In this issue:

• Recognising and rewarding good teachers
• Improving school leadership
• ACER UPDATE

Recognising and rewarding good teachers will require a rigorous national certification system according to Dr Lawrence Ingvarson. In this opinion article, Dr Ingvarson argues that, while there is widespread agreement that Australia needs to place greater value on teachers' work, simply paying teachers more will not achieve this.

Continue reading »

School principals have an important role to play in successful schools and how they run. Leaders contribute to student learning through their influence on other staff, organisational capacity and context. The importance of school leadership makes it vital to better understand how effective leaders can best be recruited, developed and retained. The OECD Improving School Leadership Activity aims to provide in-depth analyses of different approaches to school leadership in 22 volunteer countries.

Continue reading »

On Track Annual Student Surveys in Victoria

The Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) has awarded ACER the contract for the project On Track: Follow-up and Referral of Year 12 or Equivalent Completers and Early School Leavers 2008 to 2011. This is a large-scale project that involves: (a) collection, analysis and reporting of post-school destination data of Year 12 completers and early leavers from all Victorian schools (2008 to 2011 annually); (b) providing information about support services to those school leavers who appear to be at-risk in the transition process; and (c) longitudinal research to provide a comprehensive picture of what happens to a cohort young people in the four years after they leave school.  ACER has formed a partnership with the Social Research Centre, a specialist data collection agency, to undertake the work.

Staff in Australia's Schools Survey

Findings and recommendations from the Staff in Australia's Schools Survey (SIAS) project, undertaken by ACER in collaboration with the Australian College of Educators, were published in January. The survey gathered information from over 13,000 secondary and primary school teachers and leaders across the country. It aimed to address key gaps in the data available to characterise the teaching profession to support workforce planning. The project also involved extensive consultations with key stakeholder groups on data needs and processes to support long-term workforce planning.

The study was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (previously Education, Science and Training). The findings and recommendations from the study are presented in two volumes available from the DEEWR website.