CPA - The Guardian

The Australian Education Union (AEU) has called on the federal government to abandon its plans to establish a website comparing schools in the absence of promised information on school funding and resources. AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the absence of this information meant parents would get an incomplete picture on school performance.

“There are many factors affecting educational outcomes. The absence of information on total school resourcing makes any comparison of school performance misleading and potentially harmful,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

“The Education Minister Julia Gillard has repeatedly said information on funding provided to schools would be included on this new website.

“She was totally correct when she said that ‘only by understanding the total amount of funds at the disposal of individual schools is it possible to understand the relationship between resourcing and educational outcomes’.”

“At the very least this project must be postponed until there has been a sensible consultation with teachers and parents. Already parents can get a wealth of information on individual schools from their websites.”

The AEU has released polling showing almost two thirds of parents believe the federal government should pass laws preventing the misuse of the test data that will be posted on the national website.

Mr Gavrielatos said that parents, teachers and principals were all concerned that test results could be taken from the website and used to name and shame schools by invalidly ranking them in league tables.

The polling also showed two thirds of parents believed publishing more information online comparing schools should not be a top priority for the Rudd government.

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