MySchool

Since its launch on January 27th, the Federal Governments MySchool website has proved a huge hit, with nine million hits on the first day alone.

The website contains a report on every primary and secondary school in the country (public and private) and shows results from national literacy and numeracy tests among other information.

While education groups believe it amounts to a little more than a damaging league table, others have praised the launch of the website as the start of a new period of accountability for the nation’s schools.

Here at Babble, we’ve had a look at both sides of the argument to present you with the most common arguments for and against this controversial new website. - Amber Robinson

PROS

Transparency
Fans of the website hope that, just like in the commercial world, the quality in education will be improved by transparency, accountability and competition. The data has been available directly from schools for some time. Why should only the education department be able to review and compare school information? Parents should be informed to make better choices about the education options available to them.

Pester power
Parents may now be empowered to demand action from school principals and teachers at under-performing schools. They may have thought their child’s school was a dud before – now they have the data to prove it.

Improvements in literacy and numeracy
Critics claim that the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests only focus on a narrow range of subjects. Is that a bad thing? Literacy and numeracy are the foundation for success in many other subjects, so perhaps focussing on these areas will lead to improvements all round.

‘Poor’ schools aren’t necessarily disadvantaged
Each school has been assigned a rating on the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA), an index developed to account for differences in student backgrounds, such as parental income and education. to more fairly allow schools to be compared. This index is used to form groups of statistically similar schools across the country. Parents can browse through schools deemed similar to their own to gauge comparative success.

It’s a launch pad for greater information
While some say that the current site offering is limited, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said that if Labor was re-elected, the website would be expanded to provide information beyond student performance in reading, writing and numeracy. He has suggested including information on bullying and classroom innovation.

CONS

It only paints part of the picture
Academic marks are only part of a child’s school experience. What is the culture of the school like? What extra-curricular activities does it offer? How many students go on to higher education? So far, only QLD schools show the intended destination of matriculating students.

Schools aren’t being compared fairly
Despite the ICSEA index, critics of MySchool have found anomalies amongst school groupings. For instance, public schools in western Sydney have been compared with schools of the air, in outback areas or those on remote islands.

You can’t track teacher performance or individual achievement
As the website only gives aggregated NAPLAN results by grade, it is impossible to know which classes at the school performed best, or how children improved over time. Given that some experts believe that it is individual teachers who make the difference to successful learning, rather than a school, the NAPLAN results may not be a very useful measure of achievement. The scores may also be more or less statistically reliable depending on the number of school enrollments.

Schools will become stigmatised
There have already been cases of parents attempting to withdraw their children from under-performing schools even if the child is progressing well. This could lead to a “brain drain” from schools and cause the school results to sink even lower. Children may also be bullied or teased for attendin a low-scoring school.

Teachers will ‘teach to the test’
Critics of the website fear that parent pressure will force teachers to “teach to the test” to maintain and improve school ranking, rather than teaching a well-rounded curriculum.

THE BABBLE TAKE
We’re all for parents making informed choices. As it stands, the MySchool website should only be an initial tool to utilise when choosing a school for a child. It is just as important as ever to visit schools in person, meet the prinicpal and talk to other parents before you make your decision.