There are many reasons a child could be held back from reaching their learning potential – will extra money help?
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As the Gonski school funding debate heats up again, the political focus so far has been on the big billion dollar figures. In this crowded debate about who’s right or wrong on the numbers, there’s little…
The Gonski reforms will mean different levels of funding for different schools according to a variety of factors.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
In an attempt to pressure state leaders on schools funding reform, prime minister Julia Gillard revealed new data showing the difference her package would make at the national and state level. The June…
Getting the mix right: we need to take a closer look at the future of science education.
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Every now and then we manufacture a crisis in Australian school science.
People write reports. These recommend change, including curriculum change, and point out the ways in which current patterns of…
The traditional grading system is now obsolete.
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By Geoff Masters, Australian Council for Educational Research
When we were growing up, my father occasionally stood each of us against the back door and marked our height on the door in pencil. He wrote our initials and the date alongside each mark. For us, it was…
Schools funding has been a hot topic this week: here’s all you need to know on this important election issue.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
This week you might have heard the word “Gonski” even more than usual.
That’s because the Gillard government finally announced how it would pay for its school funding reform in the lead up to its meeting…
The Prime Minister was unable to get agreement with the states on the government’s school funding reforms.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The A$14 billion federal government proposal based on David Gonski’s call for a better school funding system has not been agreed to at this week’s COAG meeting. In fact, none of the states and territories…
The reforms announced this week to school funding don’t make for a fairer system.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement yesterday about a new school funding and resource standard does not deliver on Gonski’s promise.
Gillard said that the plan would mean “better resourcing and…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is trying to get all the states on board to realise her schools funding reform plan.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The Gillard government has two immediate problems with the politics of its A$14.5 billion education funding plan.
First, and most seriously, the six-year blueprint, which requires the states to pay one…
Storytelling is increasingly being left behind in a crowded curriculum.
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With high stakes testing and a crowded curriculum, something fundamental is being left behind in education – storytelling.
Some might argue that speaking and listening have always been undervalued in…
There is a clear link between communication disorders and young offenders – but what can we do about it?
Youth justice image from www.shutterstock.com
Half of Australia’s young male offenders have a clinically significant, previously unidentified language deficit.
It’s a shocking figure that comes after ten years worth of research into the oral language…
Funding schools to reduce class size is not a waste of money.
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The Gonski reforms to school funding are front and centre in this election year. But despite their prominence, much of the plan – including who will pay – is yet to be decided.
But while we watch what…
Homophobic bullying is a problem that needs urgent attention in Queensland schools.
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There has been a series of disturbing homophobic bullying incidents in Queensland schools in recent months.
Some of the cases reported in the media included a Brisbane student being allegedly told by…
We can’t go backwards on early childhood education, it’s just important.
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The Labor government is not often celebrated for its policy achievements, but there has been one area where it deserves some recognition – early childhood education.
It started reforms to the sector in…
Our religious education system is out-dated and it needs to change.
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It might come as a surprise to most Australians that our religious education system is not only out-moded but is doing damage to students, families and teachers.
Special Religious Instruction (SRI) is…
The PM has zoned in on education policy this election year, but maybe education needs less political attention, not more.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
By Adam Smith, Australian Council for Educational Research
Today, as part of an Australian Education Union (AEU) campaign, academics, business and political leaders have signed a letter urging state and federal governments to move on the Gonski reforms to school…
Keeping students engaged in school for longer is a wise investment.
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As students head back to school this year, it’s worth sparing a thought for the many students who won’t return. In fact, each year thousands of young people leave school without a Year 12 qualification…
Sorting high achieving students from their peers may be sending the wrong message.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Results released from a major Victorian study on student learning show high achieving children’s performance in tests is “flat-lining”.
The study, by Professor Patrick Griffin, followed 36,000 students…
It’s time we looked at the idea of for-profit education in Australia.
EPA/Guillaume Horcajuleo
By Annette Rome, University of Melbourne and Adam Smith, Australian Council for Educational Research
For-profit education is something that really doesn’t exist in Australia… yet. But in many other countries around the world it has become a normal part of education and there are now many companies providing…
New reports show Australian education is slipping, but what can be done about it?
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The results of international literacy, numeracy and science tests released this week should be cause for alarm.
In what the minister for education Peter Garrett called “disappointing” results, the Progress…
The latest results of international testing in maths, science and reading means Australia’s education outlook does not look good.
Test image from www.shutterstock.com
By Sue Thomson, Australian Council for Educational Research
Prime Minister Julia Gillard in September set an ambitious goal for Australian education: to be ranked as a top-five country in reading, mathematics and science by 2025.
Clearly she is hoping to lift…
There’s been plenty of attention on NAPLAN testing this week, but ACARA’s Barry McGaw argues there needn’t be.
Test image from www.shutterstock.com
There has been much controversy this week over a study released by the Whitlam Institute claiming that NAPLAN testing is being treated as a high-stakes program that
is causing unnecessary stress among…
New legislation introduced in parliament today marks the beginning of reform of schools funding.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Today the Australia Education Bill – the legislation following on from the Gonski review into school funding – was introduced into parliament.
In September this year, the government responded to the review…
Literacy and numeracy tests are having a negative impact on Australian students.
Test image from www.shutterstock.com
NAPLAN tests – the literacy and numeracy tests given to primary and secondary students – are causing health problems and promoting a culture of “teaching to the test”.
A national study released today…
School students everywhere could look forward to no more homework.
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The recent decision by French President Francois Hollande to abolish homework from French schools has reignited the long running debate about homework.
This debate has been around for more than a century…
A recent case has meant some reform of Special Religious Instruction in Victoria, but there’s more to be done.
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Last month, a Victorian tribunal found that the state department of education did not discriminate against children opting out of Special Religious Instruction (SRI) classes.
The plaintiffs – parents…
Seatbelts have long been mandatory in cars, so why are there still school buses without them?
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The NSW School Bus Safety Community Advisory Committee made a major recommendation in its report released this week that seatbelts should be installed on all rural school buses that operate outside lower…
Starting a conversation about sex early in a child’s education is important.
Image from www.shutterstock.com
When should sex education begin for children?
According to some parent groups who advised the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), not until grades 5 and 6. Under this pressure…
There’s too much scrutiny given to Muck Up Day – we need to let kids blow off steam.
Flickr/Jessica.James
“Most schools used to call it Muck Up Day, but we saw that as being something negative.”
So said year 12 co-ordinator Annette Hall of Presbyterian Ladies' College – one of many schools who have changed…
Teachers are taking their own steps to learn more about their profession through social media networks.
Flickr/Corey Leopold
It’s been a long time since I have been in a pub at 10.30am but that’s where you would have found me last Saturday at the Great Northern Hotel in Chatswood, Sydney.
I wasn’t there to get on the punt or…
The evidence to support brain-training programs is too thin to be trialling them in our school system.
Brain image from www.shutterstock.com
The Catholic Education Office in Sydney has announced that from 2013 it will trial the controversial Arrowsmith Program for children with learning difficulties.
Arrowsmith is one of a number of “brain…
John Hattie: Welcome to The Conversation. My name is John Hattie from the University of Melbourne and I have here today, Pasi Sahlberg from the Department of Education in Finland.
It’s certainly exciting…
The story about the sacking of a Melbourne private girl’s school principal has made national news, but why?
Flickr/mikecogh
For more than a week, I’ve seen numerous articles about an internal fight between the Board and Principal of Melbourne’s Methodist Ladies' College, a private girls' school.
Principal Rosa Storelli has…
There may be a new way to assess students' ability to collaborate and problem solve.
Flickr/Lars Plougmann
Prime Minister Julia Gillard recently announced a new goal for Australian schools – they would reach the top five ranked school systems in the world for reading, mathematics and science by 2025.
The ranking…
What’s the real effect of NAPLAN testing?
AAP Image/Paul Miller
Australian teachers are not convinced that NAPLAN improves the reading and maths skills of students.
Over the next week, NAPLAN results will be arriving at students' homes around Australia. But new research…
Bad NAPLAN results can lead parents to seek help, but which learning programs can they trust?
Test image from www.shutterstock.com
The latest NAPLAN results have arrived, and soon enough thousands of Australian parents will tear open the envelope containing their child’s NAPLAN results.
They will be faced with a series of graphs…
Looking to Asian schools is exactly what we shouldn’t be doing.
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It was fun while it lasted Finland, but we’re going cold on you. We thought your schools had the secret but our new infatuation is with Asian school systems.
The Prime Minister seems to agree. The government…
The OECD report on education shows Australia could be doing more.
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The most recent edition of the OECD’s Education at a Glance released this week, is another report that has invariably been seen as a report card on Australian education.
Australians want to know: how…
State governments are looking at changing the way they deliver education.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
At a time when the Commonwealth sponsored Gonski Review of School Funding is recommending an increase of $5 billion a year plus for schools around Australia, it may seem odd that some state governments…
NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli (left) has slashed funding for state schools.
AAP/Paul Millar
Our Liberal-run states are locked into a self-made and self-fulfilling prophesy of budgetary crisis. It seems that running a deficit budget which is at the heart of liberal Keynesian economic theory is…
The government can’t wait any longer, it needs to make changes now to improve Indigenous education.
Aboriginal Art image www.shutterstock.com
In all the discussion, media releases, press conferences and TV coverage of this week’s government response to the Gonski review, it was fascinating that the issue of Indigenous education rated such little…
We’ve had the big announcement on schools funding, but now comes the political reality.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The battle over the future of Australia’s school funding arrangements has started in
earnest. Outlining the government’s response to the landmark Gonski Review, Prime Minister Gillard spoke of a national…
The Gillard response to the Gonski review was a disappointment and could have been much more.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Yesterday the Prime Minister announced the government will introduce some of the recommendations of the Gonski Review, including a new model for funding schools.
Many commentators criticised the announcement…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard speaking at the National Press Club yesterday signalled serious changes to the states' role in education.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
After the government’s response to the Gonski report on schools funding, it’s worth looking at not only what was in the announcement but what wasn’t.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard offered no indication…
The Gonski response: increased funding will be tied to concrete improvement in all schools.
AAP
Increased funding will be tied to concrete improvements in all schools under the government’s National Plan for School Improvement, announced on Monday in response to the Gonski Review.
The government…
The PM’s response today was lacking the real boost needed for schools funding now.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The government has finally delivered its policy response to the Gonski report, including sweeping changes to how schools are funded and new benchmarks that aim to see Australian schools ranked in the world…
The government will boost schools funding today, but what’s next?
Classroom image from www.shutterstock.com
Today the Prime Minister will announce the government’s full policy response on schools funding, following the Gonski report earlier this year.
The Gonski report recommended a funding boost across the…
The debate around teacher quality should be informed by research, not hunches and misinformation.
Teacher image from www.shutterstock.com
All we seem to hear about these days is failing teachers in failing schools. Those from business, government and the field of economics have all weighed in, criticising teachers, teacher educators and…
Schools fear of litigation could be driving bans on “risky” playground activities – like cartwheeling.
Cartwheel image from www.shutterstock.com
A few schools have hit the headlines recently for banning traditional playground activities like cartwheels, handstands, ball games and even high fives.
Parents are rightly objecting to the bans, and…
The government needs to respond to the Gonski report on schools funding and start improving student outcomes.
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It’s been six long months since the Gonski panel made its recommendations on schools funding, but in the next few weeks the federal government will finally respond and release the details of its school…
The PM should look to her successes in education and build on them by adopting the Gonski recommendations.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
Howʼs this for a radical thought to start the week – a robust contest of ideas around how
we educate Australian students to an internationally competitive standard.
Too quixotic?
Perhaps, but it would…
Schools funding is back in the headlines, but what’s needed is a wider debate about equality.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
Imagine a field of wheat which has been watered unequally. Some parts will grow to their potential, but some won’t. In the end, it’s bad for the whole field’s productivity.
Economist James Galbraith’s…
The debate on schools funding has taken a strange turn with both sides racing to increase funding to private schools.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
In a political echo of the unseemly bi-partisan “race to the bottom” over asylum seekers, we now have a “race to the top” with the prime minister and opposition leader vying to offer the most support to…
The government needs to do the maths on school funding and look at which schools need money most.
Schools image from www.shutterstock.com
In the lead up to the government’s response to the Gonski reforms, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has promised no school will lose funding under the new arrangements.
In fact, “every independent school…
Young people and politics aren’t mixing – how can teachers help change that?
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How much do students know about politics? Or perhaps a better question is: how much do they care?
Recent polling and studies have caused great consternation amongst commentators about an apparent declining…
Australia’s Olympic Chief John Coates has started a debate about the role of sport in the school curriculum.
School sport image from www.shutterstock.com
Australia’s recent medal performance at the Olympic Games has caused Australia’s Olympic Chief John Coates some concern. Last week, he blamed at least part of the result on a lack of sport in the school…
We need to stop pretending that all ideas are the same.
Flickr/ LiverpoolHopeUniversity
There is a widespread belief amongst teachers that it is part of their duty of care, even a defining aspect of their of professionalism, that all views expressed in the classroom are to be treated equally…
Why do we obsess about the competence of teachers?
Teacher image from www.shutterstock.com
Concern about teacher competence has been around for several decades. Recently, there has been a concerted push by state and federal governments to enact policies to improve “teacher quality”. Meeting…
We should not be looking to East Asia as a model for our education system.
EPA/Vincent Jannink
Results from the Chinese university entrance exam, the Gaokao, were released last week. For students, it’s the long culmination of years focusing on tests and learning by rote.
Again and again, East Asian…
David Gonski’s review is starting to fade into the background, but there are a growing number of calls to implement the review’s recommendations.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The last time school funding occupied so much public and political attention was during the Whitlam years.
Policy makers with long memories will recall that the gestation period for the Karmel report…
A good knowledge of the different religions should be part of a National Curriculum.
Flickr/Jake Wasdin
After last week’s High Court challenge verdict on funding chaplains in schools, religious education is back in the headlines.
The role of religion in Australian schools has been vigorously debated for…
The government is trying to rush legislation through the parliament that could fundamentally change how it spends money.
AAP/Alan Porritt
In days of old, when Legislative Councils were appointed bodies, Labor Governments would try to swamp them with suicide squads of members who, once appointed, would vote to abolish the House.
On Tuesday…
There will be an increase in Muslim students in both government and independent schools over the coming years.
AAP/Alan Porritt
AUSTRALIA BY NUMBERS: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the first batch of its census data. We’ve asked some of the country’s top demographers and statisticians to crunch the numbers on…
Attorney General Nicola Roxon and Minister for School Education Peter Garrett respond to the Williams High Court decision.
AAP Image/Penny Bradfield
Today, the High Court of Australia dramatically altered the previously understood scope of the Commonwealth’s power to spend money and enter into contracts. This decision has immediate repercussions for…
The Prime Minister is selling the Schoolkids Bonus as extra help for families, but is it good policy?
AAP Image/Penny Bradfield
The 2012 federal budget has been described as “a big taxing, big spending budget" with a big focus on welfare. The first spending measure to be legislated and to come into effect is the new Schoolkids…
Praising kids all the time might lead to inflated self-esteem and low regard for others.
Flickr/ymc_photos
When most people picture the typical school bully, they think of a kid who is likely to have been bullied themselves. A child with low self-esteem who is trying to make themselves feel better by picking…
We need to take a harder look at Australian education and how we compare internationally.
Flickr/marragem
Following the refusal of the federal government to commit to the Gonski Review and the recent announcement in Victoria of further cuts to already disadvantaged schools and students, the issue of equity…
Do we need to go down the Confucian path of learning – or is there another way?
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
As the fifth year of NAPLAN testing gets underway this week, it has prompted the usual debates. Are the tests in our student’s best interests? Are students adequately prepared? If teachers are “teaching…
The Gonski review presents a generational opportunity to reform our school funding system.
AAP/Graham Porrit
The Gonski Review sought to create a new funding system for Australian schooling, because what we currently have is a mess. It was to be transparent, fair, financially sustainable and effective in promoting…
David Gonski has conducted the most far-reaching review into school funding in Australia since the Whitlam years.
AAP
School funding has been a tortured issue for government, and especially federal Labor governments, for most of the past half century.
Since the seminal Karmel Report of 1973, the funding levels and relativities…
Will Gonski be brave enough to point out what’s wrong with our schooling system?
AAP Image/Jenny Evans
The Gonski review of school funding promises to be a watershed in the history of Australian education. Much is at stake. There is a real chance to fundamentally change the way our divided school system…
The government’s merry dance may come to nothing.
AAP/Joe Castro
When an Australian government is willing to risk losing an election over the way it funds our poorest, most disadvantaged schools, rather than our wealthy schools, only then will meaningful change be possible…
Struggling to read? You may not be using your brain effectively.
Flickr/Lab2112
Almost half of all Australians aged 15-74 years had literacy skills below the level required to participate effectively in our society, according to a 2008 study from the Australian Bureau of Statistics…
We should be questioning the benefits of holding students back a year.
Wikimedia Commons
Making students repeat a year when they’re not doing well socially or academically is not uncommon in Australia. About 8-10% of students repeat a grade at some point in school life.
But there is a major…
Some students may benefit from leaving school earlier.
Flickr/University of Denver
We claim that society’s most important investment is in the education of its people. But prescribing a school leaving age of 17 is not only
uncomfortable for some but downright constraining for others…
Aborginal students deserve better.
AAP Image/Peter Holmes a Court
There is no excuse for Indigenous education in Australia to be in such a terrible and shameful state.
Given the billions of dollars that are allocated to primary and secondary schooling Australia-wide…
Children are far more likely to cycle if their parents do.
carfreedays
CYCLING IN AUSTRALIA: In 1970, nearly all young people in Australia walked, cycled or took public transport to school or university (84%). Few travelled by car (16%). Fast forward to 2011 and most children…
Despite ideas to the contrary, the evidence shows that texting does not make us bad spellers.
Flickr/lanier67
Children and teenagers today do all the things that children and teenagers have more or less always done – they talk to their friends, have dinner with the family, and watch TV.
However, as even the casual…
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised an education revolution, but where are the results?
AAP
All is not well in the Australian school system.
Australian schools are struggling to meet the achievement levels of OECD leader Finland.
With the release of the commissioned research reports for the…
A year four slump can be avoided if children are given the tools to read when very young.
Flickr/Éole
Human speech has long been present in every culture, and our brains have evolved specialized features to enable its rapid development when we are exposed to the speech of others. Reading however is a relatively…
More maths teachers means better outcomes for students.
Flickr
By Jan Thomas, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute
There is a crisis in the education system, and it’s affecting the life chances of many young Australians. The number of secondary teaching graduates with adequate qualifications to teach mathematics is…
Some parents send their children to a religious school, but others struggle to choose.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australia has an unusually high proportion of children enrolled in non-government schools, when compared to similar nations. This dates back to the struggles between colonial governments and Catholic bishops…
Pupils at this charter school appreciate President Obama’s support, but it’s not the only option.
Flickr/The White House
Education policy in the United States is paved with some glaring failures. Despite this, many Australian reformers are looking west for inspiration, as the Gonski review of education funding is carried…
The Gonski review presents the Government a once in a generation chance to review school funding.
AAP
The current debate about government funding to private schools is misdirected. The issue is (or should be) not at what level should private schools be funded, but whether they are entitled to any funding…
The University of New South Wales Chancellor, David Gonksi, is chairing a review into school funding.
AAP
As a five member panel headed by noted business figure and University of NSW chancellor David Gonski reaches the final stages of its review into the structure of school funding in Australia, lobbying by…
Early intervention is the way to turn children’s chances around.
Paul nine-o/Flickr
Speak to any teacher who has worked in a school with a high level of social disadvantage and you’ll find plenty of concern about the links between educational failure and long-term social exclusion.
Teachers…
People without basic financial services may approach loan sharks when emergency strikes. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciscel.
Around 15.6% of Australian adults have limited or no access to basic financial services like a transaction account, a credit card or insurance, putting them at risk of predatory lending, a new study has…
Helping children recognise the sounds in words can improve their reading ability.
Pratham Books/Flickr
There are two main approaches to teaching children to read. Phonics, involves teaching children to recognise combinations of characters and establish the meanings of words based on combining them. The…
