New publications

The 2009 edition of Education at a Glance provides recent comparable indicators on the performance of education systems and professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally. The indicators look at who participates in education, what is spent on it, how education systems operate and the results achieved. They cover a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of students' performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults' chances of employment. Statistics and other elements of the report are available free online. Adapted from publisher's description. See also report in The Sydney Morning Herald 9 September and article in The Herald Sun 10 September 2009.

Aimed at educators and administrators, this text provides a detailed account of the ways in which certain disadvantaged schools in the USA have dramatically improved student achievement and reduced or eliminated achievement gaps. A common theme is the development of professional learning communities where teachers and leaders work together to create and teach to clear standards to ensure that all students receive the same educational opportunities. The text builds on the author's earlier publication It's Being Done, which provided specific information about how such schools have exceeded expectations and met with unprecedented levels of success. Adapted from publisher's description.

This text provides research-based, practical ideas to assist school leaders and experienced teachers in helping new teachers transition to classroom teaching. Strategies include fostering relationships with new teachers before the school term begins, creating learning environments that encourage new teachers to be reflective practitioners, coaching new teachers in their classrooms and providing opportunities for peer observeration, ongoing support of new teachers, and professional development where both new and experienced teachers learn alongside one another. Adapted from publisher's description.

This report documents the findings of an Australian study that examined how particular projects and activities engaged hard-to-reach families, and the challenges they faced. Indigenous families were identified as the hardest to reach, along with young parents, fathers and those not using other services. The strategies used to engage these families included carefully designed interventions, networks and partnerships, and drawing appropriately skilled outreach staff from the community. Programs with an inclusive ethos helped enable activities to be tailored to community needs. Challenges included identifying and reaching clients, as well as working with often complex personal contexts, difficulties in recruiting appropriately trained and specialist outreach staff, and short-term funding initiatives that made it difficult to develop sustained relationships. The full report is available online.

Drawing on data from classroom observations, this report examines the ways in which primary schools in Scotland integrated technology into the classroom environment. The most successful schools planned curriculums that developed knowledge and understanding of the principles and ideas of the technologies, helped students access and safely use a variety of technologies, encouraged students to design and create innovative products, promoted critical thinking and problem solving in technological contexts, and provided links across the curriculum as well as outside the classroom. Technology use should build on prior learning and skills, be linked with future learning to ensure continuity, and encourage both independent and collaborative learning. The full report is available online.

This report presents key findings and recommendations from a recent study examining young people's decision making around subject selections and more general educational and vocational pathways. Schools and educational institutions should support young people in their decision making in these areas, and should be knowledgeable about and open to different learning pathways. As young people make decisions in different ways, they should have access to diverse and wide-ranging guidance; this guidance should be comprehensive to ensure that young people are able to make properly informed decisions. As courses taken before the age of 16 were found to influence later decision making about whether to continue with a particular educational path, the report recommends institutional collaboration to promote engagement and retention. The full report is available online.