The Game is Up on League Tables

Posted on Thursday January 26, 2012

The UK Government has attempted to stop schools “gaming” their results by concentrating on borderline students at the expense of high and low achieving students. >> Read on...

NAPLAN Results Highlight the Failure of Governments to Address Education Disadvantage

Posted on Wednesday January 25, 2012

The latest NAPLAN results show virtually no change in overall average results, in the results of disadvantaged students and in the large gaps between the results of disadvantaged and advantaged students. Governments are failing disadvantaged students and their families.< >> Read on...

US Education Dept. Acts on Cheating in Tests

Posted on Monday January 23, 2012

The US Education Department has become so worried about continuing cheating scandals in schools across the country that it has issued a public request for information about practices to prevent and detect cheating by schools on standardised tests. >> Read on...

Fee Increases Outstrip Cost Increases in Elite Private Schools in Queensland

Posted on Thursday January 19, 2012

School fees in Queensland’s elite private schools have increased by nearly 6% in 2012, well over cost increases of 3.9%. Eleven elite schools will get $57 million in Federal Government funding in 2012. >> Read on...

Several Schools Found to be Cheating in NAPLAN Tests

Posted on Tuesday January 17, 2012

Several teachers were found to have helped students with answers during last year’s NAPLAN tests. Several schools were also found to have encouraged some parents to withdraw their children from the tests. >> Read on...

High Attrition from Teach for Australia

Posted on Friday January 13, 2012

Nearly half of participants in the fast-track Teach for Australia program are no longer teaching after two years. This very high attrition rate could be compounding the problems of teacher turnover in disadvantaged schools. >> Read on...

Private School Funding Figures are a Shambles

Posted on Thursday January 12, 2012

The latest National Report on Schooling in Australia presents widely differing figures on private school funding. One series has private school funding increasing by 9% between 2005-06 and 2008-09 while the other shows an increase of 33%. One series has government funding of private schools increasing by less than government school funding while the other shows private school funding increasing much faster than government school funding. The report fails to explain these differences. < >> Read on...

Govt. Funding Increases Have Favoured the Wealthiest Schools

Posted on Monday January 9, 2012

New figures show that Australia’s wealthiest school sector received the biggest increases in government funding over much of the past decade. Government schools received the smallest increase. >> Read on...

National Equity Funding Programs are too ‘Hit and Miss’

Posted on Friday December 23, 2011

A study has identified significant problems with the Smarter Schools National Partnerships. The funding is small; it is not well targeted at students or schools and it is not being used in the most effective ways. >> Read on...

Fee Increases Outstrip Cost Increases in Elite Private Schools in Victoria

Posted on Monday December 19, 2011

School fees in Victoria’s elite private schools are set to increase by nearly 6% in 2012. At Geelong Grammar they will top $30,000 for the first time. Several others will pass $25,000 for the first time. Yet, they will rake in nearly $100 million in federal government funding in 2012. The Gonski Review of School Funding must put a stop to this upper class welfare.< >> Read on...

Now it is Exam Boards Caught Cheating

Posted on Wednesday December 14, 2011

A huge cheating scandal has erupted in Britain. Exam boards have been found to be routinely giving teachers information about future questions and areas of the syllabus that would be assessed. One examiner was secretly recorded as admitting that “we’re cheating”. >> Read on...

Devastating Critique of US Education Policies

Posted on Tuesday December 13, 2011

Diane Ravitch has made another devastating critique of market-based education policies in the United States, many of which have been copied by the Gillard Government. >> Read on...

Teachers Say the Curriculum is Being Narrowed by Testing

Posted on Monday December 12, 2011

A national survey of teachers in the United States has found that some core subjects have been effectively abandoned as a result of increased testing of literacy and mathematics.< >> Read on...

Private Schools Will Get a Funding Bonanza from Voucher Models

Posted on Thursday December 8, 2011

Voucher funding models proposed to the School Funding Review would deliver a massive funding boost to private schools and give them a huge resource advantage over government schools. The biggest funding increases would go to the wealthiest private schools. >> Read on...

Media Release: Outlandish Funding Bonanza for Private Schools

Posted on Wednesday December 7, 2011

A research report published by Save Our Schools finds that two voucher models of school funding proposed to the Gonski Review would deliver billions of dollars in additional funding for private schools and no increases for government schools. The largest increases will go to the wealthiest private schools. < >> Read on...

Education and Poverty: Confronting the Evidence and Policy Responses

Posted on Monday December 5, 2011

US scholar says that addressing the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children will require a broader and bolder approach to education policy than the recent efforts to improve education in the US.< >> Read on...

Wide-ranging Report on Improving the Schools Workforce

Posted on Sunday November 27, 2011

The Productivity Commission has published a wide-ranging and valuable draft report on the schools workforce. However, it is over-optimistic about the potential to design an effective bonus pay system for teachers and its support for school autonomy is more based on faith than evidence. >> Read on...

Teacher Librarians are Fast Disappearing

Posted on Thursday November 24, 2011

Australian students continue to lose teacher librarians and school libraries. A divide is developing between the schools which can afford one or more teacher librarians, and those where students have to rely on Google. >> Read on...

Students Taught Only Reading & Maths for a Year

Posted on Wednesday November 23, 2011

Students at an ‘exemplary’ Texas school were taught only reading and mathematics for most of last year in order to boost its test scores. >> Read on...

The Pressure is on the Gonksi Review to Deliver on Equity

Posted on Tuesday November 22, 2011

If the Gonski Review of school funding is to deliver on its own equity goal it must deliver a new school funding model that restricts funding for wealthy private schools and provide a large boost in funding for government schools. < >> Read on...

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