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"If you disempower people by controlling their budgets, their every move and every decision, you don't actually enable people to grow and stand tall and that's important."
Smaller classes don't help, say Australians Reducing class sizes does not improve academic performance at primary or secondary school level, according to a new Australian study. The study, involving 1540 Victorian primary and secondary schools, concludes that academic achievement is unrelated to the number of students in the class. An article on the report by The Australian. The report itself is downloadable as a PDF document.
Vice-chancellors' pay packets compared to business The University of Queensland vice-chancellor is overpaid by 51.3 percent while the head of Sydney's University of Technology is short-changed by 19 percent, according to a study comparing the Australian tertiary education sector with business. University of Western Australia honours student Lisa Soh used a formula to look at the pay packets of the vice-chancellors of 34 universities (averaged over the past five years). Ms Soh's formula matched the salaries to the size of their institutions and annual revenue. She concluded that half the university heads were underpaid and half overpaid, The Australian has reported. The Australian news story.
Stifling bureaucracy pushes UK academics to US Government funding in Europe keeps most universities at the same mediocre level while creating "stifling bureaucracies and burdensome restrictions" which are pushing top academics to the United States, a European Commission survey, reported in the Wall St Journal, says. More than 70 percent of the EU-born recipients of US doctorates between 1991 and 2000 planned to stay in the US. Some 100,000 European-born researchers currently work in the US. The European Commission is worried that by the end of this decade Europe will have 700,000 fewer scientists and engineers than will be needed to compete in the global knowledge economy. The quality of teaching and research in the US is a prime motivation for seeking career opportunities there.
Dubai-based company starts 'mid-market' private schools in UK A new breed of 'mid-market' private school is being promoted in the UK for parents dissatisfied with the state system but unable to afford traditional private education. Dubai-based Global Education Management Systems (GEMS) currently has 35 schools in the Gulf states. It plans to build 20 of its model mid-market schools on greenfield sites in the UK, acquire another 25-30 schools and have 120 schools under its management within five years. It has its eye on Germany and the 10 new EU accession states. A Guardian story on the company.
Quebec public school enrolments lowest in 50 years Enrolment at Quebec's public schools has dropped to its lowest in nearly 50 years, while private-school classrooms continue to fill, CBC News has reported. Registration at the province's primary and secondary schools has dropped 2.6 percent since last year, to 1.08 million children and teenagers in the province's 2,838 public schools. It's the smallest group since 1958. Despite this, enrolment at private schools is up and has been increasing since 1998.
Overwhelming response to first US federal voucher programme, say officials More than 1000 Washington DC students are using a new voucher programme to escape troubled public schools and officials running the nation's first federally funded voucher programme said the response was overwhelming, CNN reported earlier this month. Seventy-four percent of students who applied for vouchers and were eligible are enrolled in participating private and parochial schools, and more applications are under review. The CNN story.
New schools emerging that do not seem public or private New forms of school organisation are emerging that do not fit the classical definitions of public and private, a report says. The report looks at the fuzzy boundary between schools that are clearly public and those that are clearly private, and argues that the shared characteristics between public and private schools are sufficiently stabilised to allow for school organisations that defy the public-private dichotomy. The report is in the Columbia University Teachers College Record, Volume 105, Number 5, June 2003, pp. 753-781. More information is at this web page.
German economy would benefit from competition in tertiary education, says OECD As the German government moves toward major reform of its labour market, the OECD says the country should go further and open tertiary education to more competition. It says more competition and "widening the autonomy of educational institutions with respect to achieving targets" would contribute to more effective human capital accumulation. The OECD's German economic survey.
Alternative education increases in the US "Across the US, on the web and in the home, classrooms are evolving beyond the traditional learning environment with alternatives that are no longer bound by geography and customary modes of operation." - A CNN feature looks at a growing alternative education movement. The CNN feature.
Progress on implementing No Child Left Behind Act The most comprehensive and up-to-date report of US states' progress toward implementing the No Child Left Behind Act is now online. The US Education Commission report web page.
The latest edition of the renowned Hoover Instituion's peer-reviewed publication Education Next is now online. Read about: what is needed to attract and retain better teachers; the inside story on how vouchers came to Washington DC and if they will ever get to Colorado; whether the 20th-century growth in school size improves education; plus new evidence on the black-white achievement gap; and why children are still grouped by ability. The latest edition of Education Next.
R&D subsidies may be detrimental A new study shows research and development subsidies may be detrimental to both productivity growth and welfare, in contrast to publicly provided education targeted to science and engineering skills. The University of Zurich report is at this web page.
Hot off the press: Education at a Glance More people are studying for longer periods in developed countries, but educational patterns are uneven. Which countries are doing well, and which countries could be performing better? The 2004 edition of the OECD's annual Education at a Glance, a widely-quoted compendium of comparative statistics, looks at the answers. The publication was released just this week and more information is at this OECD web page.
Live debate: experts discuss getting the market into education A conference in Washington on 28 September - 'Creating a true marketplace in education' - can be watched live on the Internet. The Cato Institute discussion will explore how to move from the status quo to an alternative that provides true choice for parents. Renowned education policy experts such as John Merrifield (Professor of Economics, University of Texas at San Antonio), John Wenders (Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of Idaho) and Claudia Hepburn (director of education policy, Fraser Institute) are part of the event. Details are at this web page.
Conference of Cambridge exam schools to be held A conference for the Association of Cambridge Schools in New Zealand is in Auckland next month. The Bright Minds, Bright Future conference features Australian newspaper columnist and doctor of law Janet Albrechtsen; the Maxim Institute's Centre for Education director, Paul Henderson; Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Canterbury, Warwick Elley; and radio host Leighton Smith. More information is downloadable as a PDF document.
Media training lifts education organisations' communications An Education Forum jointly-organised media training day last month saw several education organisations sharpening their press release, interviewing and strategy skills. Participants included Independent Schools of New Zealand, Early Childhood Council, Maxim Institute, NZ Association of Gifted Children, NZ Association of Private Education Providers, Home Education Foundation and others. The half-day session included hints on how to attract media attention, conduct yourself in interviews, develop key messages, write press releases and put together information kits.
Skills training needs highlighted in website A revamped, online toolkit for employers, workers and young people is now on the skillnz website. The skillnz website focuses on giving information about New Zealand's core formal workplace learning programmes - Industry Training, Modern Apprenticeships, Gateway and Workplace Literacy. Workplace learning is on- or off-the-job education and training that counts towards a qualification. The website says staff training can produce returns ranging from 30 percent to 7,000 percent and that staff who have had formal training have been up to 230 percent more productive than their untrained colleagues doing the same job. There are almost five times as many people in industry training today as there were eight years ago.
It's a fact #1: NZ private training establishment enrolments on the rise Enrolments at private training establishments in New Zealand grew by nearly 87 percent between 1997 and 2002.
Source: Profile and Trends – New Zealand's Tertiary Education sector (Ministry of Education 2003) The document is at this web page.
It's a fact #2: strong growth in US public schools under private management The number of US public schools under private management more than tripled between 1998/99 and 2003/04. In 2003/04, there were 463 schools, with some 200,000 students, being operated by 51 educational management organisations (EMOs) in 28 states.
Source: Molnar, Alex, Glenn Wilson and Daniel Allen (2004) Profiles of For-Profit Education Management Companies: Sixth Annual Report 2003-2004, p 9. It is downloadable as a PDF document. |
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