Posted by: PPTAweb
on 11, Feb, 2013
Horror stories, especially those that bring ghouls back from the shadows of the underworld, are popular with some people. Others prefer to rob a grave or three and dig up the skeletons of bad ideas.
The 'Bulk funding' spectre is one bad idea recently dug up by Ministry of Education wonks - and hinted at by lurking Treasury boffins - as a solution to 'teachers'.
Some of ACTs shades have even suggested taking the spectre of Novopay that one step further to the full chaos of bulk funding.
Posted by: Tom Haig
on 10, Nov, 2012
Tagged in:
secondary schools ,
public education ,
private schools ,
National Party Education Policy ,
Maori achievement ,
Hekia Parata ,
funding ,
Fees ,
equity ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
education policy ,
education
So a day after announcing the closure of two residential special schools, Parata announces the government is going to be giving $3 million a year to Wanganui Collegiate.
Collegiate is a decile 10 school, which according to the 2011 ERO report had no Pasifika students and 11% Maori.
The same ERO report praised its ‘relatively small class sizes’ which enabled teachers to know their students well, and commented on the ‘success rates considerably above national comparison levels.’ Yep, well that’s what a top private school is supposed to do, right?
Parata and Longstone have been berating schools and teachers to raise the achievement of Maori, Pasifika, special needs and students from low-socio-economic status families - these are supposed to be the priority learners that are the Minister’s ‘unrelenting’ focus.
Posted by: Michael James Stevenson
on 12, Sep, 2012
I went to hear Steve Keen, the author of Debunking Economics, and Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Western Sydney, critique neoliberal and neoclassical economics, while also providing some alternative policy settings.
A long-standing critic of conventional economic theory, Professor Keen's seminar was timely as There is Always a Reasonable Alternative heads towards the 2012 PPTA annual conference.
Despite Professor Keen’s international standing, there was only a small audience present. Perhaps the local public (government) servants one would normally hope to see were sixty doors back down The Terrace hard at work for Ministers English and Joyce. That said, Professor Keen did mention New Zealand Treasury had made contact prior to his arrival and requested a meeting and copies of his recent research.
Readers may have seen Professor Keen on the BBC show Hardtalk or heard the recent National Radio interview with Kim Hill.
Professor Keen has developed an economic model that uses all relevant data, so he can more accurately analyse what is happening in the economy. He won the 2010 Revere Award of Economics from the Real World Economics Review for being the economist who first warned of the coming calamity in the years before the global financial crisis struck in 2008.
Professor Keen’s presentation focused on:
Posted by: Tom Haig
on 06, Sep, 2012
Tagged in:
union ,
teachers' work ,
role ,
quality ,
professionalism ,
industrial ,
Hargreaves ,
Fullan ,
employment ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
education policy
I was reading Hargreaves and Fullan’s latest book, Professional Capital, and came across this hypothetical question to teacher unions:
“When will you ever support a change that’s not just about more jobs, more money or easier work?”
Posted by: Cynic
on 21, May, 2012
Tagged in:
working conditions ,
teaching ,
teachers ,
staffing ,
public education ,
professional learning and development ,
Hekia Parata ,
funding mechanisms ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
Class size
Just been reading about Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam - I suspect he and Hekia Parata might end up having some frustrations in common.
But one of his biggest frustrations has been realizing that running government isn’t always just like running a business.
...
Early this year, Haslam unveiled a plan to give school districts the flexibility to adjust class sizes, which would free up money to increase pay for teachers in tough-to-teach subjects or difficult-to-staff positions.
But the plan went down in flames.
Democrats and the state’s largest teachers’ union relentlessly attacked the plan, polls showed almost nine in 10 surveyed thought class sizes should be kept the same or made smaller, and even Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to support the governor’s proposal.
At the local level, school officials were worried that any money saved from raising the average class size would give elected school boards and county commissions reason to reduce education budgets instead of plugging the money into better teacher pay.
Missouri News Horizon
|
In New Zealand Hekia Parata has announced changes the staffing ratio - and says it's OK folks - schools can still keep class sizes the same, it's just a funding ratio. The "freed up" money is going to improve teaching quality.
Well let us unpack that just a teeny bit:
