New publications

Through a detailed analysis of three school systems, the authors 'demonstrate why collaboration is poised to deliver the next big wave of gains in education.' They find that 'student performance in Australia is not improving. But some schools in Australia, serving highly disadvantaged students and families, are successfully using collaboration to support student achievement. Common features of the practices in these diverse schools can be applied to strategies for wider, systemic change.' From publisher's description. See also article in The Age 15 May 2015.

Transgender ideas and practices are now winning wider attention and endorsement. Professor Jeffreys acknowledges the importance of efforts to prevent bullying of transgender people, but also expresses major concerns about transgender ideas and practices, arguing that they rest on conservative stereotypes about women and men, with harmful consequences for many of those involved, and also for women's rights. See publisher's description, linked to the Introduction online, and news item from the University of Melbourne. For a contrasting viewpoint on transgender issues see campaign material from the Safe Schools Coalition Victoria.

This report provides a detailed summary of education, health and demographic information about Australian children and young people who live with significant health conditions. This study closely examined an important national database of 2360 such individuals. This study is contextualised within recent international literature from the fields of education, medicine, oncology, public health, paediatric nursing, psychology, counselling, psychiatry and social policy. Socioeconomic indexes developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics were employed in the analysis of data. From executive summary, part of the full report online. See also article in The Age 3 June 2015.

Literacy as Numbers enquires into the politics and practices of international literacy assessment programmes, exploring how internationally comparable numbers, now so heavily relied on in national policy are produced, and how they are shaping our understanding of the meanings and purposes of literacy. From publisher's description. Literacy as Numbers is the latest title in the Cambridge Education Research Series.

'What Asia’s high-performing systems have to offer the world is not their past, but the future they intend to create. It is their vision of a new education and the courage to make changes to long-held traditions and cultural practices.' From executive summary, part of the full report online.

The book 'showcases practical ways to teach specific vocabulary words and word-learning strategies and create engaging, word-rich classrooms' for the K-8 years. New chapters cover assessment, authentic reading experiences, English language learners, uses of multimedia tools, and the vocabularies of narrative and informational texts. From publisher's description.

'Drawing on a wealth of research, Exploring the School Leadership Landscape critically considers the ways in which school leadership and its practice have evolved, exploring what has changed and what has remained the same over the last decade.' From publisher's description.

'This 2015 Families Week Facts Sheet presents information about the types of child care used by children in Australia, highlighting how arrangements change as children grow, and how they vary for families of different characteristics.' From publisher's description.

Nationally the number of apprentices and trainees in-training as at 31 December 2014 was 316 400, a decrease of 18.3% from 31 December 2013. This latest release of quarterly data also shows commencements, completions, and cancellations and withdrawals declined compared with the December quarter 2013. Data for states and territories are also available. From publisher's description.

With declining rural populations, the tough decision on whether or not to close schools has been an issue across Australia. Tasmania is no exception, with the number of publicly funded schools of concern to governments. The object of the audit was to form an opinion on the efficiency and effectiveness of the number and location of public primary schools in Tasmania. From executive summary, linked to the full report online. See also summary report and article on ABC News 26 May 2015.

'Should educators be exploring terrorism and extremism within their classrooms? If so, what should they be teaching, and how? Dianne Gereluk draws together the diverging opinions surrounding these debates, exploring and critiquing the justifications used for why these issues should be addressed in schools. She goes on to consider the ways in which educators should teach these topics, providing practical suggestions.' From publisher's description.

This report focusses on developing metrics from existing data collections of Australian university research that can serve as indicators for research engagement, knowledge transfer and/or collaboration. The key and simplifying principle used in this report is to use external dollars attracted to support research from industry and other ends users, as a direct measure of research engagement. From publisher's description, linked to the full report online.