On 2 February 2010 the AEU sent the following letter to all ALP Federal Members of Parliament

Dear Member of Parliament

Re: League Tables – My School Website

The AEU supports the Government’s objective aimed at providing more information about school effectiveness to parents. However, the policy in its current form, which also facilitates the creation and publication of league tables, will do more harm than good.

Within 24 hours of the My School website going live the worst fears of the profession were realised with the creation and publication of crude, simplistic and damaging league tables.
The Government now finds itself in the peculiar position of both facilitating and opposing the creation and publication of league tables.

Whilst our primary concern remains the creation and publication of league tables, our concerns with the My School website are not insignificant.  The website, in its current form, is incomplete, inaccurate, and based on the invalid use of data.

It is incomplete because it contains no information whatsoever on the total resources available to schools. Throughout the course of last year, Julia Gillard said repeatedly that this was vital information if anyone was to judge school effectiveness. Yet the website went live, prematurely, without this information.

It is inaccurate because of the flaws inherent in the Index of Community and School Educational Advantage (ICSEA). Groups of “like schools” against which parents are being told to compare schools include:
• Cocos Island District School, thousands of kilometres off the coast of Western Australia, is grouped with Holroyd High School in Western Sydney which has a significant NESB student enrolment including new arrival and refugee students.
• Melbourne Girls Grammar grouped with schools including Dargo Public School, a school of one student near the Victorian snowfields.
• Cameron Downs State School, located on a property in Queensland’s Central Western District with 6 students grouped with schools including Terrigal High School on the Central Coast of NSW with 1300 students.
• Alice Springs School of the Air grouped with schools including Blacktown Boys High School in Western Sydney.
• The Kings School in Parramatta grouped with schools including Gundaroo Public School in a village near Canberra and Sassafras Primary School in the Dandenongs in Victoria.
• Geelong Grammar grouped with schools including the small Arthurs Creek Primary School in Victoria which has 71 students and Thirroul Public School near Wollongong.

It is invalid because the main focus of the website is data based on the NAPLAN national literacy and numeracy tests, which were never designed for this purpose. NAPLAN are a one-point-in-time snapshot of student performance.

The invalidity of the NAPLAN tests as a basis of a school’s performance is further highlighted by the margins of error contained within such tests. The margin of error, for small schools in particular, is very large. It can be as high as plus or minus 35 points. In the words of Professor Margaret Wu, one of Australia’s leading psychometricians from the University of Melbourne, “it would be irresponsible for the Government ... to tell the public that school performance can judged from information on My School Website”.

The My School website also encourages comparison of high school performance on the basis of the aggregated scores of individual year 7 students. In most cases, year 7 students have only been at high school for 3 months at the time they are tested. How can a high school’s performance or effectiveness be judged on the basis of tests sat by students who have only been in high school for 3 months?

The damaging effects of league tables on education, students and school communities are well documented. In the interest of the future well being of our students and school communities we again call on you to introduce measures to stop the further creation and publication of damaging league tables.

We remain willing and ready to work with the Government towards the achievement of sound policy on school accountability,  improvement, assessment and reporting.

Yours sincerely
Angelo Gavrielatos
Federal President

 
go to the AEU website for more information