Using My School website and Naplan only to measure quality of learning is limited. however, education in Australia is in need of improvement through higher levels of tertiary education quality and higher entrance requirements. Amy McNeilage The Australian education system is in worse shape now than when David Gonski handed down his damning assessment of it three years ago, with academic performance sliding and the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students widening. A new analysis of My School data tells of deterioration in Australian schools since the controversial website was launched in 2010. It also finds that the disparity between the highest and lowest performing students, which is already greater than most other developed countries, is deepening. The NAPLAN test results from 2009 to 2013 published on the website show student achievement has stalled or languished across a majority of the measures. But a deeper analysis reveals, while results have climbed for advantaged students, they have slipped for those from the middle and bottom of the socioeconomic scale. The gap is especially stark in high schools. The co-author of the analysis, Chris Bonnor, says the notable trends, measured over just a few years, indicate a serious and worsening equity problem. ‘‘ What Gonski found to be bad, seems to be getting worse,’’ Mr Bonnor , a former school principal and policy analyst, said. ‘‘ If we ever need another impetus to get equity right, surely this data is posing lots of questions that need to be answered.’’ Results for years 5 and 9 show writing and numeracy scores have fallen, while reading scores rose for year 5 and were unchanged for year 9. But, when grouped by socioeducational status, numeracy scores rose for the most advantaged students in all sectors. For schools in middle and low brackets, the trend is downwards or fluctuating . The divergence is also noticeable for both year groups in writing. The picture looks better for primary school reading where results have improved. The trends show the link between disadvantage and poor test results has become more pronounced, particularly in primary schools and schools in metropolitan areas. Mr Bonnor said the money trail over the past few years helped explain the downward trend. He examined school funding at schools from public, private and Catholic at three different levels of advantage. While disadvantaged students received the most in government funding , more money was spent on the most advantaged students than any other group, especially when school fees were taken into account. The analysis does not capture any changes resulting from the new needs-based funding model implemented this year. But, the report argues , the changes have occurred while the Gonski review ‘‘ proceeded, reported, was variously ignored, cherry-picked , somewhat implemented then in relative terms largely abandoned’’ . Trevor Cobbold, the convener of Save Our Schools and a former Productivity Commission economist, said the scaled-back version of the Gonski model would ‘‘ fall far short’ ’ of tackling weakness in the school system. ‘‘ Every principal in a disadvantaged school in the country will be pleased with the extra funding they’re going to get, but that just shows how desperate they are,’’ he said. ‘‘ They are happy to get the $1000 extra per kid because they can do something with it, but I think the evidence shows we’re just actually not going to make a big enough difference .’’ A spokesman for Education Minister Christopher Pyne said the federal government did not believe that increased funding led to better results. ‘‘ This has been disproven over the past decade, where school funding has risen by 40 per cent, but student outcomes have declined,’’ he said. ‘‘ It is the quality and ability of teachers that makes the biggest impact on student performance.’’ Labor education spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth said the next generation of Australians would pay the price of the government’s reluctance to commit to the final two years of Gonski funding, when the bulk of the money was due to flow through. Copyright © 2014 Fairfax Media
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 10:19:44 +0000
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