1

Centre for Research

on Education Systems

Public education in Victoria: are we fulfilling its historical

promise?

Richard Teese

18th. September 2013

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Historical promise of public education

…to provide every child with the opportunity to acquire the higher forms of knowledge on which our economic and social organization is based

The pathway

…a comprehensive public school system, serving every local community

…initially elementary schooling, later universal post-primary

…the view over nearly a century shows us how far along this pathway we have come

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91%

3%

2%

1%

1%

2%

Enrolments in public elementary and post-elementary schools in Victoria, 1924

Elementary

High School

Higher Elementary

Central School

Domestic Arts

Junior Technical

59

41

Public primary and secondary school students: percentage distribution, Victoria 2012

Primary

Secondary

secondary largely irrelevant to primary

secondary of major relevance to primary

The founders of public secondary education knew that a strong

foundation had to be laid in primary

schooling

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Mr James Lewis and the class of 1911, Tooronga Road Primary School

Sto

nn

ing

ton

A

rch

ives

“Elementary education is the foundation…”

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Overview of today’s presentation

…major stages of change in the “superstructure” in the last 50-60 years

…social impacts

…the challenges

…today’s policies (state, federal)

…what should we be doing to fulfil the historical promise of public education?

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Creating a mass comprehensive system of public secondary

education places great pressure on primary schools

47 50 53 56 59 62 65 68 71 74 77 80 83 86 89 92 95 98 01 040

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000Students completing Year 12, Victoria,

1947-2004

exc. VCAL

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Growth within a divided system;

streamed classes;

expansion & transformation of lower secondary

Diversification of upper

secondary courses; tech

courses extended & diversified

Integration of upper

secondary education (unitary

system; single certificate)

Main stages in the creation of comprehensive secondary education

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Impacts

Rising general level of education of the population

Access to specialist knowledge and skills for “non-traditional” groups

Widening access to technical and higher education over the long term

Adjustment to major changes in industry structure and labour markets

Widening social access to primary labour markets—social mobility

Social cohesion—economic and cultural integration of children from poorer & non-English speaking homes

Relatively low cost to families (accessible, sustainable)

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Challenges

A large and widening gap in basic achievement between rich and poor

High schools struggle to suppress this gap

Disengagement grows over the middle years (e.g., falling attendance)

Drop-out is high in many schools serving poorer communities

There are problems of access to the curriculum in upper secondary school

Major gaps in achievement in the VCE

Transition outcomes are often weak for low achievers

Transition to TAFE continues to slide

Access to university continues to discriminate against the poor (growth since Bradley favours the wrong sector!)

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It’s clear from the achievements that we have put the right structure in place—a comprehensive system of high schools serving every community, accessible and open to all

But challenges persist, and they grow more severe as more and more of the population comes to depend on successful schooling

Source: VCAB 1990 (?)

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Why, after 50-60 years of educational expansion, are we still faced with major issues of equity and

quality?

The answer is that our reforms have largely focussed on the formal structure of provision and not the social and political forces which affect access to this structure and achievement within it

To see this, we need to make a brief theoretical detour

Our theoretical question is: how is inequality produced in secondary education

systems?

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Curriculum-based differentiation

Social area and administrative differentiation

Social selection

(social hierarchy of public and private

schools)

(hierarchy of knowledge—school types and streams)

How inequality is created in secondary school systems

Preston Tech

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What has been our policy focus?

And what should it be?

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Dismantling the old structure of selective

schooling

o Girls’ Secondary Schools

o Central Schoolso Technical Schoolso Removing middle-

school examso Ending ability

grouping and streaming

o A common upper secondary certificate

Reducing social differentiation

based on residential and

institutional segregation

Paths of reform

62

-63

58

-59

54

-55

50

-51

46

-47

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-43

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-39

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-35

30

-31

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-27

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-23

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-19

14

-15

10

-11

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Class sizes, primary schools, Grades V/VI (1959)

size of class (number of pupils)

Nu

mb

er

of

cla

sses

o Class size reductionso Equity fundingo Welfare co-ordinators,

etc.

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o Reductions in funding for public schools (pre-Gonski); uncertainty in the future

o More subsidies for private schoolso More selective-entry schools

More social pressure

on schools

o More schools with SEAL

o Other selective provision

o Loss of academic options

o More VET/VCAL

More curriculum-

based selection

Current directions

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The new school would offer bilingual programs in Mandarin and French and a specialist program in technology, design, maths and science, one stream of which would be select-entry. It would also explore introducing the International Baccalaureate.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/school-plans-to-close-books-on-one-era-and-open-in-another-20130329-2gz4k.html#ixzz2f1HI1tkT

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850 900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250500

520

540

560

580

600

620

640

660

680

ICSEA

Readin

g Y

ear

9

Private

Catholic

Public

Social differentiation between Victorian schools is high

This is partly due to residential segregation

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Adults with no qualifications

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21

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Concentration of economic and cultural disadvantage, greater pedagogical stress: social profile of public high

schools

Lowest SES

Highest SES

Limited access to

this population

High exposure

to this population

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Social area influences are aggravated by private schooling

One illustration is the way non-govt schools in poorer areas pick and choose

Public Non-govt0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

9 5

27

10

26

23

21

31

15

22

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Reading band at Year 7: a public and a private secondary school in

country Victoria

Band 9Band 8Band 7Band 6Band 5Band 4

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The Age 20/9/12

Additional support for private schools

Response to Gonski

“…our commitment to lift non-government school funding to 25% of the recurrent cost of educating a student in a government school”

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Social selection through private schooling plus public subsidies creates an academically dominating sector

Lowest SES

Highest SES

High access to

this population

Low exposure

to this population

Concentration of economic and cultural advantages, which are pedagogically multiplied: private non-Catholic

schools

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Public Catholic Private0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

58

66

7171

80

85

University offer rates by school sector, 2007-2011

20072011

High schools

catch up to private

schools 5 years earlier

Private schools increase their lead over high schools & now have an offer rate of 85%

Catholic schools

increase their lead over high schools & now have an offer rate of 80%

High school offer rate is up, but low SES share

hardly changed

Newnham, E., Anderson, M. and James, R ., Access to higher education in Victoria under the national demand--‐driven system , CSHE 2012

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Expose all populations to the same

high standards

Curriculum cannot be a

refuge

Reduce curriculum

differentiation

…which in turn requires reducing the influence of social area & selective

schooling

Redressing inequality

this cannot be done without greater investment in primary

and pre-school education

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the “efficiency of primary education is a first condition of the efficiency of higher education”

Frank Tate, first Director of Victorian education, 1909

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800 850 900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250300

350

400

450

500

550

Socio-economic status (ICSEA)

Readin

g Y

ear

3 m

ean

Reading Year 3 scores by mean SES and sector of school, 2010

Private

Catholic

Public

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The level of support required to reverse social disadvantage is proportional to the concept of public

education we hold

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A weak concept of public secondary education

Local decision-making

Public education is a sector of relatively autonomous schools which adapt to local circumstances and needs

But in fact they have only limited access to their local communities

“choice” policies constrain this

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Public schools are free to determine their own staffing profile and to manage their budgets

But their ability to attract suitable staff is limited by social profile, location and size

Can they compete with private schools for more experienced or specialist staff?

They have only limited capacity to train their own staff

And no influence over pre-service teacher education or design of in-service PD

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Public schools are free to decide their own programs

subject to constraints of size, location, access to specialist teachers, and student profile

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In short, public schools are supported to adjust to context rather than transcend its limitations

Private schools, by comparison, are supported to select from local context and to transcend the local context in favour of wider markets

Westbourne Grammar Sports and Aquatic Centre

http://www.westbournegrammar.com/page/westbourne_grammar_sports_and_aquatic_centre.htm

About two-thirds of Westbourne students receive a travel allowance(The Age 31/10/12)

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What is missing in this concept?

No requirement in upper secondary education that all major fields of learning are reflected in the curriculum (free to specialize)

No absolute or context-independent standards of student outcome (intake-adjusted reporting)

No requirement that schools reflect the total make-up of the local community (over-ridden by “choice”—first principle)

No concept of “mixity” and social cohesion (choice over-rides learning theory)

Weak concept of inclusiveness (schools lack specialist support staff for this)

Alternative settings to compensate for the support that schools lack

Buildings, facilities, grounds—high standards of provision more honoured in the breach (“More than half of Victoria's 1500 state schools have at least one building that fails to meet maintenance standards “; every fourth building is below maintenance standard)

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“Cracks, as pictured here in the wall at Sunbury College, are among the problems that need to be fixed” Picture: Ian Currie

NEWS.COM.AU 20/2/13(http://www.news.com.au/top-stories/education-department-audit-finds-420m-needed-to-fix-decaying-schools/story-e6frfkp9-1226581485212)

Read more: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/top-stories/education-department-audit-finds-420m-needed-to-fix-decaying-schools/story-e6frfkp9-1226581485212#ixzz2LOTA0elM

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What should a public school system look like?

Socially integrative

A means of pooling resources to create shared benefits Brings families together at a local level and beyond It is not a means of exploiting social advantage It is not a means of dividing children along social, religious or

ethnic lines

Socially inclusive

All children have access to the same high expectations & opportunities

Additional support is given to high-need children The tasks of learning are shared, each learner is responsible for

the other

High performing

Works well for all children on a range of measures Helps form good citizens & productive workers Deepens the pool of talent for creativity & innovation Is academically demanding, but highly supportive Good transition outcomes for all groups

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Curriculum-rich

A wide range of stimulating courses, activities and methods

Pedagogically adaptive

A teaching philosophy which is context- & learner-centred

A site of continuous professional development

Well-resourced and efficient

Adequate resources, including specialist support staff

Flexibility in resources (inc. ample release time) Resources allocated on a needs-basis Programs are evaluated

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Going forward

What do we need?

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An expansive concept of public education: raise our sights

Enshrined in a charter

Maximize access to local community

Comprehensive curriculum Specialist teachers Staffing flexibility Intensive support Parent and community relations

Regulate growth of private schools

Greater investment in primary and pre-school education (cf. SRP and

Gonski rates)

Greater accountability of government (today’s emphasis is on schools)

Independent reporting of progress against charter: schools themselves should take responsibility (part of their autonomy)

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*

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Schools set to suffer as budget cuts hit hard EducationVictoriaDateJanuary 30, 2013(1); Jewel Topsfield

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/schools-set-to-suffer-as-budget-cuts-hit-hard-20130129-2dizq.html#ixzz2f7aR5GEN