THIRD REPORT SEPTEMBER 2002 INQUIRY INTO THE PROVISION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES ISBN 1 875 699 59 7 SPONSORED BY: NSW TEACHERS FEDERATION & FEDERATION OF P&C ASSOCIATIONS OF NSW INQUIRY PANELLISTS Kathy Esson - Senior Inquiry Officer Ken Johnston - Senior Inquiry Officer Tony Vinson - Chairperson INQUIRY PERSONNEL Joan Brown - Inquiry Officer Greg Eliovson - Inquiry Officer (part-time) Trudy Wiedeman - Secretary RESEARCH ASSOCIATES Neville Hatton - University of Sydney Alan Watson - University of New South Wales CHAPTER 8 SCHOOLS, COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL DISADVANTAGE 1 PART ONE: SCHOOLS AND THEIR COMMUNITIES 1 - Parent participation in schools 1 - Schools as community learning centres 5 - Community supports for learning 7 - Value to Education in a Disadvantaged Community PART TWO: SCHOOLS AND SOCIAL DISADVANTAGE 12 - Resources for schools in disadvantaged areas 12 - Aboriginal communities and their schools 20 - Students from language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE) 24 CHILDREN IN CARE 26 GENDER 28 CHAPTER 9 THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN MAINSTREAM CLASSES 31 BACKGROUND 31 THEMES EMERGING FROM SUBMISSIONS, SCHOOL VISITS, HEARINGS 32 - Support for assisting all students to learn and for the inclusion 35 of students with disabilities in mainstream classes - Concerns about the Funding Support program 36 - Specialist versus generalist teaching for students with disabilities 38 - Two illustrative case studies 39 - Numbers of Support Teachers Learning Difficulties (STLDs) 41 - Conclusions 42 FUNDING SUPPORT PROGRAM - RECENT TRENDS, FUTURE DIRECTIONS 42 BEHIND THE DISSATISFACTION WITH RESOURCES FOR FUNDING SUPPORT AND STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES 46 THE QUESTION OF ‘FULL’ INCLUSION 47 - The value of social inclusion 47 - Behavioural issues 51 OPERATION AND RESOURCING OF THE FUNDING SUPPORT PROGRAM 52 - Administration 52 - Need for more support / training for teachers of students with disabilities 53 - The role of teachers aides (special) 55 - Funding of the Funding Support program 57 NEED FOR MORE SUPPORT TEACHERS LEARNING DIFFICULTIES (STLDs) 61 CHAPTER 10 CONNECTING SCHOOLS AND TAFE 65 THE CONTEXT FOR CHANGE 65 VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND GENERAL EDUCATION 69 COORDINATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND TAFE 72 MODELS FOR COLLABORATION 75 WORK PLACEMENTS 78 CHANGING WORK ROLES 80 TAFE AND A 'SECOND CHANCE' EDUCATION 83 CHAPTER 11 TEACHER EDUCATION 88 INTRODUCTION 88 VIEWS PUT TO THIS INQUIRY 89 TEACHER SUPPLY AND DEMAND 92 - Teacher education entrants 92 COVERAGE OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND STUDENT BEHAVIOUR 95 PRACTICE PROFICIENCY AND MAINTAINING A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE 98 GUIDANCE DURING FIRST PROFESSIONAL YEARS 102 - Implications for New South Wales 104 CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 105 CHAPTER 12 GOVERNANCE 106 INTRODUCTION 106 VIEWS PUT TO THE INQUIRY 108 - Concerns about centralised decision making 108 - Leadership and advocacy by the DET 110 - Concerns about devolution of resources to districts and schools 110 - School level governance 112 THE TENSION BETWEEN CENTRALISATION AND DEVOLUTION 113 THE DET STATE OFFICE 117 DISTRICT OFFICES 128 SCHOOLS 131 - Community participation in school governance 132 - School staffing (teachers) 133 - School staffing (school administrative support staff) 138 - The school global budget 140 CHAPTER 13 INVESTING IN YOUNG PEOPLE AND OUR FUTURE: A TEN-YEAR PLAN FOR IMPROVING THE NSW PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM 143 KNOWLEDGE INVESTMENT 144 EDUCATION AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES 146 - General government expenditure 146 - Expenditure on education in New South Wales: public schools 147 - Comparison of state expenditures 147 - Budget consequences of NSW investing at national average/student 149 - Teacher/student ratios 150 - Funding from individuals 151 DISTRIBUTION OF THE PUBLIC INVESTMENT IN SCHOOL EDUCATION 151 - NSW Government expenditure on non-government Schools 151 - Direct Commonwealth funding to non-government schools 155 THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION 159 OPPORTUNITIES FOR RE-DIRECTING INVESTMENTS WITHIN THE EDUCATION SECTOR AND ACROSS SECTORS 161 - The School Student Transport Scheme 161 - Back to school allowance 164 - 25% per capita funding linkage 164 - Interest rate subsidies 166 - Saving across sectors 166 TEACHERS’ SALARIES 167 OVERVIEW OF RECOMMENDATIONS AND THEIR COSTS 168 CHAPTER 8 SCHOOLS, COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL DISADVANTAGE The previous chapter illustrated the important interconnections between schools and communities in rural regions by describing the role played by Warialda High School as a community-learning centre. This purpose of this chapter is to continue this theme by examining a range of practical efforts to strengthen the connection between schools and their communities. There are powerful educational reasons for closer school and community relations. Learning outcomes improve when parents become involved in their children’s learning and when schools form close links with families. Young people are better able to cope with the challenge of learning when schools work together with community agencies to provide them and their families with social and educational support. Community involvement in socially and economically disadvantaged areas reduces the gap between the school and the local community. When this happens, teachers are more easily able to appreciate the subtle neighbourhood effects on their students’ learning and to develop teaching and learning strategies that are more responsive to local needs. Finally, as the Warialda case illustrated, schools that draw upon the rich array of learning resources in the wider community dramatically increase the educational opportunities for their students. These are strong arguments for re-thinking the relationship between schools and their communities and it accords with the view expressed by The Smith Family in its submission to the Inquiry: The traditional place of the school in the community should be reassessed. Schools have to move away from being buildings where students are taken and become instead community hubs where networked linkages with vital community activities are promoted. This chapter will contribute to this important reassessment. The first part, Schools and Their Communities begins by considering the advantages of parental involvement in their children’s schooling. It then proceeds to explore the possibility of schools serving as community learning centres in urban areas and towns with substantial populations. Finally, it discusses community supports for learning in particular localities. The second part, Schools and Social Disadvantage, also contains three sections. It begins with an examination of the educational resources for schools in disadvantaged areas. This is followed by an assessment of Aboriginal communities and their schools. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the educational support provided to students from language backgrounds other than English. PART ONE: SCHOOLS AND THEIR COMMUNITIES Parent participation in schools The idea that parents should participate in their children’s schools is one of the most frequently asserted views about contemporary public education. It is claimed that when parents become involved in education their children learn 1 more effectively1. Parental attitudes become more supportive and this helps to improve students’ attendance, application and success. The legitimate scope of parental participation and how it can be reconciled with the increased professionalism sought by teachers are issues that deserve closer attention than they generally receive. One overseas study2 of teachers’ attitudes revealed their belief that when they are working with colleagues they think that they need to work with people, whereas when they are working with members of the community they need to work on them. The consequence, according to the study, is that: The form of relationship in which parents are active or unquestioning supporters of what teachers do keeps teachers in a state of classical professionalism. This distances them, intellectually and emotionally, from the learning and lives of the increasingly diverse and demanding students they teach as well as from their families. Throughout this report the facilitation of learning has been acknowledged as the teacher’s primary area of expertise and professional functioning. In accordance with this perspective professional advancement mainly focuses on acquiring advanced knowledge and skills in areas such as productive pedagogies, subject knowledge and the promotion of collegial learning, resulting in increased influence on school decision making. The word influence is preferable to authority because it better captures the element of persuasion that attaches to increased professional status and experience.3 So far as parents are concerned, participation can refer to a range of possibilities, from raising funds to being consulted about school affairs and their children’s progress, without exercising influence on educational matters, to a degree of parental empowerment where they influence the core business of the school’s educational practices. When the latter is the case, both parents and teachers are viewed as “part of a participatory community with ‘external’ as well as internal participants”4. This communal arrangement requires that all participants operate not only with influence in their respective roles, but also with duties and responsibilities. It is possible for that division of labour to be built around continuing respect for the role