WINGHAM High School principal Dave Elliot believes the Federal Government’s new MySchool website has the potential to cause more harm than good.
Mr Elliot, who has been principal of the 760-student school for four years, said the narrowness of the information on the MySchool website is ‘disturbing’ and ‘misleading’ if not read correctly.
His main concern is that schools throughout the country have been compared using tests designed as diagnostic tools for improving the learning of individual students.
“The (MySchool) website does not provide a complete and true picture of the range of student achievements and other curricula and extra-curricula activities that schools like Wingham High provide,” he said
“MySchool does not tell you about our outstanding results in the national Science and Engineering Challenge over the past five years. Nor does it tell you that Wingham High School is the national Solar Boat champion school for 2009.
“It does not tell you about the levels of excellence that have been achieved in public speaking, drama and music or the wonderful major projects completed by our Design and Technology students that swept all before them in local design competitions in 2009.
“Neither does it indicate the incredible levels of sporting excellence achieved by our students in a range of endeavour such as boys and girls touch, girls hockey, boys softball, athletics (the school was region champion in 2007 and 2008), rugby league, girls rugby union and sailing (CHS champion school in 2008).”
Mr Elliot also said the average scores from the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) do not give any idea of trend or progression.
“The NAPLAN scores for Wingham High students for instance do not show that the vast majority of students improve in both literacy and numeracy from year five to year seven and again from year seven to year nine,” Mr Elliot said.
“So, based on such narrow information provided by the MySchool site, the production of so called ‘league tables’ to rank schools from best to worst is an entirely flawed and invalid exercise.”
Mr Elliot said he has faith that the parents, carers and students of our community understand it is unwise to compare schools without taking into account such things as how students are selected and enrolled, the ethnic mix, gender balance, school location and size.
“It is very difficult to understand how so called statistically similar schools were grouped,” he said.
“There are some simply absurd combinations such as large high schools of 1300 students and remote, small primary schools of six students.
“Our own Wingham High is compared with Ubobo State School in Queensland with 20 students, Palm Beach Currumbin State School with 1938 students, Penguin High School in Tasmania with 237 students, and Living Faith Lutheran Primary School in Queensland whose 378 students finish at the end of year six.
“One imagines that there are more differences between those schools than there are similarities.”
Mr Elliot is encouraging parents and carers to access the MySchool site via the Department of Education and Training so that they can view the information podcast by the director general of education, Michael Coutts-Trotter
“He provides a valuable introduction to the My School concept and offers good advice to parents about how the information should be used,” Mr Elliot said.
Mr CouttsTrotter’s podcast can be viewed at the MySchool site www.myschool.com.au.
Information needs to be viewed in the right context
WINGHAM Brush Public School principal Tim Putland said he has had no dramas since the launch of the Federal Government’s MySchool website, but believes the information displayed on the site must be viewed in the right context.
“You can’t judge a school purely on a set of numbers,” Mr Putland said. “The results are based on one test from one day of the year. The site is purely meant to be used as a diagnostic tool – not as a ranking tool.
“Teachers and principals have been encouraged to use the data to develop learning plans and possibly to contact other schools to ask for advice.”
Mr Putland has also encouraged people to check out the podcast from education director Michael Coutts-Trotter to see how the MySchool data can be used effectively.
“Parents, students and new members of the commuity should contact the schools they are interested in and arrange to speak to the principal for more information.”
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