Fighting for Equity in Education
Author: sosaustralia
//Updated school funding figures published today by Save Our Schools show that government funding per student in private schools has far outstripped that for public schools over the past 15 years. SOS National Convenor, Trevor Cobbold, said that increases in government funding for many elite private schools has far exceeded that for many disadvantaged public schools.
//A new study has documented increasing social and cultural polarisation within the public school system. Not only are middle-class parents opting out of local public schools in favour of private schools, but they are also opting out of some public schools in favour of others. The study shows that the increasing divide is undermining multiculturalism.
Continue reading “The Increasing Ethnic Divide Between Schools Undermines Multiculturalism”
//An analysis published today by Save Our Schools (SOS) shows that the Federal Government has a potential revenue pool of at least $34 billion a year to finance the $7 billion needed to fund the last two years of the Gonski plan.
SOS National Convenor, Trevor Cobbold, said that the Government could easily fund Gonski by reducing several tax concessions to high income earners and by clamping down on rampant tax evasion by high income earners and large Australian and multinational corporations.
Continue reading “Media Release: Govt. Could Easily Fund Gonski Plan”//An analysis published today by Save Our Schools (SOS) shows that the Federal Government has a potential revenue pool of at least $34 billion a year to finance the $7 billion needed to fund the last two years of the Gonski plan.
SOS National Convenor, Trevor Cobbold, said that the Government could easily fund Gonski by reducing several tax concessions to high income earners and by clamping down on rampant tax evasion by high income earners and large Australian and multinational corporations. Continue reading “Government Could Easily Fund Gonski Plan”
//Closing public schools not only has a negative impact on student performance but also creates hardship for communities already struggling with disinvestment. The Stanford Centre for Opportunity Policy in Education, the Journey for Justice Alliance, and the Advancement Project sponsored a forum in December entitled “Closed for Learning: The Impact of School Closures” to brief members of the US Congress on the impact of community school closures in low-income neighbourhoods. The following is a brief prepared for the forum.
From the onset, the U.S. public education system has been wrought with challenges. It has never been a perfect system. Yet, for the past 15 years, the education reform movement has exploded – backed by investors and philanthropists that have sought to privatize education by capitalizing on our flawed accountability system and its over-reliance on high-stakes testing, high-stakes teacher evaluations, and high-stakes grading of schools.
Today, the interests of children of colour are being sidelined by the interests of philanthropists, hedge fund owners, and venture capitalists with their sights set on public education dollars and investments in inner-city neighbourhoods. The result has been massive takeovers of school districts and school closures across the country, particularly in Black and Brown neighbourhoods, which studies have found do not actually improve the academic futures of the displaced students they propose to help.
Continue reading “Closed for Learning: The Impact of School Closures on Students and Communities”
//Technology will revolutionize the classroom! I have been hearing these promises for most of my 20 year physics teaching career and yet there is scant high quality evidence for it. Cyber schools show little learning. The OECD found “no appreciable improvement in student achievement” with large scale investments in computer technology. Computer technology seems like such a natural fit in the classroom. Why has it not been the game changer that it should be?
Continue reading “Technology is No Game-Changer in the Classroom”
//This is a summary of a new paper by Professor Alan Reid published by the Australian Government Primary Principals’ Association. The full paper is available on the AGPPA website Continue reading “Building Our Nation Through Public Education”
//School teaching is a craft. A school teacher is an adult in a room full of children and the task is to look after the children, supervise their social behaviour, and give them skills and knowledge.
When I use the word ‘craft’, I don’t mean making things out of seashells. I mean an activity that involves using skill to achieve a practical end. You learn how to teach by doing it. Parenting skills are probably the most valuable skills to have. There are many teaching methods and every teaching situation is different, so a teacher needs to have many techniques and must constantly be thinking about which ones to use.
Continue reading “Reflections on Teaching: The Craft of Teaching”//The following is the text of a presentation by education researcher, Barbara Preston, to the Progressive Canberra Summit, held at the National Gallery of Australia on Saturday, 14 November. Continue reading “The ACT school system: An increasingly stratified, inequitable and dysfunctional schooling system”
//A Melbourne school principal responds to the school student from an elite private school who made derogatory slurs against students from public schools on social media.
If that icon of Australian satire, Barry Humphries was running around stage bagging the public school system, dressed up as an over-privileged private school student, we would all laugh. Some might even squirm at the closeness of the home-truth, but we would leave the theatre our need for humour satiated.
Today though, Barry Humphries was nowhere in sight. Rather it was the work of a Xavier College VCE student, on Facebook, with the immediate chorus of support from hundreds of online admirers. Continue reading “The Price of Privilege”