Skip to main content

What Comes First, the Support or the Criticism?

The Victorian government seemingly stepped up their efforts this week to move a step closer 'performance pay' this week. Principals across the state have been briefed by the government about a series of changes to current system. The government have been arguing that if you look at overall student results that they form a bell curve with roughly 30% not making the grade. The belief then is that, even though it is often impossible to 'measure' effectiveness and success, that the same distribution can be applied to teachers, with the suggestion that, just like students, 30% of teachers are not performing at the adequate standard and should therefore not be simply moved up to the next increment.

The whole scenario is best summed up in an extract from a bulletin published by the AEU today, in which they state:
The DEECD Secretary replied to the AEU this morning, asserting that "no changes to the existing performance and development guidelines have been implemented or proposed for the 2013/14 performance cycle." The Secretary cited "reasons of good public administration" for advising principals to "apply appropriate rigour in assessing the performance of staff in their school". (18/10/13)
There are two aspects that stand out to me in this statement. Firstly, the reference to 'good public administration', and secondly the use of the word 'rigour'. The notion of 'good public administration' puts down the current administration, implying that things are being done poorly. While the word rigour, suggests that the processes in place could or should be more thorough. 

What concerns me most about both of these ideas is what the government is doing to support administrators and teachers? Maybe I don't really know, but it would seem that the since coming to power, the Liberal government has frozen funding, collapsed the number of regions and basically gotten rid of much of the support that was previously available to schools. Much of this is done with some sort of effort to provide schools with more autonomy. It makes me wonder though whether this is what is meant be 'good public administration' and 'rigour'. Many of the changes that have been made feel like an effort to apply more scrutiny and pressure on individual schools, rather than actually provide thorough support.

What disappoints me the most is that I do not necessarily disagree that the whole performance and development process could not in fact be improved. However, don't you endeavour to put in place a better structure first, before making the threats? For example, AITSL provide some really good support for teachers. They are progressively making the process more explicit with the use of various videos and resources, but how many teachers know this or a shown this? Time and assistance is still required to help move towards this supposed 'rigour'.

In the end, surely the government should be encouraging staff to see themselves as life-long learners, I just don't see how they are doing this?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Influences and Inspiration - A Reflection on a Year of Blogging

creative commons licensed (BY-NC) flickr photo by mrkrndvs: http://flickr.com/photos/aaron_davis/14606572678 I have spoken elsewhere about how I have become a connected educator. However, I have not necessarily spoken about those who have had an ongoing influence on me. +Cameron Paterson talks about finding someone who scares you to drive you, but I feel that it is more important to find some who inspires you and drives you forward. Sometimes such moments can be intimidating or awe inspiring. They provide us with a choice, we can either say that is too hard and baulk at the challenge or say that although it is a lot of work, with a bit more effort and endeavour I could achieve that too. Although 'influence and inspiration' exists outside of gender, I am inspired by a tweet from +Julie Bytheway to be more equitable. So I have decided to split my list between two five men and five women. So in no particular order, here are ten people who have made an impact on my j...
Post a Comment
Read more

Teachers are Learners Too - A Reflection on Professional Development, Being a Mentor and Teacher Inquiry

creative commons licensed (BY) flickr photo by William M Ferriter: http://flickr.com/photos/plugusin/14823535028 It is so easy as educators to fall into the trap of: do as I say, not as I do. Education constantly gives lip service to lifelong learning, but how many actually practise it in a meaningful way? A part of the problem is that so often we neither know what it actually means to learn something as an adult or simply where to start. For some it is confronting to take the teachers hat off and approach this from the perspective of a learner. What is sometimes even more confronting though at times is teaching teachers, mentoring them through the learning process. This year I have been lucky enough to be a part of the DEECD's 'Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century' program. The premise behind it is to introduce educators to 21st century pedagogy and technologies through the use of the inquiry process. What could be understood as the ways of working, as w...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Digital Revolution?

creative commons licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by brizzle born and bred: http://flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/4934882110 In a recent ICT committee meeting, one of the participants made the remark that the digital revolution has failed to deliver all that it supposedly promised. Having been a part of the YVeLC pilot program almost ten years ago which focused on the potential of 2:1 laptops, it has been interesting seeing the changes that have occurred since that time. In a conversation with +Catherine Gatt , this is the list of reasons that we came up with as to why the digital revolution has failed to be the saviour that so many said it would be. Failure to Invest The government, both state and federal, has invested a lot over the last ten years. Whether it be providing Internet for students, WiFi access in schools, support in regards to servers and switches, as well as devices for students. In addition to this, the state government Victoria made a big investment wi...
Post a Comment
Read more