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Quote of the month "School choice works -- absolutely it does. It gives families more options and many studies have also shown it also helps boost the performance of public schools when they have to compete with other schools, charter or private. It is only effective [though] if there is information about how to make that choice, how to communicate with teachers and what makes a school good." - Keisha Hegamin, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, and a visiting Eisenhower fellow to New Zealand earlier this year.
Reactions to the government's $40 million for international education The government last week announced a wide-ranging Budget initiative of $40 million for international education. Act education spokesperson Deborah Coddington said the Government's desire to strengthen quality in the tertiary sector smacked of hypocrisy. "When Labour became aware that the Modern Age language school was in serious financial trouble it did nothing until it was too late." The New Zealand Association of Private Education Providers said: "New Zealand's private providers have been providing unique education of a world standard for years and this is recognised by the growing number of students from a growing number of countries studying with our institutions. The announced funding is recognition of the importance and unique nature of this exciting but volatile industry." The New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee said the package represented a shift away from a strictly commercial approach to the industry through an emphasis on education diplomacy, scholarships, innovation and promotion. Government information on the $40 million package.
Does school decentralisation raise student outcomes? Does school decentralisation raise student outcomes? A new report says the signs look good. An Iowa State University study set out to look at increased autonomy for schools saying it had become a global phenomenon but "few studies have been able to derive definitive estimates of the impacts of the policies on student outcomes". The study looks at 10 Latin America countries and the underlying assumption behind programmes encouraging autonomy that decisions made at the local school level make schools more productive. More information on 'Theory and Evidence on the Roles of School Autonomy and Community Participation'.
Vouchers benefit public schools, study shows A voucher programme in Milwaukee prompted sustainable achievement gains for the city's public elementary schools, according to a new study by a Harvard economist. Researcher Caroline Hoxby was following up on a study of three years ago, in which she concluded that the private school choice programme pushed public schools to improve. In her new study she added test score data from two more years and found that the gains were sustained. According to Caroline Hoxby, public schools do respond constructively to competition, by raising their achievement and productivity. "The best studies on this question examine the introduction of choice programmes that have been sufficiently large and long-lived to produce competition. Students' achievement generally does rise when they attend voucher or charter schools. "The best studies on this question use, as a control group, students who are randomised out of choice programmes. Not only do currently enacted voucher and charter school programs not cream-skim; they disproportionately attract students who were performing badly in their regular public schools," she said in her study. An article on the Hoxby study. The study itself is online as a PDF document.
Competition, not consolidation, improves school performance School consolidation tends to lead to administrative 'blot' and larger schools tend to divert any consolidation savings from core educational activities to secondary or even non-essential ones, a new study suggests. The Goldwater Institute study, based on empirical data, found that consolidation is unlikely to produce the hoped-for savings and may in fact have the opposite effect. By contrast, competition is more effective at improving school efficiency, the study says. The study also found that expanding Arizona's charter schools would improve test scores and generate per student savings over 90 times greater than that promised by consolidation - US$1,530 as compared to an estimated US$17. The report 'Competition or Consolidation? The School District Consolidation Debate Revisited', by Vicki Murray, is online as a PDF document
Many US teachers favour charter schools though their unions don't Charter schools commonly have waiting lists of student applicants. Generally overlooked is the often larger supply of potential teachers, according to David W. Kirkpatrick, senior education fellow at the US Freedom Foundation, in a recent article. Part of the challenge to charter schools is the claim by teacher unions that charter schools threaten public education. This ignores the fact that they are public schools, just a different type, said Mr Kirkpatrick. The suggestion or implication that charter schools could cost teachers jobs overlooks their creation of alternative ones. "After all, the students are simply moving from one school to another as they do when a district opens an additional conventional school. In terms of school districts, many if not most won't be moving at all. The real problem is the unions fear that charter schools threaten them. That is something they cannot tolerate." Mr Kirkpatrick's article is at this web page.
Wage compression scares off high-aptitude candidates for teaching High-aptitude women are forgoing teaching as a profession because they don't get rewarded for their extra skills, not because pay is low overall, a new report says. The study's Harvard researchers expected the "pull" hypothesis - the pull of getting better pay for higher aptitude in other professions - to explain the decline in high-aptitude teachers. Instead, they found that the "push" of getting no better pay for higher aptitude in teaching (wage compression) was responsible for about three-quarters of the decline in teacher aptitude. Caroline M. Hoxby and Andrew Leigh's paper, 'Pulled Away or Pushed Out? Explaining the Decline of Teacher Aptitude in the United States,' is available online as a PDF document.
Colorado gets the first ever US college voucher plan Colorado has this month signed the US's first ever college voucher plan into law. Stipends will be available to all Colorado undergraduate students who qualify for in-state tuition. They could use it for up to 145 hours of credit. Every year, the Colorado legislature will set the value of the stipend based on the state budget. The first amount will be $2,400 for students attending a public institution, and $1,200 for low-income students attending any one of three private institutions. The full story is at this web page.
Financial reviews of government education agencies released The Parliamentary Education and Science Committee this month has released financial reviews of NZQA, Career Services and the Tertiary Education Commission as part of an annual accountability process. A Ministry of Education report was also earlier released.
Vocational education research forum A research forum in Wellington on 11 June aims to create networking opportunities for people involved in vocational education research. Some of the areas to be presented include:
People can book to attend by downloading the registration form at this web page. |
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