Parents misled by MySchool website

The Victorian Independent Education Union has condemned the federal government’s My School website today, saying parents have been wrongly sold the website as an accurate tool to measure schools performance.

‘To damn or praise a school based on one test, undertaken on one day, on a limited number of indicators, fails to recognise the importance of rounded education,’ said Deb James, Secretary of VIEU.

‘It’s a very blunt instrument that runs the risk of parents making ill-informed decisions, and schools being forced to teach to the test.’

‘Our members are very concerned about the implications of the NAPLAN test being used to create crude comparisons. There is simply no way that this website can capture the dedication and skills that educators, not to mention parents, are investing in their students.’

VIEU also has serious misgivings about the way in which groups of like schools are formed.

‘The union has this morning identified a number of schools that cannot possibly be considered similar, be it on socio-economic indicators, school size or resources.’

Mark Williams, Principal of St Martin de Porres, raised his concerns with VIEU this morning.

‘This is a pretty rough and ready presentation of schools,’ said Mr Williams.

‘Ultimately, there is no substitute for parents having ongoing contact with their child’s school, to make informed decisions collectively with the school, and to nurture that child’s progress.’

Contrary to Federal Government insistence that information would be presented in a way that discouraged comparative league tables, a number of media outlets have already presented crude assessments of the school data.

VIEU and its national counterparts will be meeting shortly to determine what action will be taken to protect the professional standards in education.

Read the IEU Media Release: here

~ Thursday 28 January 2010