Australians know public schools are underfunded. There are media reports of schools needing to fundraise to build essential infrastructure such as school halls and provide playground shade cloths and textbooks. This comes alongside other reports of elite private schools building pools and theatres with multimillion-dollar budgets (helped by their tax exemptions and subsidies) and ongoing concerns about funding disparities between Australian school systems. In […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
‘Very frustrating’: for public school principals, applying for grants is now a big part of their job
5 growing threats to academic freedom
The ability to teach and conduct research free from political interference is the cornerstone of higher education and its contribution to the public good. Academic freedom, however, has become increasingly threatened. V-Dem Institute, a global research organization that monitors indicators of democracy around the world, determined that academic freedom has “substantially worsened” in the United States […] … learn more→
Real equity in math education is about more than good grades and test scores
Math education outcomes in the United States have been unequal for decades. Learners in the top 10% socioeconomically tend to be about four grade levels ahead of learners in the bottom 10% – a statistic that has remained stubbornly persistent for 50 years. To advance equity, policymakers and educators often focus on boosting test scores and grades […] … learn more→
Is your child’s photo on their school Facebook page? What does this mean for their privacy?
If you search most primary or high school websites, you will likely find a images of happy, smiling children. Students images are also used publicly for school newsletters, social media accounts and other school publications like annual reports. Parents could reasonably expect schools and educations departments have conducted thorough checks and evaluations to do this. […] … learn more→
What if we are neither science nor humanities experts? What multiple intelligences tell us
Surely on more than one occasion we have had to answer the question of whether we are “science or humanities” as if there were no other way to classify ourselves. Or we have resorted to the explanation: “It’s that I am a science (or humanities) person” to get around an uncomfortable situation or justify our […] … learn more→
After more than 40 years, the federal right to free education for immigrant students finds itself in the crosshairs of conservatives
Texas once had a law that allowed public schools to charge tuition for undocumented immigrant families to send their children to school. The rationale was that taxpayer dollars should not be spent educating children whose families were not in the U.S. legally. When the Supreme Court struck down the law in 1982, it held that young […] … learn more→
‘My brain leaves the room’: what happens when teachers talk too much?
\About four students in every classroom will have a language or attention disorder. While some of these students will have an official diagnosis of developmental language disorder (DLD) or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), others will be “hiding in plain sight”. These students may often be in trouble for acting out, underachieving or not attending school. In our new study, we interviewed […] … learn more→
How to create mini reading clubs for the classroom in any subject
Our first interaction with written words occurs when we are told stories at home. From that moment on, and especially at school, we acquire and perfect the ability to read. A learning that we perfect throughout our lives. At school, starting from primary school, reading is directly present in all subjects. In all subjects it […] … learn more→
Summer camps, 150 years of history
Like every year, at the start of the summer holidays, hundreds of thousands of young people will prepare their suitcases (or their backpacks) to go to summer camp. We commonly call “holiday camp” (this term is no longer legal) stays organized during school holidays for children aged 3 to 17. These stays, without parents, lasting […] … learn more→
The challenge of maintaining order in the classroom: causes and solutions
Imagine a room with seven powerful amplifiers centralized through a state-of-the-art computer. Each one plays a different sound source. The computer is configured by default with a program that executes these commands randomly: Devices 2 and 4: progressive activation of the volume up to its maximum intensity and immediate disconnection. Devices 1, 3 and 5: […] … learn more→
