Let’s Get School Accountability Right

“Should schools be accountable? Absolutely.  Should students have access to the best possible education regardless of their background? Unequivocally.”

“The IEUA has also long supported greater transparency about school funding” said Independent Education Union of Australia Federal Secretary Chris Watt.

“Unfortunately there is currently no transparency for teachers about the negotiations between the federal, state and territory governments in relation to the plans announced by Prime Minister Rudd today.”

“We must remember that the central purpose of student assessment in schools is to gather, analyse and reflect on evidence in order to make informed and consistent judgments aimed at bringing about improvement in student learning” he said.

“Data collected for one purpose is often inappropriate for another purpose.”

“There is very real risk that the proposed high-stakes league-table reporting practices will lead to a lowering of the quality of education and the overall level of student achievement’ said Chris Watt.

“The Government has been advocating a system like that in New York city”

“Yet in practice the New York model of assigning letter grades to schools has favoured schools in wealthier areas, with low percentages of special education students and low immigrant populations,” said Chris Watt

“It has also created among teachers ‘complete paranoia’ about the testing, with ‘a lot of good teaching going by the wayside’.

“Retention of top teachers has become a problem as they are attracted to the higher pay from the wealthiest and best-ranking schools”.

“Prime Minister Rudd is correct in saying that we should not tolerate underperformance.  But let me say that it is not teachers that are underperforming here, it is the long term underperformance and commitment by government at all levels” said Chris Watt

Contact

Chris Watt                                                       0419259143

Federal Secretary                                            02 6273 3107