NSW Parliament Report Rejects Private School Claims on Funding for Students With Disabilities

Posted on Wednesday July 21, 2010

In a major blow to private school organisations a NSW parliamentary committee report has rejected their claims that students with disabilities in private schools are under-funded in comparison to government schools. The report recommends increased in funding for students with disabilities in government schools but not for private schools. >> Read on...

New Evidence of Massive Achievement Gaps Between Rich and Poor in Australia

Posted on Friday July 16, 2010

New studies show massive achievement gaps between rich and poor students in Australia. Students from low income families enrolled in low socio-economic status schools are nearly four years behind students from high income families in high socio-economic status schools in reading, mathematics and science. >> Read on...

Social Segregation in Schools Blights Children and Society

Posted on Tuesday July 13, 2010

Social segregation between schools is increasing in Australia. Its effect will be to reduce the results of students from disadvantaged families, increase the achievement gap between students from rich and poor families and undermine the potential for different social groups in Australia to learn, work and live together with tolerance and mutual understanding. >> Read on...

Impassioned Call to Defend Public Education

Posted on Friday July 9, 2010

An impassioned call to defend public education by Diane Ravitch, author of the best-selling book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. >> Read on...

SOS Calls for My School to be Scrapped

Posted on Thursday July 8, 2010

Save Our Schools has called for the My School website to be scrapped in a 125-page, five-part submission to the Senate Education Committee inquiry into reporting school literacy and numeracy test results. >> Read on...

Published School Results and League Tables are Misleading and Unreliable

Posted on Monday July 5, 2010

A new research paper published by Save Our Schools disputes the Federal Government’s claims that publishing school results on the My School website will better inform parent choice of school. The paper shows that published school results and league tables are misleading and unreliable as a guide to school quality. >> Read on...

Seven Principles of Education Change

Posted on Saturday July 3, 2010

A group of teachers called Teachers Letters to Obama has presented the President with an alternative vision based on seven principles of education change. It would be a good place to start for the Gillard Government as well. >> Read on...

Another Study Shows that Charter Schools do no Better than Traditional Public Schools

Posted on Friday July 2, 2010

Another report has found that charter schools in the United States do no better in increasing student results than traditional public schools. It adds to the accumulating evidence that charter schools are not the answer to better results.< >> Read on...

The Alchemy of School Results

Posted on Wednesday June 30, 2010

Published school results are a modern-day form of alchemy. They bear no relationship to reality as schools more and more manipulate their results to look better. >> Read on...

Does Competition Improve Performance?

Posted on Sunday June 27, 2010

Does competition improve performance? An interesting experiment suggests that it encourages cheating, especially by low performers. >> Read on...

Stronger Requirements for Consideration of School Closure Proposals

Posted on Saturday June 26, 2010

Amendments to the ACT Education Act passed in the ACT Legislative Assembly should ensure a better consultation process around school closure proposals and ensure a much fuller analysis of the impact of proposed school closures. >> Read on...

Publishing School Results and League Tables Harm Education

Posted on Friday June 25, 2010

Far from improving education, publication of school results and league tables are likely to significantly harm education. Overseas studies show that they narrow the curriculum, distort teaching, reduce collaboration and increase inequity in education, among other effects. >> Read on...

Publication of School Results Does Not Improve Student Achievement

Posted on Thursday June 24, 2010

A new SOS research paper reviews the major studies on the impact of publishing school results, school accountability measures and policies to promote greater choice and competition between schools. It shows that the Government’s claim that publishing school results will improve student achievement is not substantiated by the evidence. >> Read on...

The Great School Accountability Hoax

Posted on Monday June 21, 2010

School accountability in the United States is a great hoax according to Diane Ravitch. >> Read on...

Ministers Admit that Security for NAPLAN Tests is Inadequate

Posted on Friday June 18, 2010

Australian education ministers have conceded that security for the NAPLAN tests is inadequate and needs to be improved. But as long as NAPLAN has high stakes attached to it the cheating and rorting will continue and My School will continue to mislead about school performance. >> Read on...

Teacher Performance Pay has not Increased Student Results

Posted on Wednesday June 16, 2010

Evaluation reports on the major teacher performance pay programs trialled in the United States in recent years generally show that performance pay does not increase student results. >> Read on...

New York’s Declining Standards Exposed

Posted on Saturday June 12, 2010

Julia Gillard’s much admired New York City school reporting system is a mockery of accountability and transparency. The cut-off scores for the proficiency standard have been reduced in recent years. Now, it is revealed that students are getting credits for wrong answers and no answers in the state tests. >> Read on...

Teach for America is Not the Success Claimed

Posted on Friday June 11, 2010

The likely success of Teach for Australia has been brought into question by a new report on Teach for America. The report found that research evidence shows that credentialed beginning teachers have better student results than Teach for America teachers. >> Read on...

Growing Corporate Control of Education Policy

Posted on Tuesday June 8, 2010

Large corporations and wealthy private foundations are gaining increasing control over US education policy to further the agenda of more competition and privatization of education. It is leading to the dismantling of public education. There are calls for corporate Australia to similarly transform Australian education. >> Read on...

Performance Pay Scheme Fails to Improve Student Results

Posted on Saturday June 5, 2010

One of the most ambitious efforts to link teacher pay to student achievement in the United States has done little to improve test scores or retain teachers according to an independent study released this week. >> Read on...

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