortnight ago. Education Queensland assistant director-general
of indigenous education Ian Mackie said "professional differences" over
the American-developed Direction Instruction teaching method were to
blame for the teachers moving on.
"It's a different method of
delivery and if people are uncomfortable with that we don't want
reluctant conscripts," Mr Mackie said. Five teachers have left Aurukun
since January and a principal and teacher left Coen at the end of last
year because of the controversial teaching method, the teachers' union
said. Other teachers have also left for personal reasons
Cheaper to start going to school Bruce McDougall, The Daily Telegraph, May
29, 2010THE soaring cost of childcare is forcing thousands of
parents to pack their children off to school well before they turn five
and are able to cope in the classroom. Childcare and early learning
centres claim up to 80 per cent of children in their care are being sent
to school too early as families avoid spiralling fees of up to $100 a
day. Children become eligible for school at 4½ years but early learning
centres said some were so traumatised in their first year at
kindergarten they returned to childcare.
Teacher appraisal inadequate: audit JEWEL TOPSFIELD, The Age, May 27, 2010 THE
state government has not shown whether the quality of teaching has
improved in public schools despite a seven-year campaign, says the
Victorian Auditor-General, Des Pearson.
In an audit into whether
teaching is improving, Mr Pearson said the Education Department was not
assessing how well schools evaluated teachers and thus it could not be
certain it was achieving its aim of improving teaching. The audit comes
just days after a scathing report by think tank the Grattan Institute
found that more than 90 per cent of Australian teachers felt they would
not get recognition if they improved. Most told the institute annual
reviews were meaningless, had few consequences and were largely done to
satisfy administrative requirements. Mr Pearson said one in four
Victorian principals felt either unprepared or very unprepared to
address poor teaching. ''This is concerning given the critical
responsibility principals have … in identifying teachers' professional
development needs,'' he wrote in the audit.
Gillard pours scorn on Coalition exam
proposal DAN HARRISON,
The Age, May 27, 2010EDUCATION Minister Julia Gillard has
poured scorn on the Coalition's proposal for national year 12 exams,
questioning its ability to deliver such a change without saying whether
she thought it was desirable. Speaking at the National Press Club in
Canberra yesterday, Ms Gillard dismissed the idea, contained in the
Coalition's submission to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authority. ''The opposition in government generated a lot of
one-liners about education,'' she said. ''I used to read one-liners
about school transparency, and nothing got done. I used to read
one-liners pursuing the culture wars around curriculum, and nothing got
done. This one-liner comes with absolutely no clue about how they would
get this reform done and I think that's because they've got absolutely
no clue, and people should bear that in mind in reading this
commitment.''
To aim for the top of the class, aim for a
personal best ANNA
PATTY, Sydney Morning Herald, May 27, 2010 STUDENTS achieve
greater academic success by competing with themselves instead of with
each other, Australian research has found. The study of 1866 Australian
high school students found that students who strive to improve their
personal best performance were more likely to achieve higher literacy
and numeracy standards, complete their homework and participate in
class. They were also more likely to have higher academic aspirations
and be more persistent with their studies. Published in the latest issue
of the international journal Learning and Individual Differences, the
University of Sydney study challenges the educational value of
competition between classmates and comparisons between students. Andrew
Martin and a colleague, Gregory Lim, from the university's Department of
Education and Social Work, followed the progress of students over the
course of a year.
Coalition calls for national exams DAN HARRISON, The Age, May 26, 2010 THE
federal Coalition has set the stage for a showdown with the states by
calling for the introduction of uniform, national year 12 exams. It has
also stepped up its campaign against what it regards as the
''politically correct'' bias of the proposed national curriculum, which
it says is a throwback to the Keating era. Specifically, it has called
for less emphasis on the themes of sustainability, Asia and indigenous
affairs. Liberal senator Brett Mason, the opposition's spokesman for
school curriculum standards, made the bold proposal for national exams
in a submission to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting
Authority, which is responsible for the new curriculum. Senator Mason
said it was important that testing was nationally consistent, so that
student results could be compared across the whole country.
But the
idea is unlikely to be welcomed by Victoria, which is fiercely
protective of its Victorian Certificate of Education.
Auditor
toothless on state BER spend Justine Ferrari and Anthony Klan, The Australian, May 26, 2010 THE
federal government cannot ensure the states and private schools are
securing value for money on the $14 billion worth of halls and libraries
being built as part of the economic stimulus.
Appearing before a
budget estimates inquiry yesterday, officers from the Australian
National Audit Office said value for money was not part of the
guidelines for the Building the Education Revolution until August last
year. But even after the stipulation that projects represent value for
money, the ANAO was still unable to examine the value for money of
projects because its powers only allow it to scrutinise federal
agencies. The statements come amid revelations the $14 million taskforce
into the BER, announced by federal Education Minister Julia Gillard
last month, does not have the power to take any action to prevent
wastage ahead of its first reporting deadline in August.
Government policy-makers are failing the
maths test Jill
Rowbotham, The Australian, May 26, 2010 MATHEMATICIANS and
statisticians have been dropped from the Immigration Department's new
skilled occupation list, leaving one of the country's top practitioners
and educators, Cheryl Praeger, "extremely disappointed". The Winthrop
professor in the school of mathematics and statistics at the University
of Western Australia, Professor Praeger has called for reinstatement of
the professions, arguing their omission will make it more difficult for
overseas graduates in those subjects to obtain a permanent residency
visa. "Moveover, there's a compound effect for WA schools," Professor
Praeger told a public lecture at the university last week. "The
increased demand for mathematics graduates by industry in WA is
exacerbating an already seriously inadequate source of trained
mathematics teachers for WA schools."
BER taskforce to stay silent Anthony Klan, The Australian, May 27, 2010
THE head of the $14 million taskforce into wastage in the Building
the Education Revolution program has said he has the power to make
recommendations ahead of the taskforce's first report in August but is
very unlikely to do so. Former merchant banker Brad Orgill yesterday
told The Australian he had the power to make recommendations "at any
time" but it was "unlikely we will come out with any recommendations
ahead of the initial report" because the inquiry did not want to rush
its conclusions. The Australian this week revealed almost all of the
$16.2 billion BER budget would have been spent and be unrecoverable by
the time the taskforce first reports, with the government preparing to
commit the third and final round of funding, of $5.5bn, in July.
When
asked whether the government would consider pushing back that third
round of funding until after the taskforce reports in August, a
spokesman for Education Minister Julia Gillard refused to comment.
Principal pleads with minister to suspend
BER program Anthony
Klan, The Australian, May 27, 2010 THE principal of Berwick
Lodge Primary School has called on the federal government to suspend the
$16.2 billion schools stimulus scheme to prevent "horrendous" wastage.
In an open letter to federal Education Minster Julia Gillard, Henry
Grossek said the school had spent $10,000 having Melbourne quantity
surveyor Swift Construction assess the value of the template library and
classroom building it is to receive under the scheme at a cost of $3
million. The quantity surveyor found the building -- identical to that
being delivered across the state to hundreds of schools for $3m --
should cost just $2m, with one-third of the cost frittered away on
needless bureaucracy, onerous documentation requirements and expensive
building materials. "You must act now to save the Building the Education
Revolution. There is no more time to lose," Mr Grossek wrote.
Forging new strategies to tackle workplace
illiteracy Heather
Ridout, The Australian, May 26, 2010 IN many ways literacy
and numeracy shortfalls are deeply hidden workplace problems: the
sufferers are often highly adept at keeping their problem a secret.
Australian Industry Group member companies have heard every excuse:
"I've left my glasses at home, can you fill this in for me?", "I'll take
the incident report home to finish," and "Frank will do it, he has
neater handwriting." This situation was highlighted in a recent report
from the Australian Industry Group's National Workforce Literacy
Project. The project aims to identify practical solutions and find ways
for industry to be more engaged in addressing the critical national
literacy and numeracy problem. The first stage of the project includes a
survey in which, worryingly, 75 per cent of employers reported that
their businesses were affected by low levels of literacy and numeracy.
The effects of literacy and numeracy shortfalls are felt across the
workforce: low levels of literacy and numeracy were an issue for 45 per
cent of labourers and process workers, 25 per cent of apprentices, 23
per cent of technicians, 17 per cent of administrative staff and 13 per
cent of information technology staff.
Call for national exams DAN HARRISON, The Age, May 26, 2010 THE
federal Coalition has set the stage for a showdown with the states by
calling for the introduction of uniform, national year 12 exams. It has
also stepped up its campaign against what it regards as the
''politically correct'' bias of the proposed national curriculum, which
it says is a throwback to the Keating era. Specifically, it has called
for less emphasis on the themes of sustainability, Asia and indigenous
affairs. Liberal senator Brett Mason, the opposition's spokesman for
school curriculum standards, made the bold proposal for national exams
in a submission to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting
Authority, which is responsible for the new curriculum. Senator Mason
said it was important that testing was nationally consistent, so that
student results could be compared across the whole country.
Year 7s set up to fail new maths course Candice Keller, Martina Simos, The
Advertiser, May 25, 2010 YEAR 7 students in South Australia
are being set up to fail under the proposed national maths curriculum,
educators warn. Principals and teachers' associations have said the new
curriculum - drafted for Reception to Year 12 in core subjects English,
maths, science and history - is written to encompass Year 7 in
secondary school. However, some states - including SA - still have Year 7
as the final year of primary school, meaning some students and teachers
will not be able to keep up with interstate counterparts. Meanwhile,
the three SA primary schools involved in the national literacy and
numeracy test teacher cheating scandal re-sat the assessment yesterday.
Historian Stuart Macintyre slams school
course Justine Ferrari,
The Australian, May 25, 2010 THE lead writer on the national
history curriculum has criticised the development of the school course
as an unwieldy and frustrating process, with four groups of experts
making changes without consulting one another. Eminent historian Stuart
Macintyre criticised the impasse between the states and the federal
government over who is going to pay for the teaching resources and
training needed to implement the new curriculum, due to be introduced
from 2011. While universities are training teachers who will be required
to teach the national curriculum, no faculty of education has adjusted
its course to take account of the changes.
The problem is most
serious in history, with few education faculties outside NSW including
the subject in teaching degrees, and many removing it from primary
school teaching courses when it is about to become mandatory.
Education department shortage of skilled
leaders leads to shared principals CANDICE KELLER, The Advertiser, May 24, 2010
SOUTH Australian schools may be forced to share principals
to address the looming shortage of school leaders, educators say. The
ageing workforce of teachers and issues over attraction and retention of
principals will lead to a shortfall of school management staff in four
to five years, they predict. The South Australian Secondary Principals
Association has suggested "executive principals" - leaders of two or
more campuses - may be one solution.
President Jim Davies said this
would help schools share resources and mentor aspiring principals.
"It
has been trialled in other jurisdictions, particularly the UK, and in
many circumstances has been found to be quite successful," Mr Davies
said.
Principal,
officials clash over school for misfit pupils JEWEL TOPSFIELD, The Age, May 25, 2010A
SCHOOL for at-risk students in Kew is holding classes in a tent after
it was forced to close following an audit. Carnegie School was suspended
last December after the independent school regulator found it had
failed to meet minimum standards, such as not having on-site toilets.
The
closure has devastated parents and former students, many of whom say
they are unable to cope in mainstream schools. Principal Jon Carnegie
said while he supported the need to maintain standards, the audit had
been a ''demoralising, bully-driven campaign''. ''Communities are full
of school refusers who don't fit into the mainstream and I can't
understand why the government would want to close us,'' he said. Dr
Carnegie opened Carnegie School three years ago because he was concerned
that some students were falling through the cracks in conventional
education. The school's teaching philosophy was ''teach the child first
and the subject second''. While the basics in numeracy and literacy were
taught, 30 per cent of class time was spent on personal development, he
said. The school charged fees of up to $15,000 a year, although
homeless students were offered free tuition.
Teachers get no incentive to improve Justine Ferrari, The Australian, May 24,
2010 GOOD teachers are not recognised and rewarded while poor
teachers are not penalised because methods to evaluate their
performance at school are meaningless and ineffective.
A report by
the independent think tank the Grattan Institute, to be released today,
calls for a radical overhaul of the nation's systems for evaluating
teachers, saying the profession believes they are meaningless and
undertaken only to satisfy administrative requirements.
"Although all
Australian schools have systems of evaluation and development in place,
they clearly aren't working. Teachers believe that the systems are
broken," the report says.
It adds that 92 per cent of teachers work
in schools where the principal never reduces the annual pay rise for
underperforming teachers, and almost three-quarters, or 71 per cent, say
teachers with sustained poor performance are not dismissed.
And from
overseas... Game on, as parents beat ban on ‘competitive’ school sportsLaura Pitel, The Times, May 27, 2010A
children’s sports competition that was cancelled to protect young
players from becoming upset if they lost has been reinstated after
parents campaigned against the decision.
The tournament, which has
taken place in Tweeddale in the Scottish Borders for 40 years, was
threatened because sports development officers at the local council
believed that primary schoolchildren on losing teams would suffer from
“low self-esteem”.
Fiona Pagett, 41, whose daughter attends Broughton
Primary, one of the affected schools, said: “I couldn’t believe it.
Competition is part of life. You can’t shield children from that.”
She
lodged a formal complaint with Scottish Borders Council but was told
that sports development officers were following guidelines issued by the
Scottish Football Association, which also extended to other sports. Ms
Pagett undertook a Facebook campaign supported by other parents and the
council reinstated the inter-schools football and netball competition.
“I’m pleased they saw sense and realised it was not in the best
interests of the children,” Ms Pagett said.
In the news, for
week ending 23 May, 2010
Principal rapped for test breachBETHANY HIATT EDUCATION EDITOR, The West
Australian May 21, 2010A school principal who allowed Year 9
students to sit national literacy and numeracy tests a day early has
been formally reprimanded for breaching test rules. The Education
Department investigated three complaints of alleged cheating on the
National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy tests that took place
over three days last week for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
The
investigation found that 20 Year 9 students from Lakeland Senior High
School, South Lake, had been given the language conventions and writing
tests a day early. They sat the tests on May 10 so they could attend a
sports carnival on May 11.
Coalition defends education spending cuts JEWEL TOPSFIELD AND DAN HARRISON, The Age,
May 21, 2010 THE Coalition has defended its plan to slash the
education budget, vowing to ''cut out the middleman'' and fund programs
directly rather than funnelling money through the states.
Opposition
education spokesman Christopher Pyne was yesterday forced to clarify
that programs to tackle disadvantage and teacher shortage were expected
to survive the Coalition axe.
The future of programs such as Teach
for Australia - where non-teaching graduates are placed in some of the
nation's toughest classrooms - appeared to be in jeopardy after the
Coalition announced $425 million of cuts to programs to improve teacher
quality.
State blasted for inquiry no-show JEWEL TOPSFIELD, The Age, May 18, 2010 THE
state government has been accused of hamstringing a Senate inquiry into
the controversial schools stimulus program after bureaucrats refused to
appear before a hearing. And in what one senator suggested was ''undue
pressure'', a principal revealed he had received two calls from the
Education Department last week asking what he was going to tell the
inquiry. The state government came under repeated criticism at a hearing
in Melbourne yesterday for being secretive and refusing to release cost
break-downs of building projects, as has occurred in NSW. Several
schools said they felt bullied into accepting a ''cookie cutter''
template design that did not suit their needs. The inquiry also heard
the program widened the gap between the private and public system
because independent and Catholic schools were able to manage their own
projects and receive better value for money. Greens Senator Sarah
Hanson-Young slammed the Education Department for refusing to attend the
hearing. She said the inquiry wanted an explanation for why some state
schools were less satisfied with the program than private schools.
Stimulus plan leaves once happy school
bitterly divided JEWEL
TOPSFIELD, The Age, May 18, 2010FOR the first time in Mount
Martha Primary School's 28-year history, the school community is at
loggerheads. Iona Eichstadt says the school - once known for its
closeness and unity - is being ''barraged by unhappy parents and an air
of mistrust and second-guessing has emerged within our school
community''. Ms Eichstadt, the school council president, squarely blames
the school stimulus program for creating the division, which has seen
parent donations to the school drop by more than 25 per cent.
Parents 'bullied' into taking less for
schools Milanda Rout,
The Australian, May 18, 2010 AUSTRALIA'S least transparent
state in managing school building projects has snubbed a Senate inquiry
into the $16.2 billion stimulus program, amid accusations from Victorian
parents that they were bullied by state bureaucrats into accepting less
funding than they were entitled to under the commonwealth scheme. In a
written submission to the inquiry, the Brumby government yesterday
revealed that its reallocation of Building the Education Revolution
funding had meant one in three Victorian primary schools might not
receive their original commonwealth grant.
According to the
government submission, some schools "decided to forgo some or all of the
funds notionally available under their indicative funding caps in order
to enable needier schools to apply for more funding".
BER leaves principal fuming over handling of
funds Anthony Klan,
The Australian, May 18, 2010 THE principal of the tiny Urana
Central School in south-central NSW "could not be more annoyed" about
the way his school's allocation under the $16.2 billion schools stimulus
program has been handled. Noel Maddern said that under the Building the
Education Revolution program, his school of 50 pupils would be
delivered a small library at a cost of $310,000, but he had now been
told the school's much larger demountable library could be removed,
leaving the school "much worse off". Mr Maddern said the company engaged
to construct the new library was the same one that had directly quoted
the school $160,000 for a much larger building months earlier. "I cannot
be more annoyed -- the whole process has been completely bungled by the
NSW Education Department," Mr Maddern wrote in a submission to a NSW
upper house inquiry into the BER building program.
Keep out
the lobby groups, history teachers say Justine Ferrari, The Australian, May 18,
2010 HISTORY teachers are concerned the national curriculum
panders to lobby groups demanding their pet topics be included, creating
a course that will force teachers to race through content and leave no
time for in-depth study. The interim response by the History Teachers'
Association of Australia says the Australian Curriculum Assessment and
Reporting Authority needs to cull content from the national history
curriculum for students in Years K to 10 and withstand pressure from
"numerous lobby groups" demanding their topics stay, are enhanced or are
added to the final document. "At this stage, it is vital that the
process moves beyond the influence of lobby groups and commits to a
rational process for reducing prescribed content," the response says.
"It is not clear the current content outlines have been developed on the
basis of agreement about significant knowledge."
Worst attended schools revealed in
Queensland Tanya
Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, May 17, 2010 QUEENSLAND state
schools with the highest absentee rates have been ranked publicly for
the first time after the release of an Education Queensland list. The EQ
figures show about one-quarter of state schools have failed to keep
their student attendance rate above 90 per cent.
Schools with large
numbers of indigenous pupils and some state high schools on Brisbane's
outskirts are among the worst, with student attendance rates dropping as
low as 56.2 per cent early last year. It comes despite a campaign to
stamp out truancy and a range of initiatives, including hiring staff,
solely to deal with the scourge. The state's worst attendance rate of
56.2 per cent was at Urandangi State School, which has less than 50
students.
Principals empowered to expel students From: AAP, May 17, 2010 QUEENSLAND
state school principals will be given stronger powers to expel
students. Premier Anna Bligh said primary and high school principals
currently had to seek departmental approval to suspend or expel a child.
But red tape would be cut to allow them to more quickly punish
troublemakers and protect other students, she said. There will still be
an avenue of appeal. Ms Bligh said classrooms and school yards needed to
be safe places where children could learn and teachers could teach
uninterrupted.``We think it's important that principals can directly
control who is in their schools and make sure that the behaviour is
appropriate,'' she told reporters in Brisbane.
Workers 'lack writing, numeracy skills'News.com.au, May 17, 2010 MORE
than 75 per cent of employers say their business suffers because of
workers' poor writing and numeracy skills. A report has revealed more
than 75 per cent of employers say their business suffers because of such
fundamental deficiencies. The report from the Australian Industry Group
(AiGroup) has found that literacy and numeracy issues across all levels
in the workforce lead to time-wasting due to work needing to be
repeated and "poor completion" of workplace documents.
Innovators see the big picture DENISE RYAN, The Age, May 17, 2010 CROYDON
Community School principal Bronwyn Harcourt cannot believe the change
in her students' attendance since the start of the year. For the first
time, 75 per cent of her 108 students attended high school for 75 per
cent of the time, and 20 per cent did not miss a day.
"This is an
amazing achievement," she says. "Our kids could be away for more than 60
days per year or may not have been to school for two years before
coming to us." This is a school with a challenging cohort. Many students
have ADHD, anxiety disorders, are on the autism spectrum or have severe
learning and language difficulties. All are at risk of dropping out of
secondary school, with many expelled from other schools or excluded
because they lack social skills.
And
from overseas…
Fast law will bring shake-up of English
schools in time for summerTimes on Line, Greg Hurst, Roland Watson, Richard Ford The
biggest shake-up in English education for a generation will be heralded
tomorrow with legislation making it simpler for parents to set up “free
schools” and a new wave of academies.
A short Bill will be
introduced this week removing local authority powers to veto new
schools, allowing charities or education providers to get state funding
for each pupil they attract. The legislation is intended to be rushed
through Parliament by summer. It will also allow other state schools to
become academies, enjoying similar freedom from local authorities but
with a proportion of their budget — typically about 10 per cent —
retained by councils for services such as admissions, transport and
special needs. The school reforms, drawn up by the Conservatives,
survived largely intact in coalition talks with the Liberal Democrats
and are to be implemented as a priority by the new Government. The
Liberal Democrats’ manifesto pledged to boost the role of local
authorities, giving them powers over schools currently wielded from
Whitehall and extending their remit to academies — but their plans were
omitted from the coalition deal. Separate legislation is likely to
include provision to make it easier for community groups to aquire and
convert public sector land and buildings as premises for “free schools”.
Capital costs would be funded from money for a school rebuilding
programme. However, the most dramatic — and immediate — impact on state
education may come from allowing existing state schools to convert to
academy status, including primary schools for the first time.
In the News for week ending 16 May, 2010
Eyes front, pens poised for a champion among
teachers NATALIE
CRAIG, The Age, May 16, 2010 WHAT makes a brilliant teacher?
Talent? A Masters degree? A six-figure salary? According to American
education guru Doug Lemov, whose work is infiltrating Australian
schools, the answer is simple. Brilliant teachers have brilliant
technique. They stand still when delivering instructions. They modulate
their voice for emphasis. They develop routines and set a standard for
behaviour.
It seems obvious. But Lemov, a former teacher and
principal, has made a name for himself by dissecting exactly what the
best teachers do.His top-selling book Teach Like a Champion explains 49
teaching techniques and has been touted in the US and British press as
the key to better teaching.
National
curriculum content not up to scratch: critics ANNA PATTY EDUCATION EDITOR, Sydney Morning
Herald, May 15, 2010The new national curriculum threatens to
water down the content of some Higher School Certificate courses for NSW
senior secondary school students, critics say. And they say the
consultation period for the draft curriculum, which ends on July 30, is
being rushed in an election year. The highest-level courses in maths and
English do not appear to extend students as much as existing courses,
under the proposals for years 11 and 12.
A disaster? You do the maths ELISABETH TARICA, The Age, May 15, 2010 ANDREW
Hanson readily admits he struggled with maths at primary school. He
remembers finding the subject daunting and bleak, so now as a primary
teacher he easily relates to students who feel the same way when
confronted by a sheet of numbers. "I was very strong in literacy but
numeracy was like another language to me for a long time," he says. "I
know now when I am helping teachers and students in our school how
difficult some students find maths and how frustrating it can be. Kids
can also become very detached from maths and get a negative self-image
and struggle with it." These days he's fired with a passion for maths
that has grown more intense during two years working with specialist
numeracy coaches at Corio South Primary School in Geelong.
Doubt on state's national testing FARRAH TOMAZIN, The Age, May 14, 2010 VICTORIA'S
strong performance in the national literacy and numeracy test has been
called into question, with figures showing a smaller proportion of
students sat the exams than in other states and many were absent or
withdrawn from class when testing was held. Education Minister Bronwyn
Pike was forced to defend Victoria's achievements yesterday when figures
from the same report also revealed the state did not make significant
statistical improvements in most of the areas tested from 2008 to 2009,
and even went backwards in some of the writing exams. More than 1
million students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat the controversial National
Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy this week, including almost
262,000 Victorian children. But while the Brumby government prides
itself on its schools being among the best in the country in reading,
writing, maths, grammar and spelling, figures presented to a
parliamentary hearing yesterday cast doubt on Victoria's academic
record.
Savings
from public servants MISHA SCHUBERT AND MICHELLE GRATTAN, The
Age, May 14, 2010 Member for Calare John Cobb and Opposition
Leader Tony Abbott talk to Bill Reid Gibbs Farm Centre Managing
Director during a visit to Queanbeyan. Photo: Glen McCurtayne
TONY
Abbott has vowed to restructure Labor's school building program and send
the money directly to schools, in a budget reply that also pledged to
axe the proposed new $652 million renewable energy fund to offset his
Green Army and private health insurance rebates.
In a fiscal
responsibility pitch to voters, the Opposition Leader also promised to
freeze public service numbers for two years, cut government advertising
by 25 per cent and scrap the national broadband network if he becomes
prime minister. And he vowed to return the budget to surplus ''at least
as quickly'' as Labor, insisting ''the size of government will always be
about 1 per cent of GDP less under the Coalition''.
NAPLAN cheat faces the axe in South
Australia Michael Owen
and Verity Edwards, The Australian, May 14, 2010 A PRIMARY
school teacher in Adelaide is facing dismissal after changing answers in
a Year 7 national literacy exam. Correne Woolmer, a teacher at St
Leonard's Primary School in the Adelaide beachside suburb of Glenelg
North, was stood down yesterday as state Education Minister Jay
Weatherill said the "strongest possible action" would be taken against
any teachers caught cheating on NAPLAN results. As students completed
the final day of the tests yesterday, Mr Weatherill said Ms Woolmer, who
he said had confessed to cheating, was sprung when another teacher saw
her altering the results of a NAPLAN spelling test on Tuesday. "We will
be taking the strongest possible action in relation to this teacher," Mr
Weatherill said. "It is a gross breach of professional integrity to
alter NAPLAN results."
Security risk claim over papers locked in
schools LUCY HOOD,
EDUCATIONNOW EDITOR, The Advertiser, May 11, 2010 Cassie,
Siena and Mi Mi with boxes of the NAPLAN tests at St Dominic's Priory
College.
THE security of today's national literacy and numeracy tests
is "inadequate" to stop cheating, an education advocacy group has
warned. Save our Schools says NAPLAN co-ordinators and teachers in South
Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland had told them
security arrangements for the tests were not stringent enough to prevent
cheating. But principals have hit back, saying it would be "a sad day"
if educators could not be trusted with the tests.
The tests will be
held over the next three days for Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students. Schools
across Australia received the tests over the past two weeks. According
to the state Education Department, schools have stored the test papers
in a "secure area" until the tests are held.
And from overseas... Conservative MP Nick Gibb appointed schools
ministerThe Guardian,
14 May, 2010Nick Gibb is joined in the new Department for
Education by Sarah Teather and Tim Loughton
Conservative MP Nick
Gibb is the new schools minister, it was announced today. Joining him in
the new Department for Education are Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather and
Conservative Tim Loughton.
Goodbye Department for Curtains and Soft
FurnishingsJessica
Shepherd, education correspondent, The Guardian, 13 May, 2010Gove
renames DCSF the Department for Education as rainbow logos are taken
down
The new education secretary Michael Gove has speedily renamed
his department the Department for Education. What was the Department for
Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has the same remit for the time
being, primarily state schools, education up to the age of 19 and
children's services. Universities will remain the responsibility of the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The DCSF's branding – a
rainbow emblem and giant cartoon characters reminiscent of children's
story books nicknamed "munchkins" by civil servants – are being taken
down this morning. The department came under fire for spending millions
on designer furniture and logos.
In the News for week ending 9 May, 2010
You wouldn't read about it JOHN BAILEY, The Age, May 9, 2010 SAMUEL
Talbot-Dunn is an articulate, charismatic 28-year-old with an easy
laugh. Four years ago he could barely read or write. Looking back, he
says, his schooling was a mess. His parents moved around a lot and the
gaps in his learning grew. Somehow, he continued to be promoted through
the grades, despite being unable to spell his own surname. Like many, he
learned to act.
''For me, the way I coped with that was turning into
the class clown. I hung with the wrong people and by year 8 I was asked
to leave my high school for fighting, drinking, all sorts of stuff,''
Talbot-Dunn recalls. ''I ended up in a school for kids who don't fit
into the normal schooling system and was there until year 10, just
bludging really, not learning anything. ''Then I found a job in
hospitality … I got a job making coffee and you don't have to do any
writing or reading when you're a barista, so I made coffee for 10
years.'' The effects of his secret were felt in every area of his life.
''I would go to the post office and get crippling anxiety. Just filling
out a form or trying to pay a bill, simple stuff. When you go to the
doctor and they give you the form to fill out, I couldn't even spell my
street name. It was awful,'' he says.
Too many kids in inner-city schools? That's
another storey NATALIE
CRAIG, The Age, May 9, 2010 TWO-STOREY portable classrooms
are being trucked to inner-city schools to house scores of extra
students as Victoria's baby boom prompts a surge in enrolments. Schools
are also staggering lunchtimes or using nearby parkland as playgrounds
are subsumed by new buildings. Albert Park Primary, Port Melbourne
Primary, Malvern Primary and Middle Park Primary are the first schools
to receive two-storey portables.
Bullying victims to get legal protection AAP, May 9, 2010 New
anti-harassment laws to be introduced by the federal government will
give legal protection to young victims of cyber and classroom bullying.
The changes will mean victims under the age of 16 will be able to use
sexual harassment laws to pursue their tormentors, Fairfax newspapers
say.
At present, a 15-year-old girl whose former boyfriend sends
naked cyber images of her to their classmates has no protection under
federal sexual harassment legislation. But a 16-year-old girl is
protected under the existing act. "Younger children are often the most
at risk from online bullying or harassment," Sex Discrimination
Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick told Fairfax.
School backlash toned down HEATH GILMORE, The Age, May 8, 2010 THE
response of government primary school principals to the controversial
$16.2 billion school building program was watered down in the
Commonwealth Auditor-General's report.
The Auditor-General originally
asked 7951 primary school principals receiving money for new halls,
libraries, gymnasiums or other buildings to volunteer their thoughts
about the program last September. His office designed the survey and
methodology, but a private company, Orima Research, conducted the
research. Orima, a Melbourne and Canberra-based organisation, is a major
beneficiary of government contracts, run by a former senior economic
adviser in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Szymon
Duniec. As many as 3100 primary school principals responded to the
survey request about the federal program, 75 per cent of which were
public schools. Many of the comments were far from flattering. But
instead of using this raw data alone, Orima contacted more principals
over a two to three-week period in October last year to ensure a
''broader representation'' of participating schools rather than the
''passionate outbursts''.
Education reform lies buried under the
morass Noel Pearson,
The Australian, May 08, 2010 CONTROVERSY over Education
Minister Julia Gillard's Building the Education Revolution program has
been growing for many months. Debate has centred on whether the sheer
scale of the $16 billion program was a justified economic stimulus
response to the financial crisis. The debate between the neo-Keynesians
and the neo-liberals about the benefits of stimuli in the face of such
crises was not as pronounced in this country as in the US, where the
Republicans have indulged in a Coolidge-esque insistence that creative
destruction is part and parcel of capitalism and threatened firms should
be allowed to fail. No matter that the Troubled Asset Relief Program
rescue package was instituted by former president George W. Bush; the
Republicans insist bailouts are for socialists. I can say little of
worth in relation to the debate about governmental intervention via
stimulus spending. There is legitimate debate to be had about whether
"timely, targeted, temporary" should not turn into too much, too long,
but it is not this facet of the BER with which I am concerned. The
second focus of the BER debate is the rorting and waste in the
administration of the program. A project of this size supervised by
bureaucrats was always going to turn into a pig trough. But although
this dimension is important, there is a third issue: the question of the
education reform value of the BER. There will be little, if any,
education value from this colossal investment. The program has been
inaccurately and unfortunately named. It should have been called the
Building Revolution Program or the Construction Employment Program. It
is wrong to place this investment in the nation's education accounts
because it will not yield educational reform.
How Gillard gave truculent teachers a caning
Sydney Morning Herald,
May 8, 2010Julia Gillard's victory over teachers and unions
this week may go down in history as a pivotal moment in education and
her career, write Anny Patty, Rick Feneley and Dan Harrison.
IF THE
working-class heroine Julia Gillard ever becomes prime minister, her
biographers will not ignore the week that her iron will crushed the
teachers' unions, which fell like dominoes; or the blood she left in her
wake, especially in NSW, the last state to fall. The Deputy Prime
Minister and the federal Education Minister never got too close to the
bloodletting but her triumph over teachers and principals on Thursday -
ensuring school numeracy and literacy tests will proceed unhindered next
week - followed a bitter and at times undignified battle.
Schools get
test papers back after ban lifted ANNA PATTY, Sydney Morning Herald, May 7,
2010 THE NSW Department of Education will return seized boxes
of NAPLAN test papers to school principals after the national teacher
union decided to lift its ban on the national literacy and numeracy
tests being held next week. A spokeswoman for the NSW Minister for
Education, Verity Firth, said the test papers - seized on Wednesday -
would be delivered to schools ''in time for the tests''. Ms Firth said
she expected the majority of schools to conduct the exams as scheduled
next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Julia
Gillard forced teachers to call off boycott Patricia Karvelas , The Australian, May 07,
2010 JULIA Gillard has stared down the teachers' unions and
forced them to drop their plans to boycott next week's national literacy
and numeracy testing in schools. The Australian Education Union
yesterday called off the proposed boycott of the NAPLAN tests after the
Education Minister agreed to set up a working party to examine student
performance data. But Ms Gillard did not agree to remove any information
from the controversial My School website, concerns about which prompted
the union's boycott threat. A meeting of the union's federal executive
yesterday decided to lift the moratorium on administration of the NAPLAN
tests. Before the AEU had time to make its backdown known, Ms Gillard
angered some in the union by publicly praising its decision.
It is
understood Ms Gillard had struck a deal with the union in the past few
days and was told the executive would support a backdown by 11am
yesterday. Ms Gillard's statement was sent out before the meeting ended.
AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said Ms Gillard had offered to
set up a working party to provide advice on the use of student
performance data and indicators of school effectiveness. "The working
party will provide a way to advance and address the profession's
educational concerns relating to the misuse of student test data
including school league tables," he said.
Gillard denies misleading parliament on BER Matthew Franklin, The Australian, May 07,
2010 JULIA Gillard has denied misleading parliament last year
over a cost blowout in her $16.2 billion school building program. But
the Deputy Prime Minister, who will face a grilling on the issue when
parliament resumes next week, has conceded she has concerns about value
for money under the Building the Education Revolution scheme. The BER
was created in February last year as part of the government's $42bn
economic stimulus program, designed to protect the economy against the
fallout from the global financial crisis.
Union ban lifted on school tests DAN HARRISON, The Age, May 7, 2010 NATIONAL
literacy and numeracy tests will go ahead next week after the teachers
union abandoned the boycott it had threatened over fears the test
results would be misused to rank schools. The union said it had resolved
to lift the ban after federal Education Minister Julia Gillard agreed
to form a working party of educational experts, including union
representatives, to provide input into future improvements to the My
School website. School principals expressed relief, while Victorian
Education Minister Bronwyn Pike hailed the outcome as ''a victory for
common sense.''
The union said the working party would give it a
forum to advance its concerns about test results being used to create
damaging league tables. But Ms Gillard, who had publicly vowed not to
negotiate the contents of the website, also claimed victory.
''Everything that is currently on the My School website will stay for
the future and the long-term,'' she said.
Auditor rocks basis of BER stimulus boast Matthew Franklin and Justine Ferrari, The
Australian, May 06, 2010 AN official audit has cast doubt
over Kevin Rudd's claim to have saved Australia from recession by
building school halls, revealing the majority of his $16.2 billion
schools stimulus budget has not yet been spent. The Australian National
Audit Office has found 83 per cent of projects under Building the
Education Revolution program are behind schedule. And although it says
there are "early indications" the scheme is achieving its stated aims,
it has been unable to verify the Prime Minister's claims it has created
tens of thousands of jobs. The report notes that the "overwhelming
majority" of BER projects had not yet been funded, concluding that "the
effect of program spending on an economy-wide basis is unclear at this
time". Auditor-General Ian McPhee's report, released yesterday, sparked
opposition claims that Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard misled
parliament last year when justifying a $1.7bn blowout in the cost of the
program.
Julia's Teflon wearing a bit thin Dennis Shanahan, Political editor, The
Australian, May 06, 2010 JULIA Gillard has been using steel
cooking utensils for too long - she's started to scratch her political
Teflon. The Rudd government's star parliamentary performer,
most-nominated successor to Kevin Rudd and so far untouchable cabinet
member, has developed a political problem just when the government least
needed its political pin-up girl to be tied down in a fiasco of her
own.
Despite all her stonewalling attempts last year and the first
months of this year to deny the existence of a problem in the $16
billion school building program, and her effort to stave off political
embarrassment by establishing an inquiry, the Education Minister is in a
fix.
Fiddling with student numbers to get more Justine Ferrari, The Australian, May 06,
2010 SOME independent schools have been accused of
manipulating their student numbers to receive a higher level of funding
from the BER. The Australian National Audit Office compared student
numbers used for allocating Building the Education Revolution funds with
school censuses conducted over the past three years and found it
probable that some schools fiddled their enrolment numbers to gain more
funding. "While clear patterns were not evident in the case of schools
that are part of school systems, a substantially higher number of
schools that are not part of school systems (that is, independent
schools) reported enrolments for the special census just above the
funding thresholds established in the BER guidelines when compared to
their routine census results, and fewer just below," the auditor's
report says.
School spending sliced by $83m FARRAH TOMAZIN, The Age, May 6, 2010 ALMOST
$83 million has been sliced out of the budget for Victorian schools,
angering teachers and putting political heat on Premier John Brumby's
claim that education remains his top priority before the state election.
Budget papers reveal the Education Department will spend $10.9 billion
on school expenses next financial year - down from $11 billion this
financial year. Education Minister Bronwyn Pike last night insisted the
changes reflected a reduction in federal funding for ''one-off''
commitments to private schools, such as the Building the Education
Revolution scheme, the push to give every senior secondary student
access to a computer and Canberra's pledge to build trade training
centres in schools. But teachers say the budget papers make it virtually
impossible to track the money trail, and have called for clear and
transparent spending details to ensure that student programs are not at
risk.
Schools
divided over literacy tests boycott JEWEL TOPSFIELD, The Age, May 6, 2010 SCHOOLS
are internally divided over whether to risk fines and boycott the
numeracy and literacy tests next week, with some principals worried
staff will be pitted against each other.
The Victorian branch of the
Australian Education Union has defied an order from Fair Work Australia
to cancel the boycott, putting teachers who refuse to hold the tests at
risk of fines of up to $6600. The president of the Victorian Association
of State Secondary Principals, Brian Burgess, said it was
''unprecedented'' of the union to ignore the order from the industrial
umpire.
''I'd be very surprised if a lot of teachers took the action
given the threat of massive fines,'' Mr Burgess said. He said principals
had received a memo from Education Department secretary Peter Dawkins
making it clear they were expected to administer the tests if teachers
refused to do so.
''This is not an easy time for principals,'' Mr
Burgess said. ''Some schools will go ahead with the tests, other schools
with strong union members will support the action.''
Top schools join teacher ban on NAPLAN tests
ANNA PATTY AND HEATH GILMORE, Sydney Morning Herald, May 5,
2010 SELECTIVE high schools, including some of the state's
top performers, will join other Sydney schools in supporting the teacher
ban on NAPLAN tests next week. Those taking part in the ban include
James Ruse, Sydney Girls, Normanhurst Boys, Girraween High, Penrith and
Smiths Hill selective high schools. Riverside Girls, Northmead, Pennant
Hills, Marsden, Merrylands and Kingsgrove North are among other high
schools supporting the ban. Larissa Treskin, the principal of James Ruse
Agricultural High School, which consistently tops the state in HSC and
NAPLAN test results, said her teaching staff would not help prepare and
supervise the NAPLAN tests from Tuesday to Thursday.
Sky-high public school building costs top
hi-tech office towers Anthony
Klan, The Australian, May 05, 2010 SIMPLE, single-storey
school halls, classrooms and libraries being delivered to public schools
under the $16.2 billion stimulus program are costing more than twice as
much per square metre as complex city office towers. According to the
construction industry guide, Rawlinsons Construction Handbook,
single-level primary school buildings should cost $1350 per square metre
- between a third and a quarter of the amount public primary schools
are being charged.
NSW government costing figures show standard
double classrooms are costing taxpayers $4271 a square metre; "14 core"
libraries are costing $5400 a square metre; and the public school
standard "21 core" canteen is costing a massive $13,306 a square metre.
Teachers on notice over union-ordered test
ban Pia Akerman, The
Australian, May 05, 2010 THE federal industrial umpire
yesterday ordered teachers in Victoria to abandon the union-ordered
boycott of next week's national literacy and numeracy tests. The order
by Fair Work Australia came as the Fair Work Ombudsman put the
Australian Education Union on notice that if it did not comply with
tribunal orders issued in seven states and territories it would face
civil penalties. The FWA direction yesterday to abandon the boycott
follows similar orders for teachers to defy the AEU and administer the
tests in NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia, the ACT and the
Northern Territory.
Teachers facing $6600 fines over test DAN HARRISON, The Age, May 5, 2010 INDIVIDUAL
school teachers could be fined up to $6600 if they defy an order from
the industrial umpire and refuse to administer national literacy and
numeracy tests next week. Fair Work Australia yesterday ruled in favour
of the Victorian government, ordering the Australian Education Union and
its members to cancel a threatened boycott of the tests, which children
in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are scheduled to sit from next Tuesday to
Thursday. The union was ordered to issue notices, including on its
websites, by 4.30pm yesterday, cancelling the boycott and directing
teachers not to disrupt the tests. But the union was defying the orders
last night, exposing it to the risk of a financial penalty of up to
$33,000 and fines of up to $6600 for each of its officials and members.
Building the Education Revolution inquiry to
probe public schools Anthony
Klan, The Australian, May 04, 2010 THE man tasked with
getting to the bottom of cost blowouts under the $16.2 billion schools
stimulus program will focus on public schools, where projects have been
overseen by a handful of managing contractors. Officially launching the
inquiry yesterday, taskforce head Brad Orgill said he would establish a
division specifically to examine the "policy issues" concerning the way
the scheme was handled by state governments.
Music, dance classes planned Justine Ferrari, The Australian, May 04,
2010 EVERY student from the first year of school through to
Year 8 will study dance, drama, music, media and visual art for two
hours a week under the proposed national arts curriculum.
An initial
advice paper setting out the issues to be considered in writing the
arts curriculum envisages all students be given a grounding in the five
arts, with their study organised through a balance of generating (the
idea), realising (the creation) and responding (apprehending and
understanding).
Abbott goes to the principal's office Stuart Rintoul, The Australian, May 04,
2010 AT Berwick Lodge Primary School, Tony Abbott stands in a
perfectly solid gymnasium that the government would have demolished
under its Building the Education Revolution program, and declares: "This
sadly is typical of a government that can't be trusted with taxpayers'
money."
As the Rudd government scrambled to defend its planned tax
on the mining companies, the Opposition Leader headed to primary schools
angry over BER waste and mismanagement.
Doubts on
BER contract costing Anthony Klan, The Australian, May 04, 2010 TWO
managing contractors handling the $16.2 billion schools stimulus scheme
in Queensland have quoted identical fees for a range of services and
costings, raising questions over the independence of tendering
processes. Internal costings show Abigroup and Baulderstone have each
quoted exactly $3000 for a "fire services review", $750 for "water
pressure certification" and fees of exactly 0.33 per cent to pay
quantity surveyors. According to Queensland Fire and Rescue Service
costings, a fire service review would actually only cost $851.60 for the
buildings being constructed.
100 reasons to make the grade Christopher Bantick , May 04, 2010 LIKE
many parents, teachers and students, I pored over The Weekend
Australian's top 100 schools, based on the National Assessment Program:
Literacy and Numeracy tests. The school I teach at made the top 100 but
it was well down the list. With a pile of Year 9 essays in front of me
on Saturday morning, I asked the question: Why not further up the list?
This is a question many parents, teachers and principals will be asking.
It is the right question to ask. What the top 100 schools presents is a
benchmark. Call it a league table. What is clear is that some schools
are in the premier league while others are not. Those schools that made
the list can feel proud. Why?
It is no accident NSW schools dominate
the list. The history premier, Bob Carr, ensured there was a substantial
reformation of the NSW years 7 to 10 curriculum. The result was a
content and skills-based curriculum rather than a process-based one. It
is also no accident that NSW private schools are the high-flyers. Add to
this the fact, as this newspaper reported, NSW and Victoria dominated
the top 100, "accounting for 90 per cent of them while comprising only
57 per cent of the nation's schools". It is not just a matter of these
states being the most populous and therefore having a larger sample from
which to draw. In the case of NSW schools, especially, the trend is
skewed towards the top rankings. Cynics who sneer at the top 100 miss an
essential point. This is a public document of school performance that
shows, unambiguously, high achievement. So why did some schools do well?
Private schools feature strongly in the list but it is not about money.
These schools have independence to educate and inculcate skills and
abilities parents want.
NAPLAN data first step to better education
for all Peter Knapp,
The Australian, May 04, 2010 THE The Weekend Australian's
list of the nation's top 100 primary and secondary schools on student
performance in national literacy and numeracy tests demonstrates
revealing features of educational achievement across the country that
were previously unknown. In particular the strong representation of NSW
should give the other states and territories some food for thought.
There
is no denying the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy
tests are not perfect. They better target middle and lower-ability
students than top achievers. The NAPLAN tests do not target high-ability
students and they cannot tell teachers what their students do not know,
which after all is the diagnostic value of testing. For high-ability
students, the NAPLAN tests are a diagnostic lemon. This is why the
principal of the highest ranked secondary school in Australia, Sydney's
James Ruse Agricultural High School, said last week she cannot find much
value in the tests for her students. However, when governments have
policies such as selective schooling, resulting in concentrations of
very high-ability students, accurate student assessment requires
specialist tests outside of the scope of full-population testing
programs. But the analysis underpinning The Weekend Australian's tables
of top performers provide teachers and parents with important
information on issues that must be addressed. It was largely good, and
interesting news, for the schools that made the list, including a solid
representation of state schools in NSW and Victoria.
To read In the News, April 2010, click
here.