In the News, for week ending 30 January 2012
Our
In the News feature provides an overview of news stories relating to education over the last week. We focus particularly on news items referring to significant new developments or reports, issues affecting students with learning difficulties, and issues relating to education more generally. We hope that this feature will help to keep our members and website visitors informed of current issues in education, and to generate debate and discussion of these issues.
State claims education reforms do not work Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald, January 30, 2012THERE is no way of knowing if programs aimed at improving the literacy and numeracy skills of struggling students have worked, the state government says. The former NSW director-general of education Ken Boston was commissioned last year to carry out a review of up to 30 programs used in schools to help underperforming children improve. But the state Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, said the taskforce had discovered that little is actually known about what works in improving numeracy and literacy in NSW. ''One of its purposes was to look at the different programs, like Multilit and Reading Recovery,'' MrPiccoli said. ''But there is surprisingly little evidence around about what works and what doesn't work.'' Mr Boston, who also headed the curriculum authority in England, said learning difficulties should be diagnosed from the age of five, not in year 3, when students sat their first NAPLAN tests.
Two years and counting: the kindy kids off to a flying start Kim Arlington, Sydney Morning Herald, January 30, 2012WHEN school starts this week, some kindergarten children will have been preparing for it for two years. School readiness programs for children as young as three are growing in popularity, as parents aim to give children a headstart. Preschoolers are also being enrolled to prepare them for school entry interviews or the Best Start Kindergarten Assessment, which evaluates skills when they begin school, said Tina Tower, the director of Begin Bright early learning centre. For an hour a week, three-year-olds in her classes learn literacy and numeracy concepts.
Primary care? At Doveton College that comes in spades Amanda Dunn, Sydney Morning Herald, January 29, 2012IN A light, open room at Doveton College, workmen are busy assembling bookshelves, a variety of sports balls are in plastic, yet to be inflated, and finger puppets are waiting for the small hands that will grab them next week, when the first children will start the school year and bring the new centre to life. Built on a large block in Melbourne's outer south-east, the college is remarkable for a couple of reasons. It is the first to have a significant financial contribution from a philanthropic organisation, and it is the first to provide services - covering health, family and education - from birth through to year 9. The Colman Foundation, which was set up by retired businessman Julius Colman in 2005 to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds with their education, has contributed $1.8 million to the construction of the school and early childhood services, and will donate a further $500,000 a year for at least eight years.
School staff in rort scandal Farrah Tomazin, The Age, January 29, 2012PARENTS and staff in Victorian schools have been caught taking kickbacks, stealing fund-raising money and pocketing tens of thousands of dollars that should have been spent on students. Documents leaked to The Sunday Age reveal the alarming rate of fraud in schools and the lack of checks and balances to ensure finances are properly controlled. Staff members at Lalor North Primary, Drouin Secondary and Cranbourne Secondary face corruption charges after an investigation found they were buying printer cartridges at inflated prices in exchange for gifts such as mobile phones, prepaid credit cards and books. In two other schools, parents who helped run after-hours care programs were investigated for allegedly taking thousands of dollars that should have been paid into the schools' accounts.
Trailing, can do better: report needs answers Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald, January 28, 2012Funding and a focus on basic skills are shortchanging students.
When Julia Gillard was in Sydney this week to announce extra schools funding for students with disabilities, she stressed the need for Australia to win the "education race" against its Asian neighbours. The call followed the lament by her Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, over disappointing results from last year's national literacy and numeracy tests. There has been no marked improvement, and performance of top students is going backwards. Tests from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the equivalent to the local tests, show a consistent downward slide in the performance of Australia's 15-year-olds over the past decade.
Rift on year 12 figures Jewel Topsfield, The Age, January 26, 2012ONLY 64 per cent of Victorian students are completing a year 12 certificate or equivalent according to federal figures - far fewer than claimed by the state Education Department. The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2009, released this month, also highlights the alarming discrepancy between the proportion of disadvantaged students who complete year 12 and their wealthier peers. It says fewer than half of Victorian boys from low socio-economic backgrounds completed year 12 between 2005 and 2009, compared with 72 per cent from advantaged backgrounds.
We risk losing education race, Julia Gillard warns Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent, The Australian, January 24, 2012JULIA Gillard says Australia is at risk of losing "the education race" with its Asian competitors, warning it could become "the runt of the litter" unless there was sustained reform. After more than four years of education reforms and increased spending under Labor, the Prime Minister yesterday produced OECD figures indicating that Australian education standards were falling relative to those of Asian nations like Korea, Singapore, Japan and the Chinese city of Shanghai.
NAPLAN tests show we could do better with indigenous students Lauren Wilson, The Australian, January 24, 2012THE reading results of indigenous primary and secondary school students has improved in the past four years, but almost 35 per cent of those in Year 5 are still reading below the national minimum standard. The latest results from the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy has seen a boost of almost 12 per cent in the number of indigenous Year 3 students who are reading at a level above the national minimum standard. While 76 per cent of Year 3 indigenous students across Australia are reading at acceptable levels, the results reveal that number plummets in the Northern Territory to just under 40 per cent, and to just 25 per cent in the territory's very remote communities. The report states that in the Territory, "the percentage of indigenous students achieving at the national minimum standard in each domain is less than half that of non-indigenous students, except in numeracy, where it is almost two-thirds".
NAPLAN results show top students' standards drop Jen Rosenberg, Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 2012AUSTRALIA'S students are falling against international benchmarks and there is a growing gap between the top students and bottom students, the federal Education Minister, Peter Garrett, warned yesterday. The results of the 2011 National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), published yesterday, reveal that more than 93 per cent of students are achieving at or above the minimum standard in reading, writing and numeracy, but that the best students were not doing as well as in previous years. The School Education Minister, Peter Garrett, said that despite having one of the best education systems in the world, Australia lagged behind other countries - in particular in Asia. ''This is not acceptable in a country as wealthy and well-resourced as Australia.''
Children less likely to make the grade if their parents left school early Kim Arlington, Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 2012CHILDREN whose parents failed to complete year 12 were up to 11 times more likely to fall below the national minimum standard, NAPLAN results show. The 2011 NAPLAN report, which breaks down student achievement according to their parents' education level and occupation, shows only small differences among children whose parents completed bachelor degrees, diplomas, certificates or year 12. But children whose parents left school in year 11 or below had significantly lower mean scores. In year 5 reading, 1.3 per cent of students whose parents had bachelor or higher degrees fell below the minimum national standard, compared with 15.2 per cent of students whose parents did not finish high school. Only 81.4 per cent of those students achieved at or above the national minimum standard, compared with 97.5 per cent of students with the most highly educated parents.
School test results not improving Jewel Topsfield and Dan Harrison, The Age, January 24, 2012AUSTRALIAN students' overall performance in literacy and numeracy has failed to improve four years after the introduction of controversial standardised tests designed to lift student achievement by making schools more accountable. A new report reveals student results have remained virtually unchanged since NAPLAN tests were introduced in 2008. It also found that students who sat the tests in 2008 and 2009 were generally at the same comparative level when assessed again two years later. ''Nationally there are no differences between the 2009 to 2011 and 2008 to 2010 cohorts in gains in reading or numeracy from year 3 to year 5 or from year 7 to year 9,'' the NAPLAN national report for 2011 said.
NAPLAN results show top students' standards drop Jen Rosenberg, Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 2012AUSTRALIA'S students are falling against international benchmarks and there is a growing gap between the top students and bottom students, the federal Education Minister, Peter Garrett, warned yesterday. The results of the 2011 National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), published yesterday, reveal that more than 93 per cent of students are achieving at or above the minimum standard in reading, writing and numeracy, but that the best students were not doing as well as in previous years. The School Education Minister, Peter Garrett, said that despite having one of the best education systems in the world, Australia lagged behind other countries - in particular in Asia. ''This is not acceptable in a country as wealthy and well-resourced as Australia.''
Children less likely to make the grade if their parents left school early Kim Arlington, Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 2012CHILDREN whose parents failed to complete year 12 were up to 11 times more likely to fall below the national minimum standard, NAPLAN results show.
The 2011 NAPLAN report, which breaks down student achievement according to their parents' education level and occupation, shows only small differences among children whose parents completed bachelor degrees, diplomas, certificates or year 12. But children whose parents left school in year 11 or below had significantly lower mean scores.
In year 5 reading, 1.3 per cent of students whose parents had bachelor or higher degrees fell below the minimum national standard, compared with 15.2 per cent of students whose parents did not finish high school. Only 81.4 per cent of those students achieved at or above the national minimum standard, compared with 97.5 per cent of students with the most highly educated parents.
Gap widens between top and bottom students as Queensland comes fifth in NAPLANAnna Caldwell, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, January 24, 2012THE gap between Australia's best and worst students is widening, and those at the top of the class are not performing as well as they did a decade ago. The final report into last year's NAPLAN tests reveals Queensland still sits below national means for literacy and numeracy across Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Girls are also out-performing boys, and children whose parents are professionals are beating children whose parents work in trades, hospitality, labouring or are unemployed. Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett said it was not acceptable that the gap between students at the top and bottom of the class was widening, and added that Australia's Asian neighbours had "raced ahead". Overall, Australian results in the tests have remained steady since the first NAPLAN tests were held in 2008, with the yearly report breaking down results by indigenous status, geolocation, gender, language background other than English and parental occupation and education.
NAPLAN placings boost for WA schoolsSTAFF REPORTER, The West Australian, January 23, 2012WA schools have recorded their best year for NAPLAN testing, with improved mean score placings for 11 assessments and status quo for the remaining nine. Education Minister Liz Constable said the report showed the State's cohort gains across 2009 to 2011, for years 3 to 5, 5 to 7, and 7 to 9 were higher than the Australian average cohort gains for all assessments. WA indigenous students also made some important gains, with significant improvements in mean scores in year 3 spelling and year 9 reading between 2010-11; and for year 3 and 7 reading, spelling and grammar and punctuation and year 9 spelling between 2008-11. "In 2011 the achievements of WA's students in very remote locations was well above the Australian means for very remote students, across all year groups and in almost all tests," Dr Constable said. "It is pleasing to see teachers and students are making a huge effort to boost literacy and numeracy in these very remote locations, though it is still concerning that our indigenous students' results are still substantially lower than for other students. Girls continued to outperform boys in all literacy-related tests, with substantial differences evident, particularly in reading and writing. Boys are still performing better in numeracy, though WA girls continue to improve in this area. Girls have similar percentages at or above the national minimum standard. The State ranked fourth in Australia for 11 assessments, fifth in six assessments and sixth in the remaining three, which was a substantial improvement on 2010 results.
Test fails to raise skills Evonne Barry, Jessica Marszalek, Herald Sun, January 24, 2012THE gap between our best and worst students is widening and our top academic performers are slipping by world standards, the Government has conceded. The official Naplan 2011 report concludes there has only been a "small number of improvements" in literacy and numeracy since national testing was introduced four years ago. While almost 94 per cent of students are hitting minimum benchmarks for the fundamentals of learning, Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett admitted some of the results were concerning. "Our best-performing students are not doing as well as they were 10 years ago, while the gap between the top and bottom students has increased," said Mr Garrett, who released the report yesterday. "This is not acceptable in a country as wealthy and well-resourced as Australia. "Our neighbours in the Asian region have raced ahead of us. We need to provide the highest quality education to all our children. This includes understanding why our results are not as good as they could be."
Rift on year 12 figures Jewel Topsfield, The Age, January 26, 2012ONLY 64 per cent of Victorian students are completing a year 12 certificate or equivalent according to federal figures - far fewer than claimed by the state Education Department. The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2009, released this month, also highlights the alarming discrepancy between the proportion of disadvantaged students who complete year 12 and their wealthier peers. It says fewer than half of Victorian boys from low socio-economic backgrounds completed year 12 between 2005 and 2009, compared with 72 per cent from advantaged backgrounds.
School staff in rort scandal Farrah Tomazin, The Age, January 29, 2012PARENTS and staff in Victorian schools have been caught taking kickbacks, stealing fund-raising money and pocketing tens of thousands of dollars that should have been spent on students. Documents leaked to The Sunday Age reveal the alarming rate of fraud in schools and the lack of checks and balances to ensure finances are properly controlled. Staff members at Lalor North Primary, Drouin Secondary and Cranbourne Secondary face corruption charges after an investigation found they were buying printer cartridges at inflated prices in exchange for gifts such as mobile phones, prepaid credit cards and books.
Lifting kids' success level Julia Gillard, The Australian, January 28, 2012I AM determined that Australia be a big winner in this century of economic growth in Asia. I understand that to succeed we need to win the race for better and better quality education. Never before has this been as important as it is now as we look to position ourselves as a nation to seize the opportunities of the Asian century. Individual achievement and national prosperity will belong to those countries that educate and innovate for the future.
Schools learn hard way Kevin Donnelly, The Australian, January 28, 2012PRIME Minister Julia Gillard argues that her government's education revolution is the only way to raise standards and strengthen outcomes. Whether the Building the Education Revolution, national testing and a national curriculum, computers in schools or national teacher certification and registration, Gillard believes all roads lead to Canberra and that only her policies will achieve success. Nothing could be further from the truth. As the past four years of botched programs, cost over-runs, delays and mismanagement prove, the Gillard-inspired and orchestrated education revolution is conceptually flawed, wasteful and ineffective.
Maths, physics fail to get the numbers at school Amanda Dunn, The Age, January 22, 2012VICTORIAN VCE students have drifted away from physics and the more difficult maths subjects in the past decade, feeding into growing anxiety about student disengagement and a shortage of specialist teachers. Data prepared for The Sunday Age by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, which oversees the VCE, show a significant decline in enrolments for the more difficult maths subjects - maths methods and specialist maths - over the past decade. In 2001, nearly 13 per cent of VCE students took specialist maths; by last year that figure had dropped to 8 per cent. Maths methods enrolments dropped from 37 to 31 per cent over the same period. Physics saw less than 14 per cent taking the subject last year, down from 16 per cent in 2001.
Brassall Shopping Centre in Ipswich bans schoolchildren during school hours to help stop truancy Brian Semmens, Ipswich News, January 20, 2012The enforcement of banning schoolchildren from shopping centres is a legal grey area, according an Ipswich lawyer. Gerard Pender said shopping centres can decide who enters their areas, which are deemed private property, but that the enforcement of the ban could cause headaches.
He said issues of discrimination could also come into the equation of imposing a ban on schoolchildren. It follows Brassall Shopping Centre announcing it would not be serving school-age children during school hours. Riverlink Shopping Centre has a similar ban.
For these pupils, science is a language of love Philip Chan, Sydney Morning Herald, January 20, 2012WHILE most students are sleeping in or soaking up the holiday sunshine, budding scientists from across Australia are getting a taste of a science career at the National Youth Science Forum. The two-week program is exposing students to the broad range of science professions. More than 450 hand-picked year 12 students are attending one of three sessions in Canberra and Perth over the next month. ''We're trying to replace the stereotypes of where science can take you,'' said the director, Geoffrey Burchfield, from the Australian National University.
Queensland tops NAPLAN cheating list Tanya Chilcott, Courier-Mail, January 18, 2012QUEENSLAND recorded half of the nation's cheating incidents on the 2010 NAPLAN tests and nearly one-third of the total breaches, an ACARA report shows. The Courier-Mail revealed the extent of the 2010 NAPLAN cheating in Queensland last year, including how one principal admitted to pulling students out of class over several years to fill in omitted answers or change them. A report now released by ACARA shows of the 12 substantiated breaches across Australia involving cheating, six of those were in Queensland. The report does not include cases of photocopying completed test papers to mark the writing test, which was common among some Queensland state schools until Education director-general Julie Grantham directed against it last year. The report says in one 2010 Queensland case the "principal told students prior to the tests that an eraser placed on an answer meant that the answer was incorrect ..."In another, "teachers at a school were instructed to provide extra time to enable students to complete the exam, guided students to correct answers and sat with students to review their papers".
NAPLAN cheating and security breaches listed Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald, January 18, 2012THE national testing authority has reported three incidents of cheating and nine security breaches in NSW during last year's national literacy and numeracy tests. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority report includes a case in which a school principal helped students complete a language test. A formal investigation was conducted and the allegation was substantiated. Other incidents of cheating in last year's NAPLAN tests included one student being used as a scribe for another student with an injury. This was found to have compromised the test result.
Staff hard to come by as childcare centres struggle with reforms Jessica Wright, January 16, 2012A REGIONAL NSW childcare centre risks losing its accreditation after a fruitless two-year search to fill a single vacancy for a university qualified teacher and carer. The owner of the Willows Preschool and Early Learning Centre in Orange, Cathy Carroll, runs an operation which, from next week, will cater for 90 infants, toddlers and preschoolers and says her centre had been accredited each year by NSW authorities with a rating of ''excellent''.
Teachers cool on bonus pay Dan Harrison, The Age, January 16, 2012VICTORIAN teachers seem deeply ambivalent about getting bonuses for high performance, with fewer than expected signing up to merit pay trials. Victoria began trialling three performance pay schemes in 2010 as part of a partnership with the Commonwealth to boost teaching quality. It set a goal of recruiting 70 schools to take part in the trials, but a progress report released over the weekend showed only 49 schools had agreed to participate.
Caution on school funding Dan Harrison, Sydney Morning Herald, January 14, 2012PETER GARRETT has predicted a shake-up of school funding will not reignite class divisions, declaring the nation has moved on from debates about funding private schools. The panel charged with reviewing funding, chaired by the businessman David Gonski, handed its report to Mr Garrett, the School Education Minister, shortly before Christmas. Mr Garrett is developing the government's response, which will be released with the report early in the new school year. The opposition's education spokesman, Christopher Pyne, has predicted the government will cut funding to private schools, forcing them to increase fees or sack staff.
Teachers jump off the fast track Jewel Topsfield, The Age, January 12, 2012ALMOST half of the first participants in a controversial pilot program that fast-tracks talented Australian graduates into teaching jobs after just six weeks' training are no longer teaching after two years. The Teach for Australia program, which places non-teaching graduates in disadvantaged schools for two years, has ignited fierce debate. The pilot, which is based on similar overseas schemes and has been allocated $22 million in federal funding, is opposed by the teachers' union and some education academics. They say it parachutes unqualified and inexperienced graduates into some of the country's toughest classrooms, is a ''quick fix'' and has a high dropout rate.
If you can do, teach: learning the gift that keeps on giving Jewel Topsfield Education Editor, The Age, January 12, 2012FORMER Teach for Australia associate Justin Woolley loved the two years he spent teaching at Hume Central Secondary College. His year 11 physics class had a 100 per cent pass rate, including some students with extremely low literacy skills, his information and communication technology class produced a website for a local cafe, he introduced a social media program to promote the school and made a documentary with his students. However, after obtaining his teaching qualification at the end of last year, Mr Woolley decided to return to his former career as an engineer and this week started a new job with the Defence Department.
More schools opting for secular workers instead of chaplains Dan Harrison, The Age, January 10, 2012MORE than 200 schools that have had a federal government-funded chaplain plan to hire a secular welfare worker instead, taking advantage of changes to the $222 million scheme. Before the School Education Minister, Peter Garrett, announced the changes in September, schools could only appoint a welfare worker if they could prove that no chaplain was available. Government figures show that of 2512 schools which have reapplied for funding, 208, or 8 per cent, have proposed to employ a welfare worker; 2236, or 89 per cent, indicated they wanted a chaplain or religious pastoral care worker; while 68, or 3 per cent, said they had not decided which they wanted.
ABC DOES… Guest Blog, by Sara Wernham, Co-Author of the Jolly Phonics programme, 09/12/2011I am often told children or teachers have 'done' Jolly Phonics, and then find out they have only used Jolly Phonics to learn/teach the letter sounds. This is not 'doing' Jolly Phonics! I REPEAT THIS IS NOT DOING JOLLY PHONICS! As you can probably tell, this is a bit of bugbear of mine! Learning the letter sounds is merely the first step. The really important bit is to teach the children what to do with them. How to blend them together for reading and how to listen for them in a word to spell it. Start simply with cvc words and gradually introduce longer and more complex words.
In the News, for week ending 8 January 2012
Preschool standards shock Cosima Mariner and Deborah Gough, The Age, January 8, 2012THE educational prospects of the nation's children are being jeopardised by a ''very poor'' standard of teaching in preschools, a government-funded national study into the quality of early education has found. The study, which is monitoring 2500 children for five years, suggests many preschools and kindergartens may be offering the nation's four-year-olds little more than playgroup sessions, despite research indicating that early learning makes a crucial difference to children's long-term development.
School sues Saudi Arabia Natalie O'Brien, Sydney Morning Herald, January 8, 2012A QUEENSLAND school is suing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in a last-ditch attempt to recoup more than $2 million in unpaid fees. In what is believed to be the first action of its kind, the Australian International Islamic College has issued a writ in the NSW Supreme Court against the kingdom and an education official, Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Al Saif, claiming fees due under the prestigious King Abdullah program have been outstanding for more than three years. The Saudi government program is the world's largest overseas student scholarship.
Millions spent, no evidence of benefit to indigenous students Justine Ferrari, The Australian, January 07, 2012HUNDREDS of millions of dollars spent to improve the education of indigenous students is wasted, with programs continued despite a lack of evaluation and little evidence of their effectiveness. A ministerial briefing prepared by the NSW Education Department says there is insufficient evidence to determine whether government programs have had an impact in improving the achievement of indigenous students at school.
Fad policies override basics of education Opinion, Peter McLoughlin, Sydney Morning Herald, January 5, 2012After 35 years in the teaching game I've decided to pull up stumps, gracefully. In retrospect, there have been many fads throughout my time - with a distinct feeling, on occasion, the wheel was being reinvented. Straight out of university, it was the creativity fad called ''process writing''. We focused on creativity, not grammar. The day often began with a ''free writing'' session where children were sometimes given a stimulus, and sometimes not, and told to write. Many children uttered ''I don't know what to write''. Funny about that.
No job security for new teachers Jewel Topsfield and Craig Butt, The Age, January 4, 2012MORE than half of new teachers in Victorian government schools are employed on short-term contracts, resulting in job insecurity, the loss of potential holiday pay and an inability for some to take out car and home loans. A survey of more than 1000 teachers in their first five years found 58 per cent were on fixed-term contracts, mostly for 12 months or less. Of those on contracts, 70 per cent said having to reapply for positions had a negative effect on their teaching. Lack of tenure was the third most important issue they faced.
And from overseas…Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting GainANNIE LOWREY, New York Times, January 6, 2012 WASHINGTON — Elementary and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings, according to a new study that tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, all economists, examines a larger number of students over a longer period of time with more in-depth data than many earlier studies, allowing for a deeper look at how much the quality of individual teachers matters over the long term. “That test scores help you get more education, and that more education has an earnings effect — that makes sense to a lot of people,” said Robert H. Meyer, director of the Value-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which studies teacher measurement but was not involved in this study. “This study skips the stages, and shows differences in teachers mean differences in earnings.”
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