The Scott review of Initial Teacher Education releases its discussion paper – there’s plenty for worried education deans to talk about

Including the proposal for publicly available performance measures of ITE courses, “to increase accountability and inform student choice”

Professor Scott (as in Uni Sydney’s VC) and colleagues were commissioned by the coalition government to advise on, “an assessment mechanism for initial teacher education to improve the quality of ITE programmes,” (CMM February 25 2022). The work continues under Labor, with present Commonwealth education minister Jason Clare committing to taking recommendations to the education minco in June (CMM November 4 ‘22).

The new paper sets out “key teaching practises” that ITE courses should include and which should be considered in teacher ed students final assessment. It identifies ways to improve practical classroom experience for ITE students. And it presents ways to attract mid-career entrants to teaching.

And to make institutional assessment as dean-proof as possible it carefully makes the case for four broad measures of provider performance;

* ITE student background, to ensure diverse and high quality candidates it nominates, First Nations, regional and remote, low SES, high ATAR and STEM focus

* ITE students completing their course

* students’ classroom readiness and satisfaction with study

* employment outcomes of recent graduates and early career teachers

As to rewarding providers, the review points to the previous government’s performance based funding model, put on-hold during the pandemic and (O’Kane Accord permitting), suggests that “should it become operational” it “could provide a funding incentive for poorer performing higher education providers.”