Four Corners
Season 52 Episode 1 - Revolution in the Classroom
"Revolution in the Classroom", reported by Matthew Carney and hosted by Kerry O'Brien. For some time now there's been a bruising debate about the balance of funding handed out to public and private schools. No one doubts it's an important debate, but many educators believe it has helped obscure an even more fundamental question about where the money is spent. Over the past decade, the Federal Government has spent billions of dollars trying to lower class sizes, increase the use of computers and boost investment in school buildings. At the same time, Australia's educational performance relative to key neighbouring countries has been falling. The question is why? For some the answer is simple. Money is being spent in the wrong places. Experts point to a growing body of research that says good teachers are the major determining factor in how a child performs at school. They claim that too little money is being spent on improving teacher performance. To make matters worse, state school principals are not empowered to make decisions about how their schools are staffed and run. As a result, some good teachers go unrewarded and bad teachers cannot be sacked. As one educational researcher puts it: "Outside of the home environment and the family situation, the biggest impact on a kid's education is teacher effectiveness. The quality of the instruction the teacher provides that student... If you have a teacher, one of the top performing teachers in Australia compared to one of the least effective teachers in Australia, that can be as much as a year's difference." Four Corners looks at the impediments to better teaching. Imagine running a business where you can't choose your own staff. Where you don't have control of your own budget to invest in innovative programs to improve the product you create. That's the situation many state school principals must deal with. "If you want the school to have the best staff, you have to choose them and they have to be able to match the needs of the school." - School Principal This week Four Corners visits three very different schools and talks to the people who are trying to change the system from within. As they tell the us, it's hard work but it is possible to dramatically turn a school around and change children's lives.
Episodes in Season 52
Revolution in the Classroom
45 min
The Comeback Kid?
45 min
Syria Exposed
45 min
Given or Taken?
45 min
Closing Ranks
45 min
Dicing with Debt
45 min
Egypt: Children of the Revolution
45 min
The Fastest Changing Place on Earth
45 min
Without Consent
45 min
Happy Banking
45 min
Blood and Honour
45 min
The Killer Within
45 min
The Mormon Candidate
45 min
Judgement Day
45 min
Hard Knocks
45 min
Madeleine McCann The Last Hope
45 min
Casualties of the Boom
45 min
Smugglers Paradise
45 min
The Great Euro Crash
45 min
WikiLeaks - The Forgotten Man
45 min
Gina Rinehart - The Power Of One
45 min
Unholy Silence
45 min
The Price Of Pearls
45 min
Opium Brides
45 min
Sex, Lies And Julian Assange
45 min
A Matter Of Life And Death
45 min
Inside Mail
45 min
The Body Snatchers
45 min
Koala Crunch Time
45 min
The Autism Enigma
45 min
Crash Landing
45 min
There is No 3G in Heaven
45 min
The Hunt for Joseph Kony
45 min
Growing Up Poor
45 min
Taxing Times in Timor
45 min
The Battle for Syria
45 min
The World According to Lance
45 min
The Super Trawler
45 min
Rise of the Superbugs
45 min
Another Bloody Business
45 min
The Other Side of Jimmy Savile
45 min
