February 9th, 2008 by 
Roger
Adele Horin, as usual, manages to get to grips with the key issues in relation to current ideas around staffing NSW schools.
Most parents know the scenario: a temporary teacher fills in for months for a staff member who has been away or sick, and who decides not to return. The temp is respected and liked by the children, the parents, and the principal. They consider her an excellent fit for the school, and an inspiring teacher. But the arcane rules that have governed the NSW education system mean another teacher, an unknown quantity, is likely to get the permanent appointment despite what the locals want.
Like an arranged marriage when the partners don’t meet until the wedding, sometimes Big Daddy’s choice is a success, and sometimes a bitter disappointment. The NSW system is the last in the country to keep a super-centralised approach to teacher placement. But now the State Government intends to bring it into the 21st century by giving principals more hiring power. Complete deregulation is not on the cards - a dual system will operate. But a loosening of the department’s stranglehold over placements is promised.
Click here to read the piece in the SMH from 9.02.2008
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February 6th, 2008 by Roger
Ross Gittins, writing in the Melbourne Age, questions the position of the Prime Minister in sticking to his commitment to retain current funding formulae for independent schools.
Then there are the contradictions Rudd has created by promising an Education Revolution while also promising to set in stone the Howard government’s formula for grants to non-government schools.
In a report published last week by the respected and independent Australian Council for Educational Research, Andrew Dowling concludes that Australia’s system of funding schools is crying out for reform.
He quotes from a wide range of education commentators saying the system contains “considerable deficiencies” and “quite remarkable difficulties” that make it “very frustrating”, “unsatisfactory”, “deficient”, a “failure”, “exceedingly complicated”, “inequitable and inefficient”, “irrational” and “unhelpfully complex and exceedingly opaque”.
Click here to read the piece in the Melbourne Age
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December 6th, 2007 by Roger
Brian Caldwell, casts an eye over the sorts of pronouncements made by Kevin Rudd in the wake if the recent Federal election and highlights some key factors which Caldwell and Spinks have just outlined in a recent book which they believe are critical to makeing a real difference to educational outcomes in this country. It seems to me that the message is probably fairly simple..Just doing the same with the same people within the same structures will not necessarily get different results despite increased funding levels. Maybe there are some fundamental shifts required in a number of other areas too.
Click here to read the story in the SMH
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November 20th, 2007 by Roger
Bush vetoes education spending bill
President rejects 5 percent increase in education funding, while approving 9 percent increase in defense spending
From eSchool News staff and wire service reports
Escalating his budget battle with a Democratic Congress, President Bush on Nov. 13 vetoed a spending measure for labor, health, and education programs that would have provided $63.6 billion for the U.S. Department of Education, a 5 percent increase over 2007 spending and 8 percent more than Bush had sought
You can see the remainder of the story by clicking here
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October 13th, 2007 by Roger
Story in the Melbourne Age today: Pike foreshadows shake-up of school principals
Underperforming principals could be removed and high-performing ones given financial incentives to work in struggling schools under a new “culture of intervention” designed to lift standards.
Education Minister Bronwyn Pike has signalled an aggressive push to raise results in public schools. Admitting that improvements haven’t “necessarily been shared equitably”, Ms Pike said she wanted a system in which struggling students were identified earlier, resources were better targeted, and teachers and principals given more professional development or encouraged to use different teaching methods to help students learn
Click here to read the story in the Melbourne Age.
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September 14th, 2007 by Roger
New SREB report points to growing interest among government officials in expanding online education
By Robert L. Jacobson, Senior Editor, eSchool News
Click here to read the story or keep reading for a text only version of the sory
State-run virtual schools gather steam
New SREB report points to growing interest among government officials in expanding online education
By Robert L. Jacobson, Senior Editor, eSchool News
August 31, 2007—Don’t look now, but online learning–though still in its infancy–is well on its way to becoming a major part of state-sponsored education across the country.
That’s the impression left by a new report from the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), whose member states have long been in the forefront of developing government initiatives in virtual schooling.
The 112-page report, which is being released today in advance of next week’s annual meeting of the SREB’s Educational Technology Cooperative, provides state-by-state details on the scope, financing, enrollment, curriculum, teacher Read the rest of this entry »
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July 18th, 2007 by Roger
Catherine Deveney, writing in the Melbourne Age has a few things to say about parent choice in schooling
Memo, parents: choosing a school is about your child, not you. So, get a life!
IT’S that time of year when parents begin wringing their sweaty palms about where their kinder child should start school next year. I laughed like a drain when I heard reports of parents at primary school open days with clipboards. I didn’t believe it, of course, until a mate told me that several of her mother’s group were guilty as charged.
Click here to read the rest of the article
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July 17th, 2007 by Roger
Zappy new technology is working wonders for the ABC as well as fiery old columnists, writes Phillip Adams
This article looks at the way that podcasting and web 2.0 is enabling the massive democratisation of knowledge.
Click here to read the article
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May 26th, 2007 by Roger
Lisa Pryor reminds us that every generation growing up and pushing the boundaries of known behaviour carried with it the wringing of hands of the generation before.
Click here to read the article in the SMH
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May 21st, 2007 by Roger
Teacher quality shows in students
Justine Ferrari, Education writer - May 21, 2007
AN Australian-first study has successfully linked teacher performance with student results, bolstering the federal Government’s efforts to introduce performance-based pay.
The study examined the literacy and numeracy test results of more than 90,000 students with more than 10,000 teachers in Years 3, 5 and 7 between 2001 and 2004, tracking the same group as it advanced through the school system.
It found that classes taught by the best teachers scored twice as high as those taught by substandard teachers. The top 10 per cent of teachers were able to achieve in six months what the bottom 10 per cent of teachers took more than a year to do.
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