TOP STORY
Putting money where young mouths are
US longitudinal studies reveal the significance of kindergarten and early primary learning as contributors to adult lifestyle and greater social cohesion. The key to learning success revolves around the classroom teacher. Read More...TOP STORY
Will the Sun rise tomorrow?
Media comment on education’s future under an Abbott Government is influenced more by parochial, partisan politics than by comprehensive school reform. The Coalition’s education strategy remains inconclusive and poorly presented to an electorate seeking direction and purpose for this core social concern. Read More...TOP STORY
Race to the bottom
The race for the US funding dollar will foreshadow massive inequality in school operations. Does the US public school model have implications for funding policies in Australia and student learning outcomes generally? Read More...TOP STORY
Play it again Sam
The US administration’s rush to implement education reform demonstrates a striking similarity with the Australian Government’s hastily administered BER school policy. In either country it seems school implementation and administrative problems abound. Read More...TOP STORY
Who’s being secretive with school funding?
The Sydney Morning Herald chooses to ‘out’ certain independent schools for secrecy over the use of recurrent funds yet it turned a blind eye to the BER funding excesses of government using taxpayer funds. Shame. Read More...TOP STORY
All ‘quiet’ on the school funding front?
Schools can rebut financial surpluses citing the need to plan and delivery quality student education facilities and projects but no such media reporting rationale exists for equivalent public schools. Read More...TOP STORY
Riding the electoral elevator
Minority government will see political alliances emerge that will initiate fundamental changes in policy outcomes. The Greens's 2010 electoral success will see them emerge as the political power brokers not only in formulating education policy over the next three years but more critically into and beyond the 2013 election. Read More...TOP STORY
Going Green could send education into the red
The Greens, and their longer term influence on education reform and revised school funding, remain an unknown quantity in relation to modifications to the current SES funding model for independent schools. Read More...TOP STORY
Popularism – who wins, who’s involved
Limited debate on education has occurred leading into the election. Labor claims it’s the party of education reform. The Coalition does little more than harangue the electorate for the waste and mismanagement of flawed government policy implementation. Read More...TOP STORY
Concerns over BER cost comparisons
Costing differentials for BER public school projects hit taxpayers of children attending independent schools. Such deplorable financial waste is unconscionable. Read More...TOP STORY
Targeting education policy - consent or acquiescence?
Aggressive, big target education reform by the ALP contrasts with the diminishing target approach of the Coalition. Debating issues of ALP waste requires alternate policies and programs to avoid the Coalition becoming a small target spoiler that cares little for constructive school reform. Read More...TOP STORY
More cash to feed the education cow
Ms Gillard leads the education charge with announcements of school and teacher bonuses, plus a plan to implement an Australian Baccalaureate for Year 12 certification. Read More...TOP STORY
Balancing BER waste … but it’s still waste
Waste in the BER rollout is not really waste according to SMH economist Ross Gittins, it’s just the result of speedy implementation of a necessary fiscal stimulus package. We call that a waste of rational economic justification. Read More...TOP STORY
BER shame and shambles
The Government dismissingly glosses over the BER administrative failures but questions need to be asked in relation to the eventual impact of the program which has yet to run its full fiscal course. Read More...TOP STORY
Newspaper seeks funding change: but will any change do?
Newspaper editorial takes an each way bet on recurrent funding changes while chastising the ALP for not reforming this contentious schooling issue. Would an Abbott Government be any different? Read More...TOP STORY
Show us the money
Calls by the AUE to inject over $14 billion of government funding into public high schools lack credibility and smacks of sheer political expediency. Read More...TOP STORY
Playing semantics with recurrent funding
Education Minister Crean has said no school will ‘lose a dollar of funding’ in a re-elected Labor Government. He hasn’t said if recurrent funding will be stabilised which amounts to a funding reduction in practical terms. Read More...TOP STORY
AEU dog refuses to drop funding bone
The Australian Education Union, via its captive school funding authority Dr Jim McMorrow, will maintain pressure on government to review the school recurrent funding question. Independent school funding will remain a bone of contention irrespective of the election outcome. Read More...TOP STORY
Removing the education gloss
Media education commentators fail to acknowledge the deep seated difficulties associated with a government philosophy that sees fiscal allocation as the only requirement to achieve lasting education reform. Read More...TOP STORY
The Greening of education
The federal election could herald a more pervasive influence on independent school funding if hard-line Greens education policy is implemented based on the party holding the balance of power in the Senate beyond July 2011. Read More...TOP STORY
‘It’s the same old song’
Commentators continue to raise issues concerning school funding. Such commentary generally highlights the more obvious differences between public and private schools which inevitably places pressure on government for funding changes into the next quadrennial. Read More...TOP STORY
School tax rebate avoids serious education reform
The increased education tax rebate announced by Mr Abbott seeks to diminish the Government’s electoral edge in education rather than providing a tangible vision for improved primary and secondary schooling. Is this policy just an election gimmick dressed up as sound educational reform for an opposition struggling to find traction in the school education stakes? Read More...TOP STORY
Bludgeoning US education change
The US federal administration is demanding greater levels of student and staffing compliance under the guise of funding allocations or grant opportunities. A Vermont elementary school principal bore the brunt of dictatorial education reform from Washington. Could equivalent federal compliance on Australian schools be required from Canberra in the future? Read More...TOP STORY
Gillard Vs Abbott – an education perspective
As Australians face an electoral decision on 21 August both party leaders are shadow sparring to not offend voters by being too extreme. Lack of vision and electoral myopia will dominate both parties that are struggling to achieve an identity to an electorate fast switching off each leader. Read More...TOP STORY
Room to manoeuvre in funding review guidelines
The government’s review of school funding provides a broad brush overview of funding directives. All important detail needs more concerted documentation to offset concern among independent schools that therein hides the educational devil. Read More...TOP STORY
On the money trail
Government funding allocations to education and other social services highlight the need for effective management controls. Should the funding recipient manage this responsibility or is government oversight necessary to ensure adequate and proper funding control? Read More...TOP STORY
Education ‘apartheid’ segregates its proponent
Divisive views on school hierarchy and enrolment selectivity contribute little to what should constitute a more constructive debate on improving overall school student performance. Read More...TOP STORY
Tracking BER waste projections
Complaints on the BER funding program will be effectively downgraded by a government effectively moving on to other policy issues leading into the 2010 federal election. Read More...TOP STORY
Education ‘apartheid’ claim highly dubious
NSW selective and independent schools can hardly be described as creating an education apartheid when governments fail to address the learning needs of all comprehensive institutions. Read More...TOP STORY
Funding remains on the media agenda
Despite the government’s efforts to diminish sector differences on resourcing school funding, issues continue to bubble just below the surface of public interest according to some education commentators. Read More...TOP STORY
Which way the education debate?
Education Minister Crean may be a competent politician but he assumes a portfolio that has been dominated by his predecessor. Most of the heavy lifting has already been undertaken which indicates a more passive administrative role for Minister Crean. This situation will change depending on the federal election outcome, perhaps in October. Read More...TOP STORY
Balancing communication and delivery
The negative qualities which characterised the Rudd Government will need to be expunged by Prime Minister Gillard otherwise her government will be judged by similar standards which claimed the political life of her predecessor. Read More...TOP STORY
Rolling out the BER (pork) barrel
While the BER funding fiasco has implied political consequences its longer term education outcomes will simply exacerbate distinctions between education sectors. Read More...TOP STORY
Putting the payment cart before the performance horse
While teacher bonus payments seek to reward quality professionals more concerted review needs to determine improved teaching practices to highlight the good, the bad and the ugly who search for teaching’s golden outcome. Read More...TOP STORY
BER wrangles continue
While BER funding may provide better rain shelters stories of inadequate funding management abound. The money allocated into resourse improvement has failed to consider adequate and progressive policies to actually improve teaching and learning qualities. Read More...TOP STORY
Budget. What budget?
While the 2010 Federal Budget produced few surprises and no real funding increases for education in-built funding trends towards skills and VET learning programs pose longer term questions for Australia’s clever country mantle. Read More...TOP STORY
Yes Minister audit outcome
The National Audit Office’s report on the BER P21 service provisions provided a furtive analysis of the government’s management of school funding allocations. An investigative review of the effectiveness of such funding will reveal more contentious questions, provided the Minister is prepared to reveal the details. Read More...TOP STORY
Education’s ultimate politicisation
The NAPLAN test implementation outcome highlights the politicisation of schooling reform and the jockeying for power by government and education participants. Read More...TOP STORY
Exploding MySchool myths
Professor Reid exposes myths promulgated by the Government’s suggestion its MySchool website offers a panacea to select schools, evaluate school performance and improve overall schooling quality in Australian education. Read More...TOP STORY
Glowing comments on funding put into perspective
Ministerial comments on new quadrennium school funding commencing in 2013 involve a total revamp of federal funding support across all school sectors. Complacency by non-government schools that their current funding arrangements will remain unchanged should be seriously addressed, especially by schools deemed to be already well resourced, strongly staff and enjoying modern facilities. Read More...TOP STORY
School's performance battleground
Commentary on schools continues to highlight the extreme, polarised positions of its combatants. Appreciating education’s qualities and the dedication of its teaching professionals appear to be the collateral damage victims within schooling’s increasingly entrenched debate. Read More...TOP STORY
Auditing the auditor – politicising the BER
The Government is attempting to whitewash BER cost overruns by instigating a taskforce process that reports to the Education Minister. Such in-house justification for its failing project management will not wash with electors and the media who are becoming increasingly concerned with such massive waste of taxpayer funds for certain school improvements. Read More...TOP STORY
AEU brinkmanship on NAPLAN tests
Predictably the Australian Education Union takes its fight to the government by boycotting school NAPLAN testing. Read More...TOP STORY
Indian giver or funding bully?
Government funding directives regarding health and education indicate Canberra aims to exert significantly increased compliance and oversight into funding basic national social services. Read More...TOP STORY
Party pooping in the ALP
Political criticism within the ALP hides deeper infighting that questions the effectiveness of the Government’s MySchool website. Read More...TOP STORY
Looking back an inadequate substitute to go forward
While the Opposition faces a quandary in questioning the Government’s BER mismanagement how can the Liberal Party justify its ‘return to the past’ approach to oppose current funding strategies when it offers no constructive, costed school policy alternative?
For what it's worth we offer some policy suggestions. Read More...
TOP STORY
Education devil in the teacher funded detail
A new recurrent funding model proposed by two Sydney University educationists raises serious repercussions for independent schools despite its tacit endorsement by The Sydney Morning Herald’s economics editor.
TOP STORY
Drawing a line under BER rorting
The Government needs to acknowledge its cost and expenditure accountability as the media reveals further cost blowouts to its school infrastructure policy. Read More...TOP STORY
Playing the disadvantage card is no trumped up excuse
The media portrays quality independent schools as misleading the public with its statements of student enrolment disadvantage. Contrary to the SMH article the role of USA donor foundations can provide education opportunity for the student demographic sector the newspaper claims is being mis-represented in the Australian independent school sector. Read More...TOP STORY
Quadrennial funding review timetable no clearer
Julia Gillard downplays the timing significance of impending quadrennial funding deliberations. School leaders are no nearer to knowing their school’s recurrent funding future beyond 2013. Read More...TOP STORY
Another chink in the funding armour
Primary school principals open funding's Pandora Box with proposals for major changes in the principles and processes involving government recurrent funds injections. Read More...TOP STORY
The Australian leads BER questioning. Opposition missing in action
Political parties assume trench warfare on the issue of managing the BER roll out program. Certain media activity fails to generate electoral concern in what is becoming an educational skirmish of attrition. Read More...TOP STORY
MySchool criticism from an unlikely source
Former ALP leader Mark Latham stings the government with accurate, withering comments regarding the limitations of the MySchool website. Read More...TOP STORY
Revolutionary change out of step with learning practice
Legislative desire for education change may inhibit the very practices on which learning and teaching improvements are based. Read More...TOP STORY
Flying high - a US ‘Education Revolution?’
The broad political appeal of school reform takes on a different meaning for schools and educationalists having to grapple with education policy changes by US and Australian governments. Read More...TOP STORY
A tale of two sectors
The ‘education revolution’ should not perpetuate societal differences between school sectors. Read More...TOP STORY
US moves towards national curriculum
US educators propose cross-state curriculum standardisation for English and maths in a broadly similar approach to the Rudd Government’s recently announced ACARA national curriculum proposals. Read More...TOP STORY
The mire of internationalism
The Baird Report reveals serious and troubling arrangements for international students undertaking post-school study in Australia. Read More...TOP STORY
Teaching the teacher
Allocating BER funding to schools pre-empts a long evaluative process to assess teaching quality and teacher professionalism in Australia. Notwithstanding its massive funding injection US education researchers have not yet found the ‘silver bullet’ to deliver improved teaching practices and heighten classroom professionalism. Read More...TOP STORY
An education revolution – which way education reform?
Substantive debate on national curriculum issues runs the risk of being lost in the minutia of subject detail and self interest power plays between education stakeholders. The biggest education 'player' - the federal government - needs to rise above such parochialism. Read More...TOP STORY
A fixation with comparisons
Expanding government education websites may provide solid IT growth prospects but offers limited evidence that the My website concept will actually improve education and learning quality. Read More...TOP STORY
Pressed into action
A glowing ministerial statement raises more issues than it answers following Education Minister Gillard’s address to the National Press Club. Read More...TOP STORY
Mixed messages in philanthropy
Corporations can underpin philanthropy as can a wider spread of donor support across all perceived wealth sectors. Read More...TOP STORY
Jesus – a Xavier alum?
Social commentator highlights attitudinal anomalies by the independent school sector towards national and international equity issues. Do such attitudes reveal a paucity of application among supposed church-based schools that claim strong Christian values? Read More...TOP STORY
Raising competencies with written literacy
Bland NAPLAN test results do not reveal the teaching intricacies associated with written English competencies nor the professional skills of teachers to improve their own legitimacy to assess and raise writing standards. Read More...TOP STORY
Bats in the belfry or political double speak?
The Education Minister either refuses – or is incapable – of answering specific issues for schools, a philosophy central to the Government’s desire to assist and respond to individual school need. Read More...TOP STORY
Is the public losing interest in education reform?
Limited public interest in funding allocations may reveal community disenchantment with Rudd Government education reforms that include the MySchool website. Read More...TOP STORY
Questions continue … answers not so forthcoming
Funding issues continue to be raised regarding the Government’s BER allocation program. The government continues to effectively marginalise – or ignore - such criticism. Read More...TOP STORY
Accountability, but who’s counting?
Government accountability standards for school and teacher performance is at odds with the government’s own performance in environment and education infrastructure management and program implementation. Read More...TOP STORY
Cyber-safety initiative welcome
The independent education sector is participating in a government-backed cyber-safety study. Hopefully its results can be incorporated into national education strategies and parenting support programs. Read More...TOP STORY
NAPLAN ranking – an educationalist comments
Dr John Collier highlights inadequacies in publishing MySchool’s NAPLAN results. Rather than broadening school and student assessment processes the data actually prescripts evaluation regarding educational change. Read More...TOP STORY
Bright lights – another Halley’s Comet
Commentators – and politicians – grasp for the media spotlight following the MySchool launch. Predictably the critics of independent schooling use the website’s details to promote their own dogmatic conclusions. Read More...TOP STORY
Revealing reasons for MySchool
School’s recurrent funding will remain a contentious by-product of the government’s MySchool website. Read More...TOP STORY
Assessing MySchool
The government’s Myschool website may provide a plethora of statistical information but will all this data actually improve overall student learning? We believe not. Read More...LATEST NEWS
Media moralising perpetuates school division
Reporting the MySchool NAPLAN test results reveals the media’s obsession with highlighting differences between public and independent schools. Register to read full story...In league with the media
Certain newspapers continue comparing government and non-government school NAPLAN results from the MySchool website, a divisive and potentially inaccurate measure of overall school performance. Register to read full story...MySchool – an overview
We summarise some overarching conclusions following the launch of the government’s MySchool website. Register to read full story...Member Login
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