adamantium|wang posted:

Hunt goes to health while Sinodinos gets Industry ahahaha

Recoome posted:

This article about university students has really rustled my jimmies


This is a horseshit comment from the minister involved here. These school leavers aren't old enough to buy a beer yet, let alone have a full grasp on what would be a good person/career/university fit. I lucked out with my choice, but I still had to take a break from university before coming back. I'd also think there's undue pressure to actually go to university, so there's that.

Lol at comparing graduation rate, so many different variables to consider

open24hours posted:

What are some alternative options?

open24hours posted:

What are some alternative options?

Kommando posted:

colonisation of Mars.

start over.

quote:

Last week, my provocative Facebook question explored teachers, their holidays and whether they really 'lesson-plan from home.' It was a social media bomb that ripped open the debate about school holidays for teachers that are the envy of many.

Since before chalk and slate was invented, debates around barbecues have probed teacher claims of 'working on holidays', a phenomenon hardly isolated to just one occupation.

So if teachers are performing inordinate and unpaid additional hours, why are we going backwards compared to most school systems worldwide? Is working hard always working smart?

Known as 'click-bait', my deliberately controversial post sought virality and got more than it bargained for. Education unions conducted an orchestra of wailing, petitions and form letters. Apart from the obvious question; as to why schools even need unions, let's answer the actual question. Like any occupation, most but not all teachers are diligent and devoted.

Much of the online anger stemmed from a politician simply exploring the issue. Others felt it was picking on one of the many devoted occupations that performs a vital role for limited remuneration.

Australian schools perform limited formative student assessment, and offer limited teacher support. More concerning, unions oppose professional development for teachers in working hours without government putting more money on the table.

This month, I assiduously compared 165 Queensland high schools and their student gains between years nine and 12. The results were astonishing. From the same baseline at year nine, some public high schools triple the number of top score senior students in three years; others tragically diminish that cohort by a third. Despite hardworking teachers everywhere, there appears to be a six-fold variation in public high school performance that has nothing to do with community wealth. In fact, many of the best performing schools are in the poorest suburbs.

None of this information has ever been made public, because school systems prefer to bury indigestible data deep in the myschool website. Teachers remain isolated in 3500 school locations nationwide, trapped in systems that force them to take work home. Data showing some schools smashing ceilings is suppressed, to avoid embarrassing the rest. Fessing up that teacher performance actually varies is deemed heretical.

Compare that with nursing. Facing oblivion against higher paid and trained doctors and allied health professionals, nurses fought back and professionalised their degree. They introduced higher salaries for specialisations and a clinical hierarchy that rewarded talent and ambition. Today, nurses and doctors clinically 'self-develop' at home for financial reward. Teachers on the other hand lesson plan at home, for free. Top teacher salaries are only now touching triple figures; something around a quarter of nurses have enjoyed for years.

That is partly due to teachers being confined to salary increments which top-out at a mid-level bureaucrat wage. Unlike nurses and doctors, where the high earners remain on the beat, teachers must abandon the classroom in exchange for further pay rises.

Unions exert significant influence on Labor state education ministers; typically by opposing everything except pay increments. The list is long; opposition to Naplan, external testing, publicising detailed school outcomes and as a topper, opposing any rewards for higher performance. Apparently teachers do it for love not money and there is absolutely no way to fairly measure teacher performance.

In contrast to Australia's world-class health system, our schools are slipping not just against the best, but in some cases against our own results just a decade ago. Surely we can be honest, and admit that like every profession, some teachers work hard; some not so much. With the tireless paid the same as the soft-paddler, it is remarkable how the system survives.

As many of us take for granted, extra pay for excellence could activate a dynamic where the best teachers took on the largest challenges in the hardest locations, made the biggest differences and were paid accordingly. We pay specialist doctors more than High Court judges to cure the most complex patients, but deny specialist teachers an additional cent for working with the highest-need students.

Teaching should be an art. Instead we insist that every work fetch the same price. It should be a science, efforts to capture data are actively discredited. Teaching should be a profession, but trade unions are doing their best to reduce it to just that: a trade.

It's a weaker nation that curbs this discussion using derision and personal attack. My call is not for an overhaul, but for baby steps towards a system where excellence is formally recognised with more than just a certificate.

If that generates such outrage, it is clear now is the time these entrenched union views be tested, to benefit of all teachers and our children.

Andrew Laming is the Federal Member for Bowman.

open24hours posted:

We really should have a space program. If we'd bought one of those instead of school halls and giving everyone $900 we could be on Mars by now.

iajanus posted:

This month, I assiduously compared 165 Queensland high schools and their student gains between years nine and 12. The results were astonishing. From the same baseline at year nine, some public high schools triple the number of top score senior students in three years; others tragically diminish that cohort by a third. Despite hardworking teachers everywhere, there appears to be a six-fold variation in public high school performance that has nothing to do with community wealth. In fact, many of the best performing schools are in the poorest suburbs.

None of this information has ever been made public, because school systems prefer to bury indigestible data deep in the myschool website. Teachers remain isolated in 3500 school locations nationwide, trapped in systems that force them to take work home. Data showing some schools smashing ceilings is suppressed, to avoid embarrassing the rest. Fessing up that teacher performance actually varies is deemed heretical.

Recoome posted:

yeah hahah fuk tha poor

open24hours posted:

So is he going to release his analysis?

iajanus posted:

quote:

www.andrewlaming.com.au uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate expired on Sunday, 25 December 2016 12:02 PM. The current time is Wednesday, 18 January 2017 1:35 PM.

Zenithe posted:

The go to response to a well paid profession is nursing? I'm guessing this writer knows literally no nurses.

quote:

Apart from the obvious question; as to why schools even need unions...

That is partly due to teachers being confined to salary increments which top-out at a mid-level bureaucrat wage.

Unions exert significant influence on Labor state education ministers...

...it is remarkable how the system survives.

it is clear now is the time these entrenched union views be tested, to benefit of all teachers and our children.

Andrew Laming is the Federal Member for Bowman.

The Peccadillo posted:

http://tonyabbott.com.au/2017/01/2017-economic-imperatives/

quote:

The first rule of government should be to do no harm.

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

Because it's a profession, not a trade so they should shut up and get into line with doctors and set up anti-worker associations instead.

e:gently caress I hate people who think it would be in any way scientific to look at test scores from year to year and from there determine the performance of a teacher.

e2:And as for paying teachers who deal with high needs kids better, start with loving teacher's aides you disingenuous fuckfaced poo poo.

The Peccadillo posted:

Abbott says Trump's policy is a land of contrasts

http://tonyabbott.com.au/2017/01/2017-economic-imperatives/

Konomex posted:

As a teacher I'd be willing to bet all my money that if pay was linked to performance SOOOO many teachers would fudge the numbers to give themselves a pay increase. Heck, some of them fudge those numbers anyway. Who needs reliable data.

ZombyDog posted:

Lol if you haven't read Stark.

Konomex posted:

As a teacher I'd be willing to bet all my money that if pay was linked to performance SOOOO many teachers would fudge the numbers to give themselves a pay increase. Heck, some of them fudge those numbers anyway. Who needs reliable data.

Ten Becquerels posted:

Looking at the US healthcare system and thinking 'yes, this is good' has to be the pinnacle of FYGM.

ewe2 posted:

OK, look I was wrong.

https://twitter.com/davidbewart/status/821677824503386113

Turns out he really can gently caress Health up.

You Am I posted:

Hunt went on a huge spiel that he knows about healthcare because his mother and wife are/were nurses. Yeah, okay, but you're still a Liberal scum who wants to see Medicare stripped back, if it isn't killed off entirely.