In part 1 I argued that educational advantage, measured through ICSEA, has a substantial impact on a school’s HSC results. The implication was that schools with higher ICSEA scores should perform better all else being equal. The so what is that schools can improve their performance by picking the best and brightest (linked to being more advantaged). This is akin to a sports team winning by selecting the best players.
A good coach (and sports system) will be able to get the most out of the team that they have. An average team will become good, and a good team will become great. I’d like to extend the analogy to schools. …
It is conventional wisdom that students from more wealthy and advantaged families do better at school. Each year when the NSW HSC results are released, the top rankings are dominated by selective schools such as James Ruse and expensive private schools such Sydney Grammar School. In fact, in 2019 the top performing non-selective government school came in at 67 (Willoughby Girls High) and the top systemic Catholic school just ahead at 64 (Brigidine College, Randwick).
The chart above illustrates clear groups between school performance and tuition fees for each of the four main school sectors: Independents, Government selective, Government non-selective, Catholic system (different from independent Catholic faith schools). …
Imagine the following situation.
You enrol in pilot school and begin your training. The first module involves learning the basic theory about flying. After spending a few months studying it is time to take the theory test. You get 45%, a fail. No worries, at least you tried and anyways it has been 3 months so the syllabus says that you need to move onto the next module → flight simulator training.
During simulator training you learn all about the different controls and instruments of your plane. You find everything confusing and it is really difficult to multitask. After a while you improve. Taking off and flying are pretty good but you always seem to crash during landing. When it comes time for the simulator exam you crash again. …
Last week I had a conversation with a friend of a friend who runs talk sessions at a major Australian arts venue. The talks are well regarded and attended yet she felt that often the audience wasn’t learning that much. She wanted to know what could be done so people would actually remember much more from the talk.
Through the discussion we came across the unexpected insight: perhaps learning in this setting is not really the goal. Moreover it might be bad business.
So how did we get there?…
A common mistake is to confuse three related yet different processes: presenting, engagement, and learning. …
Funding for Australian government schools has increased substantially over the last decade. School funding is a contentious issue that many people from all parts of life feel strongly about. Each year when budgets are announced you hear familiar arguments. One side argues that there’s not enough money for public education while others say that the existing money is already being wasted.
This article seeks to understand where the increase in funding has gone.
The analysis shows that the increase in real funding (adjusted for inflation) per student has gone almost equally to
I gave a talk recently at Woollahra Library titled How to transition your child into high school. As part of that talk I spoke about 4 different mindsets that students should hold to improve their success during school.
While the event was aimed at teenagers, I believe the ideas are relevant for all traditional students as well as adult life-long learners. If you are reading this post for yourself just replace the parental tips for activities you should do for yourself :)
The belief that you as the student (not your parents or teachers) are responsible for your actions, behaviours and learning. …
As Term 2 draws to a close many year 12 students are looking ahead to the Trial HSC exams. At Sandbox Learning Australia many of our students have been asking more and more about ATARs and the scaling process. It is a topic that is often misunderstood leading to confusion and anxiety.
In this article we will look into the ‘black box’ of ATAR calculation to show you how it works in a simple manner.
Don’t have time to read the whole article? Here are the key takeaways about ATARs and scaling.
Have you just picked up a new tutoring student or have a new student join your classroom? Before you can start working with them on adapptED you will need to form a student/teacher connection.
Follow these steps to add a new student to your teacher account.
Before you can connect with students ensure they signed up for an account. You will need to know their adapptED login email address in order to connect with them.
Do you have a child using adapptED and want to check how they are going? You could ask them to log in and take you through their work however this is likely to lead to frustration for both parties. Instead, a much better way is to set up a parent account so you can track progress whenever you want.
This post will take you through how to create a new parent account and then add your children to it.
Open your favourite web browser (adapptED works best in Chrome, though) and go to beta.adappted.co. …
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