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| |  | |  | "The two most significant curriculum developments achieved at Onehunga High School have involved significant partnerships with the private sector. Nothing in my experience has matched this partnership model for relevance, speed, effect and economy."
PTE wins best Maori Small Business award The Solomon Group, an Auckland-based literacy and numeracy Private Training Establishment, has won the Best Small Business award in the 2005 Maori Business Awards. The family-run business has been operating since 1998 and runs more than half a dozen courses. The Maori Business Awards are run by Maori Women's Development Inc. A 2004 Subtext story looking at the success of a Solomon Group course at the Manukau Institute of Technology is at this web page (scroll to the bottom of the page). The Maori Women's Development Inc website is at this web page.
Caroline Hoxby, a Harvard University professor and a visitor to New Zealand last year as a guest of the Education Forum, has won this year's prestigious Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship. The Fordham Foundation gives the award to a scholar "who has made major contributions to education reform via research, analysis and successful engagement in the war of ideas." More information is at this web page. An interview with Professor Hoxby is at this web page.
British Conservatives would keep tuition fees The British Conservative party has confirmed it would keep tertiary education tuition fees. The fees were introduced by the current Labour government and are due to take effect this year. A Guardian story on Tory leader David Cameron's comments is at this web page.
School choice gets good results in Israel A school choice programme in Tel Aviv, Israel had positive effects on high school dropout rates, matriculation rates and programmes of study, a study has found. The National Bureau of Economic Research working paper is online at this web page.
Non-profit firm in £30m Scottish campus deal A non-profit firm has been awarded a £30 million contract to build halls of residence at the new Queen Margaret University College campus, The Scotsman reported last month. Sanctuary Housing, one of the UK's largest housing associations, will create the accommodation for 800 people at the 35-acre site in Craighall, and provide day-to-day maintenance services for the halls over a 35-year contract.
Vouchers having success in Washington DC A Manhattan Institute study of the growing Washington DC school voucher scheme has found increased opportunity for racial integration in schools and little evidence of public schools being academically affected by competition from private schools. The Manhattan Institute study, by Jay R Greene and Marcus A Winters, is at this web page.
Humanities subjects have become too PC, says Australian PM Humanities subjects in Australian schools have "succumbed to a postmodern culture of relativism where any objective record of achievement is questioned or repudiated," Prime Minister John Howard has argued. In an Australia Day speech in January, Mr Howard said that "too often history has fallen victim in an ever more crowded curriculum to subjects deemed more 'relevant' to today. Too often, it was taught with a fragmented stew of 'themes' and 'issues'" and no sense of structured narrative. It should include indigenous history and the heritage of Western civilisation. It was impossible to understand the history of Australia without an understanding of the "evolution of parliamentary democracy or the ideas that brought about the Enlightenment," Mr Howard said. Mr Howard's speech is at this web page.
Australian childcare rebate should be extended to nanny care, says backbenchers The new childcare rebate in Australia should be extended to all forms of child care, including nannies, and paid to parents immediately, argue female Liberal Party MPs. The rebate gives parents AU$4000 a year per child to help with childcare fees, but is not available for people who use nannies or preschool and is payable only at the end of the financial year. Meanwhile, a survey of 452 of New South Wales' 800 community preschools shows that government funds covered about 80 percent of preschool running costs in the past but only 30 percent today, and fees have risen 26 percent in the last two years. The cost increases are seeing children dropping out or attending fewer days. A Sydney Morning Herald story on the rebate is at this web page. A Sydney Morning Herald story on the fee rises is at this web page.
US business group to rank schools The largest US business association plans to rank school systems' performance to help build a workforce to better compete in the global economy, CNN has reported.
Website offers resources to design a school choice programme A new US website offers resources for parents and school administrators to build school choice programmes. The resources come from US school districts that have been identified as having promising practices related to choice. The Department of Education-initiated website, Building Choice, is at this web page.
Performance pay approved in Houston, Texas Houston, Texas has became the largest school district in the US to adopt a merit pay plan for teachers that focuses on students' test scores. The Houston plan will see teachers paid up to US$3,000 extra if their students improve on state and national tests. The programme may be expanded in the future to provide as much as US$10,000 in merit pay for teachers. More information is on the Houston Independent School District website at this web page.
US private school students get better marks US private school students have higher average scores in reading, mathematics, science, and writing than their counterparts in public schools, research finds. In addition, higher percentages of students in private schools performed at or above 'Proficient' compared with those in public schools. The recently released research from the US Department of Education is in The Nation's Report Card at this web page.
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