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News bulletins from the Australian Council for Educational Research published April 2007 3134 subscribers Subscribe Now In this issue: Research on performance pay for teachers National Curriculum: The real challenge School sector and SES make little difference to university course completion ACER UPDATE Research on performance pay for teachers ACER’s recently released report on performance pay, Research on Performance Pay for Teachers, reviewed current pay systems for teachers, and evidence on the impact of different kinds of performance pay arrangements in Australia and several countries around the world, and considered further investigation required of performance pay possibilities in Australia. Despite the sometimes negative response to performance based pay in Australia – as witnessed by the failure of Federal, State and Territory education ministers to reach agreement on the issue at the recent MCEETYA summit – the researchers argued that a suitable scheme can and must be developed for Australian teachers. Continue reading » National Curriculum: The real challenge In this opinion article, published in The Age on 16 April, ACER's chief executive Professor Geoff Masters outlines the challenges of developing a common curriculum for Australia, particularly in science. Continue reading » School sector and SES make little difference to university course completion A new analysis of the characteristics of students who fail to complete university courses has found that whether a student attended a government or independent school and their socioeconomic background made little difference to the odds of completing their course. Continue reading » ACER UPDATE New research program established ACER has established a new research program in Policy Research and Program Evaluation. The new research program will strengthen ACER's research into a range of education policy issues and will build our capacity to bid for, and to undertake, work in the area of program evaluation. The research program will include significant capacity to address questions around the resourcing of schools and will enhance ACER's capacity to develop policy-oriented publications on the state of Australian education. Dr Adrian Beavis has been appointed as Research Director of the new program. Dr Beavis worked with ACER for 13 years until leaving to join the Smith Family as Principal Researcher in 2006. In that role Dr Beavis was responsible for program evaluation, original research commentary on research and policy documents. He will be joined on the Policy Research and Program Evaluation team by Dr Michelle Lonsdale and Dr Andrew Dowling who have been appointed as Principal Research Fellows. Australian Technology Network Engineering Selection Test ACER has been commissioned to develop a test to measure the aptitude of students wishing to gain admission to university engineering courses at the Australian Technology Network (ATN) group of universities (Curtin University of Technology; Queensland University of Technology; RMIT University; University of South Australia; and University of Technology, Sydney). The test, The Australian Technology Network Engineering Selection Test (ATNEST) will join ACER’s suite of university selection tests (ALSET, GAMSAT, STAT, UNITEST, UMAT). ATNEST will assess a candidate’s ability to think scientifically, solve quantitative problems, critically analyse information and display interpersonal understanding. ATNEST will allow students who have not studied the traditional pre-requisites for admission to engineering, to gain admission to engineering courses. In addition, students who feel that their Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) or other academic credentials are not an adequate reflection of their ability to successfully study engineering can sit ATNEST, and have their ATNEST scores considered alongside their other achievements. The first ATNEST sitting will be on Saturday September 15, 2007. There will be test venues across Australia and international sites in China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the UAE. For further information phone 61 3 9277 5573 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Copyright © Australian Council for Educational Research 2013 All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission. Please address any requests to reproduce information to communications@acer.edu.au Subscribe Unsubscribe Australian Council for Educational Research Private Bag 55, Camberwell, Victoria Australia 3124 Tel: + 61 3 9277 5555 Fax: + 61 3 9277 5500 Web: www.acer.edu.au

News bulletins from the Australian Council for Educational Research published April 2007
3134 subscribers
Subscribe Now

In this issue:

Research on performance pay for teachers

ACER’s recently released report on performance pay, Research on Performance Pay for Teachers, reviewed current pay systems for teachers, and evidence on the impact of different kinds of performance pay arrangements in Australia and several countries around the world, and considered further investigation required of performance pay possibilities in Australia.

Despite the sometimes negative response to performance based pay in Australia – as witnessed by the failure of Federal, State and Territory education ministers to reach agreement on the issue at the recent MCEETYA summit – the researchers argued that a suitable scheme can and must be developed for Australian teachers.

National Curriculum: The real challenge

In this opinion article, published in The Age on 16 April, ACER's chief executive Professor Geoff Masters outlines the challenges of developing a common curriculum for Australia, particularly in science.

School sector and SES make little difference to university course completion

A new analysis of the characteristics of students who fail to complete university courses has found that whether a student attended a government or independent school and their socioeconomic background made little difference to the odds of completing their course.

ACER UPDATE

New research program established

ACER has established a new research program in Policy Research and Program Evaluation. The new research program will strengthen ACER's research into a range of education policy issues and will build our capacity to bid for, and to undertake, work in the area of program evaluation. The research program will include significant capacity to address questions around the resourcing of schools and will enhance ACER's capacity to develop policy-oriented publications on the state of Australian education. Dr Adrian Beavis has been appointed as Research Director of the new program. Dr Beavis worked with ACER for 13 years until leaving to join the Smith Family as Principal Researcher in 2006. In that role Dr Beavis was responsible for program evaluation, original research commentary on research and policy documents. He will be joined on the Policy Research and Program Evaluation team by Dr Michelle Lonsdale and Dr Andrew Dowling who have been appointed as Principal Research Fellows.

Australian Technology Network Engineering Selection Test

ACER has been commissioned to develop a test to measure the aptitude of students wishing to gain admission to university engineering courses at the Australian Technology Network (ATN) group of universities (Curtin University of Technology; Queensland University of Technology; RMIT University; University of South Australia; and University of Technology, Sydney). The test, The Australian Technology Network Engineering Selection Test (ATNEST) will join ACER’s suite of university selection tests (ALSET, GAMSAT, STAT, UNITEST, UMAT).

ATNEST will assess a candidate’s ability to think scientifically, solve quantitative problems, critically analyse information and display interpersonal understanding.

ATNEST will allow students who have not studied the traditional pre-requisites for admission to engineering, to gain admission to engineering courses. In addition, students who feel that their Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) or other academic credentials are not an adequate reflection of their ability to successfully study engineering can sit ATNEST, and have their ATNEST scores considered alongside their other achievements.

The first ATNEST sitting will be on Saturday September 15, 2007. There will be test venues across Australia and international sites in China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the UAE.

For further information phone 61 3 9277 5573 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission. Please address any requests to reproduce information to communications@acer.edu.au

Subscribe Unsubscribe

Australian Council for Educational Research
Private Bag 55, Camberwell, Victoria Australia 3124
Tel: + 61 3 9277 5555
Fax: + 61 3 9277 5500
Web: www.acer.edu.au