Australia’s federal education’s decision to publish 10,000 Australian schools’ test scores in January so that the public can see which schools perform well is a bad day for children.
Faced with union threats to boycott the national testing program our schools in Yanchep, Two Rocks, Gingin, Lancelin and Wanneroo may well ask themselves how will publishing school test scores improve children’s performance?
Professor Peter Hill, who taught with me at Armadale senior high school, now CEO of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority in charge of publishing schools’ test scores on the My School website, is himself not sure of its worth.
‘Simply making information available about a school’s performance is not likely to lead directly to big improvements. To get gains that last it is necessary to improve teaching quality,’ he said at a press conference.
‘The crucial point is that better information is a starting point for improving teaching and My School website will bring more information than ever before to assist in this task,’ Peter said.
I have three decades of experience in government, private schools, technical colleagues and universities in Western Australia, India and the UK and believe that what’s good for the league tables is bad for our children.
How will this league ladder help our local parents judge the worth of a school or where to buy a house?
Wanneroo senior high school is one of our oldest local schools with special programs, alternative curriculum and a history of academic success that I have personally witnessed over 20 years.
At the school, according to the school’s 2008 lower school national literacy and numeracy results that are published on the Department of Education’s website, although students in 2008 performed satisfactorily in writing they were marginally below the group in 2007.
If you made a snap judgement based on this isolated score you would overlook that this school has produced a Beazley medal winner, offers special football programs, academic extension classes and its teachers work hard, called ‘value-adding,’ to improve students’ literacy through special programs.
A factor that has to be considered for its effect on the school’s scores is that about 35 percent of its students come from interstate and overseas and this factor needs to be considered when viewing league tables.
Why the league ladder tables won’t answer your crucial question of which school you should send your child to is made clear by research done by professors Leckie and Goldstein over a five-year period of league ladder tables in UK schools.
Lecki and Goldstein show that if you choose a school based on its performance in 2010 you can’t predict how it will perform five years from now when your child graduates in 2015.
Their research showed that some schools that performed well did worse in later years and it was suggested that students had simply turned-off the testing cycle.
They claim that it is difficult to show how much affect schooling has on a student’s scores and that differences in family backgrounds, gender, poorer neighbourhoods and special needs were far more important in determining how a school scores in the league ladders.
UK and Australian experience shows that some teachers and schools will teach to the test - called ‘booster classes’ in the UK.
This practice has been found in the UK and Australia to narrow the curriculum with some schools reducing time for choirs as over-worked teachers spend time teaching to gain an extra mark here and there in the test.
If the league tables allowed the worst schools to improve they would have my support. However, they will occupy the time of our principals and teachers dreaming up schemes to move up the league tables and spending 50 percent of their time on literacy, as is done in WA primary schools, instead of actually teaching a rich curriculum.
It is a safe bet that the schools that will perform better are generally those that can select their students in leafy green suburbs and that this is not an avenue open to many government schools.
Instead of trying to find out ‘under-performing schools’ (public servant jargon for ‘bad’ schools) why not recognise that Australia placed second to Finland in 2004 in literacy and sixth in the world in 2006 in the OECD report well ahead of the UK that has league leaders and behind Finland that has none.
Instead of diverting attention away from the real issue of under-funded schools, why not try smaller classes, provide special support for students with learning difficulties that this government has cut, improve school-home communication and let teachers give you a year-round report on what you want to know.
ABOUT LIONEL CRANENBURGH
Lionel Cranenburgh is one of Australia’s leading career advisors. For 30 years he has helped more school educators and managers from the WA Department of Education and Training and public sector to be promoted than almost any career development or career transition consultant.
His phenomenal success rate is possibly unequalled and can be attributed to a unique personalised approach.
Lionel Cranenburgh is an education consultant who was awarded the silver medal for his services to education by the West Australia Education Department and was the invited research-scholar on education to Oxford and Cambridge universities in the UK.
Lionel Cranenburgh was the first and only Australian to be selected and currently serving as Australian Advisor on careers and education on an International Education Board of highly acclaimed international advisors for a leading educational publication.
Lionel Cranenburgh has published about 7,000 articles on education and local government for several years.
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