Tapping Into What Makes Teachers Tick

Posted on Friday February 17, 2012

A report finds that performance pay fails to increase student achievement because it ignores the things that teachers care about most such as working conditions, access to resources, supportive teaching and learning environment and good leadership. >> 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...

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...

High Teacher Turnover in Teach for America

Posted on Wednesday October 19, 2011

New research shows that the majority of teachers in Teach for America leave teaching after 3 years. The attrition rate is much higher than for traditionally trained new teachers. < >> Read on...

Business Writer Defends Teacher Unions

Posted on Monday October 10, 2011

A business writer makes the case for teacher unions. >> Read on...

Teacher Bonuses Fail Again

Posted on Thursday July 21, 2011

Yet another study has shown that paying performance bonuses to teachers does not improve student achievement or change teaching practices. There is now overwhelming evidence that the Gillard Government’s teacher bonus scheme is doomed to failure and will be a waste of money. >> Read on...

Forced Grade Retention and Student Transfers Lead to Lower and More Inequitable Results

Posted on Saturday July 16, 2011

Countries in which more students are forced to repeat grades or are expelled tend to have lower overall results and more socially inequitable education systems according to a new analysis of international test results. >> Read on...

Teacher Turnover Harms Student Achievement

Posted on Tuesday July 12, 2011

A new study from the United States shows that teacher turnover in schools lowers student achievement, especially for low performing and black students. >> Read on...

Gillard and Garrett Ignore the Evidence Against Teacher Bonuses

Posted on Monday May 30, 2011

Nothing more clearly demonstrates that education policy under the Gillard Government is an evidence-free zone than its teacher bonus scheme. Three new academic studies show that teacher bonuses do not increase student achievement and may actually cause it to decline. >> Read on...

Competition for Test Results is not the Way We Should be Heading

Posted on Thursday May 5, 2011

Maralyn Parker is right on the money about teacher bonuses. She says that competition between teachers for test results is not the way we should be heading. >> Read on...

Performance pay for teachers is a terrible idea and here’s why

Posted on Tuesday May 3, 2011

The overwhelming evidence from both England and the United States is that the Prime Minister’s performance pay initiative is a really bad idea. >> Read on...

Train Teachers as Education Researchers Says OECD Report

Posted on Monday April 18, 2011

A new OECD report says that the most successful countries in school education make teaching an attractive, high status profession, and provide training for teachers to become educational innovators and researchers who have responsibility for reform. >> Read on...

Teacher Performance Pay is Another Stunning Joel Klein Failure

Posted on Monday March 14, 2011

Another study shows that teacher incentive pay fails to improve student achievement. >> Read on...

Another Study Shows that Teacher Performance Pay Doesn’t Raise Test Scores

Posted on Thursday September 23, 2010

The most rigorous study of performance-based teacher pay ever conducted in the United States shows that it does not improve student results. This and other recent studies indicate that the Gillard Government’s plan to pay cash bonuses to the best performing teachers in Australia is likely to be a complete waste of money. >> Read on...

Expert Report Slams Value-Added Ratings of Teachers

Posted on Monday September 6, 2010

Value-added ratings of teachers have been slammed in a new report by education measurement experts in the United States. The report says that the ratings are highly error-prone, will lead to unreliable and unfair assessments and will have significant harmful consequences. >> Read on...

The Research Consensus on Value-Added Ratings of Teachers

Posted on Saturday September 4, 2010

The broad consensus amongst researchers is that value-added measurement of teacher performance should not be used for high stakes decisions on pay, evaluation and tenure. >> Read on...

League Tables of Teachers Published

Posted on Thursday September 2, 2010

A controversy has erupted in the United States over the publication of performance ratings of individual teachers. >> Read on...

Curriculum Matters as Well as Teachers

Posted on Tuesday August 24, 2010

The measurement of value added by teachers for the award of bonuses for increasing students’ test scores is likely to be confounded by curriculum effects. Some curriculum programs have a greater effect on student achievement than others according to a new study. >> Read on...

Measures of Value Added by Teachers and Schools Have Large Errors

Posted on Friday August 20, 2010

High performing teachers and schools could miss out on proposed bonus payments while average teachers and schools are wrongly rated as highly effective because of large errors in measures of value added to student test results by teachers. >> Read on...

Duels of Faith in Teacher Bonuses

Posted on Monday August 16, 2010

Both a Labor and a Coalition Government will implement teacher bonus schemes without regard to the evidence that cash bonuses for teachers have little impact on student achievement. Once again, faith rules over evidence in formulating education policy. >> Read on...

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