tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/school-policy-9150/articlesSchool policy – The Conversation2024-01-08T19:16:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2159932024-01-08T19:16:50Z2024-01-08T19:16:50ZYear 9 is often seen as the ‘lost year’. Here’s what schools are trying to keep kids engaged<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563129/original/file-20231203-25-esyf9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C40%2C5472%2C3596&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blur-abstract-background-examination-room-undergraduate-641504728">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year in Victoria, <a href="https://assets.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/assets/Reports/Parliamentary-Reports/1-PDF-Report-Files/Investigation-into-Victorian-government-school-expulsions.pdf">thousands of students</a> disengage from school between the start of Year 9 and the end of Year 12. </p>
<p>Many are <a href="https://assets.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/assets/Reports/Parliamentary-Reports/1-PDF-Report-Files/Investigation-into-Victorian-government-school-expulsions.pdf">expelled or suspended</a>. Others simply <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959475216302754?via%3Dihub">switch off in class</a>, skip lessons, or quit school to seek out different educational and training pathways.</p>
<p>Whatever the reason, many <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41297-023-00198-8">high school teachers</a> say something significant happens to school engagement levels <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03216890">around Year 9</a>. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41297-023-00198-8">research</a>, which involved working with Year 9 teachers in Victorian high schools, seeks to better understand what’s happening with student disengagement in this year level – and what can be done to change it.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/20-of-australian-students-dont-finish-high-school-non-mainstream-schools-have-a-lot-to-teach-us-about-helping-kids-stay-207021">20% of Australian students don't finish high school: non-mainstream schools have a lot to teach us about helping kids stay</a>
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<h2>Lost, disengaged and ‘in never-never land’</h2>
<p>Year 9 (when a child typically turns 14 or 15) is a challenging year for a teenager, in part due to the maelstrom of puberty and adolescence. One Year 9 teacher told me students at this age see themselves</p>
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<p>as that in-between stage. ‘Am I a child? Am I an adult? What if I’m neither?’</p>
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<p>Students at this age often strongly feel they no longer fit in. These age appropriate but intense levels of introspection can make some students look at the repetitive and seemingly endless cycles of school tasks, tests and homework and wonder, “what’s the point?” As one research <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03216890">paper</a> puts it:</p>
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<p>In Australia, Year 9 is widely seen as a problem, a time when young people disengage from school; and when curriculum and student identity often fail to cohere with each other.</p>
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<p>Year 9 teachers <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41297-023-00198-8">described</a> this year to me as “the lost year”, where students often drift off to “never-never land”. One even said it was traditionally seen as “a waste of a year”. </p>
<p>This suggests an opportunity for schools to design their Year 9 curriculum to help these students see the relevance of school.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563233/original/file-20231204-17-npgt90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A boy puts his head on a desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563233/original/file-20231204-17-npgt90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563233/original/file-20231204-17-npgt90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563233/original/file-20231204-17-npgt90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563233/original/file-20231204-17-npgt90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563233/original/file-20231204-17-npgt90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563233/original/file-20231204-17-npgt90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563233/original/file-20231204-17-npgt90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Year 9 (when a child typically turns 14 or 15) is a challenging year for a teenager.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-young-high-school-student-bored-200191565">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Specialist Year 9 programs</h2>
<p>Some schools have implemented specialist programs for Year 9. Some have large-scale residential programs, where students live and learn away from home for extended periods. Other programs focus on students learning about and through their local communities.</p>
<p>In Ballarat, where I am based, about half the high schools have a substantial Year 9 program. The structure varies. Sometimes it’s just a one-day-a-week program combining in-school and out-of-school learning experiences. Other programs are conducted entirely offsite over the course of a term.</p>
<p>One case study I <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41297-023-00198-8">explored</a> was a Year 9 program at a school in regional Victoria. About 70% of students at this school fall in the bottom and bottom-middle quartiles of the Australian distribution of socio-economic advantage.</p>
<p>In my paper, I gave this program (which the school developed) the pseudonym “Renewal”. In Renewal, several learning areas (English, health and humanities) are taught together by a single teacher. Students are in the program for six out of 20 periods per week. </p>
<p>Having one teacher assigned to each class for the entire Renewal program allows them to build rapport and connection. As one teacher told us: </p>
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<p>Students have come to me, their Renewal teacher, before they’ve gone to their tutorial teacher, before they’ve gone to their house leader, and said: ‘I’m feeling extremely overwhelmed, I’m having anxiety problems, I don’t know why, it’s freaking me out.’ </p>
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<p>Another told me the program allows students “to explore, investigate, ask questions about life issues that they wouldn’t normally ask a teacher.”</p>
<p>This rapport better positions the teacher to handle tricky issues with absenteeism, bullying and self-harm than teachers who see them less frequently.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563230/original/file-20231204-27-nzoi12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A boy in school uniform writes with a blue pen into an exercise book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563230/original/file-20231204-27-nzoi12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563230/original/file-20231204-27-nzoi12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563230/original/file-20231204-27-nzoi12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563230/original/file-20231204-27-nzoi12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563230/original/file-20231204-27-nzoi12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563230/original/file-20231204-27-nzoi12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563230/original/file-20231204-27-nzoi12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Some schools are trying a new approach in an effort to keep Year 9 kids engaged.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-student-reading-writing-exam-stress-683610508">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>A different approach</h2>
<p>Renewal combines classroom-based activities with camps, excursions, guest speakers and other specialist programmes. One exercise, for example, involves dropping the students off in the local town centre, where they have to complete a series of tasks on a trail.</p>
<p>In the Renewal program, the careers unit and mock job interviews are done at the start of the year to support students to get part-time employment.</p>
<p>Students are given more agency than a traditional approach would allow. School work might be done, for example, via essay-writing, painting, drawing, in the form of a radio interview or other formats.</p>
<p>As one teacher told me:</p>
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<p>The kids have more opportunity in regards to choosing their own destination […] to be able to find their own learning.</p>
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<p>One teacher described a task where students write “a persuasive letter to the council […] about a health issue in the community, that they wanted funding for.”</p>
<p>Another relayed how outdoor tasks “fires up a different part of their brain”, saying:</p>
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<p>One of the teachers created this map where they had to go around and imagine if they were to sleep rough where they could sleep.</p>
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<p>Teachers themselves also learn from the Renewal program. One said: </p>
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<p>I’m much more flexible. It’s probably something I should be focusing on, to bring into my other classes. Just allow a bit more time for things.</p>
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<h2>Resonating with students’ lives</h2>
<p>Schools with specific approaches to Year 9 are hearing positive responses from students via surveys and other feedback. One teacher from the Renewal program even noticed how:</p>
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<p>Getting up, in front of the class and presenting is a big deal for a lot of people […] I find with Renewal it’s easier for me to get people up than it is [even] for my Year 11 class.</p>
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<p>The success of Year 9 programs hinges on a tailored curriculum that resonates with students’ lives, taught by teachers dedicated to fostering strong connections.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-would-like-to-go-to-university-flexi-school-students-share-their-goals-in-australia-first-survey-193396">'I would like to go to university': flexi school students share their goals in Australia-first survey</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josh Ambrosy is on the board of Outdoors Victoria, the state not-for-profit peak body. He runs professional development sessions related to Year 9 programs and other middle years curricula.
</span></em></p>Year 9 teachers say students often drift off to ‘never-never land’. How can we do this tough but crucial year differently?Josh Ambrosy, Lecturer in Education, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1845572022-06-13T04:41:56Z2022-06-13T04:41:56ZEvery teacher needs to be a literacy teacher – but that’s not happening in most Australian schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467665/original/file-20220608-24-7p0wfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4992%2C3295&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We know literacy is important. Unfortunately, many Australian students <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/04250494.2019.1672502">move through the years of schooling</a> without achieving the literacy they need for essential daily activities. </p>
<p>When we think about building literacy, we most likely think about the English learning area. But think back to your time at school. You’ll probably remember you needed good literacy skills in learning areas beyond English.</p>
<p>Your knowledge and skills across most learning areas were gained and measured through your literacy skills. For example, your ability to write an essay in history, produce a report in science and explain your working out in mathematics contributed to your grade. Research shows how students’ literacy skills influence their achievement in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035519327636?casa_token=wQp1VeKxMOsAAAAA:yYn1GVdznCB9R6qctwnuwz1yeLiG6z2TUEVHgVDTT5U8FURuSIY1cRVTeTR3TWd9JDxxH6VJ">mathematics</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10212-019-00453-5">science</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/all-teachers-need-to-teach-language-and-literacy-not-just-english-teachers-180498">All teachers need to teach language and literacy, not just English teachers</a>
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<p>The Australian Curriculum positions literacy as a <a href="https://australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/literacy/">general capability</a> to be taught in every learning area. Despite this, few Australian schools have whole-school literacy policies that include practical plans for building student literacy across learning areas. That’s the troubling conclusion from my analysis of Australian and UK school literacy policies for my <a href="https://www.hbe.com.au/hb6449.html">upcoming book</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1741143220905036">My earlier research</a> also shows that many Australian secondary teachers do not believe their schools have a whole-school approach to supporting struggling literacy learners. This is concerning, as students who struggle with literacy won’t only struggle in English. </p>
<p>It’s not that the push to make every teacher a teacher of language and literacy is new. It has been discussed <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/357438?casa_token=2Oo8oj8v2PIAAAAA%3AK1r82jb7WiFTWJVHXDb-u6cLmSZ6xr7TYZClftjDg4r9AaNSiXHuCBN25qN6TkcOdR4W0qlzn5lih0lTGXpWpwptGXzFnFkL3prw4MWKPgOwcHBPjQ&seq=1">since the 1960s</a>. However, there are questions about how closely Australian schools meet this expectation. </p>
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<h2>What kinds of literacies do we need?</h2>
<p>Many literacies are needed to boost achievement beyond English. When we talk about whole-school literacy, we often refer to content area literacy and disciplinary literacy. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.lww.com/topicsinlanguagedisorders/FullText/2012/01000/Building_a_House_on_Sand__Why_Disciplinary.7.aspx?casa_token=sobD1yeiNIQAAAAA:mhXP-Mdm7cvb_TCFIitXOmALMTxHY0lR2kVCuPbLnBTQIDglo8np9JFA83jPQKYlpwsPGyDTaLZXcnvGARNLXTA">Content area literacy</a> refers to the literacy knowledge, strategies and skills we use across the learning areas. For example, we don’t only need reading comprehension in English. It’s needed in every learning area that requires students to read. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-content-area-disciplinary-literacy-strategies-frameworks.pdf?sfvrsn=e180a58e_6">Disciplinary literacy</a> relates to the literacy knowledge, strategies and skills that we use to achieve learning purposes that are unique to a learning area. For example, writing a <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.215162">science report</a> requires the correct scientific language, formatting, referencing and diagrams. It calls for specific literacy skills unique to science.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/language-matters-in-science-and-mathematics-heres-why-68960">Language matters in science and mathematics - here’s why</a>
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<h2>What’s missing from school literacy policies?</h2>
<p>Whole-school literacy policies plan for all learning areas to include a focus on literacy achievement. </p>
<p>However, analysis of Australian schools’ literacy policies reveals many gaps in these policies. Part of the problem is an <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/aeipt.222604">excessive focus on NAPLAN testing</a>. There is also limited attention to making the most of literacy resources such as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09610006211022410?casa_token=l-NLgG5GXCQAAAAA%3AyFd3mbsR358Rq6AZwQA8qBiv1_XwmDh2GkLlAX1Cp-nFfHGr9o7UlDr3vqAt9d7epITiPb8LbWY">school libraries</a>, especially by comparison with policies in the UK.</p>
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<p>School literacy policies commonly fail to include:</p>
<p><strong>A definition of literacy</strong> that considers both content area literacy and disciplinary literacy, as well as the wide range of literacies that the school seeks to develop in its students. This should not be limited to the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/lit.12166?casa_token=_8rBJ5locDoAAAAA:16YyZqaWexqOsv6fLB3qirVGiUfuwveL9DPMEkwg5lY4_xkQOQ1GIFjnRS4dgeuxRGFYvIQndEv5eg">narrow</a> framing of literacy tested in NAPLAN.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-year-without-naplan-has-given-us-a-chance-to-re-evaluate-how-we-gauge-school-quality-138603">A year without NAPLAN has given us a chance to re-evaluate how we gauge school quality</a>
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<p><strong><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19404159909546595">Detailed and explicit literacy targets</a></strong> for building content area and disciplinary literacy, as well as meeting other goals such as increasing students’ information literacy. Targets are needed so the policy isn’t just aspirational; it actually drives change. There should also be detailed implementation planning that allocates literacy responsibilities across the school. </p>
<p><strong>An explanation of how improvement in literacy will be measured</strong> to determine the effectiveness of the policy. Don’t just assess changes in high-stakes literacy-testing scores. Look at building literacy <a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/products/a5940p/">engagement</a>. This relates to students’ attitudes toward and performance of practices such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/eie.12143?journalCode=reie20">reading for pleasure</a>. Research has found a relationship between <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035518320147?casa_token=sHEgsX810FYAAAAA:wp0or99pYl0A9Gb3E3qaEgfxFsujqdA2_57lpyxcPZbF5-jMrunYNLfF0p4credmKAig_egt">reading for enjoyment and reading comprehension</a>, a key content area literacy skill.</p>
<p><strong>Plans for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1741143220905036">identifying and supporting</a> students</strong> who are struggling with literacy. These plans should cover all schooling years and learning areas. Include plans for professional development of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/04250494.2020.1775488">teachers who lack confidence</a> in supporting students’ complex literacy needs among the many competing demands of their role. </p>
<p><strong>Consideration of how to make the most of the literacy resources</strong> within the school. These resources include but are not limited to the <a href="https://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/page/detail/school-libraries-supporting-literacy-and-wellbeing/?K=9781783305841">school library and its staff</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/music-can-help-lift-our-kids-out-of-the-literacy-rut-but-schools-in-some-states-are-still-missing-out-173908">Music can help lift our kids out of the literacy rut, but schools in some states are still missing out</a>
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<p><strong>Attention to writing</strong> – the majority of Australian schools’ policies did not mention <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-empower-students-with-effective-writing-skills-handwriting-matters-81949">handwriting</a>. Most of the UK policies did. Australian school policies also rarely mentioned typing. A whole-school literacy policy should include these skills, given their importance across the curriculum and the years of schooling. </p>
<p><strong>COVID-related literacy issues</strong> – school policies may also need to include strategies to overcome any negative impacts of pandemic-related <a href="https://www.iier.org.au/iier31/merga-abs.html">education interruption</a> on students’ literacy learning. </p>
<p>In general, Australian school literacy policies are <a href="https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.newcastle.edu.au/doi/10.1177/09610006211022410">typically far shorter</a> and less detailed than their UK equivalents. Australian schools and their students will benefit from more effective whole-school literacy planning. </p>
<p>Literacy is not just the responsibility of the English teacher. Every teacher is a literacy teacher.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Kristin Merga has received funding from the BUPA Health Foundation, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, Edith Cowan University and the Collier Foundation. She is the Patron of the Australian School Library Association and the Western Australian School Library Association. She also runs Merga Consulting, working with schools, Departments and professional associations to deliver parent seminars, staff professional development and planning advisory support.</span></em></p>A whole-school approach to literacy is far more effective for students, but few Australian schools have practical plans for building literacy across all subject areas.Margaret Kristin Merga, Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1830392022-06-08T01:09:44Z2022-06-08T01:09:44ZRemote learning was even tougher for migrant parents. Here’s what they want schools to know in case lockdowns return<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467313/original/file-20220606-20-jzflup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4361%2C2909&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When COVID forced school closures, many parents found themselves more involved than ever with their children’s learning. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/11/6/302">For some</a> <a href="https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/3/e5.full.pdf">parents</a>, it was hard work but broadly achievable. Many migrant parents, however, found themselves at a distinct disadvantage.</p>
<p>Parental engagement is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Engaging-Hard-Reach-Parents-Teacher-Parent/dp/0470516321">strongly linked</a> to student learning outcomes.</p>
<p>With learn-from-home likely to return the next time there is a pandemic or other emergency, it’s important we understand why many migrant families found this mode of education delivery so incredibly challenging – and how the system can be improved.</p>
<p>We interviewed 20 migrant parents from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan who told us about the complex challenges they faced during lockdowns.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remote-learning-is-even-harder-when-english-isnt-students-first-language-schools-told-us-their-priorities-for-supporting-them-166957">Remote learning is even harder when English isn't students' first language. Schools told us their priorities for supporting them</a>
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<h2>Language and technological barriers</h2>
<p>Many of our interviewees told us limited English language proficiency made it hard to engage with their children’s learning. Understanding school and government messages was often a struggle. One parent said:</p>
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<p>My daughter has a very native accent, and it is difficult for me to understand what she says […] Sometimes I do not understand what she wants or how I should help her. When I approached the school, they sent me English emails that I didn’t understand.</p>
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<p>The pandemic also highlighted Australia’s <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/covid-digital-divide-learning-education/">digital divide</a>; some participants struggled to set up their digital devices.</p>
<p>Limited parental digital literacy makes difficult to monitor student learning, especially in large families. Some parents told us they knew their kids only pretended they were on school tasks, while really watching YouTube or playing games.</p>
<h2>Financial pressure and competing demands</h2>
<p>Our interviewees also reported intense financial stress during lockdowns. As children stayed home for an extended period, grocery and utility bills soared. One parent told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You need to spend more. They eat more; they want to play in the bathtub. They watch TV; I have to use the vacuum cleaner and washing machine more often.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Parents had to also buy tablet devices and printers for children to participate in remote learning. Worrying their children were not doing schoolwork properly, some paid for tutoring and spent more on books.</p>
<p>Many parents worked full time during the pandemic and had limited time to educate their children. One participant reflected:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have to work and be a teacher at the same time. It is not possible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am a single mum with four kids from Year 1 to year 7. […] I have to deal with four different age groups, four schools, four classes, and four iPads. […] Sometimes, I need to cut my sleep hours, which again makes me wake up tired.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467316/original/file-20220606-12-ojmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467316/original/file-20220606-12-ojmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467316/original/file-20220606-12-ojmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467316/original/file-20220606-12-ojmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467316/original/file-20220606-12-ojmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467316/original/file-20220606-12-ojmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467316/original/file-20220606-12-ojmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467316/original/file-20220606-12-ojmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some parents felt what was expected of them was too complex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Uncertainty and withdrawal</h2>
<p>Some parents eventually withdrew from their children’s education:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have asked my children to do their duties on their own. […] In the case of my little son, I only know that he progresses through his course, can pass his units, and proceed to the next year, but I am not aware of his academic situation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Reflecting on his inability to support his children’s learning during the lockdowns, one parent told us, “it’s out of my hands”.</p>
<p>Another told her child’s school:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Look, you need to provide me with simpler guidance. I’m not a teacher; provide me with a bit simpler communication; what they need to study, what they need to learn.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-from-home-is-testing-students-online-search-skills-here-are-3-ways-to-improve-them-165752">Learning from home is testing students' online search skills. Here are 3 ways to improve them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A sigh of relief</h2>
<p>Almost all parents who participated in our study reported remote learning was exhausting.</p>
<p>One parent said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You get tired of your children; you’re connected to them, that is good, but now it’s too much. I can’t wait until they get back to school.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some parents worried about the potential strain of remote schooling on their relationships with their children.</p>
<p>One single mother, working full time while her child was home alone, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had to teach him while he was very impatient and expected me to know the answer for everything. When I was a little unsure about any subject, he got angry and miffed. So, I decided not to help him […] I told him: ‘Look, do whatever you can and leave the rest undone; when you get back to school, ask your teacher.’ I came to the conclusion that the bond and the relationships between a son and a mother are far more important than schooling and learning.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Others in the study also reiterated the importance of not putting too much pressure on already distressed children.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467317/original/file-20220606-15990-n8mwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467317/original/file-20220606-15990-n8mwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467317/original/file-20220606-15990-n8mwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467317/original/file-20220606-15990-n8mwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467317/original/file-20220606-15990-n8mwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467317/original/file-20220606-15990-n8mwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467317/original/file-20220606-15990-n8mwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467317/original/file-20220606-15990-n8mwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some parents told us they knew their kids only pretended they were on school tasks, while really watching YouTube or playing games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Emergency remote learning may return</h2>
<p>Our research showed migrant parents faced myriad challenges during the remote learning period, with some only able to engage in a limited way with their children’s education.</p>
<p>Remote learning may very well return in future when the next disaster strikes, so it’s crucial we prepare for such disruption by improving equitable access to education delivered online and at home.</p>
<p>To achieve this, we must ensure:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>all students have access to digital remote learning devices</p></li>
<li><p>disadvantaged families receive additional support (including financial and language support) during remote learning periods</p></li>
<li><p>all parents are well informed about their roles and responsibilities, and</p></li>
<li><p>school messages are easy to understand.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p><em>The authors would like to acknowledge the work of research team members Dr Hossein Shokouhi and Dr Ruth Arber.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tebeje Molla works for Deakin University. He has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, and Deakin’s Faculty of Arts and Education. Tebeje has published on refugee education and is a member of the Refugee Education Special Interest Group (<a href="http://www.refugee-education.org">www.refugee-education.org</a>). This story is part of The Conversation’s Breaking the Cycle series, which is about escaping cycles of disadvantage. It is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amin Zaini works for Deakin University, School of Education where he obtained his PhD. Amin is a lecturer, a unit chair, and a Chief Investigator, at Deakin, and has already received an internal grant to work on migrant and refugee families. His areas of expertise and interest involve Education, social justice, as well as the analysis of power relations in the society. </span></em></p>With learn-from-home likely to return during the pandemic or other emergency, it’s important we understand why many migrant families found this mode of education delivery so challenging.Tebeje Molla, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Deakin UniversityAmin Zaini, Lecturer, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1799442022-05-29T19:54:31Z2022-05-29T19:54:31ZWhat do kids like and dislike about school? This is why it matters – and we can do something about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465449/original/file-20220526-21-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C297%2C4819%2C3068&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>“School SUX</em>!”</p>
<p>We’ve all heard it and some of us have felt it. It’s such a common sentiment that parents and teachers might be tempted to dismiss it. After all, school is good for you! Like vegetables. It is something you have to have, whether you like it or not.</p>
<p>But does the intrinsic “good” and compulsory nature of school education mean we should ignore students who say they don’t like it? Or that we shouldn’t try to make it more palatable? </p>
<p>Feeling positive about school is associated with <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258506119_Persistent_Absenteeism_among_Irish_Primary_School_Pupils">higher attendance</a>, better classroom adjustment and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23093716">engagement</a>, and higher <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140197113000390">academic achievement</a>. </p>
<p>Students don’t have to <em>love</em> school to experience these benefits. Even those who like school will dislike aspects of it: subjects they aren’t good at, having to get up early, lack of tuckshop options, and so on. </p>
<p>But, for some students, dislike for school can become pervasive – they dislike almost everything about it. </p>
<p>Some of these students may <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17367730/">drop out</a> of school, which has serious implications for their future job prospects, financial security and quality of life. So, yes, it matters a great deal if students don’t like school and it’s important to know <em>why</em>, so we can do something about it.</p>
<h2>How did we research dislike for school?</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.825036/full">recent study</a> investigated associations between school liking and factors that previous research suggests make students more likely to stay in school or leave: teacher <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-016-9389-8">support</a>, connectedness to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X06004228?via%3Dihub">school</a>, and the use of detentions, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0038040718816684">suspensions</a> and expulsions. </p>
<p>Our aim was to learn how we might be able to improve schooling from the perspective of students who like it the least. We surveyed 1,002 students in grades 7-10 from three complex secondary schools. These are the grades and types of schools with the highest suspension and lowest retention rates. </p>
<p>We wanted to find out how these students feel about school and teachers, as well as their experiences of exclusionary discipline, and whether there were important differences between those who said they did and did not like school.</p>
<h2>What did we find?</h2>
<p>The good news is that two-thirds of our study sample said they like school. Almost half of these students said they had always liked it. One of them said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Love it. I’d prefer to live at school. Like, if Hogwarts was an actual place, I’d go there.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Worryingly, one-third of students said they do not like school. Although school liking was highest in grade 7, most students indicated their dislike began in the transition to high school. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Yeah, it was probably as soon as I hit high school. Year 7 things got a lot harder.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This dislike appears to increase over time, with grade 9 having the highest proportion of dislikers. These patterns correspond with suspension rates, <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/125844/1/IJIE_Suspension%20in%20QLD%202006-2017_FINAL.pdf">which double in grade 7 and peak in grade 9</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465419/original/file-20220526-24-ncc005.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Table showing grade levels and percentages of students who said dislike of school started in those years" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465419/original/file-20220526-24-ncc005.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465419/original/file-20220526-24-ncc005.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465419/original/file-20220526-24-ncc005.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465419/original/file-20220526-24-ncc005.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465419/original/file-20220526-24-ncc005.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465419/original/file-20220526-24-ncc005.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465419/original/file-20220526-24-ncc005.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.825036/full#A1">Source: L. Graham et al, Frontiers in Psychology, 2022</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What do students like and dislike most?</h2>
<p>Our suspicion that students in these two groups like and dislike different things about school proved correct. While “friends” was the most-liked aspect of school for both groups, a much higher proportion of school likers than dislikers chose “learning”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I feel like every day I go to school, I just flex my knowledge. I like to learn. Learning’s alright.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By contrast, a much higher proportion of dislikers chose “breaktime” as their most-liked aspect. The attraction became clearer through interviews:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What do you like most about school?” […] “Break. So I get to see my friends.”</p>
</blockquote>
<iframe title="Most-liked aspects of school for school likers and dislikers" aria-label="Grouped Column Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-vevYQ" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vevYQ/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>A similar pattern emerged for the least-liked aspects of school. A much higher proportion of dislikers than likers selected schoolwork, teachers and discipline policy as the aspects they disliked most.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Pretty much work, because they give you all the assessments and expect it to be done so quick […]”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These findings are fairly intuitive and resonate with <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/125846/14/GrahamVanBergen_Sweller_Caught_between_a_rock_a_hard_place_FINAL_pdf.pdf">previous research</a> with students with a history of disruptive behaviour who also nominated schoolwork and teachers. </p>
<p>The previous study found an interesting connection between the two. Students who find learning difficult will often clash with teachers whose job it is to make them do their work. Some teachers are kinder and more supportive in how they do that than others. </p>
<p>High school is especially difficult for these students because they have to navigate more teachers and are not good at “code-switching” to meet diverse rules and expectations.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It was hard because you go from having a teacher the whole term who would let you do stuff and then if you tried to do that in another class, it would just be like no, you can’t do that. Yeah, and they just yell at you.”</p>
</blockquote>
<iframe title="Least-liked aspects of school for school likers and dislikers" aria-label="Grouped Column Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-GJPZh" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/GJPZh/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Students who clash with teachers also tend also to experience exclusionary discipline. In our sample, not liking school was significantly associated with having received a detention, suspension or expulsion in the past 12 months. Forty-one percent of dislikers reported having been suspended (versus 14% of likers).</p>
<p>Our analyses also found large differences in students’ ratings of teacher support. Dislikers provided lower ratings on every item. </p>
<p>The highest-rated item for both groups was: “My teacher always wants me to do my best.” The lowest was: “My teacher has time for me.” The largest difference between groups was for “My teacher listens to me.”</p>
<h2>What can schools do?</h2>
<p>Relationships between teachers and students <em>can</em> be improved and educators do not have to wait for governments to act. A simple start would be for school leaders to implement <a href="https://research.qut.edu.au/c4ie/wp-content/uploads/sites/281/2022/02/Practice-Guide-Student-Driven-School-Change.pdf">student-driven school change</a> to address issues from the perspective of <em>all</em> students, but especially those who say they least want to be there. </p>
<p>As for government policy, the findings from our study highlight one possibility for consideration. When Queensland <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.360099246761570">shifted</a> grade 7 from the primary phase to the secondary phase in 2015, steps were takens to better support children in their first year of high school. Support included a core teacher model, when one teacher takes the same students for English and humanities or maths and science, reducing the number of teachers that students have to navigate, and dedicated play areas for grade 7 students to help reduce anxiety.</p>
<p>The findings from our study of three Queensland secondary schools suggest that initiative may have had some success for up two-thirds of grade 7 students at least. Yet, if school liking declines in grades 8 and beyond, mirroring the rise in suspensions, is it not time to consider whether grade 8s and 9s may benefit from more intensive pastoral care? </p>
<p>We could always ask them!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda J. Graham receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Queensland Government and the Spencer Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenna Gillett-Swan receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Queensland Government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Callula Killingly and Penny Van Bergen do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A third of students say they don’t like school, and that dislike often begins around the time they enter high school. But the reasons they give point the way to solutions to this problem.Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of TechnologyCallula Killingly, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of TechnologyJenna Gillett-Swan, Associate Professor in Education, Wellbeing and Children's Rights, Queensland University of TechnologyPenny Van Bergen, Professor in Educational Psychology, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1733152022-01-18T13:40:06Z2022-01-18T13:40:06ZMore than masks and critical race theory – 3 tasks you should be prepared to do before you run for school board<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440547/original/file-20220112-35588-1rkswn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C0%2C5500%2C3691&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School board elections are increasingly contested. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chris-tough-reacts-in-objection-during-a-portland-public-news-photo/1236153993?adppopup=true">Nathan Howard/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When people run for school board these days, they often are motivated to <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Conflicts_in_school_board_elections,_2021-2022">campaign on a controverisial topic</a>. That’s according to Ballotpedia, a nonprofit that tracks political elections in the U.S.</p>
<p>In an analysis of school board elections in <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/School_board_elections,_2021">463 school districts in 2021</a>, the organization found elections that were once uncontested had drawn candidates who were “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-school-boards-e41350b7d9e3662d279c2dad287f7009">galvanized by one issue or another</a>.”</p>
<p>Three issues came up the most. The most oft-cited issue was race in education, more specifically, the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/11/03/school-board-races-show-mixed-results-critical-race-theory/6271364001/">teaching of critical race theory</a>. The second most frequently cited issue was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/03/politics/school-board-elections/index.html">school policies on the pandemic</a> – that is, requirements to wear masks or get vaccinations, or school reopening. The third most-cited was <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Conflicts_in_school_board_elections_about_sex_and_gender_in_schools,_2021-2022">sex and gender in schools</a>, such as gender-specific facilities.</p>
<p>As of January 2022, Ballotpedia discovered 287 school districts in 25 states where candidates took a position on race in education; 199 school districts in 23 states where candidates took a position on responses to the coronavirus pandemic; and 144 school districts in 18 states where candidates took a position on sex and gender in schools.</p>
<h2>A worrisome trend</h2>
<p>As a former school board member – and as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6gc1wl0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researcher who studies educational leadership and policy</a> – I find it worrisome when polarizing issues generate so much attention from candidates. The reason I worry is that I know from firsthand experience that being an effective school board member is never just about taking a stance on a few hot-button topics. Rather, it’s about much broader issues, such as meeting the educational needs of all students in the school district.</p>
<p>Too often, support for candidates hinges on the positions they take on the most controversial issues. For instance, in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, speaking on behalf of his state’s Republican Party, <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/434128-political-apparatus/">pledged</a> to withhold support from “any Republican candidate for school board who supports critical race theory in all 67 counties or supports mandatory masking of schoolchildren.” </p>
<p>As impassioned as people may be about issues like mask requirements, keeping schools open or confronting issues of race in the curriculum, running a school district is about much more than any one of those single issues. With that in mind, here are three actions that future school board candidates should be prepared to take.</p>
<h2>1. Set district policy</h2>
<p>A primary function of the school board is to develop, review and approve district policy. These policies can include implementing state mandates – such as establishing <a href="https://www.ecs.org/high-school-graduation-requirements/">high school graduation requirements</a> – or formulating a <a href="https://kappanonline.org/mapping-teacher-evaluation-plans-essa-close-amrein-beardsley-collins/">plan to evaluate teachers</a>.</p>
<p>Some policies take on broad issues that affect all students. For instance, a policy might express a goal to make sure <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/making-sure-every-child-has-home-internet-access-8-steps-to-get-there/2020/09">all students have access to the internet at home</a>. Other policies might deal with smaller matters, such as whether <a href="https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2017/01/25/should-homeschooled-kids-be-able-to-participate-in-all-school-clubs/">home-schooled students can participate in extracurricular activities</a> at the local public school.</p>
<h2>2. Make tough budget decisions</h2>
<p>One of the most difficult tasks that school board members must do is decide how to spend the school district’s limited revenue.</p>
<p>The vast majority of a district’s budget – about <a href="https://www.aasa.org/uploadedfiles/policy_and_advocacy/files/schoolbudgetbrieffinal.pdf">80% to 85%</a> – goes to personnel costs, such as salaries and benefits for school staff. Paying for these employee expenditures is becoming more challenging because of the <a href="https://www.asbonewyork.org/news/407485/School-District-Health-Care-Costs-Rise-Faster-than-Inflation-and-Total-Spending.htm">rising cost of health insurance</a>. </p>
<p>To stay within budget, school board members may have to cut positions or programs. It’s usually a matter of assessing tradeoffs: Do we cut our gifted and talented program to keep our school safety officer? Do we cut teaching positions to make the budget, and if so, which ones? </p>
<p>Each decision comes with consequences. For instance, cutting a gifted and talented program would make some families upset. Continued funding of a night school program might require a series of budget reductions in other areas, such as field trips or late buses.</p>
<p>A tough budget choice I remember facing as a school board member was deciding whether to renovate an outdated and undersized school theater. The board members all agreed the theater was in desperate need of an upgrade but decided to put off the theater upgrade to deal with other needs. The high school would soon need a new roof and boiler that ultimately took priority.</p>
<h2>3. Select a superintendent</h2>
<p>Selecting a district leader is critically important. So is deciding whether to keep or get rid of one. A good superintendent can make or break a district. The superintendent is the face of the school community and the district’s instructional leader.</p>
<p>Superintendents work with the school board to set the vision and goals for the district and then make sure they are achieved. They also hire and manage principals and other district leaders. Superintendents are expected to provide for the safety of children and staff and be good stewards of district finances.</p>
<p>Finding a good superintendent involves looking for leaders who have a proven track record in the areas of importance. Do they have a history of improving student achievement? Have they created a positive school climate and culture? Are they effective communicators? </p>
<p>If a school board chooses an ineffective superintendent, it usually sets a district back and the board ends up having to spend time and money to replace them.</p>
<p>A key distinction of American democracy is that candidates can develop platforms as they see fit, and it’s up to voters to decide if a particular candidate will represent their concerns. But when it comes to running a school system, it’s important to keep in mind that it involves much more than taking a stance on a few controversial issues. It’s also about making sound financial decisions and implementing policies that ensure all students get the education they deserve.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173315/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Casey D. Cobb is affiliated with the National Education Policy Center.</span></em></p>School board elections are becoming increasingly fractious and political events, with candidates focused on one or two issues. An education policy scholar explains why that’s a worrisome trend.Casey D. Cobb, Neag Professor of Educational Policy, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1624232021-06-10T03:23:10Z2021-06-10T03:23:10ZFree schools guide about inclusiveness and climate science is not ideological — it’s based on evidence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405536/original/file-20210610-39379-1adw84t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stack-paper-documents-clip-pile-unfinished-789798580">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recently released policy guide book for teachers and schools has been receiving some criticism. For instance, an <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/education-new-south-wales/boys-and-girls-banned-in-new-guide-for-teachers/news-story/06072862b2f8f5e3aed0450984750b8b">article in the Daily Telegraph</a> claimed: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Teachers are being told not to use phrases like “girls and boys”, “normal” and “other” in class – but they should make students aware of “superdiversity” and “declare a climate change emergency” as a way of “telling the truth” about our “climate breakdown”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The article is talking about <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003025955/building-better-schools-evidence-based-policy-kelly-ann-allen-andrea-reupert-lindsay-oades?refId=632274ab-eee7-4293-bb4a-6c1366715472">Building Better Schools with Evidence-based Policy: Adaptable Policy for Teachers and School Leaders</a>, which I edited along with Andrea Reupert, and Lindsay Oades. </p>
<p>Although the article claims the book offers “instructions” designed by “academic boffins”, this is not entirely correct.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405258/original/file-20210609-25-ibtzby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of: Building Better Schools with Evidence-based Policy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405258/original/file-20210609-25-ibtzby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405258/original/file-20210609-25-ibtzby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405258/original/file-20210609-25-ibtzby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405258/original/file-20210609-25-ibtzby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405258/original/file-20210609-25-ibtzby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405258/original/file-20210609-25-ibtzby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405258/original/file-20210609-25-ibtzby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.routledge.com/Building-Better-Schools-with-Evidence-based-Policy-Adaptable-Policy-for/Allen-Reupert-Oades/p/book/9780367458898">Routledge</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The book is meant to be a free guide for teachers who may want to read the evidence on their topic of need. The policy templates are not prescriptive. The editors encourage users of the book to consider and adapt the policies to suit their unique school context, priorities and culture. </p>
<p>Topics such as “superdiversity” and “declaring a climate emergency” are only only a small selection of the 35 other topics in the book. Themes range from student participation in physical activity to well-being, excellence in Indigenous education and offering feedback for learning. </p>
<h2>Teachers can say ‘boys and girls’</h2>
<p>The book includes a chapter on transgender and non-binary students. This is where the criticism of being “told not to use phrases like girls and boys” come from.</p>
<p>The chapter suggests schools consider the language they use in the classroom to support inclusion. </p>
<p>The part about boys and girls more specifically asks that “staff should not divide students by gender for class activities, sports, subjects, lining up, et cetera” or address students as “girls and boys” if they want to create an inclusive environment specifically for students whose gender is not described by the binary categories of boy or girl. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/9-in-10-lgbtq-students-say-they-hear-homophobic-language-at-school-and-1-in-3-hear-it-almost-every-day-160356">9 in 10 LGBTQ+ students say they hear homophobic language at school, and 1 in 3 hear it almost every day</a>
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<p>Recommendations to use gender inclusive language, particularly when pronouns are not known, is not new and is endorsed by several international bodies. The <a href="https://www.apa.org/apags/governance/subcommittees/supporting-diverse-students.pdf">American Psychological Society</a> advises terminology like “everyone”, “students”, “children” are useful alternatives to addressing class groups as “boys and girls” to ensure students are affirmed and aren’t misgendered. </p>
<p>Another critical <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6257185499001?fbclid=IwAR2SDMpvsrEIFoyIXsFjRCTxB6HxkPdamNIi7OpIk88G20NF7v2cL-219Gc">interview on Sky News with Mark Latham circled around</a> the term “superdiversity”. This refers to the array of differences that make up the population and acknowledges how the individual aspects that create diversity can interact with each other. </p>
<p>It comes from a <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003025955-39/raising-awareness-understanding-superdiversity-classroom-nicholas-gamble-david-bright-ruth-fielding?context=ubx&refId=24ce7878-813c-4949-8beb-40a9d86e993d">chapter</a> which responds to the increasing diversity seen in classrooms such as “disability, cognitive skills, gender/sexuality, and religious affiliation”. Diversity may also include “personality, interests, socioeconomic status, individual needs, and a wide range of other variables”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405534/original/file-20210610-40167-cnrxex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C224%2C5355%2C3318&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A diverse group of kids." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405534/original/file-20210610-40167-cnrxex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C224%2C5355%2C3318&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405534/original/file-20210610-40167-cnrxex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405534/original/file-20210610-40167-cnrxex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405534/original/file-20210610-40167-cnrxex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405534/original/file-20210610-40167-cnrxex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405534/original/file-20210610-40167-cnrxex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405534/original/file-20210610-40167-cnrxex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Superdiversity acknowledges everyone’s differences and strengths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-multicultural-children-hanging-out-friends-1712657470">Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The Daily Telegraph article suggested the book tells “teachers to stop using phrases such as English as a second language”. But the advice comes from one of several considerations for inclusive practice such as avoiding terms “which place students’ knowledge in a deficit manner”. </p>
<p>For instance, the term “ESL student” may not be problematic it itself, but the way it is used can be inaccurate for some students who speak multiple languages. This finding is <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789812874528">drawn from a study</a> of young students with various bilingual identities in Australia.</p>
<p>The message is that “each child has a range of personal characteristics that need to be considered in all aspects of school life”. </p>
<h2>A climate emergency</h2>
<p>Another of the book’s chapters outlines “why and how a school might go about declaring a climate emergency policy”. This is based on a <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/">scientific consensus</a> of a warming climate linked to human activities. For instance, the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)‘s</a> landmark <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">Special Report on Climate Change</a> warns of catastrophic climate change consequences by 2030 if we can’t limit warming to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels. </p>
<p>The policy also supports the <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change/">UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 13</a>, to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ever-wondered-what-our-curriculum-teaches-kids-about-climate-change-the-answer-is-not-much-123272">Ever wondered what our curriculum teaches kids about climate change? The answer is 'not much'</a>
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<p>As the chapter suggests, teachers and students should “play their part in responding to this global declaration of a climate emergency”. </p>
<h2>What evidence we used</h2>
<p>In the Sky News interview, Mark Latham claimed the book has “very little evidence”.</p>
<p>Each policy has been authored or co-authored by researchers who are considered leading authorities on the topic. They include Laureate Professors John Hattie (expert in feedback for learning) and Marilyn Fleer (play in schools), Distinguished Professor Neil Selwyn (digital technologies) and Professor Andrew Martin (instruction to reduce cognitive load).</p>
<p>While the Sky News interview talked about identity politics and a left agenda, several policy recommendations in the book have been endorsed by the people levelling criticism against the book. For instance, the chapter on <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003025955-16/reading-instruction-support-pamela-snow-kate-de-bruin-linda-graham?context=ubx&refId=f9da92a7-24bf-4987-a88b-9308ae556221">reading instruction</a> by Professor Pamela Snow, Kate de Bruin and Linda Graham, endorses <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-every-child-needs-explicit-phonics-instruction-to-learn-to-read-125065">using systematic phonics</a> instruction — which<a href="https://twitter.com/RealMarkLatham/status/1335676925407186945?s=20"> Mark Latham supports</a>.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-have-the-evidence-for-what-works-in-schools-but-that-doesnt-mean-everyone-uses-it-160712">We have the evidence for what works in schools, but that doesn't mean everyone uses it</a>
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<p>Each contributor was also asked to rate the evidence they used to support or inform the policy, and provide transparency. They rated the evidence in terms of impact (and potential impact), how it can be generalised and the ease with which each policy can be implemented. These ratings are provided in the book.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1402480785140056074"}"></div></p>
<p>Each policy has been also reviewed by those considered its ultimate users, including parents and teachers. </p>
<p>This book does not seek to impose any specific ideological point of view into education systems. There is <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01411920902919257">a known gap between research and practice</a>. The book aims to fill that gap, providing the evidence straight to teachers as and when they might need it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly-Ann Allen co-edited the book discussed in the article.</span></em></p>A recently released schools policy guide has been receiving some criticism. Reports suggest it instructs teachers to not use terms like “boys and girls”, for instance. This is not entirely correct.Kelly-Ann Allen, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1447172020-08-27T17:16:15Z2020-08-27T17:16:15ZAlberta’s COVID-19 back-to-school plans lack transparency<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354459/original/file-20200824-16-jo3djm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C13%2C2991%2C1553&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parents and the public are in the dark about how Alberta developed its back-to-school plan. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not yet clear how <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-schools-safe-covid19-1.5700424">the federal government’s Aug. 26 announcement of allotting $2 billion</a> to support safe school openings will change provinces’ existing plans. With many schools poised to start soon, some leaders across Canada have been struggling to convince a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7262854/coronavirus-canada-teachers-going-back-to-school/">skeptical public that reopening schools is safe</a>. </p>
<p>Alberta, with <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/alberta-has-most-active-covid-cases-per-capita-as-some-provinces-see-infections-spike-after-reopening-1.5028824">the highest per capita active case rate in the country</a>, is a case in point. </p>
<p>Premier Jason Kenney and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange are trying to convince Albertans that schools should reopen under near-normal conditions, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/lagrange-says-ndp-s-alternative-school-re-entry-plan-attempts-to-discredit-hinshaw-1.5668262">insisting that the recommendations of Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, are being followed</a>. </p>
<p>While the province has put <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/k-to-12-school-re-entry-2020-21-school-year.aspx">enhanced hygiene measures in place, including masks for students Grade 4 and up where social distancing isn’t possible</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/explaining-alberta-school-funding-1.5696222">per student funding is actually down from pre-pandemic levels</a>. </p>
<p>No provincial <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/back-to-school-covid-alberta-faq-1.5683773">funding has been provided to reduce class size</a>. According the most recent estimates, in some schools, classes can be as large as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-class-size-data-2020-covid-19-back-to-school-1.5682575">more than 30 students</a>, <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/day-1-classes-sizes-are-way-over-provincial-guidelines">particularly in high school.</a> The <em>Calgary Herald</em> reported LaGrange said officials are “reviewing the program details” of <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/alberta-to-receive-about-260m-from-feds-for-school-re-entry">Canada’s recent announcement of $262 million to Alberta</a>. However the province allocates these funds, more disclosure about priorities and decisions is warranted.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/under-the-guise-of-coronavirus-response-alberta-justifies-education-cuts-135807">Under the guise of coronavirus response, Alberta justifies education cuts</a>
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<p>If the province is making data-driven decisions informed by expert advice, then the data and consultative process backing choices should be made transparent. If science, realism and high-quality problem-solving are at hand, people will probably trust decision-making more; research indicates that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/05/5-key-findings-about-public-trust-in-scientists-in-the-u-s/">the public has greater trust in data that can be openly accessed and is vetted by independent review</a>. </p>
<h2>Vague reference to ‘partners’</h2>
<p>Perhaps not surprisingly, <a href="https://leger360.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Legers-Weekly-Survey-August-17th-2020.pdf">72 per cent of Alberta parents are worried about children returning to school, and up to 48 per cent say they will keep their children at home rather than risk infection</a>, according to a web survey conducted by polling and marketing research firm Leger. The survey was conducted with a representative sample of 1,510 Canadians.</p>
<p>Right now, the public has been given little information on the science being used to shape provincial policy, other <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-edmonton-deena-hinshaw-covid-19-coronavirus-coronavirus-1.5693663">than summaries of general information</a>. The province has released limited information about international school <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-deena-hinshaw-covid-19-coronavirus-1.5690713">reopenings held up as successful (Sweden)</a> and no epidemiological modelling. Alberta officials have also failed to explain how and why some studies that might appear to call into question current recommendations are apparently discounted — such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/20/children-coronavirus-spread-transmission/">recent research indicating children may be more active COVID-19 spreaders than previously believed</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
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<p>And although LaGrange has suggested she is in dialogue with “<a href="https://rdnewsnow.com/2020/08/21/lagrange-says-province-wont-delay-school-start-date-boards-can-set-their-own/">education partners</a>” and on Aug. 19 she <a href="https://twitter.com/AdrianaLaGrange/status/1296212833558867968">publicized a meeting with the Alberta Teachers Association</a> (ATA), no named advisory committee appears to be guiding the reopening, despite <a href="https://www.teachers.ab.ca/News%20Room/Issues/COVID-19/2020-School-Re-entry/Pages/Statement-on-Alberta-Education%e2%80%99s-School-Re-entry-Plan-%e2%80%93-August-4%2c-2020.aspx">calls for such a body by the ATA</a> at the beginning of August.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1297959605289459712"}"></div></p>
<h2>Disclose models, expertise</h2>
<p>LaGrange should disclose the epidemiological models used to anticipate consequences of both the current reopening plan and several alternatives, so they can be accurately compared. </p>
<p>The public has the right to hear how Alberta’s plan incorporates up-to-date data, verified by districts, about realities in schools. These include factors like class and room sizes; data on which mitigation measures such as <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/bigger-class-could-mean-up-to-five-times-the-covid-19-infections-canadian-study-suggests">smaller class size</a>, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/analysis-ventilation-should-be-part-of-the-conversation-on-school-reopening-why-isnt-it">better ventilation</a> or <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/08/10/plan-to-reopen-schools-based-on-flawed-data.html">medical-grade PPE for teachers</a> could help stem viral spread and their costs. Where good data about the consequences of reopening don’t yet exist, there should be transparency, too.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-politics-behind-how-governments-control-coronavirus-data-139263">The politics behind how governments control coronavirus data</a>
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<p>We should also know what experts have been consulted, what concerns, ideas and recommendations they generated and how these were addressed and evaluated. </p>
<p>These times require out-of-the box thinking to consider solutions ranging from <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/08/11/for-back-to-school-in-the-covid-era-lets-get-school-outside.html">outdoor schooling</a> to <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/ndp-teachers-renew-call-for-smaller-class-sizes-as-province-records-three-more-covid-19-deaths">using surplus community space</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/03/27/a-broad-strategy-for-schools-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/">changing the number of hours of in-person instruction</a> — but if leaders don’t investigate innovative solutions, they’re unlikely to find them. </p>
<p>If no one but the chief medical officer was consulted, then it is high time this happens, even if it means <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-shifting-phased-in-school-restart-1.5682294">postponing the first day of school, as British Columbia is doing</a>.</p>
<h2>Transparency and trust</h2>
<p>Transparency about data and expert recommendations are vital to an informed public. Transparency allows discussion and critique, and allows concrete conversation about risks the public is being asked to accept. </p>
<p>What is the prospect that children, family members or teachers will be hospitalized or die? What are best- and worst-case scenarios in terms of resultant casualties and community spread? The public should know what risks or potential costs everyone is being asked to bear.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A child sitting in front of a computer and working with a pencil and paper" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354466/original/file-20200824-18-hxktyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354466/original/file-20200824-18-hxktyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354466/original/file-20200824-18-hxktyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354466/original/file-20200824-18-hxktyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354466/original/file-20200824-18-hxktyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354466/original/file-20200824-18-hxktyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354466/original/file-20200824-18-hxktyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Premier Jason Kenney has released few details about back-to-school plans, while emphasizing parent choice. In this photo, Jillian Reid, 9, works at home in Cremona, Alta., in March 2020, after schools closed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Transparency also allows parents to make informed choices and to develop a sense of confidence in how decisions are made not only now, but going forward.</p>
<p>Israel, for example, failed to reduce class size and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/middleeast/coronavirus-israel-schools-reopen.html">saw an outbreak at a high school</a> when schools reopened that infected hundreds. There were instructions for mask-wearing by students in Grade 4 and older, open windows, frequent hand washing and physically distancing students when possible. But with up to 38 children in classrooms, physical distancing was impossible, and under a heat wave, officials permitted windows closed for air conditioning and allowed a mask-wearing exemption. Are similar outcomes or decisions possible in Alberta?</p>
<p>So far, parents have been told only to expect <a href="https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/alberta-plans-to-reopen-schools-in-fall-covid-19-cases-still-increasing">some cases in reopened schools</a>.</p>
<p>Transparency also matters as it allows people to evaluate whether plans address and fund ethical requirements pertaining to school staff: adequate provisions so reopenings work logistically, adequate protection that ensures reopenings are maximally safe and adequate compensation for staff who are assuming risks.</p>
<h2>Unanswered questions</h2>
<p>We need answers to questions such as: How much does teachers’ risk increase in classrooms where social distancing cannot be maintained? Given risks, is <a href="https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2020/04/coronavirus_schools_hazard_pay.html">hazard pay in order for school staff</a>? If it isn’t — hopefully because projected risks are low — then how about a provincial payout for those who may nonetheless suffer serious illness or death in conjunction with a COVID-19 school outbreak? </p>
<p>That seems only fair and could contribute to confidence in what to expect.</p>
<p>In the end, transparency allows us to hold leadership accountable. Politicians and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-response-failure-leadership.html">scientists can be wrong</a>. If the public knows what the province’s projections are and accepts them, then it can be prepared for predicted bumps without losing trust in leadership. If the models turn out to be inaccurate or ethically unacceptable, the public deserves a change in course.</p>
<p>If requests for transparency go unanswered, Albertans must assume either that the scientific expertise behind decisions to open schools is inadequate, or that the education minister is failing to base her decisions on scientific expertise. Neither option is acceptable with so many lives at stake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maren Aukerman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Vague references don’t cut it. The public deserves to know exactly how Alberta is relying on science, realism and high-quality problem-solving in its back to school plans during COVID-19.Maren Aukerman, Werklund Research Professor of Education, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1442812020-08-18T01:44:36Z2020-08-18T01:44:36ZCanada doesn’t fully fund its private primary schools, and Australia shouldn’t either<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352914/original/file-20200814-20-16fyjqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-canadian-elementary-school-building-flagpole-65329756">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The former NSW education minister and now head of the UNSW Gonski Institute, Adrian Piccoli, suggested in recent days Australian governments should fully fund <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/governments-should-fully-fund-private-primary-schools-says-piccoli-20200810-p55kbu.html">all non-government primary schools</a>.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-way-to-fix-the-biggest-structural-problem-in-australian-education-20200808-p55jv4.html">opinion piece</a> published by the Sydney Morning Herald, Piccoli wrote this would fix inequality — as long as non-government schools also stopped charging fees and followed the same enrolment and accountability rules as public schools.</p>
<p>He wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This idea is neither new nor radical. Canada has operated this way for decades and find themselves with an education system far more equitable and much higher performing than Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a researcher with expertise on the Canadian education system, I think there are several aspects of this claim worth clarifying and examining more closely.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1293098574960447488"}"></div></p>
<h2>Canada doesn’t fully fund private schools</h2>
<p>It’s important to note there is no such thing as “Canadian” education. In Canada, under the terms of the constitution, each province holds the jurisdiction and autonomy to set their own educational policies. So, there is no overarching ministry or agency at the federal level, meaning education policy remains highly decentralised. </p>
<p>Canada remains an outlier, globally, as it does not grant any central body control over education across the country — which comes as a surprise to many.</p>
<p>Funding remains quite complex in all jurisdictions (try to understand how <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gonski-anyway-13599">funding formulas work even in Australia</a>!). But to the second point, in Canada, only some (five) of the ten provinces provide partial funding to private schools while in three of the provinces (Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan) <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-primary-private-schools-should-be-fully-funded-by-governments-but-banned-from-charging-fees-131753">Catholic schools are fully funded</a> as part of a separate, but also public, school system.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-primary-private-schools-should-be-fully-funded-by-governments-but-banned-from-charging-fees-131753">Australian primary private schools should be fully funded by governments — but banned from charging fees</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, in British Columbia a tiered system <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-private-school-funding-explainer-1.5043035">allows some private schools</a> to receive <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/program-management/independent-schools/funding">up to 50% funding</a> from the government, while <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-october-29-2017-1.4374949/are-quebec-s-private-high-schools-creating-a-segregated-society-1.4374965">in Quebec</a> such <a href="http://behindthenumbers.ca/2020/02/03/quebecs-sadly-distinct-education-system/">funding can top out at 60%</a> .</p>
<p>In Ontario, where I teach, private schools receive no government funding. It should also be noted that, overall, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181102/dq181102c-eng.htm">well over 90% of all students</a> across Canada attend public schools. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fewer-students-are-going-to-public-secondary-schools-in-australia-79425">Fewer students are going to public secondary schools in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There’s no such thing as a ‘Canadian’ education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/caucasian-children-superhero-cotumes-masks-holding-1362995111">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In short then, Canada as a whole does not provide significant taxpayer dollars to support private schools.</p>
<p>In effect, the idea being put forward — that all primary private schools should be publicly funded and required to abide by certain policies, rules and accountability measures — is essentially the idea of enhancing school choice through something akin to charter schools, which have emerged in Canada and many other countries. </p>
<h2>Charter schools in Canada</h2>
<p>Charter schools can be best understood as a hybrid of public and private schools. </p>
<p>Though they vary by name and context, the idea of charter schools is to allow <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/30/18076968/charter-schools">private educational providers</a> the opportunity to secure public funding for their schools. In the United States, where charter schools have proliferated, charters can also be run as <a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-exploit-lucrative-loophole-that-would-be-easy-to-close-111792">for-profit entities</a>.</p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434?">only one province</a>, Alberta, allows for charter schools to exist. These schools are fully funded by the government and as such, must abide by the rules and policies set out by the government. </p>
<p>Currently, there are just 13 schools operating, but recent legislation is set <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/parents-educators-worry-ucps-amended-education-act-creates-inequity-in-public-system">for them to expand</a>. Alberta’s charter schools include a school for children who are “<a href="https://www.newhorizons.ca/about/">academically gifted</a>,” <a href="https://indspire.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/MECCS-Final.pdf">an Indigenous school</a> and a school <a href="http://esl-almadina.com/about/about-us/">for children learning English</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While Canada has received its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40708421">fair share of accolades</a> in recent years — such as appearing in the top ten countries for reading, maths and science in recent PISA tests – such assertions are often based strictly on measures such as <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA2018_CN_CAN.pdf">standardised testing</a>. Nevertheless, these findings highlight strong outcomes in both educational quality and equity in a country <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10665684.2015.991162?journalCode=ueee20">which maintains</a> a robust K-12 public education system.</p>
<p>While there are gaps and room for improvement across all levels and systems, public education remains a public good which is intended to serve the needs of all. Funding for private forms of education and the false promises of “school choices” are often <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/431184?mobileUi=0&">misguided efforts</a> which actually continue to drive educational inequalities and inequities.</p>
<p>There is no one-size-fits-all approach to educational success and no silver bullet to enacting effective educational reform. But supporting local, universal and accessible public schools still provides the best opportunity to meet the needs of all students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Mindzak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A former education minister recently suggested Australian governments fully fund private primary schools, like Canada does. But a Canadian educational researcher says this isn’t accurate.Michael Mindzak, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1326372020-02-27T22:14:13Z2020-02-27T22:14:13ZVideo of 6-year-old girl’s arrest shows the perils of putting police in primary schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317632/original/file-20200227-24680-1goeorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Orlando police officer Dennis Turner leads a 6-year-old girl away in handcuffs after her arrest for kicking and punching staff at her school.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Child-Arrested-Florida/9b3990e730b542fdae409707fad16c0b/1/0">Orlando Police Department/Orlando Sentinel via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When states like Florida <a href="https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/explaining-floridas-new-school-safety-law/">pass laws</a> to put more police officers in schools, the idea is to keep kids safe.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-dennis-turner-kaia-rolle-opd-investigation-20200226-tzflezycdnfpvjlu74lqwaltva-story.html">recent release of body camera footage</a> from the arrest of a 6-year-old in a Florida school, however, shows that sometimes one threat to the students is the officers themselves.</p>
<p>The video shows two police officers placing a 6-year-old student in restraints and removing her from the school, all while the student cries and begs to be released. One of the officers goes on to brag about how many people he has arrested and to refer to the student’s arrest as setting a “new record” for his youngest arrest.</p>
<p>As it turns out, this was one of two 6-year-olds arrested by the officer at school that day. </p>
<p>Instead of being protected, these very young students were <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-ne-child-arrests-prompt-response-outrage-20190923-q7jghgig3ngtblxcl4aeou5evy-story.html">restrained and arrested</a>. Each one faced <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-ne-child-arrests-prompt-response-outrage-20190923-q7jghgig3ngtblxcl4aeou5evy-story.html">misdemeanor battery charges</a> as a result of behavioral outbursts at school, including the student in the video who <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/florida-police-officer-arrested-handcuffed-150825644.html">kicked a school staffer</a>.</p>
<p>While the arrests of the two elementary students in Orlando are not everyday occurrences, they do reflect a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40894-015-0006-8">body of research</a> that suggests cops in schools – they are formally known as school resource officers, or SROs – can take what would otherwise be a routine school disciplinary situation and escalate it to a whole different level.</p>
<p>I base that assertion on my work as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MTcxlxMAAAAJ&hl=en">researcher</a> who has studied school discipline, school safety and the role of school resource officers in elementary schools.</p>
<p>My work sheds light on the potential unintended consequences of school resource officers – as well as ways that school leaders can prevent situations like the arrests that unfolded in Orlando.</p>
<h2>A growing presence</h2>
<p>School resource officers, who are sworn officers with full arrest powers, are increasingly common in primary schools. Between 2005 and 2015, the percentage of primary schools with school resource officers <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018036.pdf">increased 64%</a>. Now, nearly one in three elementary schools has one of these officers at least part-time.</p>
<p>This trend is set to continue as states like <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=1000-1099/1006/Sections/1006.12.html">Florida</a> and <a href="http://www.ciclt.net/sn/leg/l_detail2.aspx?ClientCode=mdcounties&L_ID=1655419&L_State=md&L_Session=2018&L_Prior=2017">Maryland</a> passed legislation in 2018 to increase the presence of police in schools.</p>
<h2>Response to student behavior</h2>
<p>Certainly, elementary schools must occasionally deal with violent behavior. In fact, my colleagues and I have found that as many as 12% of teachers <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15388220.2017.1368394">experience threats of or actual physical attacks from students</a> each year. Indeed, in the case in Orlando, one of the six-year-olds was arrested in part for <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/florida-police-officer-arrested-handcuffed-150825644.html">kicking a staff member during an outburst</a>.</p>
<p>What’s increasingly changing, however, is how schools respond to these violent incidents. The presence of police in schools has been shown to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pam.21954">increase the likelihood that students are arrested</a> for school misconduct. For example, prior research has found that police agencies that get funding for school police <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pam.21954">increase arrests</a> of youth under age 15 by as much as 21%. </p>
<p>This may be because the presence of police can <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Homeroom_Security.html?id=BzacO6Vl1tQC">shift the mindset of schools</a> to one that is more about punishment than it is about teaching students why their behavior is wrong and what they can do to make amends.</p>
<p>It may also be that the presence of a police officer in schools shifts educators’ perspectives on who is responsible for student behavior. As seen in the body camera footage, school personnel appear uncomfortable with the arrest of the student. Yet, they also defer to the decision of the police officer to arrest the student. In other words, they have yielded responsibility for responding to a 6-year-old student’s behavior to law enforcement rather than viewing this responsibility as their own.</p>
<p>In work my colleagues and I have done, we have found that even when school district policy specifies that school resource officers should not be involved in discipline, many of the officers interpret this policy differently. For example, school resource officers may use their proximity to deter misbehavior, may pull misbehaving students aside to talk or may be present while school personnel interrogate or search students.</p>
<p>School officials have a <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec01/vol59/num04/The-Right-to-Search-Students.aspx">lower standard to justify a search</a> than law enforcement. Similarly, school officials can interrogate students without providing a <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ky-supreme-court/1629318.html">Miranda warning</a> – the legally required notice of the right to remain silent or have legal counsel that police must give when they have someone in custody. So, if officers are present during interrogations or searches in schools, it could enable them to bypass legal protections that exist outside of schools.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294238/original/file-20190925-51438-1pyb1t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294238/original/file-20190925-51438-1pyb1t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294238/original/file-20190925-51438-1pyb1t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294238/original/file-20190925-51438-1pyb1t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294238/original/file-20190925-51438-1pyb1t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294238/original/file-20190925-51438-1pyb1t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294238/original/file-20190925-51438-1pyb1t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A school police officer stands watch as students eat lunch at a school in Ohio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sidney-oh-october-6-2014-security-1231697209?src=6oqAK3MgGXFwyuOzrFxlUw-1-1">Kate Way/Shuttterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>School resource officers are trained primarily as law enforcement agents. It should, therefore, be little surprise that they sometimes <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2CR8E5daVIVbzqwAYgh2/full?target=10.1080/15388220.2019.1604377">default to responses like arrest</a>.</p>
<h2>Keeping school police in check</h2>
<p>Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-ne-child-arrests-prompt-response-outrage-20190923-q7jghgig3ngtblxcl4aeou5evy-story.html">declined to prosecute</a> the students arrested in Orlando. She said she refuses to “knowingly play any role in the school-to-prison pipeline.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294439/original/file-20190926-51438-hbbnnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294439/original/file-20190926-51438-hbbnnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294439/original/file-20190926-51438-hbbnnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294439/original/file-20190926-51438-hbbnnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294439/original/file-20190926-51438-hbbnnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294439/original/file-20190926-51438-hbbnnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294439/original/file-20190926-51438-hbbnnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294439/original/file-20190926-51438-hbbnnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala speaks at a news conference Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, in Orlando, Florida. She confirmed that her office would not prosecute two 6-year-old students that were arrested by an Orlando police officer .</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Tantrum-Arrest/8dd5891b42a84a16a9f9f99084a78ba8/2/0">AP Photo/John Raoux</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The local police agency has <a href="https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2019/09/23/outrage-sparked-over-sro-arrests-of-6-and-8-year-old">fired the officer</a> involved, citing violation of their policy requiring supervisor approval of arrests of children below 12 years of age. As it turns out, of the two arrests that day, only one was phoned into a superior, and this superior has <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-dennis-turner-kaia-rolle-opd-investigation-20200226-tzflezycdnfpvjlu74lqwaltva-story.html">admitted being unaware of the requirement that he forward it to his supervisors</a>.</p>
<p>While these actions demonstrate a commitment by state and local leaders to avoid repeats of this incident, there are other ways that schools can prevent student misconduct from ever reaching the point of an arrest.</p>
<p>The work my colleagues and I have done suggests that schools and law enforcement agencies should have clear, mutually agreed upon guidelines for when school resource officers become involved in student misbehavior. </p>
<p>In interviews with school resource officers, we find that many are responsive to district policy that prohibits involvement in discipline. Yet, nationally, around <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018107.pdf">half of schools</a> with school resource officers do not include language around school discipline or arrests in formal agreements with law enforcement. Based on our research, we conclude that school resource officers should only get involved in cases of very serious legal violations such as a weapon or acts or threats of violence and should take into consideration the age of students involved and circumstances of the situation.</p>
<h2>Educators need training</h2>
<p>We have found that many times, a school resource officer’s involvement in student discipline comes as a result of pressure from teachers and administrators to be involved. For example, in our ongoing interviews with school resource officers and school personnel, we encounter a number of principals and teachers who specifically ask the school resource officer to lecture students on misconduct, be present for disciplinary hearings, and, in some cases, go to a classroom to handle a defiant student instead of leaving that work to the principal.</p>
<p>Instead of asking school resource officers to help out with matters of discipline, in my view, teachers and school administrators should be given training and resources that equip them to respond to student misconduct without relying on school police. In a <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/discipline-reform-through-the-eyes-of-teachers">recent national report</a>, almost 50% of teachers reported having to put up with misbehavior due to a lack of administrative support. Only 6% of teachers thought schools should hire additional police to help with student behavior. Instead, they preferred that resources be put to additional mental health professionals, teaching assistants and social workers.</p>
<p>Similarly, school resource officers should be given training that emphasizes the developmental stages of students and how to respond to student misconduct. As others have noted, training for school resource officers is <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-resource-officers-can-prevent-tragedies-but-training-is-key-93778">often limited and varies in length and quality across districts</a>. Nationally, 93% of school resource officers <a href="https://www.edweek.org/media/school-resource-officer-survey-copyright-education-week.pdf">report</a> training for active shooters. However, only about one third report training in child trauma or the teenage brain.</p>
<p>It is critical to keep students safe in school. That said, districts should carefully consider whether police should be in schools and, if present, what role they should play in student misconduct.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/arrests-of-6-year-olds-shows-the-perils-of-putting-police-in-primary-schools-124229">article</a> originally published on September 27, 2019.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>F. Chris Curran has received funding from the National Institute of Justice for research examining SROs.</span></em></p>Newly-released body camera footage shows an Orlando police officer taking a 6-year-old girl away in handcuffs. A school safety expert explains the potential pitfalls of police in primary schools.F. Chris Curran, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1283462020-01-10T13:47:31Z2020-01-10T13:47:31ZThe made-up crisis behind the state takeover of Houston’s public schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309313/original/file-20200109-80169-qbkat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The State of Texas is in a legal battle to seize power from the Houston public school board.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/meeting-room-professional-microphone-on-table-1352919743">Eakrin Rasadonyindee/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If the state of Texas had its way, the state would be in the process of <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/11/08/houston-state-takeover-teachers-students/">taking over</a> the Houston Independent School District.</p>
<p>But a judge <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/01/08/texas-education-agency-takeover-attempt-houston-isd-halted-judge/">temporarily blocked</a> the takeover on Jan. 8, with the issue now set to be decided at a trial in June.</p>
<p>The ruling temporarily spares Houston’s public school system from joining a list of over 100 school districts in the nation that have experienced similar <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/takeover-9780190678975?cc=us&lang=en&">state takeovers</a> during the past 30 years.</p>
<p>The list includes New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, Oakland and Newark. Houston is the largest school district in Texas and the <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2019/comm/largest-school-districts.html">seventh largest</a> in the U.S.</p>
<p>While the state of Texas <a href="https://abc13.com/5124229/">claims</a> the planned takeover is about school improvement, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/takeover-9780190678975?cc=us&lang=en&">my research on state takeovers</a> of school districts suggests that the Houston takeover, like others, is influenced by racism and political power.</p>
<h2>States fail to deliver</h2>
<p>State governments have used takeovers since the late 1980s to intervene in school districts they have identified as in need of improvement. While state administrations promise that takeovers will improve school systems, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/takeover-9780190678975?cc=us&lang=en&">30 years of evidence</a> shows that state takeovers do not meet the states’ promised expectations. For instance, a recent report called Michigan’s 15-year management of the Detroit schools a <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/detroit/2019/11/14/report-detroit-schools-emergency-management/">“costly mistake”</a> because the takeover was not able to address the school system’s major challenges, which included adequately funding the school district.</p>
<p>But while the takeovers don’t deliver promised results, as I show in my <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/takeover-9780190678975?cc=us&lang=en&">book</a>, they do have significant negative political and economic consequences for communities, which overwhelmingly are communities of color. These negative consequences often include the removal of locally elected school boards. They also involve decreases in teachers and staff and the loss of local control of schools.</p>
<p>Despite the highly problematic history of state takeovers, states have justified the takeovers on the grounds that the entire school district is in need of improvement. However, this is not the case for the Houston takeover because by the state’s own standards, the Houston school system is not failing.</p>
<h2>Low threshold for state intervention</h2>
<p>Following a 2015 law, <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/84R/billtext/pdf/HB01842F.pdf">HB 1842</a>, the state of Texas was granted authority to take over a school district if a single school in that district fails to meet state education standards for five or more years. The bill was passed by the Republican controlled state legislature with Democratic support. However, Democratic state lawmakers representing Houston argue that the law was a mistake and <a href="https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2018/05/03/283249/state-lawmaker-calls-for-legislature-to-intervene-revise-school-takeover-law/">urged for it to be revised</a>.</p>
<p>Although the state has given the Houston Independent School District a <a href="https://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/2019/08/15/hisds-report-card-92-percent-of-schools-earn-passing-grade-on-state-accountability-system">B rating</a>, it plans to take over the Houston schools because <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/us/houston-texas-schools.html">one school</a>, Wheatley High School, has not met state standards for seven years. According to state law, the state can take over a school district or close a school if it fails to meet standards for five years.</p>
<p>The Houston Independent School District has <a href="https://www.houstonisd.org/achievements">280 schools</a>. The district serves over <a href="https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=48525&dataid=244567&FileName=2018-19_FactsFigures_.pdf">200,000 students</a>. It employs roughly <a href="https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=48525&dataid=244567&FileName=2018-19_FactsFigures_.pdf">12,000 teachers</a>. Wheatley High School serves roughly <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/texas/districts/houston-isd/wheatley-high-school-19252">800 students</a> and has roughly 50 teachers. </p>
<p>So why would a state take over a school district that has earned a B rating from the state? And why base the takeover on the performance of one school that represents fewer than 1% of the district’s student and teaching population?</p>
<p>In order to understand the logic of the planned state takeover of the Houston schools, it pays to understand the important role that schools have played in the social, political and economic development of communities of color. Historically, communities of color have relied on school level politics as an entry point to broader political participation. School level politics may involve issues like ending school segregation, demanding more resources for schools, increasing the numbers of teachers and administrators of color, and participating in school board elections.</p>
<p>The process of gaining political power at the local level – and eventually state level – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7t8s2">often begins at the schools</a>, particularly the school board. For instance, before blacks and <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/d8d4de9a1c8d4e615fe547902d29a3d2/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y">Latinos</a> elect members of their communities to the city councils, the mayor’s office, and state legislatures, they often <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242612106_Race_Gender_and_Descriptive_Representation_An_Exploratory_View_of_Multicultural_Elected_Leadership_in_the_United_States">elect members to the school board first</a>.</p>
<h2>Political representation at stake</h2>
<p>In Texas, communities of color are politically underrepresented. Although blacks, Latinos, and Asians represent nearly 60% of the population in Texas, their political power at the state level is not proportional to their population. Whites make up <a href="https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2019/texas-lawmakers-legislature-demographics/">64%</a> of the state legislature. The Republican Party controls the governorship, state House of Representatives and state Senate, but only <a href="https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2019/texas-lawmakers-legislature-demographics/">4%</a> of all Republican state legislators are of color. Communities of color in Texas have filed lawsuits arguing that they have been prevented from gaining political representation at the state level by Republicans through <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/article/Supreme-Court-hears-arguments-in-Texas-racial-12860526.php">racial gerrymandering</a> and voter identification laws that <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/texas-naacp-v-steen-consolidated-veasey-v-abbott">disenfranchise black and Latino voters</a>.</p>
<p>However, despite years of systematic exclusion of people of color, the political landscape is changing in Texas. Texas is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/08/fascinating-swings-voting-by-state-type-county/">increasingly urbanizing</a> as a result of population growth in the state’s cities. Since urban voters are <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2019-05-14/demographic-shifts-in-cities-and-states-bring-political-changes-too">more likely</a> to vote Democratic, the growth in the urban population may potentially alter political dynamics in the state. Also, while African Americans have solidly identified with the Democratic Party in Texas, Latinos have not. But that, too, is changing. <a href="https://latinodecisions.com/blog/texas-sized-opportunities-part-3b/">Polls</a> show that Latino support for Republican presidential candidates in Texas went from a high of 49% during George W. Bush’s reelection in 2004, to 35% for McCain in 2008, 29% for Romney in 2012, to a low of 18% for Trump in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/12/02/donald-trump-did-not-win-34-of-latino-vote-in-texas-he-won-much-less/">2016</a>.</p>
<p>Houston, as the largest urban center in Texas, is <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-area-Democrats-upset-by-Bonnen-recording-14536869.php">at the forefront of this challenge</a> to the Republican grip of state power in Texas. The Houston schools, in particular, are representative of the state’s demographic and political future. The nine-member Houston school board is reflective of the community it serves. It has four Latinos, three African Americans, one Asian and one white. This, in my view, is what has put the Houston public school system and school board at the forefront of a battle that is really about race and political power.</p>
<p>The Houston public school system is not failing. Rather, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, Education Commissioner Mike Morath and the Republican state legislature are manufacturing an education crisis to prevent people of color in Houston from exercising their citizenship rights and seizing political power.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Domingo Morel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While the state of Texas says it is taking over the Houston school system in the name of school improvement, an expert argues the move is motivated by racism and political power struggles.Domingo Morel, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/976002018-08-20T21:42:57Z2018-08-20T21:42:57ZIt’s time to address the hidden agenda of school dress codes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231179/original/file-20180808-160647-1e0c7jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=578%2C169%2C4019%2C3067&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Girls are often the target of 'moral' dress codes, like no tank tops or 'no bra straps.' </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pan Xiaozhen/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dress code policies have always been prevalent in schools. Normally, what children can and cannot wear in schools is explicitly noted in school policies or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8527.2009.427_7.x">implicitly implied by broader cultural and societal norms</a>.</p>
<p>The issue of the vast and sometimes exhaustive list of dress code policies of what cannot be worn has not had any resolution across localities and countries. </p>
<p>The problem with trying to develop a set of guidelines for school dress code policies is that the implementation or restriction of dress is just not about the clothes that kids wear. Dress code policies are mired in larger contested debates that have to do with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243202238979">gender identity, race and sexuality</a>, reflective of a <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED489340">broader public discourse </a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231181/original/file-20180808-138709-73miaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231181/original/file-20180808-138709-73miaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231181/original/file-20180808-138709-73miaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231181/original/file-20180808-138709-73miaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231181/original/file-20180808-138709-73miaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231181/original/file-20180808-138709-73miaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231181/original/file-20180808-138709-73miaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dress codes can replicate inequality structures and create highly emotional debates in schools</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How school educators and policymakers set parameters of dress in schools creates a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8527.2009.427_7.x">highly emotional and volatile debate</a> with little consensus or resolution. </p>
<p>Most obviously, the nature of many dress code violations <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news%20/uk/home-news/school-boys-skirts-uniform-gender-neutral-a7077701.html">interconnects to issues of gender and sexual identity</a>. The vast majority of cases have targeted girls and <a href="http://www.calgaryjournal.ca/index.php/news/946-local-calgary-school-against-pride">LGBTQ youth</a> on the basis that what one might wear reveals too much — that it’s sexually suggestive, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/no-ban-heart-boobies-bracelets-pennsylvania-schools-article-1.1418664">distracting for other students</a> or <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/catholic-school-students-sent-home-for-displaying-pro-choice-stance/article4180640/h/">offensive</a> to the <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ719240">local and cultural norms</a> of the community.</p>
<h2>Shaming</h2>
<p>Those who are not part of the “norm,” particularly those children whose self-identity goes beyond traditional gender types, <a href="http://www.academia.edu/4044048/The_Uniform_As_Material_As_Symbol_As_Negotiated_Object">are more susceptible</a> to stricter dress code infractions than <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/abstract/title/21355?rskey=BuCZrJ&result=3">those policies that privilege the status quo</a>. Similarly, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0891243202238979">girls have taken the brunt of dress codes</a>. </p>
<p>Tank tops, spaghetti straps, bare shoulders, cleavage or no cleavage, shorts that are too short, midriff, shirts/pants regulations <a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/teens-protest-schools-bra-strap-policy-2018-5">are indicative of the multiple infractions that shame girls</a>. The list is exhaustive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231183/original/file-20180808-138709-ye99nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231183/original/file-20180808-138709-ye99nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231183/original/file-20180808-138709-ye99nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231183/original/file-20180808-138709-ye99nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231183/original/file-20180808-138709-ye99nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231183/original/file-20180808-138709-ye99nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231183/original/file-20180808-138709-ye99nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many dress codes point to the assumption that girls’ bodies should be covered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The infractions for noncompliance exacerbate the shaming of girls’ self-perception of their worth. And yet it points to the basic assumption that girls’ bodies are shameful — something that is to be covered, evaluated or objectified. </p>
<p>And when their bodies are not covered, it supposedly sends a clear message that girls are at fault should something wrongful be done to them; they somehow deserved such a fate. </p>
<p>This narrative, whether intended or not, plays to the broader social movements beyond simply that of dress codes. Dress code policies mask broader issues such as one’s right to their own bodies. </p>
<p>Dress codes minimize the increasing public outcries over sexual harassment and assault that have been made so public with the explosion of the #MeToo movement. Conversations around issues of systemic racism or discrimination are also further cloaked. </p>
<p>Forms of dress may be curtailed in schools when they challenge dominant religious views. When schools or boards ban particular types of religious dress, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878505057427">a clear and real danger of undermining religious minorities exists</a>. They may feel a broader form of systemic discrimination lurking behind this ban. </p>
<h2>Creating inclusive, body-positive dress codes</h2>
<p>If schools are going to remove this shackle of the perpetual dress code wars in schools, let educators and policymakers call it for what it is – a diversion behind the more significant public issues that remain intensely contested and vociferous. </p>
<p>If educators and policymakers are genuinely worried about the safety of their students or the decorum of dress codes, schools could simply follow <a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/illinois-high-school-body-positive-dress-code-2017-8">the steps of one school administrator from Evanston Township High School</a> in Illinois. The high school’s fundamental “rule” mandated that certain body parts must be covered for all students at all times. Specifically, students must wear their clothes in a way that fully covers their genitals, buttocks, breasts and nipples with opaque fabric. </p>
<p>Such a simple yet inevitably provocative dress code policy removes the broader contested aspects of gender, sexual identity, faith or systemic discrimination. </p>
<p>If society is concerned about cultivating students’ attentiveness regarding etiquette and decorum in light of our community values, let’s make space in schools to discuss the root of these issues through meaningful political dialogue rather than using dress codes to obscure and cloak the more pressing and substantive issues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dianne Gereluk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Dress codes in schools can mask a lot of inequality issues around gender, race and religion. Why not go with a simple policy that applies to everyone equally and discuss the underlying issues instead?Dianne Gereluk, Professor and Associate Dean, Undergraduate Programs in Education, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/794252017-06-18T19:51:43Z2017-06-18T19:51:43ZFewer students are going to public secondary schools in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173748/original/file-20170614-21334-173jryx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Australia, around 41% of students go to private secondary schools. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You may have heard recently that public schools in Australia have experienced increased enrolments. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/public-schools-increase-share-of-enrolments-reversing-40-year-trend-20170202-gu42df.html">The Sydney Morning Herald</a> reported that public schools in Australia have increased their share of enrolments, “reversing a forty-year trend”. </p>
<p>A spokesperson from the Australian Bureau of Statistics stated that it was a <a href="http://www.educatoronline.com.au/news/new-school-enrolment-data-revealed-230695.aspx">“reversal of the steady drift”</a> towards private schools.</p>
<p>This is misleading, for two reasons: </p>
<p>First, the overall population in Australia has increased, which has resulted in increased enrolments for many schooling sectors. In total there are 1.28% more students (full-time) enrolled in schools. </p>
<p>Second, while enrolment in public and independent primary schools (excluding Catholic schools) has increased, enrolment in public secondary schools has decreased.</p>
<p>We have one of the highest levels of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/48482894.pdf">private school enrolment within the OECD</a>, and our country also maintains the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2016-en">highest levels of private expenditure</a> towards schools (contributions from households).</p>
<p>It is untrue that there is a reversal of the steady drift if we look at secondary schools. </p>
<p>As the more expensive constituent of schooling, and also the gateway to higher education, it is the secondary school where politics truly come to the fore. </p>
<p>When it comes to debates about funding and privatisation, the secondary school sector is far more entangled in the politics of choice. </p>
<p>When we are told that our public school enrolment is increasing, this may lead you to believe that our public schools are strong and healthy. This disguises the ugly truth that many of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/educational-disadvantage-is-a-huge-problem-in-australia-we-cant-just-carry-on-the-same-74530">public secondary schools are struggling</a>, mainly due to an ongoing stream of policies that have attacked and undermined our public secondary schools. </p>
<h2>By how much as public secondary school enrolments decreased?</h2>
<p>Since 2010, the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Middle-class-School-Choice-in-Urban-Spaces-The-economics-of-public-schooling/Rowe/p/book/9781138120419">public secondary school has decreased</a> its enrolments from 60% to 59.13%.</p>
<p>Since 2010, the average independent school has increased its share of enrolments from 18% to 18.39%. </p>
<p>These changes seem very minor, and when regarded in the context of population increases, are relatively insignificant. </p>
<p>However, when taken with a more <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Middle-class-School-Choice-in-Urban-Spaces-The-economics-of-public-schooling/Rowe/p/book/9781138120419">longitudinal analysis</a>, it is evident that the independent secondary school in Australia has continually bolstered its enrolment share. </p>
<p>The independent secondary school sector has experienced the largest proportional increase in enrolment from 1990 to 2016 (6.39%). </p>
<p>The government (public) school has recorded the largest proportional decrease during this same period (8.87%). </p>
<p>Evidently, there is a consistent pattern of growth within the independent sector and a consistent pattern of decline, in terms of enrolment levels, within the public sector.</p>
<p>It would be simplistic to argue that this is simply a matter of demand, rather than complicated by many other factors including economic, social and cultural shifts. </p>
<p>As education reforms bolstered funding for the private sector, enrolment levels in the private sector increased at a similar rate and time period.</p>
<h2>Encouraging private school choice</h2>
<p>The government has always played a role in encouraging particular consumer choices. This is no different for schooling. </p>
<p>Throughout the 1990s and beyond, public schools were consistently closed or merged across various states and territories. This undoubtedly establishes a sense of instability and volatility for the consumer. </p>
<p>Among the <a href="http://educationaltransformations.com.au/the-future-of-schools-lessons-from-the-reform-of-public-education">reasons cited</a> for these closures was lack of enrolment numbers. Unlike private schools, public schools must consistently prove their economic feasibility. (This reason was strongly <a href="http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=age&kw=richmond+secondary+school&pb=all_ffx&dt=enterRange&dr=1month&sd=1992&ed=1994&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=adv&clsPage=1&docID=news940126_0165_3474">refuted</a> by the <a href="http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=age&kw=protest+and+hayward&pb=all_ffx&dt=enterRange&dr=1month&sd=1992&ed=1996&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=adv&clsPage=1&docID=news931015_0185_1841">public</a>. In Victoria in the 1990s, it was described as <a href="http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=age&kw=protest+and+hayward&pb=all_ffx&dt=enterRange&dr=1month&sd=1992&ed=1996&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=adv&clsPage=1&docID=news930910_0248_0963">“the biggest battle over education in more than a decade”</a>.) </p>
<p>While the overall number of full-time secondary students grew, by 2011 the availability of public schools had declined. </p>
<p>The total percentage of public schools in Australia has decreased by 2%. On the other hand, the percentage of private schools has increased by 1% of the total number of schools. </p>
<p>We tend to widely accept privatisation of our schools. In Australia, the overall proportion of students in private schools is 35% ( but 41% in secondary school). This far outweighs the average OECD country, where 18% is the average number. </p>
<p>Compare this to the US, where approximately 8% of students attend private schools. In Canada, this percentage is even lower (approximately 6%), and lower again in countries such as New Zealand, Finland or Sweden. </p>
<p>We also have one of the highest percentages of private expenditure within the school sector. What this means is that we rely far more on a “user-pays” system than the average OECD country. </p>
<p>This is clearly problematic for those families with less capacity to pay.</p>
<p>This was noted in the <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2016_eag-2016-en">OECD’s Education at a Glance 2016</a> report. When it comes to secondary schooling, for the majority of OECD countries, 90% of expenditure comes from government funds. But this wasn’t the case for Australia, Chile and Columbia, which “rely on over one-fifth of private expenditure at this level”.</p>
<p>While many other OECD countries do fund their private schools, they are also subject to a host of regulations. </p>
<p>When it comes to the funding private schools, Australia is classified as a “high funding and low regulation” country. In comparison to other OECD countries, private schools have little accountability in terms of how they spend their money.</p>
<p>Add to this a dominant cultural narrative around the superiority of private schooling, and you have a disturbing tide of privatisation in our secondary schools. </p>
<p>This tide of privatisation will only further entrench equity gaps for students from families who cannot afford to pay. It will also add to the household burden for those families struggling to pay their private school costs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79425/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Rowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If we look at enrolment figures for public secondary schools, it’s untrue to say the steady drift towards private schools has been reversed.Emma Rowe, Lecturer in the School of Education, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/787532017-06-13T02:34:55Z2017-06-13T02:34:55ZReport sparks concern about how schools support students with disabilities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172386/original/file-20170606-16864-rucegm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students with disabilities are regularly segregated from their peers in the playground, classroom and lessons.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two years ago a South Australian select committee was formed to inquire into the educational experiences of students with disabilities. The committee’s remit was to determine what was working well, and what still needed improving. The <a href="https://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/Committees/Pages/Committees.aspx?CTId=3&CId=320">final report</a> has now been released, complete with 93 recommendations. While some recommendations were expected, others were surprising, and revealed a need for greater transparency from schools.</p>
<p>How schools responded to challenging behaviours was seen as a considerable concern. The report noted that students with disabilities were over-represented in both suspensions and exclusions.</p>
<h2>‘Cage-like’ facilities</h2>
<p>Segregation of students with disabilities was described as a “nuanced phenomenon”, occurring in playgrounds, classrooms, and individual lessons. Some students missed literacy programs with peers in order to be removed for remedial tasks. Others had been left alone for long periods in order for teachers to avoid behavioural confrontations.</p>
<p>Disability units within schools were described by parents as appearing “cage-like”, and even similar to correctional facilities. </p>
<p>Although teachers suggested fencing needed to become more “aesthetically pleasing”, fences and gates were nevertheless positioned as necessary spatial solutions to safety issues. One primary school noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our enclosed areas were created with our student’s safety in mind. We do have several students that are at risk of running away and our school does not have secure boundaries. The safety of our students is paramount and we therefore made the decision to enclose the unit.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Such responses can make behavioural issues worse</h2>
<p>Growing concerns of aversive approaches to behaviour, such as restraint and suspension, are evident. </p>
<p>Although suspension is actually <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=330127019585684;res=IELHSS">detrimental to students</a>, it is often justified, within policy, as being beneficial. </p>
<p>The removal of students with disabilities, who are at increased risk of mental health difficulties, is particularly worrying. Many require <a href="http://www.forsterpsychologist.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/1-s2.0-S1750946715000938-main.pdf">behavioural interventions at an earlier stage</a> as part of a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-psychologists-and-counsellors-in-schools/article/mental-health-and-students-with-disabilities-a-review-of-literature/C7DD0A37C44E61BB14F6DEF8DEA06EA1">coordinated framework of support</a>.</p>
<p>The select committee’s report illustrated that suspension policies were not always used as intended - as a last resort, following a full examination of what occurred. The Guardian of the Office for Children and Young People expressed concern:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The education department does have a policy for children in care that suspensions and exclusions are used only as a last resort. We don’t believe that that is the case. There is certainly evidence in individual situations where suspension and exclusion has been the first response.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s recommended that educational authorities engage better with their stakeholders in order to understand the ramifications of suspension, and to develop better approaches. </p>
<p>When parents are contacted and asked to collect their child from school, clarification is required as to whether this is being used as a method of “informal suspension”.</p>
<h2>Number of suspensions very high</h2>
<p>Although the South Australian public system outlined a “dramatic fall across the board” in relation to suspensions and exclusions, this was not supported by <a href="http://www.educatoronline.com.au/news/alarming-student-suspension-figures-revealed-236897.aspx">recently released data</a>. </p>
<p>Suspensions remain very high, with almost 1,000 students suspended on more than one occasion within a school term in South Australia. </p>
<p>Increased segregation has been positioned as a potential solution, which contrasts with a recommendation put forward by the select committee, suggesting schools adopt positive behaviour approaches, such as Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (<a href="http://www.pbis.org">PBIS</a>). </p>
<p>Another recommendation from the report was for systems to better audit schools’ practices in order to determine compliance and use of aversive behavioural approaches. </p>
<p>Information from audits would be shared externally in order to provide oversight. It has been recommended that the Equal Opportunity Commissioner (or Ombudsman) assume a role in evaluating parental complaints regarding educational access or participation.</p>
<p>A need for transparency was highlighted in discussions on Negotiated Education Reports (NEPs). </p>
<p>These planning documents are typically instrumental in supporting access, participation and student achievement. However, parents viewed them as “static” due to them not being sufficiently updated. </p>
<p>Schools appeared to be struggling to engage with families effectively, at times predetermining NEP outcomes for students rather than entering into genuine negotiation.</p>
<p>One submission highlighted concern that NEPs were used to initiate the removal of a students:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s sometimes documented in the NEP as if it’s an ongoing issue when it’s actually a one-off event. In each state we need to record all behaviour to justify current funding, but then this accumulative behaviour is used to justify why a child is no longer able to attend mainstream school.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s been recommended that parents should be able to check NEP progress online, rather than wait for formal meetings to occur with teachers.</p>
<p>Some recommendations echo those from last year’s <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/students_with_disability/Report/b01">Australian Senate Committee report</a> into access to learning for students with disabilities. In particular, recommendation eight, which advocated for better data collection and publication in a wide range of areas, in order to better illustrate practices and performance of schools. And also recommendation ten, which called for an end to restrictive practices such as restraint in order to sharpen focus on preventative approaches.</p>
<p>Despite these registered concerns, the select committee report highlighted that good practices are indeed occurring in many South Australian schools. Examples were provided of principals who created welcoming environments, developed inclusive cultures, and strongly advocated for open enrolment policies. </p>
<p>However, much work still needs to be done by universities in preparing inclusive teachers, by educational authorities, and by schools. </p>
<p>At a time when Australia is increasingly <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129559751">segregating students with disabilities</a>, it is critically important that good quality inclusive practice becomes normal business for schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78753/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Walker is affiliated with the Australian Association of Special Education.</span></em></p>‘Cage-like’ facilities, segregation, and high numbers of exclusions show the concerning ways schools have responded to challenging behaviours by students with disabilities.Peter Walker, Lecturer in Special Education, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/786692017-06-02T02:01:43Z2017-06-02T02:01:43ZEven for those who believe in ‘the full Gonski’, Labor’s $22 billion figure makes no sense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171936/original/file-20170602-25700-mizves.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor must explain how its additional funding will benefit students.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>School education funding is once again <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/school-funding-557">front and centre</a> of Australian politics. Despite historic bipartisan agreement on the concept of needs-based funding, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/gonski-2.0-a-$22-billion-cut-to-labors-plan-plibersek/8491960">Labor is throwing</a> Gonski 2.0 back in the Coalition’s face.</p>
<p>Labor, backed up by the Australian Education Union, insists that nothing less than “the full Gonski” is worth contemplating. Further, they claim that this requires an extra A$22 billion over the next decade. </p>
<p>Surely more money is a good thing? </p>
<p>Not so fast. Money can’t be spent twice, so funds must be directed where they will have the most impact. Thus, we must analyse why Labor’s plan is so much more expensive than the Coalition’s. Each component can then be considered on its merits.</p>
<p>To save you the trouble, I crunched the numbers. My estimates are necessarily rough, given that the different components cannot always be cleanly separated. But the overall picture is clear. Most of Labor’s extra $22 billion is not directed according to student need, and would have little impact on outcomes.</p>
<h2>Over-funded schools – $2 billion wasted</h2>
<p>Every school has a target level of government funding, called its Schooling Resource Standard (SRS). Under Labor’s plan, the combined Commonwealth and state funding for nearly all schools would reach at least 95% of target by 2019. (A side deal means that Victorian government schools would get there in 2021). </p>
<p>But about 1% of schools already receive well more than their target, costing about $200 million each year. Under Labor’s model, these schools would get funding increases of 3%, per student, per year. </p>
<p>Separately, Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Catholic schools are over-funded to the tune of about $45 million a year, courtesy of a special deal that treats them as comparable to Catholic schools across the nation, despite the fact that they are considerably more advantaged. </p>
<p>Added together, over-funding schools wastes roughly $2-2.5 billion over a decade.</p>
<h2>Indexation is too high – another $2 billion</h2>
<p>Every year, per-student costs go up, largely driven by teacher wages. To account for this, both Labor’s plan and Gonski 2.0 include annual indexation of the SRS target. </p>
<p>The problem with Labor’s plan is that the indexation rate was fixed at 3.6% in the 2013 Education Act. As Grattan Institute’s <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/circuit-breaker/">Circuit Breaker</a> report shows, this rate is now too high given historically low wages growth. </p>
<p>Gonski 2.0 removes the fixed indexation rate in 2021, replacing it with a floating indexation rate that is more in line with school costs.</p>
<p>Compared to this, Labor’s plan costs $2-2.5 billion more over a decade. This is enough to hurt government budgets, but the extra money is spread so thinly that it would have minimal impact on student outcomes. </p>
<p>Better than both parties’ approaches is to apply the floating indexation rate from 2018 or 2019. This would save billions, which could be used to fully fund schools more quickly.</p>
<h2>Sweetheart deals waste at least $2 billion</h2>
<p>Parents who send their kids to non-government schools are expected to pay school fees. Parental capacity to contribute is estimated based on where they live. </p>
<p>Under the current legislation, however, all schools within an education system (for example, Catholic, Anglican or Lutheran schools) are rated as having the same capacity to contribute. This means - for the purposes of calculation - that the parents are treated equally, whether they live in Toorak or Toowoomba.</p>
<p>This “system-weighted average” costs the Commonwealth about $300 million per year. A related quirk in the calculation of capacity to contribute for primary schools adds another $200 million per year. </p>
<p>The main beneficiaries are Catholic primary schools in affluent neighbourhoods, which use the funds to keep their fees artificially low. </p>
<p>Gonski 2.0 removes these sweetheart deals; Labor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">which put them in there in the first place</a>, would keep them. </p>
<p>Catholic school leaders say these features are needed to compensate for flaws in the SES score, and the formula does need to be reviewed. But even if they are half right, Labor is wasting about $2 billion over a decade. </p>
<h2>Labor’s cash splash puts about $2 billion at risk</h2>
<p>Labor back-ended its Gonski funding so heavily that some disadvantaged schools would get huge funding increases in 2018 and 2019. </p>
<p>But much of this money will be wasted if schools chase the same limited pool of resources - speech therapists, instructional leaders etc - without the market having time to adjust. </p>
<p>Delaying by just two years, to 2021, would save about $2 billion, and give schools time to plan how to get the most out of the extra cash. </p>
<p>By contrast, however, the Coalition’s 2027 target is too far away. If Labor wants to invest the extra $7 billion needed to deliver Gonski 2.0 in four years rather than ten, that would be a solid policy argument. Even then, nearly half of this amount could be funded by moving to a floating indexation rate two years sooner. </p>
<h2>Commonwealth generosity is a two-edged sword</h2>
<p>The last component of Labor’s high-cost model is more subtle. Back in 2013, federal Labor offered to pick up the lion’s share of whatever money was needed to get schools to their target. </p>
<p>This generous approach has perverse impacts. Western Australia, which funds its government schools well, gets nothing extra from the Commonwealth. Victoria, which does not, gets rewarded. </p>
<p>By 2027, these differences are stark. Victoria would get a two-thirds boost in its Commonwealth funding (on top of enrolments and indexation), such that its students get 28% of their SRS target from Canberra. WA students are left languishing at a paltry 13%. These huge differences are not driven by student need, but by discrepancies in state funding.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commonwealth government funding as a proportion of SRS, by state, government schools, if Commonwealth picks up 65% of the needs-based funding gap in each state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: Grattan school funding model, based on analysis of data from the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Removing this inequity is a central element of Gonski 2.0: once fully implemented, all government schools will get 20% of their target from the Commonwealth, and all non-government schools 80%.</p>
<p>Labor’s model adds about $8 billion to the Commonwealth’s tab over a decade, money that should be stumped up by states.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>If Labor believes Australian schools need $22 billion more than the Coalition is offering, ambit claims won’t cut it. It must explain how its additional funding will benefit students. And soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.
</span></em></p>Here’s why Labor’s figure for school funding is too high.Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/784552017-05-29T23:43:42Z2017-05-29T23:43:42ZConfused about changes to school funding? Here’s what you need to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171287/original/file-20170529-25198-2woku2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How will policy changes affect schools?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Coalition government <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-02/malcolm-turnbull-announces-schools-funding-boost/8489806">announced their new school funding proposal</a> with a flourish, and a Gonski. </p>
<p>David Gonski was the architect of <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review-of-funding-for-schooling-final-report-dec-2011.pdf">the 2011 needs-based funding model</a> that <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tasmania-signs-up-to-schools-funding-deal-20130709-2pnrb.html">the Labor party hobbled</a>, and which the Liberal party then <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-26/pyne-adamant-gonski-school-funding-needs-overhaul2c-despite-st/5116978">sent right down the gurgler</a>. </p>
<p>So, for many in the education sector, Gonski’s reappearance was both surprising and comforting. Did this mean we were back to a funding model that was apolitical, sector blind and all about a distribution of money based on need?</p>
<p>Well, there is good news and bad news, and then some more bad news.</p>
<h2>More money</h2>
<p><strong>The good news</strong> </p>
<p>It is substantially more money than what the Coalition government currently has allocated for education - 75% more by <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2017-05-02/press-conference-minister-education-and-training-senator-hon-simon-birmingham-and">the Prime Minister’s own reckoning</a>, from A$17.5 billion this year to $30.6 billion by 2027. </p>
<p><strong>The bad news</strong></p>
<p>It’s less money than what some states and systems were promised under the deals done with the Labor government - <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/05/02/gonski-20-school-funding-plan-amounts-22b-cut-plibersek">about $22 billion less</a>. They say they need that promised money to deliver on education programs they have already put in place, and which they argue are already <a href="https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/how-gonski-funding-is-making-a-difference-to-rocky/3151447/">making a real difference to students</a>. </p>
<h2>Fairer and sector blind</h2>
<p><strong>The good news</strong></p>
<p>This funding deal returns to the original Gonski principle of one funding formula for everyone. Each student will attract the same base amount - called the Schooling Resource Standard - of $9,271 per primary school student and $12,193 per high school student.</p>
<p>This is in contrast to the multiple deals done with systems and states back in 2013 as the Labor government tried to get a Gonski take-up around the nation. They gave out lots of money, and promised that everyone would be a winner. This <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">deal-making did not solve the problem</a> of funding inequity between the schooling sectors. Poor schools got more money, but so did rich schools. </p>
<p><strong>The bad news</strong></p>
<p>The federal government inexplicably remains the benevolent benefactor of the private sector. It will fund 80% of the Schooling Resource Standard for private schools students, and only 20% for government school students. It will rely on the goodwill of the states to fund the remaining amounts. So it is only the private schools that are getting an iron-clad guarantee for most of their funding into the future.</p>
<p>Not fair and certainly not sector blind.</p>
<h2>Needs-based</h2>
<p><strong>The good news</strong></p>
<p>The government claims their new funding proposal returns us to the absolute crux of the original Gonski review - it will be truly needs-based. </p>
<p>This means there will be extra loadings for students who need more support to achieve. There will be loadings for low socio-economic status, Indigenous students, students with a disability, students with limited English language proficiency, school size, and regional or remote locations.</p>
<p><strong>The bad news - and this is <em>really</em> bad news</strong></p>
<p>The government has no proposal for the allocation of those loadings. They don’t even know how many students are eligible for those loadings. </p>
<p>As a consequence they have no idea how much money it will cost to fund them. This is why the pundits keep saying “more analysis is needed” before anyone knows how much their school is really going to get, or lose.</p>
<p>Who will be eligible for the disability loadings? </p>
<p>Each state and sector defines disability differently. The government says it will come up with a national definition. But it does not have one yet.</p>
<p>Who will be eligible for the English language loadings? </p>
<p>How “limited” does your English language need to be? How would this be measured? Nobody knows, including the government. </p>
<p>And there is nothing in the budget papers or the Education Acts to indicate that the money will actually be delivered to the students who attract the loadings. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-04/taxpayer-funds-directed-away-from-poor-catholic-schools:-report/8497810">Recent history</a> suggests the money won’t necessarily go to them. <a href="http://insidestory.org.au/what-gonski-really-meant-and-how-thats-been-forgotten-almost-everywhere">States, instead, could just spend the money on the general business of running an education system</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review-of-funding-for-schooling-final-report-dec-2011.pdf">original Gonski report</a> said that it was imperative an independent body, a National Schools Resourcing Body, be set up to answer these questions, and to monitor how those loadings are distributed. </p>
<p>However there is no indication that body will ever be instituted, and without it this funding proposal cannot claim to be needs-based and it will not successfully address educational disadvantage. </p>
<p>Very bad news indeed.</p>
<h2>A new review - Gonski 2.0</h2>
<p><strong>The good news</strong></p>
<p>David Gonski will now conduct a new review - the <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-2-0-is-this-the-school-funding-plan-we-have-been-looking-for-finally-yes-77081">Gonski 2.0 review</a>. </p>
<p>This new review is to decide what good teaching and learning looks like. That’s a little odd as the government already has a body that does that - <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au">the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership</a>.</p>
<p>But fingers crossed he’ll be able to sneak that National Schools Resourcing body back into his recommendations.</p>
<p><strong>The bad news</strong></p>
<p>The expert panel has only until December to come up with an answer that will inevitably start with “It depends…”</p>
<p>They haven’t even decided on the terms of reference yet.</p>
<h2>A suggestion for the panel</h2>
<p>If I could give one suggestion to Gonski’s review panel as they tackle this complicated question, it would be this: ask teachers what is needed to close that achievement gap.</p>
<p>Ken Boston, a member of the Gonski review panel, <a href="http://insidestory.org.au/what-gonski-really-meant-and-how-thats-been-forgotten-almost-everywhere">observed</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We concluded that the issue in low-performing schools is not the quality of teachers in these schools but the magnitude of the task they are facing. These teachers work in the emergency wards of Australian education, yet they lack the battery of specialist support typical of an emergency ward in a hospital. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fact that we never ask teachers at the coal face for their expert input on what works, and what doesn’t, is perhaps the strangest twist of all in this good news, bad news story.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Misty Adoniou works for the University of Canberra. She has received government funding to research spelling, curriculum, and refugee education and orientation. She is on the Board of Directors of TESOL International, a global affiliation of teacher associations. </span></em></p>Here’s what the latest funding proposals mean for schools.Misty Adoniou, Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/771772017-05-09T10:44:08Z2017-05-09T10:44:08ZFederal Budget 2017: what’s changing in education?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168527/original/file-20170509-20729-1ydpp2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most schools will get a boost in funding, while universities will face cuts. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The government is set to save A$2.8 billion over the five years from 2016-17 by reforming the higher education system. This includes a 2.5% efficiency dividend on the Commonwealth Grant Scheme in 2018 and 2019, and a 1.82% annual increase in student contributions to the High Education Loan Program from January 1, 2018 (a 7.5% increase over the forward estimates).</p>
<p>The minimum income to start repaying HELP debt will be lowered to $42,000. The repayment rate will increase with income, from 1% at the minimum threshold to 10% at A$119,882, the maximum threshold.</p>
<p>The government will save $181.2 million over the forward estimates by limiting eligibility for VET student loans to certain courses.</p>
<p>Funding for schools will increase by $18.6 billion over the next decade.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168517/original/file-20170509-20747-icng31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168517/original/file-20170509-20747-icng31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168517/original/file-20170509-20747-icng31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168517/original/file-20170509-20747-icng31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168517/original/file-20170509-20747-icng31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168517/original/file-20170509-20747-icng31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168517/original/file-20170509-20747-icng31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The government promises an additional $18.6 billion in schools funding over the next decade.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>School funding</h2>
<p><em>Louise Watson, Professor of Education at the University of Canberra:</em></p>
<p>By retaining the architecture of the Gonski model and promising funding increases above inflation for the next three years, Malcolm Turnbull has taken Coalition schools funding policy back to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/02/liberal-party-must-be-sensible-centrists-not-reactionary-malcolm-turnbull-says">sensible centre</a>. </p>
<p>To dispel any doubts about the government’s commitment to bipartisanship, David Gonski has been reappointed to advise on fine-tuning the system dubbed <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-2-0-is-this-the-school-funding-plan-we-have-been-looking-for-finally-yes-77081">Gonski 2.0</a>. </p>
<p>In all, 24 schools – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/09/schools-hit-list-revealed-online-tool-shows-gonski-20-winners-and-losers">mainly Independent schools in Canberra and northern Sydney</a> – have been deemed “overfunded” because their income exceeds the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS). Although they can expect <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/sites/education/files/sch/calc/index.html">reductions in funding</a> over the next decade, $40 million is available for “adjustment assistance” to schools experiencing unreasonable hardship in the transition.</p>
<p>The government will give $125 million over five years to private school representative bodies in the states and territories to support “the implementation of the government’s reform agenda”. </p>
<p>Commonwealth capital grants for private schools will increase by 28% to an estimated $182.5 million per year in 2021. </p>
<p>Students considered disadvantaged will attract additional funding. A “location loading” will increase funding over the decade to schools in regional and remote areas by 5% per student per year, compared to the national average of 4.1%. </p>
<p>Funding for Indigenous education and for schools in the Northern Territory will also increase. Pre-school funding will increase by $429.4 million in 2018. New funding rates for students with disability are anticipated in 2018.</p>
<p>The government’s stated aim, in promising an additional $18.6 billion in schools funding over the next decade, is to bring federal funding for government schools to 20% of the SRS and federal funding for private schools to 80% of the SRS by 2027. </p>
<p>The SRS – to which federal recurrent funding is linked – will be increased at a fixed rate of 3.56% per year between 2018 and 2020. Thereafter, the SRS will be adjusted in line with a floating indexation rate that reflects “real changes in costs”. So from 2021, federal schools funding will be influenced by what costs are included in the SRS index and how much they change. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168518/original/file-20170509-20747-xgyk8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168518/original/file-20170509-20747-xgyk8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168518/original/file-20170509-20747-xgyk8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168518/original/file-20170509-20747-xgyk8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168518/original/file-20170509-20747-xgyk8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168518/original/file-20170509-20747-xgyk8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168518/original/file-20170509-20747-xgyk8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students interrupted Simon Birmingham’s speech on planned higher education reforms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Katina Curtis/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>University fees and cuts</h2>
<p><em>Gwilym Croucher, Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne:</em></p>
<p>The government has confirmed the package of changes it <a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-education-reform-small-changes-for-now-but-big-ones-to-come-76978">announced a week ago</a> with significant cuts. Students in particular will pay more, a lot more. </p>
<p>Student contributions will increase by 1.8% each year between 2018 and 2021 for a total 7.5% increase. This means they will pay 46%, instead of 42%, of the cost of their degree on average. </p>
<p>So, for a four-year course, this is an increase in total student fees of between $2,000 and $3,600. The government claims the maximum any student will pay is $50,000 for a four-year course, and $75,000 for a six-year medical course. </p>
<p>Apart from yearly indexation, this fee rise is only one of a few major increases since the ALP reintroduced fees in the late 1980s and will be smaller than the last time.</p>
<p>While few students will welcome the increase, the <a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A15411">evidence</a> from previous fee hikes in Australia is that it will not deter many people from study.</p>
<p>However, when combined with the lower HELP thresholds for repayment and higher repayment rates, the changes may make studying less attractive than in the past, and potentially prohibitive for some students.</p>
<p>Universities too will suffer a direct cut of $384.2 million over two years. This will come in the form of an “efficiency dividend” to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme of 2.5% in 2018 and another 2.5% in 2019. </p>
<p>While no university will go broke from the efficiency dividend, it forms part of a series of cuts. Combined with the changes to how grants are indexed, there is little doubt universities will receive less per student in subsidies in the future, and will have to do more with less.</p>
<p>The package averts the worst cuts from the previous minister’s attempts to deregulate higher education, but offers little in the way of a long-term vision to students or universities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168521/original/file-20170509-20761-h2rg8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168521/original/file-20170509-20761-h2rg8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168521/original/file-20170509-20761-h2rg8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168521/original/file-20170509-20761-h2rg8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168521/original/file-20170509-20761-h2rg8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168521/original/file-20170509-20761-h2rg8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168521/original/file-20170509-20761-h2rg8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students will have to pay back their loan earlier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Miller/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>HELP student loans</h2>
<p><em>Bruce Chapman, Professor of Economics at the Australian National University:</em></p>
<p>Budgets are always contextual and reactions to them will always be relative to alternatives. </p>
<p>The natural comparison of the 2016/17 changes to HECS-HELP is still the extraordinary 2014/15 budget plans of the previous education minister, in which there were to be initial outlay cuts of around 20%, the introduction of a real rate of interest on HELP debts, and the introduction of the facility for universities to charge any fee they chose. If that was a man or woman-eating crocodile, then this budget is a pussy cat.</p>
<p>For HECS-HELP, there is to be an increase in charges introduced over a three-year period, maxing out to 7.5%. This is not a big deal and will not affect student or graduate debt; in effect it will add about a year to how long people have to repay.</p>
<p>More significantly, the first income threshold of payment is to be reduced from the current level of about $55,000 a year to a new and much lower level of $42,000 a year. </p>
<p>But, importantly, the rate of collection of the debt will be cut as well, from 4% to 1% of income. This will mean that the effect on the majority of debtors will be small. </p>
<p>Most affected will be current part-time workers, and the increased obligation essentially means a faster rate of repayment, and not a major impost.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168566/original/file-20170509-10994-11ewi5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168566/original/file-20170509-10994-11ewi5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168566/original/file-20170509-10994-11ewi5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168566/original/file-20170509-10994-11ewi5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168566/original/file-20170509-10994-11ewi5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168566/original/file-20170509-10994-11ewi5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168566/original/file-20170509-10994-11ewi5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new fund will support up to 300,000 apprenticeship, traineeship and higher-level skilled workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Changes to VET</h2>
<p><em>Kira Clarke, Lecturer in Education Policy at the University of Melbourne:</em></p>
<p>Treasurer Scott Morrison framed his announcement of a new fund for skilling Australians by saying “skilled migration must be on our own terms”. </p>
<p>Appealing to public animosity towards a perceived reliance on skilled migration, the treasurer announced a levy on employers of foreign workers employed under a new temporary skill shortage visa. </p>
<p>Employers will be charged between $1,200 and $1,800 per worker employed under this visa scheme. It is anticipated this levy will contribute to $1.2 billion within the Skilling Australians Fund. </p>
<p>States and territories will be able to access the fund for the explicit purpose of supporting up to 300,000 apprenticeship, traineeship and higher-level skilled workers. </p>
<p>The treasurer’s language in announcing this new pot of money appeared to put the onus on states and territories to stimulate apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities. </p>
<p>Apprenticeship commencements <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/about/news-and-events/media-releases/apprentice-and-trainee-numbers-decline">have been in decline</a>, particularly in trade occupations. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-to-do-more-to-arrest-the-decline-in-apprenticeships-47942">decline is part of a long-term trend</a>, and is compounded by the impact of the gig economy and the reluctance of employers and young workers to enter into four-year training relationships.</p>
<p>Part of a suite of announcements aimed at “Backing regional communities”, the budget also includes $24 million for Rural and Regional Enterprise Scholarships. </p>
<p>The budget papers indicate that scholarships will be available for up to 1,200 students, to support skills development and educational attainment. </p>
<p>While it is unclear whether $15.2 million allocated to establish eight regional study hubs in rural and remote areas will include enhanced access to VET, any increased access to VET programs for regional learners could be a positive step in addressing youth unemployment and lower educational attainment in regional areas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77177/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Watson has received funding from every Australian state and territory government and from the Commonwealth government to undertake education research and has served on several government advisory committees.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gwilym Croucher is Principal Policy Adviser, University of Melbourne Chancellery and Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kira Clarke has received funding from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Chapman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Education experts discuss changes to schools and universities following the federal treasurer’s budget speech.Louise Watson, Professor and Director, The Education Institute, University of CanberraBruce Chapman, Director, Policy Impact, College of Business and Economics, Australian National UniversityGwilym Croucher, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of MelbourneKira Clarke, Senior Research Fellow in Youth, Research & Policy Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Honorary Fellow in Education Policy, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/772432017-05-08T19:45:29Z2017-05-08T19:45:29ZChanges to school funding – your questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168287/original/file-20170508-14364-bbl32r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most schools wills receive more money under the new reforms. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Can’t get your head around the <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-2-0-is-this-the-school-funding-plan-we-have-been-looking-for-finally-yes-77081">latest announcements in school funding</a>? You’re not alone. Members of the public have been sending in the questions they want answered about the recent changes.</em> </p>
<p><em>Education expert, Glenn Savage, from the University of Melbourne, has done his best to answer them.</em></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168265/original/file-20170508-7698-bg6zs3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168265/original/file-20170508-7698-bg6zs3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=174&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168265/original/file-20170508-7698-bg6zs3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=174&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168265/original/file-20170508-7698-bg6zs3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=174&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168265/original/file-20170508-7698-bg6zs3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168265/original/file-20170508-7698-bg6zs3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168265/original/file-20170508-7698-bg6zs3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/quality-schools">new reform</a> represents an overall funding increase for Australian schools.</p>
<p>It also maintains core principles of the <a href="http://www.budget.gov.au/2013-14/content/glossy/gonski_policy/html/gonski_overview_06.htm">Schooling Resource Standard (SRS)</a> generated by the original <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gonski-anyway-13599">Gonski review</a>.</p>
<p>The SRS is a funding formula that comprises a “base-rate” amount per student (with different amounts for primary and secondary students), plus extra loadings based on various equity categories. </p>
<p>The SRS treats government and non-government (which include Catholic and independent) schools differently, with the former supposed to receive the full base-rate while the latter should receive a proportion based on the ability of a school to raise private income (in other words, through school fees).</p>
<p>So, it is incorrect to frame the reform as “Con-ski”, as in many ways it is closely aligned with Gonski’s original funding formula.</p>
<p>The new reform is good policy for two main reasons. </p>
<p>First, it seeks, in principle at least, to correct some of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">compromises and corruptions</a> that marred the original Gonski reforms, leading to many different deals being done across the nation and to a highly inconsistent application of the SRS.</p>
<p>Second, states will only get funding if they agree to use the money for reforms proven <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/funding_will_be_tied_to_reforms.pdf">“to support better outcomes for students”</a>. </p>
<p>This will broaden the focus from simply debating <a href="https://theconversation.com/give-a-gonski-funding-myths-and-politicking-derail-schools-debate-44308"><em>how much</em></a> schools get, to the equally important question of <em>what schools do</em> with the cash.</p>
<p>Labor’s claim about <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/gonski-2.0-a-$22-billion-cut-to-labors-plan-plibersek/8491960">“a $22 billion cut”</a> is misleading, because Labor was not re-elected and was never in a position to deliver on its promises. </p>
<p>So Labor is basically saying “our promise is bigger than yours”, rather than making a reasonable argument about actual money being cut. </p>
<p>Nor is Labor doing a good job of justifying how the promised extra $22 billion would have been more wisely invested.</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168283/original/file-20170508-14369-1jxrfxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168283/original/file-20170508-14369-1jxrfxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=108&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168283/original/file-20170508-14369-1jxrfxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168283/original/file-20170508-14369-1jxrfxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=108&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168283/original/file-20170508-14369-1jxrfxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168283/original/file-20170508-14369-1jxrfxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168283/original/file-20170508-14369-1jxrfxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>In the Australian federation, the federal government is the primary funder of non-government (Catholic and independent) schools, whereas state governments are the primary funders of government schools.</p>
<p>The Gonski reforms relate to <em>federal</em> funding of schools, not state funding, so this is why non-government schools get a greater share.</p>
<p>Prior to the 1970s, the federal government did not provide ongoing funding to any schools. </p>
<p>This changed following the <a href="http://apo.org.au/node/29669">1973 Karmel Report</a>, which led to the federal government introducing ongoing yearly funding for both government and non-government schools. </p>
<p>In the decades since, there have been
<a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=aer">significant increases in the amount of federal funding</a> for government and non-government schools, but funding to non-government schools has increased at a higher rate. </p>
<p>At present, the federal government funds, on average, 17% of the SRS for government schools, and 76.8% for non-government schools. </p>
<p>Under <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/new_fairer_school_funding_from_2018.pdf">the new reform plan</a>, the federal government is suggesting it will increase these percentages to 20% and 80% respectively by 2027. </p>
<p>The government says it <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/funding_will_be_tied_to_reforms.pdf">“will be up to states”</a> as to whether they wish to fund the remaining amounts so that all schools reach the full SRS.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168270/original/file-20170508-7685-l9v6a1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168270/original/file-20170508-7685-l9v6a1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=58&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168270/original/file-20170508-7685-l9v6a1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=58&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168270/original/file-20170508-7685-l9v6a1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=58&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168270/original/file-20170508-7685-l9v6a1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=73&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168270/original/file-20170508-7685-l9v6a1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=73&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168270/original/file-20170508-7685-l9v6a1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=73&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The majority of Australian schools will receive more money under the new reforms. </p>
<p>The schools that stand to lose money are those currently over-funded. </p>
<p>No funding freezes will occur. Both government and non-government (Catholic and independent) schools will continue to receive federal funding.</p>
<hr>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"859631713051344896"}"></div></p>
<p>It is a deft political move by the Coalition to appropriate David Gonski as the public face of <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/quality-schools">the new reform</a>. It clearly blunts attacks from Labor, the Australian Education Union and other groups who have effectively made the word “Gonski” a weapon in school funding wars.</p>
<p>So, bringing Gonski back into the fray is clearly a re-branding strategy by the Coalition to transform the symbolism of the word Gonski and claim it as their own. </p>
<p>The Coalition obviously sees merit in the original Gonski reforms, but would have a difficult time selling a reform package that was simply a repeat of the original Gonski plan generated under Labor. </p>
<p>It is for this reason that it has commissioned a new Gonski Review (Gonski 2.0), to be titled “<a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/43576">Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools</a>”.</p>
<p>The review is not designed to simply “re-write” the original Gonski report, but instead has an explicit focus on reviewing evidence about the kinds of initiatives that impact most positively on student outcomes. This is so money can be better targeted. </p>
<p>An optimist, therefore, would hope that Gonski 1.0 and 2.0 will together provide a powerful roadmap for positive change in how schools are funded and what they do with the money. </p>
<hr>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168273/original/file-20170508-14367-d0nod8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168273/original/file-20170508-14367-d0nod8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=55&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168273/original/file-20170508-14367-d0nod8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=55&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168273/original/file-20170508-14367-d0nod8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=55&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168273/original/file-20170508-14367-d0nod8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=69&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168273/original/file-20170508-14367-d0nod8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=69&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168273/original/file-20170508-14367-d0nod8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=69&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Many argue that <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=aer">the federal government is too generous</a> in funding non-government schools to the extent that it does. </p>
<p>Australia is one of very few OECD nations that funds private schools, making our school funding settlement an outlier internationally.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review-of-funding-for-schooling-final-report-dec-2011.pdf">original Gonski review</a> was designed to introduce a fairer, more transparent and needs-based federal funding model. If such a model had actually been produced, over-funded non-government schools would have lost some money.</p>
<p>But this never happened. Instead, early in the review process, the Labor government promised that <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">“no school would lose a dollar”</a> as a result of the reforms.</p>
<p>Instead of a “needs-based” model, Labor delivered a model that injected significantly more money into schooling, but also protected the vested interests of Catholic and independent schools.</p>
<p>There is simply no denying this fact. As original Gonski review panellist member Ken Boston recently put it, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-13/our-school-funding-system-is-unfair-and-holding-australia-back/8435300">“the Gonski Report was filleted and the flesh thrown away”</a>, leaving a deeply unfair set of arrangements.</p>
<p>The new reforms will do nothing to change the ongoing federal funding of non-government schools, some of which are elite high-fee schools. </p>
<p>On the positive side, it does promise (on paper at least) to make funding more equitable by transitioning to a model that is better aligned with the original intentions of the Gonski report and ensures over-funded non-government schools do not continue to be over-funded. </p>
<p>It will be very interesting to see if the Coalition can deliver on this promise or whether it will also cave to vested interests (especially from the Catholic sector, which has already <a href="https://theconversation.com/catholics-vow-to-go-hard-in-schools-fight-with-government-77299">signalled its intention</a> to fight). </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168268/original/file-20170508-7701-sren9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168268/original/file-20170508-7701-sren9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=64&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168268/original/file-20170508-7701-sren9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=64&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168268/original/file-20170508-7701-sren9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=64&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168268/original/file-20170508-7701-sren9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=80&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168268/original/file-20170508-7701-sren9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=80&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168268/original/file-20170508-7701-sren9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=80&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Unless your children are in schools that are currently over-funded in accordance with the SRS, it is likely the schools will receive either similar or more funding amounts next year. </p>
<p>The important thing to remember is that in Australia’s federal system, state governments remain the primary funders of government schools (see response to question two above). </p>
<p>States do not directly “pass on” federal funding, but instead pool it together with state money and redistribute it according to state funding formulas. </p>
<p>This means there can be two schools that have exactly the same characteristics and funding entitlements under the SRS, but end up receiving different amounts of funding because they are located in different states. </p>
<p>So, the final amount a government school gets is ultimately up to the states.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn C. Savage receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Schooling expert Dr Glenn Savage answers your questions on recent changes to school funding.Glenn C Savage, Senior Lecturer in Education Policy and ARC DECRA Fellow (2016-19), Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/770812017-05-03T01:55:44Z2017-05-03T01:55:44ZGonski 2.0: Is this the school funding plan we have been looking for? Finally, yes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167624/original/file-20170503-4096-nbi5nv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Catholic schools and over-funded schools will lose out the most.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>They used to say that a week is a long time in politics. How last century! Now a day is a long time in politics, or at least the politics of school funding.</p>
<p>Just yesterday morning, I was arguing that school funding was at an impasse. By early afternoon that had all changed, along with the federal government’s rhetoric on school funding. Instead, we were introduced to Gonski 2.0. </p>
<p>For the first time, Education Minister Simon Birmingham has <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-announces-schools-funding-and-a-new-gonski-review-77011">proposed a credible plan</a> to deliver needs-based funding. </p>
<p>But is this the plan we have been looking for?</p>
<h2>Where we were at before the announcement</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review-of-funding-for-schooling-final-report-dec-2011.pdf">Gonksi report in 2011</a> was an inspired attempt to move past decades of funding wars. </p>
<p>Negotiated or bastardised (depending on your point of view) in its implementation <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">by the last Labor government</a>, it was at first derided, then supported, then buried by the Coalition under Tony Abbott.</p>
<p>The re-boot of leadership under Malcolm Turnbull left school funding in limbo. The resulting policy vacuum led to a messy and unfocused debate. </p>
<p>Labor continued to claim that the only true path was to add billions of dollars to school funding. But Labor’s figures are greatly inflated because of its unwillingness to make tough decisions – or recognise the benefits of historically low wages growth.</p>
<p>At one point, Turnbull suggested to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) that funding should be split, with the Commonwealth paying for non-government schools and states paying for government schools. But this is a terrible idea with <a href="https://theconversation.com/split-funding-idea-for-schools-has-big-risks-and-few-clear-benefits-57102">big risks and few benefits</a>.</p>
<p>Birmingham then publicly supported needs-based funding, but could not explain how we would get there. </p>
<p>Grattan Institute <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-model-for-school-funding-that-wont-break-the-budget-69406">published our own plan last November</a>, arguing that the Coalition could deliver Gonski-style needs-based funding without more money, if it made some tough decisions about indexation and over-funded schools. </p>
<h2>What has now changed?</h2>
<p>Flanked by the big-Gonski himself, Turnbull and Birmingham finally announced the Coalition’s plan.</p>
<p>1) They recommitted to the principles of Gonski, which they referred to as genuine needs-based funding and branded as <em>Gonski 2.0</em>. </p>
<p>2) They promised not to tinker with the overall design of the funding formula for each school, called the “Schooling Resource Standard” or SRS. (The details of the SRS formula should be reviewed, since there are flaws and the original analysis was done with too little evidence. But the formula follows the core design suggested by Gonski, and makes sense.)</p>
<p>3) They disentangled Commonwealth and state funding, arguing that Commonwealth funding should depend on need, not on where students live. </p>
<p>So now, for the first time, the Commonwealth will have a simple and transparent way to explain how it funds schools:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Every school has a target level of funding, the SRS</p></li>
<li><p>Government schools receive Commonwealth funding equal to 20% of SRS (up from 17% on average today)</p></li>
<li><p>Non-government schools receive Commonwealth funding equal to 80% of SRS (up from 77%).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This is a big change from the current model, under which comparable students in similar schools could receive thousands of dollars more or less from the Commonwealth depending on which state or territory they live in.</p>
<p>States and territories will be expected to maintain their real level of funding, but will not otherwise be tied to the SRS formula. </p>
<p>This gives states some flexibility in how much they invest in schools, a good idea in a federal system. </p>
<p>So far so good. But for the numbers to add up, five more changes were needed.</p>
<p>4) Turnbull and Birmingham reduced the long-term indexation rate so that school funding will grow in line with a blend of wages and CPI after 2021. </p>
<p>This change will save billions of dollars over the long term compared to the current legislation. </p>
<p>5) They extended the timeline out to 10 years, giving the power of compound interest more time to do its magic. </p>
<p>6) They tweaked some of the special deals Julia Gillard struck with the Catholic school system. These tweaks will have the effect of expecting parents to contribute more, especially in Catholic primary schools.</p>
<p>7) They finally overturned the mantra of “no school will lose a dollar”, thereby saving maybe $1.5 billion over the next decade.</p>
<p>8) They added new money to the pot compared to the 2016 budget – $2.2 billion over the next four years, substantially more over the long term.</p>
<h2>Who are the big winners and losers?</h2>
<p>Compared to the Labor proposal, most schools, sectors and states will feel like losers. But taxpayers are big winners. </p>
<p><a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/circuit-breaker/">Grattan’s analysis shows</a> that Labor’s plan is far more expensive than required, a huge problem given the state of the federal budget.</p>
<p>Compared to the 2016 budget, the big winners are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Government schools in states that are currently underfunded, especially New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland</p></li>
<li><p>Western Australia, which receives much less from the Commonwealth for its government schools</p></li>
<li><p>Underfunded independent schools (especially the lower-fee schools, some of which are the most underfunded schools in the entire country). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Compared to the 2016 budget, the big losers are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Catholic schools, which will lose a number of special deals (especially for the Australian Capital Territory which had a special deal all of its own); more analysis is needed to understand whether they will be worse off overall</p></li>
<li><p>24 highly over-funded schools that will have their per-student funding cut</p></li>
<li><p>About 300 slightly over-funded schools that will have their funding slowed or frozen. It is not entirely clear who these schools are at this stage. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Where does this all leave us?</h2>
<p>We can now move on from the phoney war to a genuine debate about a concrete and credible proposal. Three things should happen now.</p>
<p>First, there will need to be much broader consultation than has occurred so far. The multitude of states, sectors and other stakeholders in schooling will need to mollified, even if some will never be fully satisfied.</p>
<p>Second, the federal government needs to pass legislation to give effect to the new funding arrangements. This is a big task: timing is tight, given the current deal runs out before the start of the 2018 school year. The senate will be a challenge. </p>
<p>Third, Gonski himself will lead an expert review, to report by the end of this year. His task is to synthesise the evidence on what works and provide advice on how the extra funding should be spent.</p>
<p>Many shots are still to be fired. But this clear, positive approach could be just what we need to get us past the squabbling on funding – a key hurdle so that we can move on to the issues that will really drive improvements in school education.</p>
<p>If that happens, everyone will be a winner, especially Australia’s students. </p>
<p>Well, maybe not everyone. If Gonski 2.0 sticks, the Labor party will need to find a new signature issue to take to the next election.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>• This piece was amended on 3 May to correct a point that was made. The piece suggested that the 300+ schools that will have their funding cut will “probably include government schools in the ACT that are currently funded well above target”. However it is not yet clear who these schools are. The sentence has been amended to reflect this.</strong> </p>
<hr>
<p>•<em>Do you have a question about school policy and recent education announcements? Leave your questions in the comments and we’ll pass them on to an expert.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77081/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.</span></em></p>For the first time, Education Minister Simon Birmingham has proposed a credible plan to deliver needs-based funding.Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/769372017-05-02T05:24:39Z2017-05-02T05:24:39ZCharter schools and vouchers not a solution for Australian schooling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167432/original/file-20170502-17277-7rog4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vouchers give parents more choice over schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/publications/research-reports/the-fantasy-of-gonski-funding-the-ongoing-battle-over-school-spending/">report</a> from the Centre for Independent Studies described <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gonski-anyway-13599">Gonski funding</a> for schools as a “fantasy” and made three proposals for school funding:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Hand over full control for school policy and funding to the states.</p></li>
<li><p>Establish a school voucher system, which provides funding directly to students rather than schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Create charter schools – these are publicly-funded but privately-run schools.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The report argues that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia’s school results have been declining in international standardised tests while public debt continues to grow. For the sake of reversing the decline in both the country’s education standards and its fiscal responsibility, getting school funding right is more imperative than ever.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The rationale for introducing charter schools and vouchers to Australia is often made in the context of <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-schools-continue-to-fall-behind-other-countries-in-maths-and-science-69341">declining international test scores</a>. </p>
<p>It is ironic that the two systems that we look to for our policy borrowing, the US and UK, consistently <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf">perform worse</a> than Australia on these same tests.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=cdRgAwAAQBAJ&dq">evidence</a> from the US on charter schools suggests that they are neither cheaper to run, nor more effective in improving student outcomes. </p>
<p>Similarly, vouchers are touted as part of a push for greater choice in the school market, but have had <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/betsy-devos-trump-washington-dc-voucher-program">unflattering results</a>, including insignificant impact on student achievement.</p>
<h2>What are charter schools and vouchers?</h2>
<p>Charter schools are privately owned and operated schools that are almost entirely funded by the government. They have much greater freedom over staffing and curriculum than traditional public schools, which are controlled by state education bureaucracies.</p>
<p>While there has been a move to <a href="https://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/independent-public-schools">independent public schools</a> under coalition governments, these are still public schools but with some localised school autonomy.</p>
<p>Vouchers are a form of student-based funding that allows parents to choose any school they like, regardless of sector. An amount is allocated to each child that can then be spent on the local public, charter or private school.</p>
<p>The rationale is that vouchers provide choice in an education market, and charters are able to meet the needs of different students, particularly those from disadvantaged areas.</p>
<p>However, the CIS report admits that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-school-vouchers-improve-results-it-depends-on-what-we-ask-55003">research</a> demonstrates:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no significant link, either positive or negative, between vouchers and student outcomes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The report claims that vouchers are simpler, fairer, and more transparent than current funding models. Yet there is no evidence to suggest that this would be the case.</p>
<h2>Vouchers are used in the US</h2>
<p>US President Donald Trump is a big fan of <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/12/07/504451460/school-choice-101-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-does-it-work">vouchers</a>, which give parents choice over the school that they send their children to. He has promised to significantly <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/2018_blueprint.pdf">expand</a> the system in the US.</p>
<p>But overall, the research provides a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775711001683">mixed picture</a> of charter schools and vouchers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some studies in some locations find charters outperform traditional public schools, some find they are no different than the traditional ones, and some find they perform worse.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The concerns</h2>
<p>There are some serious concerns about charter schools, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/is-charter-school-fraud-the-next-enron-74020">fraudulent management</a> of school finances and legal structures</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://ler.illinois.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Closed-By-Choice.pdf">volatility and closures</a> as schools are unprofitable or under-perform</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Charter-Schools-National-Report_rev2.pdf">wasteful</a> use of public funding for little or no benefit to students</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/juaf.12246">segregation</a> of students based on race and class.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There is also growing evidence that voucher programs do little to improve <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0162373717693108">student outcomes</a> and can <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0161956X.2016.1207446">allow discrimination</a> against students with disabilities or on other grounds (race, sex, religion) as school choice goes both ways.</p>
<p>Concerns have also arisen over the de-funding of public education in order to fund vouchers and charters. Trump’s proposed <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/12/2/13767668/donald-trump-education-betsy-devos-school-vouchers">education funding</a> would produce this outcome. An effect of this policy is the increasing residualisation of disadvantaged public schools.</p>
<h2>Should Australia adopt charter schools and vouchers?</h2>
<p>With <a href="https://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Charter-Schools-National-Report_rev2.pdf">limited evidence</a> supporting the case for charter schools and vouchers, it begs the question why this policy would be adopted in Australia.</p>
<p>The CIS report questions whether Australia should continue with a commitment to universal public education, suggesting that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>more government funding than necessary is spent on public schools.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It seems that the policy is less about providing high-quality education for disadvantaged students than it is about turning education from a <a href="https://theconversation.com/education-is-a-public-good-not-a-private-commodity-31408">public good to a private commodity</a>.</p>
<p>In his first parliamentary speech, federal education minister, Simon Birmingham, spoke in support of <a href="http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/About-Simon/First-Speech">school vouchers</a> as a means of addressing educational disadvantage.</p>
<p>However, there is little evidence to suggest that vouchers and charter schools will work in the Australian context, which already has high levels of <a href="https://theconversation.com/educational-disadvantage-is-a-huge-problem-in-australia-we-cant-just-carry-on-the-same-74530">school segregation</a> and a wide range of <a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-would-only-make-our-school-systems-problems-worse-46814">choice and competition</a>.</p>
<p>In this afternoon’s surprise education funding announcement, the Prime Minister declared that a new funding review would be conducted, even naming it <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-announces-new-postgonski-national-schools-funding-package-20170502-gvx4u5.html">Gonski 2.0</a>.</p>
<p>Until the findings of this new review, once again chaired by David Gonski, are made public later this year, it is uncertain what Simon Birmingham means when he says the aim is to create a single national funding standard. </p>
<p>However, vouchers and charter schools are certainly not a funding solution for Australia’s schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Riddle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is no evidence to suggest that vouchers are simpler, fairer and more transparent than current funding models.Stewart Riddle, Senior Lecturer, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/743572017-03-15T19:16:01Z2017-03-15T19:16:01Z‘I don’t want to be teased’ – why bullied children are reluctant to seek help from teachers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160637/original/image-20170314-9644-1jx4m77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students are more reluctant to seek help from teachers than from friends or parents. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia approximately <a href="https://www.unisa.edu.au/Global/EASS/EDS/184856%20Anti-bullying%20Report-FINAL-3large.pdf">one student in five</a> is bullied at school every few weeks or more often. Many of these students suffer serious emotional and psychological harm, such as persistent anxiety, depression and suicidal thinking, and are unable to concentrate on their school work. It is clear they need help. </p>
<p>Teachers routinely inform students that if they are being bullied at school they should seek help from a trusted adult, such as a teacher or school counsellor.</p>
<p>A new two-part ABC documentary, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/bullied/">Bullied</a> addresses the question of how victimised students can receive help from their school. </p>
<p>Part one of the documentary describes the intense suffering of an adolescent victim and the frustration and anguish of his family in finding that the school is not taking any effective action to deal with the case. They do however allow the documentary makers to gather help and support for the unfortunate student through a group meeting with his peers. </p>
<p>This approach proves to be successful. But why did the school fail to provide such help? One possibility is that students are reluctant to go to teachers for help. Another is that teachers lack the skill to stop the bullying from going on. </p>
<h2>Students seek help from peers over teachers</h2>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.unisa.edu.au/Global/EASS/EDS/184856%20Anti-bullying%20Report-FINAL-3large.pdf">new research</a>, based on an online survey of 1,688 students in Years 5 to 10, provides data on how many bullied students actually do seek help – and from whom. </p>
<p>Of the 631 students who reported that they had been bullied at one time or another at school, over half (53%) said they sought help from other students in the first instance. Slightly fewer (51%) went to their parents. But what is revealing is that only 38% said they would go to teachers or counsellors for help.</p>
<p>Students appear far more reluctant to seek help from teachers than from other people. </p>
<p>Given that school authorities are strategically placed to observe what happens between their students, and to work with students who are being bullied, – including perpetrators, victims, bystanders and others – it is surprising that they are not the first port of call for distressed students. </p>
<h2>Why don’t students want to approach teachers?</h2>
<p>The survey provided some explanations from students who were bullied and did not seek help from teachers. </p>
<p>Here’s a summary of the themes that emerged, and a few quotes from the students themselves:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Uncertainty about the role of teachers in addressing cases of bullying. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It is none of their business.”
“They are here to teach us.”</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li><p>Bullying is a personal matter. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I don’t feel comfortable telling someone I don’t really know.”<br>
“There is no-one in the school I can trust.”</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li><p>Lack of belief that they would take the bullying seriously. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They might laugh. I have seen them brush off students’ problems.”</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li><p>Fear of repercussions. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I don’t want to be teased because I told a teacher.”</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li><p>Not wishing to get others into trouble. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The people (the bullies) were my friends and I don’t want to lose them.”</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li><p>A sense of personal inadequacy. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I would feel weak and embarrassed.”</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li><p>Having a preferred option. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I can get help from friends and parents.”</p>
</blockquote></li>
</ol>
<p>So should teachers intervene to stop bullying? According to the survey, telling a teacher produced no better outcomes than telling a friend or a parent. </p>
<p>In approximately 70% of cases – where students sought help from a teacher – the bullying continued, though in some cases at a reduced rate. According to students, telling a parent or a friend has fewer potential drawbacks. </p>
<p>These findings point to the inadequacy of pre-service and in-service training provided to teachers to counter bullying. </p>
<p>Research shows that teachers often rely too heavily on:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>anti-bullying policies that are not adequately implemented</p></li>
<li><p>the teaching of social and emotional skills to all students, a desirable initiative but hardly the solution for what to do when bullying actually occurs</p></li>
<li><p>the use of discredited methods of intervention, such as the use of punishment, sometimes repackaged as “consequences”.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>As revealed by the Australia study, teachers are generally unacquainted with more effective problem-solving approaches to bullying which involve working closely with perpetrators, victims and other students. </p>
<h2>A few approaches that could work for teachers</h2>
<p>Although restorative practices have in recent years been increasingly adopted and employed in some schools, other demonstrably effective intervention methods such as the <a href="https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/the-support-group-method-training-pack/book228145">Support Group Method</a> and the <a href="http://www.readymade.com.au/method">Method of Shared Concern</a> are virtually unknown. </p>
<p>Rather than just passing on tips to teachers on how to handle cases of bullying, systematic teacher education is needed to <a href="http://www.bullyingawarenessweek.org/pdf/Bullying_Prevention_Strategies_in_Schools_Ken_Rigby.pdf">inform teachers of the different intervention methods</a> now available and how each can be effectively applied.</p>
<p>Recognising that bullying is a problem of dysfunctional relationships is the starting point. </p>
<p>The solution, often overlooked, lies in helping students themselves to think about the difficulties they may encounter in relating to each other and especially the agony experienced by victims of bullying - and then to reach a collective agreement on how to act to ensure that no-one is harmed. </p>
<h2>Trust issues</h2>
<p>There remains the problem of students often finding it inappropriate, futile or counterproductive in telling a teacher or counsellor. </p>
<p>This is due, in part, to the quality of the relationships that students typically have with school staff, especially in secondary schools. </p>
<p>Students commonly report it is hard for them to find teachers they can trust and with whom they can share their personal concerns. Arguably relationships would improve if more teachers were seen as actually having the skills to provide effective help. </p>
<p>Teachers almost unanimously told us that the training they have received to address bullying was far from adequate, especially in providing little or no help in how to handle actual cases. </p>
<p>But cases of bullying are often far from easy to resolve. They may have their roots in the darker side of human nature and frustrations experienced in the home and in the wider community. </p>
<p>What teachers can do will always be limited – but can be far less limited than is the case at present.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth Rigby receives funding from Australian Department of Education and Training. </span></em></p>Fear of repercussions and the feeling of not being taken seriously are two reasons why children who are bullied don’t seek help from teachers.Kenneth Rigby, Adjunct Professor, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/741192017-03-15T00:03:15Z2017-03-15T00:03:15ZSchool bus routes are expensive and hard to plan. We calculated a better way<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159609/original/image-20170306-20746-16q05z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Got to get to school on time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/deanhochman/8314450897/in/photolist-tq91V-9i7PEf-56DhC-cPFGew-a2MPnK-4LZMG4-9aBbP-pgFL3F-4tj5ps-phMrUj-dEHJzF-fB9iWh-a61ipd-qvaWyB-tq91c-aRCqJT-6orCeH-acDMgs-9fHD25-aNgYXT-9JAP84-aVq97V-qn4rmr-pGvf93-quBNXc-5mLuHu-qwtSfA-rVkwy-5pCZsE-4LWEza-8k5DR1-byhkqp-8Y7XMv-nErxmf-peVfZP-8YaZRC-nJiK8x-pkgb9Y-aFmjid-pw83Mr-pGvfZm-pxbo8a-9HMWrF-ohd2j-cByBhb-pJagEE-qnkhjq-7nH3Rq-q769WQ-pGvfzo">Cropped from deanhochman/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Here’s a math problem even the brightest school districts struggle to solve: getting hordes of elementary, middle and high school students onto buses and to school on time every day.</p>
<p>Transporting all of these pupils presents a large and complex problem. Some school districts use existing software systems to develop their bus routes. Others still develop these routes manually.</p>
<p>In such problems, improving operational efficiency even a little could result in great advantages. Each school bus costs school districts somewhere between US$60,000 and $100,000. So, scheduling the buses more efficiently will result in significant monetary savings.</p>
<p>Over the past year, we have been working with the <a href="http://www.hcpss.org/">Howard County Public School System</a> (HCPSS) in Maryland to analyze its transportation system and recommend ways to improve it. We have developed a way to optimize school bus routes, thanks to new mathematical models. </p>
<p>Finding the optimal solution to this problem is very valuable, even if that optimal solution is only slightly better than the current plan. A solution that is only one percent worse would require a considerable number of additional buses due to the size of the operation.</p>
<p>By optimizing bus routes, schools can cut down on costs, while still serving all of the children in their district. Our analysis shows that HCPSS can save between five and seven percent on the number of buses needed.</p>
<h2>Route planning</h2>
<p>A bus trip in the afternoon starts from a given school and visits a sequence of stops, dropping off students until the bus is empty. A route is a sequence of trips from different schools that are linked together to be served by one bus. </p>
<p>Our goal was to reduce both the total time buses run without students on board – also known as aggregate deadhead time – as well as the number of routes. Fewer routes require fewer buses, since each route is assigned to a single bus. Our approach uses data analysis and mathematical modeling to find the optimal solution in a relatively short time. </p>
<p>To solve this problem, a computer algorithm considers all of the bus trips in the district. Without modifying the trips, the algorithm assigns them to routes such that the aggregate deadhead time and the number of routes are minimized. Individual routes become longer, allowing the bus to serve more trips in a single route. </p>
<p>Since the trips are fixed, in this way we can decrease the total time the buses are en route. Minimizing the deadhead travel results in cost savings and reductions in air pollution.</p>
<p>The routes that we generated can be viewed as a lower bound to the number of buses needed by school districts. We can find the optimal solution for HCPSS in less than a minute. </p>
<h2>Serving all students</h2>
<p>While we were working on routes, we decided to also tackle the problem of the bus trips themselves. To do this, we needed to determine what trips are required to serve the students for each school in the system, given bus capacities, stop locations and the number of students at each stop. This has a direct impact on how routes are chosen.</p>
<p>Most existing models aim to minimize either the total travel time or the total number of trips. The belief in such cases is that, by minimizing the number of trips, you can minimize the number of buses needed overall. </p>
<p>However, our work shows that this is not always the case. We found a way to cut down on the number of buses needed to satisfy transportation demands, without trying to minimize either of the above two objectives. Our approach considers not only minimizing the number of trips, but also how these trips can be linked together.</p>
<h2>New start times</h2>
<p>Last October, we presented our work at the Maryland Association of Pupil Transportation conference. An audience member at that conference suggested that we analyze school start and dismissal times. By changing the high school, middle school and elementary school start times, bus operations could potentially be even more efficient. Slight changes in school start times can make it possible to link more trips together in a single bus route, hence decreasing the number of buses needed overall. </p>
<p>We developed a model that optimizes the school bell times, given that each of the elementary, middle and high school start times fall within a prespecified time window. For example, the time window for elementary school start times would be from 8:15 to 9:25 a.m.; for middle schools, from 7:40 to 8:30 a.m.; and all high schools would start at 7:25 a.m. </p>
<p>Our model looks at all of the bus trips and searches for the optimal combination of school dismissal time such that the number of school buses, which is the major contributing factor to costs, is minimized. We found that, in most cases, optimizing the bell times results in significant savings regarding the number of buses. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>Using our model, we ran many different “what if?” scenarios using different school start and dismissal times for the HCPSS. Four of these are currently under consideration by the Howard County School Board for possible implementation.</p>
<p>We are also continuing to enhance our current school bus transportation models, as well developing new ways to further improve efficiency and reduce costs. </p>
<p>For example, we are building models that can help schools select the right vendors for their transportation needs, as well as minimize the number of hours that buses run per day. </p>
<p>In the future, the type of models we are working on could be bundled into a software system that schools can use by themselves. There is really no impediment in using these types of systems as long as the school systems have an electronic database of their stops, trips and routes. </p>
<p>Such software could potentially be implemented in all school districts in the nation. Many of these districts would benefit from using such models to evaluate their current operations and determine if any savings can be realized. With many municipalities struggling with budgets, this sort of innovation could save money without degrading service.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ali Haghani has worked as an independent consultant for Howard County Public School System. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ali Shafahi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Every year, school districts across the U.S. try to plan out a bus schedule that works for all students while keeping costs and emissions low. Our mathematical models can help.Ali Haghani, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of MarylandAli Shafahi, Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science, University of MarylandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/734322017-02-22T19:19:13Z2017-02-22T19:19:13ZToo hot to learn – why Australian schools need a national policy on coping with heatwaves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157789/original/image-20170222-31164-11yub6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sometimes only a water fountain will do.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Peled/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many parts of Australia have been experiencing a long-running heatwave, with temperatures soaring <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-09/australia-south-and-east-sweltering-through-heatwave/8254302">above 40 degrees</a> in some areas. So what impact is this having on schools? And is it time for the government to roll out a national policy on heat protection?</p>
<p>Research <a href="http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/4/e000741.full">shows</a> that extreme heat can result in physical (cardiovascular and thermoregulation), cognitive (acquiring and retaining information) and emotional difficulties (motivation and negative feelings towards set tasks). And let’s not forget ruined school lunches! </p>
<p>Currently, the main policy in place to protect students from outdoor weather extremes is the Cancer Council’s <a href="http://www.sunsmart.com.au/about/sunsmart-program">SunSmart program</a>. </p>
<p>The SunSmart program has had a successful <a href="http://www.sunsmart.com.au/downloads/communities/early-childhood-primary-school/primary-school-sample-sunsmart-policy.pdf">foundation policy</a> for school staff and students to ensure enough shade is provided and to wear sun-protective clothing, a hat, sunscreen and sunglasses for all outdoor activities when UV radiation is at level 3 or higher. </p>
<p>But there is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-10/is-there-a-school-policy-for-heatwaves/8257320">no consistent educative policy</a> across Australian schools for heat protection. </p>
<p>Many schools have site-specific or varying state guidelines. There is, however, little school policy relating to school activities during specific heat conditions (according to a set temperature and humidity). </p>
<h2>Impact of intense heat</h2>
<p>In the US, emergency department admissions revealed that children were <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21146768">the most reported age group</a> to go to hospital with heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stress and heat stroke. </p>
<p>In Japan, between 1975 and 2009, <a href="https://www.med.or.jp/english/journal/pdf/2013_03/179_185.pdf">133 children died</a> of heat stroke while doing outdoor school activities.</p>
<p>School children depend on adults and carers to keep environments at suitable temperatures. There is an <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/uploads/b6cd8665c633434e8d02910eee3ca87c.pdf">ongoing risk of Australian children</a> being exposed to dangerous heat conditions. </p>
<p>Students can often forget to drink enough water, which has an impact on concentration, cognition and memory processes from high sweat loss in extreme heat.</p>
<p>Mandatory requirements for children to do a minimum of 100 minutes of timetabled physical education each week increase the risk of heat exposure. </p>
<p>With fixed times and locations for physical education, this can leave children more vulnerable to heat exposure – especially when this is in addition to recess and leisure time, which are often outdoors. </p>
<p>Students are less active when temperatures are above <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/articles/28060036/">just 22 degrees</a>, which can impact on meeting physical education objectives and <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/health-pubhlth-strateg-phys-act-guidelines#apa512">guidelines</a>. </p>
<h2>What such a policy would look like</h2>
<p>To ensure existing and potential strategies for heat protection could be identified, I conducted a recent <a href="https://www.achper.org.au/2017/program/conference-schedule/area?command=record&id=215">review</a> of the various heat-protection implementations, investigations, reports and/or guidelines in schools. </p>
<p>Here I outline five key action areas from the research of what a national school heat policy could look like.</p>
<h2>School policy</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>Adopt flexible scheduling of outdoor activities according to the heat conditions by duration/intensity. Start earlier or later in the day when the heat is less intense and ensure children have more rest breaks. The school should have alternative venues to modify and relocate activities during <a href="http://sma.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/beat-the-heat-2011.pdf">extreme heat</a> when temperatures exceed 30 degrees and humidity levels exceed 60%. </p></li>
<li><p>Schools should consider modifying uniforms to combine UV protection with cooling fabrics and ice vests to reduce body temperatures and “thermal stresses” during extreme heat.</p></li>
<li><p>Schools need to be set up to deal with incidences of heat illness and emergencies and to encourage regular rotations to shaded/cooler areas. This includes developing communication procedures (text, internet, email, social media) to notify staff and students of high-risk heat conditions.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Environment</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>Ensure extra shade from both man-made structures (tents, sails and umbrellas) and natural features such as trees to provide cooler environments for outdoor activities during extreme heat.</p></li>
<li><p>Use large industrial fans and ensure indoor spaces have open doors/windows or air-conditioning access during activities, especially during rest periods.</p></li>
<li><p>Provide more water fountains, cooled water facilities and electrolytes for fluid retention and regularly monitor outdoor weather conditions. Ice and water spray bottles could also be used as cooling aids.</p></li>
<li><p>Display heat <a href="http://sma.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/beat-the-heat-2011.pdf">guidelines and charts</a> in prominent locations in the school for reminders about hydration and feelings according to the temperature.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Training</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>Develop personal skills so staff and students know how and where to access heat protective strategies in the school. This includes maintaining adequate <a href="http://www.med.or.jp/english/journal/pdf/2013_03/179_185.pdf">nutrition</a>, keeping <a href="https://www.bcm.edu/news/environmental-health/heat-raises-concerns-about-food-safety">food safe</a> (at lower temperatures to prevent being spoiled), gaining adequate <a href="http://www.med.or.jp/english/journal/pdf/2013_03/179_185.pdf">sleep</a> and monitoring <a href="http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/4/e000741.full">hydration</a> practices and fluid loss.</p></li>
<li><p>Develop communication methods within schools relating to heat illness and where to access support or facilities through a developed heat-protective resource map and guide. Train staff how to detect heat illness in others and to treat, mentor, role-model and protect others.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Prevention</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>Teachers to take into account medical characteristics of students, age, fitness and level of acclimatisation when undertaking activities in hot conditions. Regularly monitor any students or staff who appear distressed from the heat.</p></li>
<li><p>Implement heat-protective policy according to relevant <a href="http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/health-and-physical-education/rationale">Australian Curriculum</a> content of “being healthy safe and active”, demonstrate heat-protective behaviours for safety, and identify actions, plan and promote heat strategies to develop health, safety and wellbeing.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Community</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>Notify parents about school heat conditions and ask them to provide their children with cooled water and modified uniforms during heatwaves. Also give parents an insight into the school procedures in place to protect the students from the heat.</p></li>
<li><p>Include information on the school’s heat-protective procedures in school newsletters. Parents can use this beyond the classroom. Schools should gain feedback from the community on strategies and ideas for further protection of staff and students during heatwaves.</p></li>
<li><p>Put on events to help raise funds for heat-protective facilities in schools. Include parents to have different heat-protective roles and responsibilities during outdoor school events.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendon Hyndman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Schools need to have a formal policy in place for how to deal with heatwaves effectively and keep children cool and well.Brendon Hyndman, Academic in Health and Physical Education, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/733642017-02-22T05:13:08Z2017-02-22T05:13:08ZNo mandatory novels or poetry – what you need to know about the new HSC English curriculum<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157815/original/image-20170222-20326-vp1d6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Year 12 students in NSW will study fewer texts in their English course.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Peled/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The release of the new English syllabus for Years 11 and 12 students in New South Wales reveals a potentially less rigorous curriculum, which is likely to encourage students to study the easier course option now available. </p>
<p>The syllabus applies to all students in NSW undertaking the Higher School Certificate (HSC). It is set for implementation in 2018 and will be examined in 2019. </p>
<p>The new syllabus includes few changes in the design, rationale, aims or learning outcomes expected of students in Year 12. </p>
<p>A major shift, however, means that students:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>will now study fewer texts (from four to three for Year 12 students on the standard English course, and from five to four in the advanced course)</p></li>
<li><p>are no longer required to study a novel or poetry in Year 12</p></li>
<li><p>can now receive an ATAR if they study the English Studies course – the least challenging English course (previously a non-ATAR course).</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Why do we need a new curriculum?</h2>
<p>The reasons given for this most recent curriculum change have been largely based on the NSW government’s Stronger HSC Standards “blueprint”. However, the assumption that a review of the senior English curriculum was necessary because of declining standards and the neglect of literary study cannot be supported by any research-based evidence. </p>
<p>According to the NSW Education Standards Authority’s (NESA) own statistics, the achievement levels of students in senior English have increased since the so-called <a href="http://education.unimelb.edu.au/news_and_activities/projects/archived_projects/curriculum_policies_project/documents/NSW-2005-ShapingtheirFuture1997.pdf">McGaw reforms</a> were introduced in 1999. </p>
<p>More students are undertaking the more demanding English courses and more students are achieving Band 6, the highest level possible in their HSC.</p>
<p>There is no evidence for declining standards in the ATAR senior English courses as a reason for this reform. </p>
<p>Of course, curriculum renewal is an essential and welcome process for ensuring optimal learning experiences and engagement for each new generation of students – provided that this renewal is based on evidence that clearly demonstrates the need for such reforms. </p>
<h2>What’s missing?</h2>
<p>The syllabus was released without two vital components that teachers need to fully evaluate and interpret the syllabus: the prescribed text list and the examination specifications. Without these, it is impossible to speculate on the range of texts available for study or subject to examination.</p>
<p>What is apparent in the syllabus, however, is that students will be required to study fewer texts.</p>
<h2>Fewer texts</h2>
<p>It has come as quite a surprise to English teachers to read that “the Bard is back”, given his drama has been a compulsory part of the higher-level English courses in NSW since 1911.</p>
<p>The Bard never went AWOL in NSW. Likewise, the claim that “classic” texts will now be mandatory is simply misinformation when the English text lists for the past 20 years have included more than 60% of titles that can be categorised as “great literature”.</p>
<p>In the previous Standard English course, students studied four mandatory texts: fiction, drama, poetry and either nonfiction or film or media or multimedia. </p>
<p>In the new syllabus, this has been reduced to three mandatory texts, with the removal of the mandatory study of fiction and poetry. Fiction and poetry are now options for Year 12 students.</p>
<p>In the Advanced English course, where students previously studied five mandatory texts (fiction, Shakespearean drama, poetry, drama or film, and either nonfiction or media or multimedia), they will now study only four mandatory texts. Again, fiction and poetry are optional.</p>
<p>Since 1911, all senior students in NSW have been required to study the core literary categories of fiction, poetry and drama. Now, for the first time in our history, students can complete Year 12 without having read a novel or poetry.</p>
<p>The syllabus and other documents pertaining to the reforms do not provide any evidence-based rationale for the removal of this requirement. </p>
<p>It is curious that we will now have an English curriculum in NSW that requires more literary engagement and rigour in Years 7-10 than in Year 12.</p>
<h2>Repeating history?</h2>
<p>The previous reforms to the HSC (in the 1990s) were prompted by serious concerns about the flight of students from the more challenging senior English courses to the “soft” option of a theme-based course that did not require sustained textual study. </p>
<p>Many of us can recall the crisis surrounding this two-unit contemporary English course, whereby very capable students were opting for the less rigorous course, earning high marks and thus maximising their HSC English result and ATAR. </p>
<p>Since the McGaw reforms, no such option has been available to students. <a href="https://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ebos/static/ebos_stats.html">Rigour had been maintained</a> and in fact strengthened. The <a href="https://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/">NESA website</a> provides enrolment statistics showing increases in candidature in the more rigorous, higher-level English courses, including strong enrolments in English Extension courses.</p>
<p>This new syllabus, however, will rewind the clock and trigger a repetition of the disastrous situation played out in English in the 1980s and 1990s. </p>
<p>Students can now elect to study the English (Standard) or the English (Advanced) courses.</p>
<p>Rather than electing to enrol in the more rigorous Advanced and Standard HSC English courses, students can undertake a far less demanding English Studies course. Prior to this new syllabus, this was a non-ATAR course. It was designed for students not wishing to proceed to university. There was no external examination in this course.</p>
<p>Now, any student can elect to enrol in the English Studies course and will be eligible for an ATAR. </p>
<p>In the high-stakes crucible of the HSC, it is a no-brainer that we will again see a stampede of students choosing the less rigorous English course to attain their two units of English. </p>
<p>They’d be mad not to. There is no incentive to undertake the more rigorous courses. NESA has not provided any reason for proceeding with this change, which flies in the face of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309133725_Whither_the_place_of_literature">research evidence</a> and informed advice from the profession.</p>
<p>The full extent of the revisions, and their implications for teachers and students, will only be apparent when the syllabus can be read in concert with the prescribed text list and examination requirements, which ultimately drive the quality of teaching and learning in senior English in NSW.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackie Manuel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the first time since 1911, students in NSW can now complete Year 12 without having read a novel or poetry.Jackie Manuel, Associate Professor, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/719882017-02-13T03:04:27Z2017-02-13T03:04:27ZMainstream schools need to take back responsibility for educating disengaged students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155597/original/image-20170206-18741-j3ps0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many young people drop out or are excluded from mainstream schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/educating-australia-35445">this series</a> we’ll explore how to improve schools in Australia. Some of the most prominent experts in the sector tackle key questions, including why we are not seeing much progress; whether we are assessing children in the most effective way; why parents need to listen to what the evidence tells us, and much more.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Mainstream schools need to take back responsibility of educating all students, even those who have temporarily become disengaged in education. </p>
<p>An alternative education sector has rapidly expanded in recent decades as Australian federal and state policies have sought to keep disengaged and vulnerable young people in education.</p>
<p>Over 900 plus so-called flexible learning programs are operating throughout the country, within and outside mainstream schools, catering for more than <a href="http://dusseldorp.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Victoria-Institue-1-7-MB2.pdf">70,000 students</a> each year.</p>
<p>The growth of this sector can be seen as both a reflection of changing labour markets – paired with <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-get-young-people-into-work-we-first-need-to-understand-how-the-workplace-is-changing-65394">rising youth unemployment</a> – and a pragmatic response to <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-we-expelling-too-many-children-from-australian-schools-65162">exclusion practices</a> by education systems that are focused on academic achievement and outcomes. </p>
<p>Exclusion from school places makes vulnerable young people at <a href="http://apo.org.au/research/family-factors-early-school-leaving.pdf">greater risk</a> of long term unemployment, dependence on welfare, mental health issues and social isolation. </p>
<p>Young people unable to attend mainstream education then need to look for an educational alternative that addresses the complexity of their lives and needs. </p>
<h2>Can these students still get a good education?</h2>
<p>With success increasingly defined through <a href="http://www.myschool.edu.au/">league tables</a> and comparison of schools through national tests such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/naplan-results-reveal-little-change-in-literacy-and-numeracy-performance-here-are-some-key-takeaway-findings-70208">National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)</a>, a growing number (around 70,000) are no longer able to maintain their education in the mainstream system. </p>
<p>Many young people drop out or are <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-we-expelling-too-many-children-from-australian-schools-65162">excluded</a>. This is often because of their feelings of rejection and disillusionment with a system that fails to recognise the impacts of disadvantage, related social and mental health issues, and family trauma. </p>
<p>Ideally, alternative programs offer the potential of a curriculum that is individualised and relevant to their lived experiences. They offer:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>practical skills such as basic carpentry, motor maintenance or food preparation;</p></li>
<li><p>authentic learning experiences, which include real life tasks that are relevant to the student’s lived experience and facilitate success. For example, practical maths activities related to cooking and catering projects;</p></li>
<li><p>flexible learning that enables students to work at their own pace in small group or one-to-one situations;</p></li>
<li><p>a curriculum based on real-life scenarios, such as researching aspects of their local communities;</p></li>
<li><p>schooling that addresses the biological and developmental impacts of trauma before focusing on relationship-building and engagement with learning;</p></li>
<li><p>welfare and counselling support, which could include, for example, a school day consisting of two hours of counselling and two hours of classes.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Types of alternative education programs</h2>
<p>Alternative education activities in Australia fall into <a href="http://education.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1962718/User_croftsj_Stokes_26_Turnbull_Final_Web_18-5-16.pdf">three broad categories</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Programs within mainstream schools. These are usually aimed at keeping young people connected to school. Some are supported by philanthropic organisations, others by government initiatives.</p></li>
<li><p>Programs within Technical and Further Education (TAFE) or Adult and Continuing Education (ACE), such as Victorian Certificate of Alternative Learning (VCAL) (Years 11 and 12) or Certificate of General Education for Adults (to Year 10 level). </p></li>
<li><p>Standalone programs: often referred to as Flexible Learning Options (FLO). These programs operate either within mainstream settings but on separate sites or as separate schools in their own right. They typically offer alternative Year 9 to 12 options and/or curriculum and welfare support designed to meet the specific needs of their students, such as responding to the impact of trauma. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Such programs have the potential to support students at risk of disengaging entirely from mainstream education, but also to promote the resilience and well-being of all young people in mainstream schooling. This leads, in turn, to whole-school change that will benefit all students.</p>
<p>Many of the programs grapple with the delivery of a rigorous curriculum, the expectation of student academic achievement, and creating opportunities for students to return to mainstream education and training. </p>
<h2>Taking back responsibility</h2>
<p>Mainstream education needs to take back responsibility for adequately catering to the needs of a growing sector of marginalised young people, and learn to work in partnership with alternative education providers and community-based organisations to better support students. </p>
<p>One thing to consider is whether these sites of education offer a distinctive developmental approach that should influence curriculum and pedagogical design more widely.</p>
<p>Within the alternative sector, greater transparency is needed around curriculum and instructional quality, combined with better data on enrolments, course completion, and program outcomes. </p>
<p>We also need more consistent funding practices (many programs are dependent on the uncertainty of short-term grant allocations) and professional skills development.</p>
<p>These variables, consistently monitored and supported by effective local partnership between agencies, would contribute to a cultural shift in which Australian schools come to provide meaningful education for all young people, not just those engaged in the mainstream.</p>
<hr>
<p>• <em>The authors explore this theme further in a new book called <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/items/165663">Educating Australia: Challenges for the Decade Ahead</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fragmentation, inconsistency and a lack of accountability between alternative education providers means not all young people get access to a good education.Helen Stokes, Associate professor, The University of MelbourneMalcolm Turnbull, Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/721892017-02-12T19:10:13Z2017-02-12T19:10:13ZFactCheck: is Australia below the international average when it comes to school funding?<blockquote>
<p>Australia is slightly below average when it comes to international funding for our schools. <strong>– Tanya Plibersek, shadow minister for education, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/grade-one-diagnostic-tests-opposed-by-labor-education-union/news-story/8d85ad948bcee3e0535e2d669bd36547">speaking to journalists</a>, January 29, 2017</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Current school funding arrangements <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">run out at the end of this year</a>, and schools need to know what will replace them. So we can expect to hear arguments over how much funding different parts of government should provide, how funding should grow over time, and how it should be allocated. </p>
<p>Before entering those challenging discussions, it helps to agree on some baseline facts. Tanya Plibersek, shadow minister for education, recently told reporters that Australia is slightly below average when it comes to international funding for our schools.</p>
<p>Is that right?</p>
<h2>Checking the source</h2>
<p>When asked for sources to support her statement, a spokesman for Tanya Plibersek referred The Conversation to OECD data showing that Australia’s per student spending as a percentage of per capita GDP is 18% for primary compared to the OECD average of 22%, and 23% for secondary compared to the OECD average of 25%. </p>
<p>These figures come directly from <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888933397510">Table B1.4</a> of the OECD’s <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/education-at-a-glance-19991487.htm"><em>Education at a Glance 2016</em></a> report. This report is used as the source of most figures in this FactCheck.</p>
<p>The metric that Plibersek uses clearly supports her claim and comes from a reliable source. But there are other ways to measure school funding and compare Australia’s spend with other developed countries.</p>
<p>This FactCheck will focus on recurrent funding from federal and state/territory governments, the crux of Australian school funding debates <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/schoolfunding">since at least the 1970s</a>. Capital investment – such as on new buildings or new schools – is excluded. Private funding is an important source of income for many schools, but by its nature is beyond the control of education ministers. </p>
<h2>How should we compare funding levels?</h2>
<p>Australia should be compared to other developed countries. This most often means the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/about/membersandpartners/list-oecd-member-countries.htm">35 countries</a> that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). </p>
<p>Countries have vastly different numbers of students, and students in some countries stay in school longer than in others. Wage rates also vary greatly across countries. </p>
<p>To account for these differences, there are different ways to compare education funding. </p>
<p>There is no ideal metric, but comparing education funding to GDP probably gives the most accurate picture: it is more stable over time, because it does not rely on exchange rate conversions, and it reflects, at least in part, differences in wages.</p>
<h2>Slightly below OECD average when expressed as a share of GDP</h2>
<p>As a share of GDP, Australia’s allocation of government money to schools is slightly below the OECD average. Australia spent <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/education-at-a-glance-19991487.htm">3.2% of GDP</a> on school education in 2013, slightly below the OECD average of 3.4%. </p>
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<p>So, measured this way, the data support Plibersek’s assertion. </p>
<p>Looking at the population mix provides further support, because Australia has relatively more <a href="https://data.oecd.org/pop/young-population.htm">young people than the OECD average</a>, and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-you-worry-about-a-schools-shortage-it-really-depends-on-where-you-live-53296">booming school-age population</a>. </p>
<p>For example, only 143 Koreans out of every 1,000 are under the age of 15, compared to 188 Australians. So while Korea spends marginally less on school education as a percentage of GDP than Australia (3.1% vs 3.2%) the reality is that Korea spends a much higher proportion of GDP per student than Australia. </p>
<p>The metric cited by Plibersek takes differences in population mix into account, but is harder to interpret than a simple comparison of funding to GDP. </p>
<p>And measuring funding in different ways may give a different picture.</p>
<p>For example, if private spending (meaning school fees) is included in the same metric, Australian spending on schooling is just above the OECD average (3.9% versus 3.7%). This reflects the relatively high proportion of fee-paying non-government schools in Australia compared to most OECD countries.</p>
<h2>Direct per student funding gives a mixed picture</h2>
<p>Per student funding metrics can be used to directly compare the amount of money being provided in support of the average student. But these are fraught, because some countries are richer than others and because exchange rates fluctuate over time. That’s partly why I think comparing education funding to GDP (as in the chart above) is a more accurate reflection.</p>
<p>The most recent <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888933397510">OECD data</a> give a mixed picture of per student spending, showing (when rounded) that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Australia spent slightly less in 2013 than the average OECD country on primary school students: US$8,300 versus US$8,500</p></li>
<li><p>Australia spent about 10% more than the average OECD country on secondary school students: US$10,900 versus US$9,800 </p></li>
<li><p>Over the expected duration of schooling, the cumulative spend per student was about 16% higher in Australia than the OECD average. This is because Australian students stay in school longer than in many other countries.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>A higher proportion of total government spending</h2>
<p>Comparing education funding to total government expenditure makes Australia’s relative spend on education look artificially high, since <a href="https://data.oecd.org/gga/general-government-spending.htm">Australian government expenditure as a percentage of GDP is among the lowest in the OECD</a> even if superannuation is included <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/601-CALF-size-of-gonvernment.pdf">(see page 14 of this report)</a>. </p>
<p>The data show 9.7% of government spending in Australia goes on schooling. This is higher than the OECD average of 8.0%. </p>
<p>Indeed, it ranks us equal sixth out of 33 OECD countries for which these data are available. This may well be the source of federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham’s claim that Australia’s spend on schools is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-16/government-to-reconsider-school-funding-global-education-report/7850746">“among the top of the pack in terms of investment”</a>. </p>
<h2>Verdict</h2>
<p>Was Tanya Plibersek right to say “Australia is slightly below average when it comes to international funding for our schools”?</p>
<p>It all depends on how you measure it – but, yes, she is basically correct.</p>
<p>OECD data show that Australia’s per student spending as a percentage of per capita GDP is below the OECD average. </p>
<p>And as a share of GDP, Australia spent <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/education-at-a-glance-19991487.htm">3.2% of GDP</a> on school education in 2013, slightly below the OECD average of 3.4%. Measuring funding this way gives the clearest picture, in my view.</p>
<p>Measuring funding in different ways gives a different picture, as explained above, and some approaches show Australia ahead of other developed countries. But measuring Australian government spending on schools as a share of GDP gives an easy, accurate and stable metric for international comparison, and supports Plibersek’s claim. <strong>– Peter Goss</strong></p>
<hr>
<h2>Review</h2>
<p>This article accurately depicts relevant OECD data. Using this data, it shows Tanya Plibersek’s comment to be accurate. </p>
<p>As an aside, however, it is important to keep in mind that Plibersek’s comments and related OECD data focus only on nation-to-nation comparisons. Yet in Australia’s federal system of governance there are significant differences between levels of school funding when comparing states and territories, and also schooling sectors. </p>
<p>Plibersek’s focus on Australia as a whole is certainly useful for understanding where Australia “sits” in comparison to other OECD nations. But to engage fully with a debate about Australian school funding arrangements, close attention is needed to how federal funding interacts with sub-national systems and sectors. <strong>– Glenn C. Savage</strong></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn C. Savage receives funding from the ARC.</span></em></p>Tanya Plibersek, shadow minister for education, told reporters recently that Australia is slightly below average when it comes to international funding for our schools. Is that right?Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.