Research bias …

If you were setting out to manufacture a fine product you would ensure a good quality control process was in place.

There was a time when that was the case in education, but gone are the days when an inspector would sit in on a class to directly measure the effectiveness of teachers. Indirect measures of teacher performance, testing the students, are also unpopular with teachers … but popular with parents because they would like to know how their kids are going.

The first national study into NAPLAN’s impact, in which researchers garnered responses from more than 8300 teaching staff, has found it is “plagued” by unintended consequences.

More than 80 per cent of teachers felt test preparation was adding to an already crowded curriculum while just over two-thirds believed it had led to a timetable reduction for other subjects.

That research was conducted by asking teachers whether testing kids was a good thing … what answer would you expect?

 

Lay down misère …

Ms Gillard said people would have to choose whether they believed Mr Blewitt – a self-confessed fraudster who she said had been described by associates as “a complete imbecile, an idiot, a stooge, a sexist pig, a liar” – or the Prime Minister.

“It’s going to come down to Mr Blewitt’s word against mine … his word against mine, make your mind up.”

Theatre of the absurd …

Back in the old country …

The council worker is suing bosses after accusing colleagues of making racist comments – including constantly greeting him with ‘G’day, sport’.

Mr Stephens, 48, is a community warden who has lived in Britain for 26 years.

He said he was on a ‘cocktail of anti-depressants’ because of the constant abuse which he claims will ‘eventually kill him’.

He added that he asked fellow wardens to stop making Australian jokes, but they continued.

They regularly greet him by saying ‘G’day, sport’ and ‘Is your girlfriend called Sheila?’.

Other phrases include ‘throw another shrimp on the barbie’ and jokes about kangaroos.

Stupid Australian …

The Daily Mail reports that the row started after New Zealander Chelsea O’Reilly called the police following a fight between her neighbour Petra Mills and her husband in Macclesfield, England.Ms O’Reilly said: “She called me a stupid, fat Australian …

Judge Brian Donohue …

“The word Australian was used. It was racially aggravated and the main reason it was used was in hostility,” he said.

She was fined 110 pounds ($168) for racially aggravated public disorder, 50 pounds to be awarded to Ms O’Reilly and 500 pounds to cover all court costs.

Stupid poms …

We couldn’t be that stupid could we? However, Nicola’s on the case …

For the first time ever, discrimination on the basis of “political opinions” will be unlawful. 

Further, the bill defines discrimination to be any “conduct that offends, insults or intimidates” another person (see Section 19 here). That means that expressing an opinion that offends someone else’s political opinions is now grounds for discrimination if it occurs in certain contexts, such as in the workplace.

Stupid Australians.

But the stupid Kiwi can have the penultimate word …

Miss O’Reilly, 21, who has dual British and New Zealand nationality, told magistrates: ‘She knew I was from New Zealand. She was trying to be offensive. I was really insulted.’

Insulted to be called an Australian, as an Australian I find that very insulting … where do I collect the compo?