4 March 2011

Andrew Barr on MySchool 2.0

| johnboy
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Education Minister Andrew Barr is welcoming the release of the

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shadow boxer8:27 am 07 Mar 11

2604 said :

inlymbo said :

Interesting, no, one is a government school and one is not, seems pretty simple to me.

Shadow Boxer’s point is that all we’ve heard about for years – from the AEU, the Fairfax Press, and many bleeding heart liberals on this website – is how much government funding non-govt schools get, and how little gov’t schools get. This has now been exposed as BS.

That was my point, if every parent that sends their kid to a private school saves the gov’t a conservative $4,000 a year a 1000 kid school saves the gov’t $4,000,000 a year, every year.

The “why give them anything” folks wont understand but the people that pay the bills do.

I think we should have a national thank a private school parent day,

Frustrating how myschool website times out so quickly too. By the time you read a page, you have been timed out… Grrr…

inlymbo said :

Interesting, no, one is a government school and one is not, seems pretty simple to me.

Shadow Boxer’s point is that all we’ve heard about for years – from the AEU, the Fairfax Press, and many bleeding heart liberals on this website – is how much government funding non-govt schools get, and how little gov’t schools get. This has now been exposed as BS.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

intersting in that we piss away $6850 per child to be indoctrinated with religious nut baggery.

Hardly fair, considering every Australian student should be able to expect equal Government funding for their “basic education costs”, with any additional costs for differences (perceived and otherwise) being worn by parents… Remember that the parents in the private sector have clearly chosen to have their children “indoctrinated”. I think choice is reasonable in a society that is democratic, open and tolerant…

Caractacus Potts said :

…it’s possible that the $25,000 is justified.

In addition to the School’s Autism Unit, it is probably worth keeping in mind that the School’s population is VERY low, at around the same level that forced the closure of Ginninderra HS; but it still has buildings etc to maintain – so the offset per student is (presumably) much lower.

Also – High Schools in the ACT start at Year 7; generally the last year of Primary School in other jurisdictions – so the NAPLAN results of Year 7 students are not a very accurate measure of the High School’s performance – being that they are NAPLANed so early in the year – before any real chance to influence their learning. A better way to rate the performance of ACT High Schools is in their improvement from 7 to 9…

Caractacus Potts said :

My point was more on the fact that the performance of Kaleen students as measured by NAPLAN has declined in the last 2 years (you have to click on ‘writing’ on the drop down menu in my link above).

Right, you have to click on ‘writing’ because “Numeracy” and “Reading” actually show improvements.

Percentage of students in this school with NAPLAN results at two year levels:
56%

With 216 kids in the school and assuming a fairly even spread across the four years, you’re looking at a sample of around 30 students. I don’t think you’ve found evidence of much at all, really.

“My point was more on the fact that the performance of Kaleen students as measured by NAPLAN has declined in the last 2 years “

But could that possibly be because they have had a higher number of special needs students? One thing I don’t like about this MySchool stuff is that it makes schools with a social inclusion policy look worse than they are. It’s just too superficial to draw any real conclusions from. I would never recommend anyone to use it to base their school choice on. The best criteria for choosing a school for your kids is still other parents’ feedback and the “vibe” you get from the school.

Caractacus Potts9:58 am 05 Mar 11

I understand the Kaleen High has a special needs unit (catering to kids with autism, among others), so it’s possible that the $25,000 is justified. My point was more on the fact that the performance of Kaleen students as measured by NAPLAN has declined in the last 2 years (you have to click on ‘writing’ on the drop down menu in my link above).

By taking into account school performance, not just socioeconomic need, this sort of data has an important role to play in improving education funding in Australia – hopefully the Government continues to develop this resource.

I missed today’s print edition of the Canberra Times, but found the usual gem on their website:

For more on this story, including details of data on school funding per student, with Kaleen High School as an example, see the print edition of today’s Canberra Times.

Can I infer from Caractacus Potts that KHS was being cited as an example of overspending?

Caractacus Potts5:09 pm 04 Mar 11

There is all sorts of goodness on this website… did you know, for instance, that the ACT and Commonwealth Governments spent $25,000 per student at Kaleen High to make the kids dumber?

http://alturl.com/5fgt9

shadow boxer said :

Interesting that according to that site a child at Gold Creek High School receives $10,565 in governement funding and a child at Burgmann Anglican School receives $6,850 in Government funding.

Recurrent ACT Government funding to ACT Government Schools incorporates Teacher wages. Non-government schools, unsurprisingly, do not.

Of far more interest, is the fact that “Fees, charges and parent contributions” includes “Transitionals” – money held for excursions etc and from which the excusions etc are paid for. Schools make no money (rightly so) from these, however, somehow it gets factored in… Guess what makes up the greatest proportion of “Fees, charges and parent contributions”? Yep, transitionals…

Yep – the data still needs some work…

colourful sydney racing identity3:52 pm 04 Mar 11

shadow boxer said :

Interesting that according to that site a child at Gold Creek High School receives $10,565 in governement funding and a child at Burgmann Anglican School receives $6,850 in Government funding.

intersting in that we piss away $6850 per child to be indoctrinated with religious nut baggery.

Interesting, no, one is a government school and one is not, seems pretty simple to me.

Kerryhemsley2:35 pm 04 Mar 11

shadow boxer said :

Interesting that according to that site a child at Gold Creek High School receives $10,565 in governement funding and a child at Burgmann Anglican School receives $6,850 in Government funding.

Would the fact that Gold Creek High is a government (open to all religions) school have anything to do with that?

shadow boxer2:20 pm 04 Mar 11

Interesting that according to that site a child at Gold Creek High School receives $10,565 in governement funding and a child at Burgmann Anglican School receives $6,850 in Government funding.

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