Rachel Wilson, Bronwen Dalton & Chris Baumann | 16th Mar 2015 10:09 AM
AMID debates about budget cuts and the rising costs of schools and degrees, there is one debate receiving alarmingly little attention in Australia. We're facing a slow decline in most educational standards, and few are aware just how bad the situation is getting.
These are just six of the ways that Australia's education system is seriously failing our kids.
1. Australian teens are falling behind, as others race ahead
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey tests the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in more than 70 economies worldwide. And it shows that Australian 15-year-olds' scores on reading, maths and scientific literacy have recorded statistically significant declines since 2000, while other countries have shown improvement.
Although there has been much media attention on falling international ranks, it is actually this decline in real scores that should hit the headlines. That's because it means that students in 2000 answered substantially more questions correctly than students in 2012. The decline is equivalent to more than half a year of schooling.
Our students are falling behind: three years behind students from Shanghai in maths and 1½ years behind in reading.
In maths and science, an average Australian 15-year-old student has the problem-solving abilities equivalent to an average 12-year-old Korean pupil.
An international assessment of school years 4 and 8 shows that Australian students' average performance is now below that of England and the USA: countries that we used to classify as educationally inferior.
The declining education standards are across all ability levels. Analysis of PISA and NAPLAN suggests that stagnation and decline are occurring among high performing students as well as low performers.
2. Declining participation in science and maths
It has been estimated that 75% of the fastest growing occupations require science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills and knowledge.
The importance of STEM is acknowledged by industry and business. Yet there are national declines in Australian participation and attainment in these subjects. We are also among the bottom of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) 34 nations on translation of education investment to innovation, which is highly dependent upon STEM.
Fewer than one in ten Australian students studied advanced maths in year 12 in 2013. In particular, there has been a collapse in girls studying maths and science.
A national gender breakdown shows that just 6.6% of girls sat for advanced mathematics in 2013; that's half the rate for boys, and represents a 23% decline since 2004. In New South Wales, a tiny 1.5% of girls take the trio of advanced maths, physics and chemistry.
Maths is not a requirement at senior secondary level in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, although it is compulsory in South Australia, and to a small extent in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In NSW, the requirement for Higher School Certificate (HSC) maths or science study was removed in 2001. The national curriculum also makes no requirement for maths or science study after Year 10.
Australia is just about the only developed nation that does not make it compulsory to study maths in order to graduate from high school.
A recent report by the Productivity Commission found almost one-quarter of Australians are capable of only basic mathematics, such as counting. Many universities now have to offer basic (school level) maths and literacy development courses to support students in their study. These outcomes look extremely concerning when we review participation and achievement in maths and science internationally.
3. Australian education is monolingual
In 2013, the proportion of students studying a foreign language is at historic lows. For example in NSW, only 8% studied a foreign language for their HSC, the lowest percentage ever recorded.
In NSW, the number of HSC students studying Chinese in 2014 was just 798 (635 of which were students with a Chinese background), whereas a decade ago it was almost double that number, with 1,591.
The most popular beginner language in NSW was French, with 663 HSC students taking French as a beginner in 2013. These numbers are extremely small when you consider that the total number of HSC students in NSW: more than 75,000.
These declines, which are typical of what has happened around the country, have occurred at a time when most other industrialised countries have been strengthening their students' knowledge of other cultures and languages, in particular learning English.
English language skills are becoming a basic skill around the world. Monolingual Australians are increasingly competing for jobs with people who are just as competent in English as they are in their own native language - and possibly one or two more.
4. International and migrant students are actually raising standards, not lowering them
There are many who believe that Australian education is being held back by our multicultural composition and high proportion of migrant students. This could not be further from the truth. In the most recent PISA assessment of 15 year olds, Australian-born students' average English literacy score was significantly lower than the average first-generation migrant students' score, and not significantly different from foreign-born students.
The proportion of top performers was higher for foreign-born (14%) and first-generation students (15%) than for Australian-born students (10%).
Students from Chinese, Korean and Sri Lankan backgrounds are the highest performers in the NSW HSC. The top performing selective secondary schools in NSW now have more than 80% of students coming from non-English speaking backgrounds.
5. You can't have quality education without quality teachers
While there are many factors that may contribute to teacher quality, the overall academic attainment of those entering teaching degrees is an obvious and measurable component, which has been the focus of rigorous standards in many countries.
An international benchmarking study indicates that Australia's teacher education policies are currently falling well short of high-achieving countries where future teachers are recruited from the top 30% of the age cohort.
In Australia between 1983 and 2003, the standard intake was from the top 26% to 39%. By 2012/2013, less than half of Year 12 students receiving offers for places in undergraduate teacher education courses had ATAR scores in the top 50% of their age cohort.
Teacher education degrees also had the highest percentage of students entering with low ATAR scores, and the proportion of teacher education entrants with an ATAR of less than 50 nearly doubled over the past three years. We cannot expect above-average education with below-average teachers.
6. Early learning participation is amongst the lowest in the developed world
While Australia has recently lifted levels of investment in early childhood education, this investment has not been reflected in high levels of early childhood participation. In Australia, just 18% of 3 year olds participated in early childhood education, compared with 70% on average across the OECD. In this respect, we rank at 34 out of 36 OECD and partner countries.
Australia also ranks at 22 out of 37 on the OECD league table that measures the total investment across education as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product.
While low levels of expenditure and participation curtail any system, there is more negative impact from a lack of investment in early childhood than there would be from a lack of funding further up the educational chain. Nobel prize winner James Heckmann has shown how investment in early childhood produces the greatest returns to society.
What to do?
Funding is a critical issue, and not just in terms of what you spend, but also how you spend it. Research suggests spending on early childhood, quality teaching and core curriculum have the greatest returns on investment.
There is also growing evidence to suggest that a segregated schooling system - for example, socio-economically or academically selective schools - is counterproductive and restricts social mobility. High-performing countries have school systems on a far more level playing field than Australia.
We need a long-term plan across education sectors: from early childhood, to schools, universities and TAFE, which includes plans for supporting and strengthening teacher education in all those sectors.
We also need a louder public conversation about Australian education, and lobbying to shift how we value and invest in education.
When Germany was shocked by its first performance on the 2000 PISA assessment, it started a national conversation that saw education on the front page of newspapers for the next two years. Germany's education has been improving ever since.
If Australia wants to build a strong and competitive economy, we need fewer front page articles about budget cuts, and more on reform and investment in education.
- Rachel Wilson is Senior Lecturer in Research Methodology / Educational Assessment & Evaluation at University of Sydney; Bronwen Dalton is Senior Lecturer, School of Management at University of Technology, Sydney; Chris Baumann is Senior Lecturer in Business at Macquarie University
*Source
Plan to end personalized education plans for students raises concern
A bill introduced in the state Senate this week would eliminate the requirement for teachers to complete personalized education plans for academically struggling students.
Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, introduced the bill on Wednesday, N.C. Policy Watch reported Friday.
State law has required the plans,
also called PEPs, since 2001. They are considered a tool for complying
with the Leandro v. State of North Carolina ruling that affirms every
North Carolina child’s right to basic public education.
The bill still has a ways to go
become law, but the threat of losing the PEP requirement has some
advocates concerned about potential harm to already disadvantaged
students.
“Removing PEPs would negatively
affect a layer of accountability and has the potential to impact having
more at-risk students,” said Lissa Harris, co-founder of the advocacy
group Parents Supporting Parents. The plans are one of many components
that have been created to improve academics and provide a monitoring and
communication tool between school, parents and students by documenting
intervention plans.”
The bill, coupled with other
changes in requirements for high school diplomas, would mean students
not performing at or above grade level as measured by standardized tests
will not be ready for college or a career, Harris said.
The PEPs help students who are
not performing on grade level, she said. That group includes more than
students with disabilities, she said.
“North Carolina students have a
constitutional right to a sound, basic education,” she said. “Removing
PEPs will negatively impact North Carolina students.”
Contact Marquita Brown at (336) 373-7002, and follow @mbrownNR on Twitter.
*http://www.news-record.com/blogs/the_chalkboard/plan-to-end-personalized-education-plans-for-students-raises-concern/article_4827dbb8-c9ce-11e4-9535-c3c25f309a13.htmlSource
*http://www.news-record.com/blogs/the_chalkboard/plan-to-end-personalized-education-plans-for-students-raises-concern/article_4827dbb8-c9ce-11e4-9535-c3c25f309a13.htmlSource
Education: Start of something big
Kathy Melky says jobs as educators don't come any better than being part of the development of a new school.
Melky is principal of Cammeraygal High School, a newly-established co-educational comprehensive high school for years 7-10 on the lower North Shore of Sydney. The school opened on January 28 for year 7 students and will grow each year to eventually accommodate 500 students.
As principal, Melky says she has been involved with all aspects of planning of the school since the end of 2014.
"I've had the exciting task of working with our parent body to name the school, design the uniform and logo, and choose a motto, 'Empowered to Achieve'," she says. "I've worked closely with the architects and project managers over that time to refine the final design and physical elements of the school."
Melky is principal of Cammeraygal High School, a newly-established co-educational comprehensive high school for years 7-10 on the lower North Shore of Sydney. The school opened on January 28 for year 7 students and will grow each year to eventually accommodate 500 students.
As principal, Melky says she has been involved with all aspects of planning of the school since the end of 2014.
"I've had the exciting task of working with our parent body to name the school, design the uniform and logo, and choose a motto, 'Empowered to Achieve'," she says. "I've worked closely with the architects and project managers over that time to refine the final design and physical elements of the school."
LASG Honours Education Sector Partners
The Class of 26 of the Advanced
Management Programme simpy referred to as the AMP 26 Class of the Lagos
Business School was recently honoured by the Lagos State Government at a
breakfast meeting with Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola for their
contribution to the development of education in the state.
Other recipients of the State Awards were Dangote Industries, Total E & P Nig Ltd, Citi Bank, Globacom, Julius Berger, MTN and reputable individuals and organisations.
The reception/award ceremony, which held at the Lagos City Hall,
Catholic Mission Street, Lagos, was in recognition of their partnership
with the state government, the various interventions and the CSR support
in the state’s educational sector.
Other recipients of the State Awards were Dangote Industries, Total E & P Nig Ltd, Citi Bank, Globacom, Julius Berger, MTN and reputable individuals and organisations.
President of AMP 26, Mr. Abidemi Sonoiki, who received the award on
behalf of his coleagues, dedicated it to God, stating that his group was
encouraged to continue to support initiatives that restore and uplift
the standard of education. He noted that the efficient governance
structue of the Lagos State Government has positioned it to attract
private sector led support in the funding of some key initiatives within
the educational.
Addressing the awardees, Governor Fashola argued that governance was
more complex today than it was some 40 years ago. According to him, the
challenges government was faced with today were not the same as those
of then.
“Then government owned a few schools and had the core business of
regulation and setting standard, but now, there are thousands of
government schools. Any Initiative that supports public school in Lagos
State is a welcome development,” the governor said
Startup Aims to Provide a Bridge to Education
By Matina Stevis and Simon Clark
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg invest in African education
MASII, Kenya—An army of teachers wielding Nook tablets and backed by investors including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission to bring inexpensive, private education to millions of the world’s poorest children.
In rural Kenya, 6-year-old Sharon Ndunge, sitting in a rough-built classroom with chicken-coop wire for windows, a tin roof and wooden benches, is among 126,000 students enrolled at the more than 400 Bridge International Academies that have sprung up across the country since the company was founded in 2009.
Bridge’s founders are challenging the long-held assumption that governments rather than companies should lead mass education programs. The company’s goal is to eventually educate 10 million children and make money by expanding its standardized, Internet-based education model across Africa and Asia.
The Internet and Barnes & Noble Inc. Nook tablets are used to deliver lesson plans, which are then used by teachers. The tablets also are used to collect test results from students scattered across hundreds of towns and villages and serve as a means of monitoring their progress.
“It’s like running Starbucks,” said Greg Mauro, a partner at California-based venture-capital firm Learn Capital LLC, the largest shareholder in Bridge with a 15% stake, likening it to the coffee chain with standardized systems and procedures that can be replicated across new locations. If all goes to plan, the American-run, Nairobi-based education startup will seek a stock-market listing in New York in 2017, according to Mr. Mauro.
Mr. Mauro has invested alongside Microsoft co-founder Mr. Gates, e-Bay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar’s Omidyar Network, textbook publisher Pearson PLC and others who already have put more than $100 million into the company, of which about 90% is equity investments, according to Bridge. Facebook Inc. co-founder Mr. Zuckerberg this month invested $10 million in the company, according to Bridge. The investment comes as the social-network company expands into emerging markets to potentially reach billions of new customers.
Mr. Gates saw “significant innovation in the approach and wanted to support it personally,” said a spokeswoman for Mr. Gates.
Bridge co-founder Shannon May said Bridge is more cost-effective than state-funded Kenyan schools and provides better teaching. Kenyan public schoolteachers spent an average of two hours and 40 minutes teaching a day, according to a 2013 World Bank report, and 45% of teachers weren’t doing their jobs: 16% were absent from school, 27% were at school but not in class and 2% were in class but not teaching. By contrast, Bridge said its teachers teach for more than eight hours each day, and there is unexcused teacher absenteeism of less than 1%.
Bridge’s revenue is in the “low double digits” of millions of dollars, Ms. May said. She estimates it will be $500 million in 10 years.
This lofty growth forecast for a company that hasn’t turned a profit rests on the hopes of people like Jacinda Ndunge, Sharon’s mother, who spends $6.50 of her monthly $100 income from her vegetable stall to send her daughter to Bridge. A big attraction for her was more attentive teachers and a smaller class size than at a free state school, she said. Bridge’s average class has 30 pupils. At some Kenyan state schools, the student-to-teacher ratio is 100-to-1, according to the teachers union.
“At state school, many times the teacher did not go to class,” Ms. Ndunge said. “Sharon comes home with homework to do and is happy to go to school.”
Bridge teachers on average make 10,000 Kenyan shillings a month, about $110, less than half what state teachers make but more than most other comparable schools, said Ms. May. There are other private, inexpensive schools, most of which are religious or organized by individual communities. Bridge said its advantage is that the quality of education is better through the use of technology and standardized procedures.
Last month, Bridge opened its first seven schools in Uganda and plans another 65 or so by year-end. It then plans to move into Nigeria by the end of 2015 and to India in the second half of 2016.
To be sure, some critics said it is a step backward for poor people to pay for education and question the standardized teaching model.
“There’s something about it that flies in the face of progress,” said David Archer, head of program development at Action Aid, a London-based nonprofit, antipoverty organization who has campaigned for universal free education for two decades. “There are individual needs of individual kids. Does this standardization zeal actually give better education to children?”
Ms. May defended Bridge’s teaching model. “Just because the class is scripted doesn’t mean the tablet is restrictive,” Ms. May said. “Children do interrupt with questions, teachers do go off script.”
Bridge’s progress comes as for-profit companies play an ever-bigger role in Africa’s development, seeking to make money through businesses that often serve a social purpose. Private-equity fundraising for investment in sub-Saharan Africa more than tripled to a record $4 billion in 2014 from the year before, according to the Washington-based Emerging Markets Private Equity Association. Private-equity firms also have invested in African health-care services, nurseries and for-profit universities.
Providing education to Africa’s poorest has historically been the domain of governments and charities. Ms. May, 38 years old, is an anthropologist who first became interested in education as a means of lifting people out of subsistence living in rural communities while she carried out postdoctoral research in China.
Along with Bridge’s other founders, she saw a business opportunity as the Kenyan government struggled to keep up with booming enrollment rates.
Bridge’s rapid expansion isn’t without potential roadblocks. “A big risk is that Bridge grows too quickly and neglects quality,” said James Tooley, a professor of education policy at the U.K.’s Newcastle University and an advocate of low-cost private schools.
Ms. May acknowledges growth comes with big and often unpredictable challenges. When moving teachers to train in Uganda, for example, Bridge staff got embroiled in a standoff with Ugandan authorities suspicious that they were possibly transferring aspiring jihadists to training camps. The situation was settled peacefully.
And in Kenya, Bridge students almost missed an important national exam because there was no government regulation in place dealing with how children not attending traditional private or public schools take such tests. The incident was eventually resolved.
“The biggest challenge that Bridge will face in any market is going to be regulatory,” said Amy Klement, a partner at Omidyar Network.
Investors said the Nook tablet is at the heart of what makes Bridge work. All class plans, tests and additional materials are uploaded on it. Teachers manually enter test results through the tablet, and every piece of information is stored electronically. Bridge also monitors teachers through the tablet. For example, if a teacher doesn’t sign into the tablet one day, Bridge can call the teacher to find out why.
“All Bridge’s systems have been designed with the view of getting to millions of students,” said David Easton, an investment director at CDC Group PLC, a London-based investor in Bridge.
A 2013 report commissioned by Bridge by an outside research firm indicates Bridge students score better in literacy and numeracy tests than peers attending nearby public schools.
But overall, separate research doesn’t show an advantage of low-cost private schools over state schools. A report by the U.K. government’s Department for International Development found “little to no evidence” low-cost private schools are better than state schools. The same department is an investor in Bridge academies.
Write to Matina Stevis at matina.stevis@wsj.com and Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com
*Source
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg invest in African education
MASII, Kenya—An army of teachers wielding Nook tablets and backed by investors including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission to bring inexpensive, private education to millions of the world’s poorest children.
In rural Kenya, 6-year-old Sharon Ndunge, sitting in a rough-built classroom with chicken-coop wire for windows, a tin roof and wooden benches, is among 126,000 students enrolled at the more than 400 Bridge International Academies that have sprung up across the country since the company was founded in 2009.
Bridge’s founders are challenging the long-held assumption that governments rather than companies should lead mass education programs. The company’s goal is to eventually educate 10 million children and make money by expanding its standardized, Internet-based education model across Africa and Asia.
The Internet and Barnes & Noble Inc. Nook tablets are used to deliver lesson plans, which are then used by teachers. The tablets also are used to collect test results from students scattered across hundreds of towns and villages and serve as a means of monitoring their progress.
“It’s like running Starbucks,” said Greg Mauro, a partner at California-based venture-capital firm Learn Capital LLC, the largest shareholder in Bridge with a 15% stake, likening it to the coffee chain with standardized systems and procedures that can be replicated across new locations. If all goes to plan, the American-run, Nairobi-based education startup will seek a stock-market listing in New York in 2017, according to Mr. Mauro.
Mr. Mauro has invested alongside Microsoft co-founder Mr. Gates, e-Bay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar’s Omidyar Network, textbook publisher Pearson PLC and others who already have put more than $100 million into the company, of which about 90% is equity investments, according to Bridge. Facebook Inc. co-founder Mr. Zuckerberg this month invested $10 million in the company, according to Bridge. The investment comes as the social-network company expands into emerging markets to potentially reach billions of new customers.
Mr. Gates saw “significant innovation in the approach and wanted to support it personally,” said a spokeswoman for Mr. Gates.
Bridge co-founder Shannon May said Bridge is more cost-effective than state-funded Kenyan schools and provides better teaching. Kenyan public schoolteachers spent an average of two hours and 40 minutes teaching a day, according to a 2013 World Bank report, and 45% of teachers weren’t doing their jobs: 16% were absent from school, 27% were at school but not in class and 2% were in class but not teaching. By contrast, Bridge said its teachers teach for more than eight hours each day, and there is unexcused teacher absenteeism of less than 1%.
Bridge’s revenue is in the “low double digits” of millions of dollars, Ms. May said. She estimates it will be $500 million in 10 years.
This lofty growth forecast for a company that hasn’t turned a profit rests on the hopes of people like Jacinda Ndunge, Sharon’s mother, who spends $6.50 of her monthly $100 income from her vegetable stall to send her daughter to Bridge. A big attraction for her was more attentive teachers and a smaller class size than at a free state school, she said. Bridge’s average class has 30 pupils. At some Kenyan state schools, the student-to-teacher ratio is 100-to-1, according to the teachers union.
“At state school, many times the teacher did not go to class,” Ms. Ndunge said. “Sharon comes home with homework to do and is happy to go to school.”
Bridge teachers on average make 10,000 Kenyan shillings a month, about $110, less than half what state teachers make but more than most other comparable schools, said Ms. May. There are other private, inexpensive schools, most of which are religious or organized by individual communities. Bridge said its advantage is that the quality of education is better through the use of technology and standardized procedures.
Last month, Bridge opened its first seven schools in Uganda and plans another 65 or so by year-end. It then plans to move into Nigeria by the end of 2015 and to India in the second half of 2016.
To be sure, some critics said it is a step backward for poor people to pay for education and question the standardized teaching model.
“There’s something about it that flies in the face of progress,” said David Archer, head of program development at Action Aid, a London-based nonprofit, antipoverty organization who has campaigned for universal free education for two decades. “There are individual needs of individual kids. Does this standardization zeal actually give better education to children?”
Ms. May defended Bridge’s teaching model. “Just because the class is scripted doesn’t mean the tablet is restrictive,” Ms. May said. “Children do interrupt with questions, teachers do go off script.”
Bridge’s progress comes as for-profit companies play an ever-bigger role in Africa’s development, seeking to make money through businesses that often serve a social purpose. Private-equity fundraising for investment in sub-Saharan Africa more than tripled to a record $4 billion in 2014 from the year before, according to the Washington-based Emerging Markets Private Equity Association. Private-equity firms also have invested in African health-care services, nurseries and for-profit universities.
Providing education to Africa’s poorest has historically been the domain of governments and charities. Ms. May, 38 years old, is an anthropologist who first became interested in education as a means of lifting people out of subsistence living in rural communities while she carried out postdoctoral research in China.
Along with Bridge’s other founders, she saw a business opportunity as the Kenyan government struggled to keep up with booming enrollment rates.
Bridge’s rapid expansion isn’t without potential roadblocks. “A big risk is that Bridge grows too quickly and neglects quality,” said James Tooley, a professor of education policy at the U.K.’s Newcastle University and an advocate of low-cost private schools.
Ms. May acknowledges growth comes with big and often unpredictable challenges. When moving teachers to train in Uganda, for example, Bridge staff got embroiled in a standoff with Ugandan authorities suspicious that they were possibly transferring aspiring jihadists to training camps. The situation was settled peacefully.
And in Kenya, Bridge students almost missed an important national exam because there was no government regulation in place dealing with how children not attending traditional private or public schools take such tests. The incident was eventually resolved.
“The biggest challenge that Bridge will face in any market is going to be regulatory,” said Amy Klement, a partner at Omidyar Network.
Investors said the Nook tablet is at the heart of what makes Bridge work. All class plans, tests and additional materials are uploaded on it. Teachers manually enter test results through the tablet, and every piece of information is stored electronically. Bridge also monitors teachers through the tablet. For example, if a teacher doesn’t sign into the tablet one day, Bridge can call the teacher to find out why.
“All Bridge’s systems have been designed with the view of getting to millions of students,” said David Easton, an investment director at CDC Group PLC, a London-based investor in Bridge.
A 2013 report commissioned by Bridge by an outside research firm indicates Bridge students score better in literacy and numeracy tests than peers attending nearby public schools.
But overall, separate research doesn’t show an advantage of low-cost private schools over state schools. A report by the U.K. government’s Department for International Development found “little to no evidence” low-cost private schools are better than state schools. The same department is an investor in Bridge academies.
Write to Matina Stevis at matina.stevis@wsj.com and Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com
*Source
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