AEU Chapter Briefing - announcing win to overhaul MySchool

Media release - 06/05/10 NAPLAN Breakthrough

Chapter Briefing 2

Chapter Briefing 1 

The My School website purports to give parents and the community in general an accurate assessment of the quality of education in schools based on the NAPLAN tests, a very limited, point in time, set of tests.

NAPLAN tests are designed to ascertain individual student's achievements which are relevant for teacher diagnostic purposes for their forward planning. However, they are not an appropriate means of identifying the character of a school.

The NAPLAN tests were not designed to be used to compare the quality of teaching and learning that occurs in our schools across Queensland.

The student outcomes data presented on the My School website does not take into account a wide range of subject knowledge and the skills developed in extra-curricular activities provided by schools; such as, music, the arts, sport and community service projects. To get to this information a parent has to go to the school's website. To compare one school with another, in terms of the wider educational programme available, again it is necessary to go to the schools' websites.

A further problem exists with the data on the My School website in that some of the data may not be reliable. In "Measuring What Matters: Student Performance - A Grattan Report" it states, "the school performance measures published on the My School website are prone to mismeasurement and may be biased against school serving lower socio-economic communities".

The validity of the process of identifying "like schools" (the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage or ICSEA) has also been called into question due to the number of nonsensical grouping of "like schools". For example, the Anglican Church Grammar School at East Brisbane is said to be "statistically similar" to Geham School (a small school on the Darling Downs).

   The IEUA-QNT supports the collection of student data through national and international tests and the publication of this data. However, significant changes need to be made to the My School website and the processes it relies upon to present a more reliable assessment of the work of schools across the country.

To begin with, a formal review of the My School website needs to be undertaken as a matter of urgency and this should include a thorough re-evaluation of the use of the ICSEA. Until the outcome of this review is available, the current "Statistically Similar Schools" comparisons should be removed.

Following the re-evaluation of ICSEA, the Index should be used as a point of comparison rather than a 'sorting' mechanism as is currently the case. Moreover, reporting of students' average scores should be replaced with a graphical representation of relative performance or an alternative proxy such as percentage achievement above minimum benchmarks.

It is also important that schools with fewer than 15 students in the NAPLAN cohort not have student data reported in any comparative measures.

• To read IEUA's latest media release regarding the Federal government's My School website and NAPLAN tests, please click here
  

• To view the IEUA correspondence including a copy of the IEUA Federal Executive Resolution from 26 February and Recommendations for site improvements to My School  please click here 

• For more information about IEUA's position on school reporting and accountability, please click here
  

   The IEUA-QNT supports the collection of student data through national and international tests and the publication of this data. However, significant changes need to be made to the My School website and the processes it relies upon to present a more reliable assessment of the work of schools across the country.

To begin with, a formal review of the My School website needs to be undertaken as a matter of urgency and this should include a thorough re-evaluation of the use of the ICSEA. Until the outcome of this review is available, the current "Statistically Similar Schools" comparisons should be removed.

Following the re-evaluation of ICSEA, the Index should be used as a point of comparison rather than a 'sorting' mechanism as is currently the case. Moreover, reporting of students' average scores should be replaced with a graphical representation of relative performance or an alternative proxy such as percentage achievement above minimum benchmarks.

It is also important that schools with fewer than 15 students in the NAPLAN cohort not have student data reported in any comparative measures.

• To read IEUA's latest media release regarding the Federal government's My School website and NAPLAN tests, please click here

• To view the IEUA correspondence including a copy of the IEUA Federal Executive Resolution from 26 February and Recommendations for site improvements to My School  please click here 

•  For more information about IEUA's position on school reporting and accountability, please click here