New publications

The Report centres on five themes: stronger quality assurance of teacher education courses; rigorous selection for entry to teacher education courses; improved and structured practical experience for teacher education students; robust assessment of graduates to ensure classroom readiness and national research and workforce planning capabilities. From publisher's description. The full report is available online. For further information see speech by Australian Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, and transcript of press conference with Christopher Pyne and Professor Greg Craven, both 13 February 2015. See also article in the Canberra Times, item on ABC News, commentary and related commentary in The Conversation, and further commentary in The Australian (reproduced on the CIS website), all 13 February 2015.

The annual Report on Government Services provides information on the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of government services in Australia. The School education chapter (chapter 4) reports on government funded primary and secondary school education. Some performance indicators are reported for government schools, non-government schools and school education as a whole. From the report. The full report is available online.

'Between 2013 and 2014, the number of students attending school in Australia rose from 3,645,519 to 3,694,101, an increase of 48,582 (1.3%). This is similar to the increase in the number of persons aged 5 to 17 years in the Australian population. Government schools remained the major provider of school education in Australia in 2014, with 2,406,495 students (65.1% of all students) attending, compared to 1,287,606 students (34.9% of all students) attending non-government schools.' From Summary of findings.

The nations of Scandinavia and Finland, or Nordic Europe, continue to provide living proof that economic prosperity can be combined with social equality and environmental responsibility. This book, written from an Australian perspective, explores previous outside policy interest in the Nordic nations and outlines some lessons which the English-speaking world, in particular, can learn now from the achievements of the four main Nordic European nations. From publisher's description.

The Early childhood flexibility practices and patterns report highlights recommendations and future directions for early childhood education and care services in providing flexible arrangements for families and local communities. From Executive summary, part of the full report online.

Since passage of the of No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, academic researchers, econometricians, and statisticians have been exploring various analytical methods of documenting students' academic progress over time. Known as value-added models (VAMs), these methods are meant to measure the value a teacher or school adds to student learning from one year to the next. To date, however, there is very little evidence to support the trustworthiness of these models. From publisher's description.

A group of multiethnic scholars and practitioner researchers explore concepts of teaching for social justice and preparing teachers to work towards social justice in schools and communities. From publisher's description.