It is getting harder for state ministers to blame university education faculties for failings in state school systems. For a start, initial teacher education graduates have to sit literacy and numeracy exams before being approved for classroom work. And universities are rolling out a graduate teacher performance assessment which ITE grads must meet.

Claire Wyatt-Smith from the Australian Catholic U led development of the new assessment (CMM, yesterday), which is developed in partnership with the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership and the Queensland College of Teachers. The GTPS measures a commencing teachers ability to manage a classroom and run a learning cycle, from planning to assessment. The GTPA is used by 13 universities now, with RMIT and U Notre Dame joining next year.

As a way of moving the teacher-standards debate from ATARs to outcomes this is hard to beat.