In this issue:

• Mixed results for Australia in international Mathematics and Science Study
• ACER welcomes Bradley review
• Partners in quality teaching: National curriculum and national professional teaching standards
• ACER UPDATE
• Global economic crisis may affect education export
• Declines in the study of science and mathematics confirmed
• Early school leavers take up education, training and employment
• ACER UPDATE
• Schools First launched
• Careers advice well received by students
• ACER prioritises ICT research agenda with new appointment
• ACER UPDATE
• VET programs boost employment prospects
• Are middle school programs effective?
• X, Y and Z: Research charts education across three generations
• ACER UPDATE
• Students must meet minimum standards to complete schooling
• Educators urged to respond to ‘civilisational challenge’
• Secondary school reform needed to lower youth unemployment
• Teaching citizenship skills may prevent civil conflict
• ACER UPDATE
• Practise what we preach, says leadership study
• English language skills assessment
• ACER UPDATE
• On Track survey shows more students defer higher education
• ACER UPDATE
• Time for a nationally-coordinated approach to teacher quality
• Australian academics satisfied with jobs
• ACER UPDATE
• Do schools matter for early school leaving?
• Better focus required on principal career paths and roles
• University students less engaged than US counterparts
• ACER UPDATE
• Study of mathematics declines
• Australian teacher named ‘Cultural Educator of the Year’ in ACER-VIF program
• Defining disadvantage
• ACER UPDATE
• Recognising and rewarding good teachers
• Improving school leadership
• ACER UPDATE
• School funding system a maze that encourages blame shifting
• Study reveals ICT proficiency of Australian students
• An excellent teacher for every child
• Teacher education courses in Victoria
• ACER UPDATE
• Introduction
• Education the key to overcoming disadvantage

The latest results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007 show that Australian Year 4 students have displayed some improvements in Mathematics achievement since 2003. But achievement levels of Australian students have remained static in Year 8 Mathematics and year 4 Science and declined significantly in Year 8 Science.

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The Australian Council for Educational Research welcomes the release of the Bradley Review of Higher Education. The independent review of Australia’s higher education system supports a range of recommendations made by ACER, including the need for policy and reform to be solidly underpinned by evidence-based research.

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We’re currently seeing two significant developments in education at the national level – one in the curriculum, with the creation of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and the other in teaching standards, with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) National Partnership on Quality Teaching (NPTQ). 

According to ACER Principal Research Fellow, Dr Lawrence Ingvarson, the success of each will depend in large part on the success of the other.  It’s time to give attention to ensuring that these developments will be connected and mutually reinforcing, Dr Ingvarson writes inthis opinion article.

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Masters to review Queensland primary school education

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced on 10 December that ACER's chief executive, Professor Geoff Masters, had been appointed to review curriculum and educational standards for Queensland primary school students.  Ms Bligh said in a media statement that the review would target areas of core lilteracy numeracy and science. Professor Masters will present preliminary findings of his review in late January with a final report to follow in April 2009.

Australasian Education Directory 2009

The 2009 edition of Australasian Education Directory is now available.   The AED is a comprehensive directory of educational organisations and personnel in Australia and New Zealand revised annually. Copies of the 2009 edition can be purchaed from ACER Press online.

The current economic crisis has the potential to reverse, or at least slow down, the growth of international student numbers in Australia, according to a paper presented to the annual conference of the Monash University-ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET) by ACER's Dr Phillip McKenzie in Melbourne on 31 October.

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A new report released by ACER on 30 October confirms that Australia faces significant challenges in boosting participation in science and mathematics studies in school education, university studies and in the teaching workforce.

The report provides updated figures on: the performance of Australian school students in science and mathematics; participation in science, mathematics, and technology in the final year of secondary school; university participation in science and technology studies;  and teachers, teaching and education in science, technology and mathematics. It shows, for example, that participation in senior secondary school science has declined over the 30 year period from 1976 to 2007.

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Only four per cent of 17 year olds in a recent ACER study had not completed Year 12, participated in an alternative vocational program or found full time employment. The majority of those who did not complete Year 12 were fully engaged in employment, education or training (80 per cent of males and 58 per cent of females), according to the study released on 23 October.

Reports often focus only on Year 12 completion rates. This study followed those who left school before completing Year 12 and found that many went on to study in different settings such as TAFE colleges and apprenticeships.

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VET advisory groups

ACER's Research Director, Transitions and Post-School Education and Training, Dr Phil McKenzie has been invited to represent ACER on two groups concerned with vocational education and training (VET).

The International Trades Fellowship Advisory Group group has been formed to advise the International Specialised Skills Institute (ISSI) on its program to select trades people for overseas study to help address areas of 'skill deficiencies' in the workforce. ISSI administers the program under contract to DEEWR. The advisory group members include representatives of government, industry, VET providers and research.

The Transport Research Education Consortium group has been formed by the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council (TLISC) to support the development of programs that profile transport industry VET research, help identify transport industry education and training needs, and examine issues relating to skill shortages in the transport industry.

Beyond the classroom, building school networks

Beyond the Classroom, building school networks by Rosalyn Black from the Foundation for Young Australians and published by ACER will be launched on 18 November by Sam Lipski, Chief Executive of the Pratt Foundation.

The book discusses networks involving the school, parents, community and businesses and calls for new models of schooling that recognise that the future of young people is the responsibility of the whole community. These models should form the basis of a new social alliance across school systems enabling all young people to take an active – if not leading – role in that community, beyond the school gates. Beyond the Classroom is available through ACER Press.

ACER is a partner in Schools First, a new initiative to help build school-community partnerships. Schools First is a national initiative that aims to build stronger partnerships between schools and their local communities. Schools First will provide regional, state and national awards to schools to the value of $15 million over the next three years.

The Schools First Awards have been developed by National Australia Bank and three not-for-profit organisations: ACER, Australia Cares, and the Foundation for Young Australians. National Australia Bank has committed to funding the awards and all operating costs for the program over the initial three years.

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A new study of young Australians’ perceptions of the career advice received in secondary school has found that almost all students access career advice between Years 10 and 12 and believe the information provided met their individual needs.

The study, released by ACER on 7 October, concluded that a school’s career advice program needs to encompass as many career advice activities as possible as students have different needs from career advice and these needs can change over time. Young people appear to appreciate a wider variety of activities in their career advice program as it may provide them with more opportunities to find a career they wish to pursue.

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ACER has appointed of Mr Gerry White to the newly-created position of Principal Research Fellow in the area of Research and Digital Learning. The appointment signals ACER’s commitment to providing high quality research to support policy and practice in the use of technology in education.

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CEET to hold 12th annual National Conference

The Centre for the Economics of Education & Training, a joint structure between ACER and Monash University, will hold its 12th National Conference on Friday 31 October 2008. The theme will be ‘The expansion of education and training: Ensuring relevance, quality and inclusion.' The conference will be held at Ascot House, 50 Fenton St, Ascot Vale, Melbourne. 

Speakers will include Tom  Karmel, Peter Noonan, Chandra Shah, Gerald Burke, Phillip McKenzie, Fran  Ferrier, Sue North, Rob Fearnside and Jack Keating. Further details are available from the CEET website 

Assessment and reporting of employability skills

The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard released a report by ACER that addresses the assessment and reporting of employability skills of senior secondary students on 17 October. The Study into the Assessment and Reporting of Employability Skills of Senior Secondary Students, was undertaken between July 2007 and January 2008. The main task in this project was to evaluate options for assessing and reporting each of eight employability skills against five criteria, and to recommend a preferred approach. The report, by Gabrielle Matters and David Curtis, is available from the DEEWR website.

Why not the Best Schools?

Why not the best schools? What we have learned from outstanding schools around the world, by Brian Caldwell and Jessica Harris will be launched by Professor Glyn Davis AC, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Melbourne, on 30 October.

Why not the Best Schools? offers a ten-point, ten-year plan for an education revolution that will result in the transformation of Australia's schools.  The book draws on a five-year study culminating in the International Project to Frame the Transformation of Schools conducted in Australia, China, England, Finland, the United States and Wales. There are 6 Case Study books, sold separately and. They are available online from ACER Press

Participation in Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs improves the employment prospects and earning power of recent school leavers, a report into VET pathways by school leavers concluded.

The report, released on 18 September, found there are benefits to young men and women in undertaking a VET program rather than entering the workforce without any form of post-school education and training, with completion of a program providing even greater benefits.

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While there is a lot of information available about middle schooling, a critical review of the research found very little hard evidence for its effectiveness – case study and qualitative research tended to predominate.

ACER Research Director for Teaching, Learning and Leadership Professor Stephen Dinham along with Dr Ken Rowe, presented a review of middle school research at the British Educational Research Association conference in Edinburgh this month.

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Three decades of research into young people’s education and post-school transitions reveals trends for future generations.

ACER has conducted extensive research into young people’s education and post-school transitions over the last 30 years, through the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) and earlier studies. ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Sheldon Rothman and Research Fellow Kylie Hillman presented their findings at the annual ACER conference in Brisbane in August.

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Principal for a Day 2008

The Principal for a Day event was held in Victoria on 2 September. The program, which is delivered by the ACER Leadership Centre in partnership with the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, provides an opportunity to showcase the successes of state education, and opens doors for principals into business and community networks. For business and community leaders, the program provides insight into and better understanding of the young people who represent the future of Victoria. This year’s program involved more than 100 “Principals for a Day” matched with school leaders in primary, secondary and special schools in metropolitan and regional Victoria. The Principal for a Day key was followed by a Forum, on 16 September, in which guest panelists discussed the issues arising from the Principal for a Day program, around the theme “Leadership: Finding the common ground”. Further information on the Principal for a Day program is available from the PFAD website.

ACER International Institute hosts Indian educators

A group of four Indian educators will visit the ACER International Institute in September and October under the Australian Endeavour Scholarship program. The scholarships, funded by the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, were awarded through the Australian High Commission in Delhi.
The Indian educators will work with ACER International Institute staff to study school-based and system-wide student assessment practices in Australia. The group will be in Australia for six weeks. Four weeks will be based at the ACER offices in Melbourne, and two weeks will be spent in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. The educators will visit schools and talk with leaders and teachers about the administration and use of student assessment.

After 13 years of schooling all students must have fundamental skills and understandings essential to successful functioning as an adult member of Australian society and the workforce according to Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) chief executive Professor Geoff Masters.

Professor Masters told delegates to ACER’s Research Conference 2008 in Brisbane on 11 August that the skills and knowledge students need for life beyond school go well beyond proficiency in the traditional ‘3 Rs’.

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The single most significant omission from educational thinking and practice is the absence of any kind of effective futures studies according to futures expert Professor Richard Slaughter.
Speaking at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) annual conference in Brisbane on 11 August, Professor Slaughter said this situation has become indefensible. He called on educators to take very seriously what he describes as the ‘civilisational challenge.’

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The education system pumps far too many poorly qualified and inadequately skilled young people onto a labour market that has little need for them, and only reform to the model of secondary education can address the problem, according to education expert Professor Richard Sweet.

Professor Sweet, of Sweet Group and the University of Melbourne, presented his views in a keynote address at the ACER annual research conference in Brisbane 12 August. Professor Sweet contends that a low level of Year 12 completion results in too high a rate of teenage unemployment despite a strong and youth-friendly labour market.

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Australia must build people’s skills for citizenship as well as work, argues Monash University Professor of Education Terri Seddon.
Recent policy reform has emphasised skills for work but forgotten to consider how people develop skills for citizenship, Professor Seddon told the ACER research conference on 11 August. The primary goal of schooling is to prepare young people for productive and responsible adult lives as workers and citizens, she contends.

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Research Conference 2009

ACER’s fourteenth annual research conference will take place in Perth from 16-18 August 2009 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. The theme for Research Conference 2009 is Assessment and Student Learning: Collecting, interpreting and using data to inform teaching. Further information about the conference will be posted on the Professional Learning section of the ACER website as it becomes available. Enquiries may be directed to Margaret Taylor in ACER’s Centre for Professional Learning by phone on 03 9277 5403 or by email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Information available to date is included in the conference flyer.

Special address by The Hon. Julia Gillard

The Hon Julia Gillard MP, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for Education and Minister for Social Inclusion delivered a special address to the ACER Research Conference on 11 August. Ms Gillard’s address focused on the connection between education, employment and social inclusion. A recording of the address is available from the Research Conference 2008 web page.

Conference proceedings and audio recordings available online

The full conference proceedings and individual papers from Research Conference 2008 are now available online. Power Point presentations and audio recordings are also available from sessions. These can be downloaded from the conference web page.

Leaders are learning like students, according to a recent study of higher education leaders from around the country. The Learning Leaders in Times of Change survey, funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, is a joint project of the University of Western Sydney and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

The project surveyed more than 500 Australian higher education leaders from 20 institutions about the contexts and challenges they face and the key capabilities that underpin their work. Results of the survey were released on 30 June.

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ACER has developed a new test of English language skills designed to help Australian universities and TAFEs identify international students who may need support to develop their English-language skills to a sufficient level to cope with the demands of tertiary study.

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Research Conference 2008

The Hon Julia Gillard MP, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for Education, Minister for Social Inclusion will deliver a special address at ACER’s Research Conference 2008 "Touching the Future: Building skills for life and work" on Monday 11th August in Brisbane. Her address will focus on the connection between education, employment and social inclusion.

Research Conference 2008 takes place at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, from 10-12 August. Further information on the conference program and registration is available from the conference website. Enquiries may also be directed to Margaret Taylor at ACER’s Centre for Professional Learning by phone on 03 9277 5403 or by email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

New location for ACER Brisbane office

ACER’s Brisbane office has relocated to Kelvin Grove from Spring Hill. The new premises include a shop where books and other products published and distributed by ACER Press are available for sale directly to the public. The new office and shop are located at 1/165 Kelvin Grove Road, Kelvin Grove, QLD 4059. Phone (07) 3238 9000 Fax (07) 3228 9001. The shop is open from 9.00am to 5.00pm weekdays.

Research Developments issue 19

Research Developments issue 19, Winter 2008 is now available online. Articles in this edition explore school funding, Australia's performance in the 2006 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the recent Staff in Australia's School (SiAS) survey and outlines several of ACER's international projects. Print copies of Research Developments 19 will be distributed in mid August.

A growing proportion of students are choosing to defer university studies or take up apprenticeships, according to new research from the Victorian government. The research shows that a lower proportion of Year 12 completers are enrolling in university, with many young people, particularly those from rural areas, deferring studies to work for a year to become eligible for youth allowance and cover living costs.

The annual On Track survey, conducted by ACER for the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, surveyed more than 33,000 young people who completed the Victorian Certificate of Education, the International Baccalaureate, or the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (Intermediate or Senior).

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Learning for Leadership

Learning for Leadership by Michelle Anderson and Christine Cawsey, published by ACER Press was launched by ACER’s chief executive Professor Geoff Masters on 12 May. Part of the Educational Leadership Dialogues series, Learning for Leadership explores how school principals can initiate and maintain programs and practices to develop the leadership potential of teachers in their school. It explains the theory behind the concept of educational leadership and then it tells the story of a school much admired for its leadership development. Together, the research and the case study present a strong argument for the introduction of similar programs in schools throughout Australia. The book can be purchased through ACER Press online at http://shop.acer.edu.au/acer-shop/product/A4017BK or contact customer service on 1800 338 402 or via email on .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Digital education revolution symposia

ACER and education.au supported by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), presented a series of symposia around Australia to explore and illuminate the possibilities and the realities of the implementation of the Digital Education revolution (DER). Additional information is available from http://research.acer.edu.au/digital_learning/1/.

Mature Students Admission Pathway (MSAP)

University College Cork (UCC) and University College Dublin (UCD) have contracted ACER to develop a test for their mature-aged students applying to Humanities courses at UCC and UCD. The test will be known as the Mature Students Admission Pathway (MSAP). The inaugural sitting of the test, at a number of venues throughout Ireland, will be 14 February 2009.

Earlier this year, the Business Council of Australia commissioned staff at the Australian Council for Educational Research to write a position paper for the BCA on quality teaching. This paper, ‘Investing in Teacher Quality: Doing What Matters Most’, written by Stephen Dinham, Lawrence Ingvarson and Elizabeth Kleinhenz , was released on May 26 as part of a BCA publication Teaching Talent The Best Teachers for Australia’s Schools.

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The first results from a major international survey of the state of the academic profession shows that the majority of Australian academics remain satisfied with their jobs despite reporting a decline in working conditions since the start of their careers.

Conducted by the University of New England’s Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy (CHEMP) and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) the Changing Nature of the Academic Profession (CAP) project is the largest of its kind in the world. The international comparative study is running across 20 countries including Australia.

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HPAT - Ireland

ACER has been awarded the contract to develop and manage the administration of a new undergraduate medical admissions test for University College Cork, University College Dublin, National University of Ireland Galway, The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Trinity College Dublin. The test will be known as HPAT-Ireland.

The first sitting of the test will be on 14 February 2009. The results of HPAT-Ireland will be combined with the Leaving Certificate Examination results to select students for admission to medicine at each of the five Irish universities.

ACER is now responsible for all the undergraduate and graduate medical admissions testing in Ireland.

Employment of postgraduates with science and mathematics research skills

ACER has been contracted by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to conduct a research project on the employment of postgraduates with science and mathematics research skills. The study is intended to analyse trends in the supply of, and demand for, graduates with higher degree research skills in mathematics and science, and identify good practice among employers in attracting and retaining such graduates. The project will run from May to December 2008.

Gambling and Young People

Gambling Research Australia has contracted ACER to conduct a two-year national study focusing on young people and their gambling within an Australian context. The project will research the extent and the patterns of gambling in young people, the context, nature and practices of where and why young people gamble; and the risk enhancers and risk inhibitors relevant to gambling for young people. The results of the project are intended to inform policy and practice related to effective harm reduction measures for young people. The project will commence in June.

School completion is viewed as a major policy issue in Australia. Early school leavers are more likely to become unemployed, stay unemployed for longer, have lower earnings, and accumulate less wealth over their lifetime. Policy makers are particularly concerned with the role of schools in early school leaving, with a view to policy intervention. If individual schools have important effects on school leaving, then policies could be introduced in particular schools to reduce early school leaving. However, such policy interventions would be less appropriate if schools or school factors do not make substantive independent contributions to school leaving.

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Building communities of professional learners is the key to meeting Australia’s school leadership challenge a new review of research has concluded.

The Australian Education review 53: The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools, written by University of Tasmania researcher Professor Bill Mulford, draws on papers from ACER’s 2007 Research Conference and many other contemporary sources within the leadership research literature to address and provide a focus for the issues facing Australian school leadership.

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Australian and New Zealand tertiary students are less engaged with their universities than their North American counterparts according to results from the first administration of the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE). More than 9000 students from 25 Australian and New Zealand universities participated in the survey in 2007. The public report was released by ACER in April.

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Masters takes part in 2020 Summit

ACER’s chief executive Professor Geoff Masters took part in the 2020 Summit in Canberra earlier this month. He was part of the Summit’s early childhood and school education sub-stream. It identified the need for more seamless, national approaches to our most pressing educational challenges – including a greater focus on development in early childhood and on the needs of Indigenous students and students living in remote and disadvantaged areas of Australia.

A question posed at the Summit was: What would it take for Australia to develop the best education system in the world? Many ideas were proposed, but there was general agreement that keys included addressing the needs of disadvantaged and low-achieving students; ensuring that every child has access to an excellent teacher; investing more in education and training; and encouraging local partnerships between schools, businesses, parents and their communities.

Assessment tool for the hospitality industry

ACER Press has been selected, from a number of submissions, to provide advice and supply an assessment tool, the Work Personality Index, which will be used for the recruitment of a range of positions in the Hospitality industry. Organised through the peak industry body, the Restaurant & Catering Association (RCA), the proposal has been given federal government approval and funding. The hospitality sector is one of the largest employers of people in Australia and it is anticipated, by the RCA, that approximately 1,000 businesses a year will be using the tool to help with the selection of staff. Work has begun on developing a Hospitality Profile template, which is the first stage of this project.

The study of mathematics, particularly higher mathematics, is important if Australia is to develop a scientifically literate workforce. Participation in mathematics study at higher levels is declining, and a recent paper begins to consider some of the reasons for this.

Year 12 Students and Higher Mathematics: Emerging Issues, was presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education conference in 2007, and published in 2008. The authors were Mohan Chinnappan (University of Wollongong), Stephen Dinham (ACER), Anthony Herrington (University of Wollongong) and Dale Scott (University of Wollongong).

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An Australian teacher has been recognised in the annual awards for the United States’ Visiting International Faculty (VIF) program. The VIF program is the largest cultural exchange program for international educators who want to teach in the United States.  The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has recently formed an alliance with the VIF program with an aim to expand opportunities for Australian teachers to benefit from the rich professional development to be gained by teaching in different contexts and in different cultures.

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Next month federal, state and territory education ministers will meet at the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). School funding reform should be high on their agenda argued ACER researcher Dr Andrew Dowling in this recent opinion article.

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Assessing teachers for professional certification

A new book by ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Lawrence Ingvarson and University of Auckland Professor John Hattie outlines the development over the first ten years of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in the USA.

Assessing Teachers for Professional Certification: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards brings together, for international as well as non-specialist audiences, papers written by the key researchers involved in the development of National Board assessments between 1987 and 1997.

The authors argue that NBPTS provides an example of a well researched certification scheme for measuring teacher quality that can provide a service to governments and employers seeking a reliable indicator of teacher quality.

Assessing Teachers for Professional Certification: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is published by Blackwell. It can be purchased in Australia online through the Holistic Internet Store.

Information and communications technology (ICT) terms described

A new set of terms used in education to describe information and communications technology (ICT) is now available through the Australian Thesaurus of Educational Descriptors (ATED) managed by ACER’s Cunningham Library. The terms were developed through a collaborative project by education.au and ACER as part of the InspireED project.

Around 80 new and revised terms have been described including ‘accessibility,’ ‘bandwidth,’ ‘Blogs,’ ‘digital divide,’ ‘mobile learning,’ ‘internet safety,’ and ‘Wikis.’

uniTEST to be administered at Danish university

uniTEST will be administered by the University of Southern Denmark (USD) to assist the selection of students into its medical faculty. The test will be taken in Danish in May. Around 1500 prospective students are expected to participate.

2008 Employer of Choice for Women

ACER has been awarded 2008 Employer of Choice for Women status by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA). ACER is one of 99 Australian employers to receive the citation.

ACER was awarded the citation on the basis of our policies and practices that support women across the organisation and have a positive outcome for both women and our business. The citation is a significant public acknowledgement of our efforts in the area of equal opportunity for women.

A media release and other information is available from the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace website

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.

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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.

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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.

Australia must develop a national and transparent model of school funding based on comprehensible measures of need applying equally across the sectors if the funding debate in this country is to rise above a sterile ideological battle, argues a policy paper released by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

In the first of a planned series of policy papers from ACER, Dr Andrew Dowling describes the processes of school funding that currently exist in Australia and argues that more can be done to implement a consistent and transparent system.

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Australia’s educators and policy makers now have a comprehensive picture of the level of ICT literacy of Australia’s Year 6 and 10 students following a landmark study completed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

The report of the National Assessment Program – ICT Literacy Years 6 and 10 was released this week by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). It reports on a study conducted in 2005 involving approximately 7400 students from Years 6 and 10 in around 520 schools across Australia.

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The Rudd government was elected with the promise of a ‘revolution’ to provide Australia with a world-class education system. Why is an education revolution required, and what forms could it take? In this recent opinion article, published in The Canberra Times, ACER chief executive Professor Geoff Masters looks at Australia's education priorities.

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Teachers need deep content knowledge and comprehensive understanding of student learning processes to be effective in the classroom, says the latest ACER paper on teacher education.

A study by Lawrence Ingvarson, Adrian Beavis and Elizabeth Kleinhenz has been published in the European Journal of Teacher Education. The study investigated the characteristics of effective pre-service education programs, essentially asking the question: What changes should be made to teacher education courses to better prepare future teachers?

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ACER and VIF Program to provide exchange opportunities for Australian teachers

ACER has formed an alliance with the Visiting International Faculty Program (VIF), the United States’ largest international-exchange program for teachers, to help provide Australian teachers with an opportunity to teach in the United States and share knowledge and teaching skills with American colleagues. 

ACER will work closely with primary and secondary Australian educators interested in applying to teach in the U.S. with the VIF Program. ACER will handle applications from Australian teachers. Between 60 and 100 teachers Australian teachers will be selected for the exchange program and they will be posted in the US for short period of up to two years. Information on how to apply for the program will be posted on the ACER website in late February. Read ACER's Media Release.

Physical activity and bodyweight of 17-year-olds examined

A briefing paper from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), published by ACER, describes the physical activity and body weight reported by a sample of more than 7000 17 year-olds during 2005. It reports on their participation levels in sport and exercise, their health, body mass index (BMI) and associations between these and other characteristics.

Overall, while 85 per cent of young people reported playing regular sport or exercise, only 25 per cent reported playing sport or exercise on a daily basis. Seventy-two per cent of the survey’s participants rated their general health as either excellent or very good. However, one fifth had a BMI placing them in the overweight to obese weight range, sparking concern.

Hoops, hurdles and high jumps: Physical activity and bodyweight among 17 year-olds was published as LSAY Briefing Number 13 and is available from LSAY page of this website.

Teacher Magazine achieves Bell Awards success

Teacher Magazine was successful at the 2007 Publishers Australia Bell Awards taking out an award or being highly commended in three categories. 

• Writer of the Year - Rebecca Leech, Teacher Magazine - Winner
• Business to Business Magazine of the Year - Teacher Magazine - Highly Commended
• Best Printing - Jillian Coates/Mary Giblin, Teacher Magazine - Highly Commended

Research Conference 2008 special edition

The following articles are based on papers presented at the ACER Research Conference 2008, held in Brisbane, 11-12 August 2008 on the theme of Touching the Future: Building skills for life and work.

It’s an article of faith that education is the key to overcoming disadvantage and opening the door of opportunity. However young people don’t commence their education from the same starting line as Professor Stephen Dinham explains in this opinion article.

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