The Cape York Experiment

Since July 2004 Noel Pearson has been working on a new model of indigenous governance in Cape York via his Cape York Institute. His dream is to enable his people to 'walk in both worlds' by ensuring they are educated in whitefellah ways while retaining their indigenous culture.

He is a very determined man with no doubt about his ability, and no doubts about what is required to develop a thriving indigenous community.

This page is dedicated to monitoring his progress. Surely after 8 years we should have some reliable data to compare to other indigenous communities, and then to the rest of Australia.

Personally I admire Pearson and everything he is trying to do. He faces up to issues and acknowledges the roles that both indigenous, non-indigenous and government have in improving outcomes for his people.

His key tenets are :

• Using direct instruction as a model for schooling
• Money Management Programs
• Alcohol Restrictions
• Income Management
• Moving away from Welfare back to self-reliance

Part of the model requires the development of indigenous enterprises. Warren Mundine outlines why that's so necessary here.

Direct Instruction
This is a model of teaching that uses scripted lessons. It is a very structured and involves consistent repetition. Teachers generally dont like it as it devalues their role as educators. What it does do is enforce basic skills. As a teacher I like the fact it provides structure and a step-by-step approach to skills development. It also provides consistent and continual assessment data. However it's not suited to open-ended tasks such as essay writing for example.

Chris Sarra (who developed the Stronger Smarted model at Cherbourg) is not keen on Pearson's Direct Instruction. He feels it is a remedial program at best. Maybe it is but if it can get kids to progress to achieve benchmarks and improvements beyond that of other indigenous schools then it's worth rolling out beyond Cape York.

Contrast that with this report that trumpets the claims from Cape York. Surely we can get some independent analysis of results given all of the testing they do at Cape York.

And Pearson's reply (Nov 2012). He make bold statements about NAPLAN results. I assume Chris Sarra would question the amount of money provided for the program.

March 2013 - Queensland Goverment pulls funding for Cape York.  And Noel Pearson isnt happy. The best thing is that there is finally an independent evaluation of the program. I'm still trying to find a copy of it.

April 2013 - Noel Pearson argues that the best way to improve teaching is to focus on "the instructional skills of teachers." Veiled support of his Direct Instruction model , arguing that it is the best model for the students at Cape York.