Eduction Facts

Independent Public Schools

What Are They?

These schools have operated in different countries since 1988 as independent, self-governing, academy or, most commonly in the US and Canada, charter schools. There are significant differences in how they operate but common features are that they are independently- operated schools that are funded by governments (with corporate, university or parent sponsorship in some cases). Most have control over selection of student population, budgets, teaching resources and in many cases curriculum. They can be new or existing schools. The rationale for change is often that the schools are failing, dysfunctional or in urgent need of additional resources.
WA has proposed up to 30 independent schools by 2010. Principals will hire and fire and can get rid of students as well as manage schools budget and assets. These schools will also have greater curriculum control. There is no rationale for this approach other than to reduce bureaucracy and free the schools to “innovate”. It is the educational equivalent of the gated community.

Vouchers

Vouchers Don’t Improve the Academic Performance of Students

A 2001 Government Accountability Office report to the US Congress on the Cleveland and Milwaukee voucher programs noted that the most credible research found “little or no difference in voucher and public school students’ performance.” The federal evaluation of the Washington, D.C. voucher experiment discovered the same two years running. (National School Board Association)
A 2003 Report on the Cleveland Program found public school students, on average, made larger academic gains overall than students in the voucher program. However, overall, there are no statistically significant differences in academic achievement as a result of vouchers. (Study of the Cleveland Voucher Program by the Indiana Center for Evaluation, Dec. 2003)
The Department of Education's study of the Washington DC program: ““The analysis revealed . . . no significant achievement impacts in reading or math for students who came from SINI schools, [“Schools in Need of Improvement,”] the subgroup of students for whom the statute gave top priority. There was no statistically significant impact on math achievement, overall . . ..” (US Dept of Ed Report 2009)
The most dramatic gains in student achievement in the US have occurred in places where vouchers don’t exist (Texas, North Carolina, Connecticut and Chicago) (National Education Association)

League Tables and Testing

Don’t Improve the Quality of Education

In 2006 US academic Jaekyung Lee published a report on No Child Left Behind under the auspices of the prestigious Harvard University Civil Rights Project. Its conclusions are clear: “This report concludes that neither a significant rise in achievement, nor closure of the racial achievement gap is being achieved.”
2008 OECD report on school reporting found that “the consequences for the individual school are often negative”, “the construction of league tables favours schools that are already advantaged” and “most head teachers disapproved of the great competitive pressure open enrolment and league tables had produced, and considered the strong market orientation as educational misconceived, even harmful”. The paper also describes the vicious cycle forced on schools serving disadvantaged communities of “...bad reputation, worsening school atmosphere, decreasing identification of the pupils with their school, decreasing number of pupils, reduction of resources, decreasing job satisfaction and motivation among staff, lack of applications of well-qualified teachers for this school, worse quality of lessons, decreasing pupil achievement, worse results in the league tables.” (Improving School Leadership, OECD, August 2008)
It is often assumed that increased test scores over time indicate that students’ learning has increased. However, it has been convincingly demonstrated “that these increases are often due to a combination of teachers “teaching to the tests” and students becoming familiar with the tests”. (Assessment Reform Group 2006; Koretz 1988; Linn 2000, 2001; Shepard 2000; Wiliam 2008b).
Finland, the highest performing country in the PISA survey does not have standardised testing, public reporting of data, blame-based accountability systems, but cooperative structures of improvement that encourage schools to work together rather than compete.

Teach For Australia

Gillard Hypocrisy

But in my view nothing matters more to a child’s education than the quality of teachers and teaching.” (Speech July 29, 2009)

Gillard Inconsistency

In June falsely claims teachers in these programs deliver better results: “Pathway programs for top graduates such as Teach First in the UK and Teach for America in the US have been shown to deliver better student outcomes and help raise the status of the profession.” (Media Release June 17)
In August shifts to claims that unqualified teachers kick-start change: “ It’s not going to be the only way people come into teaching, obviously we’ve got our more traditional teacher education model, but the evidence from the States is that these high performing graduates in disadvantaged schools can kick start changes in those schools or make a difference to teaching practices.” (Radio interview August 17)

Not Supported by the Public

The AEU’s latest poll found 59 per cent of people were opposed to unqualified graduates entering classrooms (23 per cent support and 18 don’t know). Parents of public school students were even more strongly opposed (69 per cent against, 15 per cent support and 17 per cent don’t know) (AEU National Poll 2009)

Teacher Quality

Teacher Workload and Wages

Australian teachers spend more hours in the classroom than those in almost every major country in the world (3 out of 27 OECD on weeks of instruction per year and 4/25 number of days of instruction per year ) (OECD Education at a Glance 2008)
Teachers salaries at the top of the scale are below the OECD average for primary (17/28), secondary (16/27) and upper secondary (16/27) (OECD Education at a Glance 2008)
Ratio between starting salaries and top of the scale is way below average when compared to other major countries (OECD 22/26) Australian teachers take on average nine years to get to the top of the scale compared to the OECD average of 24 years. (OECD Education at a Glance 2008)
On average fulltime primary teachers spend 48 hours per week on school-related activities and secondary teachers 49 hours (ACER Teacher survey 2007).

School Performance

PISA Rankings
PISA 2006 (main focus of PISA 2006 was on science)

Science Performance

The performance of Australian students in scientific literacy was well above the OECD average and behind only three countries – Finland, Hong Kong-China and Canada.

Reading Performance

Australia was well above the OECD average and behind only five countries: Korea, Finland, Hong Kong - China, Canada and New Zealand.

Mathematics Performance

Australia was well above OECD average behind only 8 countries: Chinese Taipei, Finland, HK-China, Korea, Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, Macao-China

2000 and 2003 PISA (PISA 2000 Reading focus/PISA 2003 Maths focus))

Australia’s 2000 and 2003 results were above the OECD average in each of mathematical, scientific and reading literacy, as well as in problem solving.

Schools Funding

Fed Government Delivers Private Schools a Funding Advantage

The latest evidence (including stimulus spending) shows private schools total funding is almost $15,000 per student, almost one and a half times the $11,000 per student available to government schools and catholic schools (McMorrow NPEF presentation)
The disparity is driven by the imbalance of federal funding. Under the Howard Government school funding went up 68 per cent ($1.4 billion extra in real terms) but private school funding went up 137 per cent ($3.8 billion extra in real terms) Enrolments in non-gov schools went up 21.5 per cent. (McMorrow Version 2)
The Commonwealth Government spends four and a half times more on private school students than public school students. Public schools students receive only $1001 per student each year in Federal funding, compared with private school students who receive $4,533 each per year. (Productivity Commission 2008).
Even with extra COAG funding, the government school share of Commonwealth schools budget in 2011-12 will be 37.1 per cent (43.1 when Howard took office in 1996). It would require an additional $1.4 billion a year ($7 billion over five years) for the 1995-96 public school share of funding to be recovered. (McMorrow Version 2)
New base funding agreements deliver $14 billion for government schools and $28 billion for private schools (23 per cent increase on total of last agreement) (COAG papers). This could rise to $32 billion with AGSRC indexation. With all new funding taken into account, private schools will be getting 70 per cent more money than public schools by 2011. (McMorrow 2)
Public schools teach 2.2 million students, private schools (independent and Catholic) 1.1 million. (2006 Census McMorrow 1)