Arte-non-Vi

Category: Education – Policy – International

  • Jack

    Jack

    One gets to an age when one realises that certain people you met on life’s journey hold significance long after any interaction or connection has passed.

    This is just a personal acknowledgement of the ten Years that have passed since Prof. Jack Keating died.

    I briefly became aware of Jack and his work with the VSTA [Victorian Secondary Teachers Association], although I first had the pleasure of meeting Jack professionally, when he was working on the “Kirby Review”. We met again, he as Professor, I as student, in one of the first intakes to the master of education policy international course that he helped establish.

    I also had the surprising pleasure of Jack simply “popping in” to my home in the hills one day in late 2008 when he was travelling back to Melbourne, encouraging me to consider even further study and research. Events transpired that meant this was not to be, although we also discovered we shared some common neighbourhoods in our childhood [although separated by a few years!] and many similar interests.

    Always inspiring and always encouraging.

    Always committed to his work and the power and democracy of education.

    Jack left a long and lasting impression on me.

    John Polesel, a colleague of Jack’s, a professor of education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne wrote these wonderful words in 2012.

    They are worth reading again.

    Vale Prof. Jack Keating

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/guide-and-mentor-at-forefront-of-education-research-20120730-239rx.html

    Links

  • PISA – 2012

    OECDSince 2000, the OECD has been evaluating the knowledge and skills of the world’s 15-year-olds through its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test.

    According to the OECD, PISA results reveal what is possible in education by showing what students in the highest-performing and most rapidly improving education systems can do.

    More than 510,000 students in 65 economies took part in the latest test, which covered maths, reading and science, with the main focus on maths.

    I have been charting these results [and others] to better examine and share the meaning of these results with colleagues and clients. See the latest chart below.

    My additional “dashboard” can also be found at:  www.whalesongservices.com.au/dashboard

    Note: The motion chart requires flash – My apologies to iPhone and iPad viewers!

    Links

  • Capuchin monkeys reject unequal pay

    Food for thought..

     

    Links:

  • Vale Professor Jack Keating

    Vale Jack Keating.

    A teacher, colleague, mentor and friend; Jack, you will be missed.

    Those that have had anything to do with post-compulsory education in Victoria, Australia or around the world, will understand the loss to our field.

    Thank you Jack.

    Lector si monumentum requiris circumspice

     

    Links:

     

     

  • Social Mobility and Education Gaps

    Four Flags

    Those in Australia interested in the debate about education, equity and long-term social mobility within societies would benefit from reviewing the latest from the Sutton Trust.

    It is interesting to place the work of the Gonksi Review in the context of this discussion.

    My thoughts on Gonski can also be found here. A very soggy Gonski [as predicted]

    Current [and somewhat favourable] comparative analysis of Australia within the four countries should also be cautiously considered within the context of the trends we are are now seeing; greater inequity, and concentration of disadvantage. This should give policy-makers and parents alike, considerable pause…

    The Social Mobility Summit found:

    Despite being similarly unequal, the four major Anglophone nations have different social mobility levels, with the UK and US significantly less mobile than Canada or Australia.

    The Sutton Trust in the U.K. [Founded by Sir Peter Lampl in 1997] held a conference recently [May] presenting the latest international research findings on social mobility, educational achievement, and other key characteristics of the four major Anglophone countries – the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. The report was jointly sponsored by the Sutton Trust and Carnegie of New York, it is the latest in a continuing line of work investigating international comparisons of mobility.

    It is interesting to note in our current domestic debate how positively others view our educational outcomes. Of course no single comparison is definitive, or necessarily useful, but the perspective of others can often add value to such doctrinaire debates.

    Social Mobility Summit -Underachievement Comparison
    Underachievement Comparison – Social Mobility Summit 2012

     

    Those interested in such research would find the work of the Sutton Trust and the recent Social Mobility Summit very useful.

    Links

     

  • Evidence-based Education in Africa

    I wonder what our current debates in Australia would or could contribute to the need to measure impact?

    Sub-Sharan Africa [Wikipaedia]The recent Evidence-Based Education:Policy-Making and Reform in Africa Conference raises numerous challenges, for not only an education system [Ghana], but policy makers across all sectors of Health, Education and Treasury throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

    The Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in collaboration with the Ghana Educational Service (GES) and support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) staged the two day event to review a large-scale evaluation of the Ghana Government’s Teacher Community Assistant Initiative (TCAI), aimed at improving literacy and numeracy levels in basic schools.

    The context of the work is data that shows within Sub-Saharan Africa that:

    • Net enrolment in primary school was 75% in 2009
    • Primary completion rates were 67% in 2009
    • In 2004, only 60% of students were able to progress to secondary school
    • Net enrolment in secondary school was 27% in 2008
    • Gross enrolment in tertiary institutions was 6% in 2008

    Natalie Colatosti and Laurence Dessein have an article here

    Links:

    – First, Find out what works

    – Evidence-based Policy ” Build on or Spray on” David Halpern – Does Evidence Matter? [PDF]

    – Random Trials for Service Provision

  • Student Participation

    MIT’s [Massachusetts Institute of Technology ]Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a network of 59 affiliated professors around the world who are united by their use of Randomized Evaluations (REs) to answer questions critical to poverty alleviation. J-PAL’s mission is to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is based on scientific evidence.

    Their current work in the Education field has focussed on the vexed issues surrounding student participation.

    Their ongoing [and updated] research suggests that there is strong evidence from randomized evaluations on the effectiveness of the different strategies that have been used to promote student participation.

    Student Participation | J PAL

    From their research:

    Achieving universal enrollment in primary school, and high attendance among those enrolled, has been a major policy focus in developing countries for the last decade. There is now considerable evidence from randomized evaluations on the effectiveness of the different strategies that have been used to promote student participation. Parents are sensitive to the cost of school and even small subsidies can improve participation. But the most cost-effective approaches of those examined here are providing families with information about the higher wages earned by those who complete school, and addressing health problems such as intestinal worms and chronic anemia.

    Links:

  • Small Class sizes and achievement gaps?

    My research [Masters] in comparative education and equity is leading me to many interesting and challenging topics. One of hundreds…

    “What are the long-term effects of class sizes on the achievement gap?

    In essence, this paper suggests that findings on the social distribution of the immediate and lasting benefits of small classes have been mixed.

    Link: JSTOR – American Journal of Education

  • VET docs available online

    A collection of vocational education and training (VET) related research and policy documents from various regions of the world are now available online on VOCED, including many of the older print-based copies.

    VOCED is the international research database with over 35,000 documents available.

    Link: New international documents available on VOCED.