When the NSW Government issued a list of the state’s top 25 primary and high schools this week, the NSW Teachers Federation and the Federation of Parents’ and Citizens’ Associations objected, saying the criteria were too narrow. An ACT Legislative Assembly reference group has also rejected the idea of publishing tables. Teachers’ unions have objected to any form of league tables of schools for the past quarter century. They make all sorts of objections, principally that schools that perform poorly will lose students and get even worse and that assessments fail to take account different socio-economic conditions of the schools’ pool of enrolment. NSW addressed the second excuse by using a “”value-added” approach that took account of different socio-economic conditions and concentrated in improvement of school performance over time.
It is surprising that the Parents’ and Citizens’ Association took the view they did. Apparently they do not represent overall parent opinion. It is a constant concern of parents to ensure their children go to the best possible school.
The real objection to school league tables is that teachers hate any form of objective assessment of their own performance and they do not like the thought of the pressure that a poor outcome will put upon them.
But parents and citizens in general have a general right to government information under standard freedom-of-information principles. Those broad principles apply as much to school results as any other form of government administration. Other than information about national security and temporary commercial-in-confidence information, government information should generally be publicly available. It makes for better government and in the case of school league tables it makes for better education.
Parents are entitled to make informed choices. Not only should the league tables be published, but the full details of how they are drawn up. Parents would not necessarily flock to the schools on the top of the table. They, in discussion with their children, would make a choice based on a range of matters, including the league table, but also including proximity, friends’ choice, subject range, extra-curricula matters and so on. The debate on the tables would lead to refinement and improvement on the ratings.
Initially, there may be some over-reaction, but in the long term, the release of as much information as possible can only improve education. Students and teachers would strive harder and if some schools performed so badly that enrolments dropped catastrophically, that might not be such a bad thing … a poor performing school might have to close.
The insidious thing about the present system is that information is collected about overall school performance and a few people in the know get share the information. Others make guestimates about which school might be best for their child. There is simply no excuse for not giving as much information to parents as possible to replace the privilege and inadequacy of the present system.
The NSW Teachers’ Federation threat to ban basic skills testing if the results were used to compare schools, is based on self-interest and runs directly counter to the interests of students, parents and the community at large.