The IEUA has expressed its concern about the potential for tabloids to produce 'league tables' based on the national reporting requirements agreed by the Federal and State governments.  Such tables have been shown overseas to limit the learning outcomes for students and to marginalise school communities.

The IEUA, along with the AEU and other teacher organisations, wrote to the Federal and State Education Ministers in March with our concerns about the school reporting requirements.  A copy of that letter can be read here.

The following article provides a more fulsome discussion of the key issues in this debate.

Get School Accountability Right

Should schools be accountable? Absolutely.  Should students have access to the best possible education regardless of their background? Unequivocally.  Should there be greater transparency? Without question.

But, and it is a BIG but, the ‘league table’ approach that is likely to be taken by the tabloids, and one has only to look at the recent example in the Hobart Mercury, does not assist students, teachers, parents or schools.

The fact is that many school systems, for example Catholic systems of schools in the non-government sector, have used a wide variety of rich data sources to inform them of the needs of particular schools and communities.  This information allows them to provide additional and targeted resources.  Where schools have particular needs including challenges arising from lower socio-economic status background, resources to provide timely and quality intervention and leadership are made available.

Despite well meaning words saying that this is not about simplistic league tables, such tables are almost as inevitable, as evidenced by the Mercury’s approach.  Some elements of the media will go out of their way to manipulate the necessarily complex data into a single figure so that they can rank schools. 

This already happens in other countries, and yet these rankings provide no genuine information that parents can use and are devoid of any real quality of purpose. The question then is how to mitigate against this?

Herein lies one of the issues for teachers and their unions about the accountability agenda.  What is the detail?  How will this be implemented? 

The Independent Education Union of Australia has long supported greater transparency and accountability about funding arrangements for all schools.

Unfortunately there has been little or no transparency for teachers about the negotiations between the federal, state and territory governments that have been ongoing for more than a year.  Indeed, the only knowledge of what might happen is evidenced by the NSW Government recently removing legislation to prevent the publication of ‘league tables’.

Teachers and their unions have a professional interest and significant knowledge and capacity in this regard.  Commentary about teachers and their unions being complacent, accepting of mediocrity and protecting the incompetent are not only insulting, they are wrong. 

Teachers teach because of their commitment to their students.  Their professional concern about the government’s agenda is born out of their concern for their students and the ‘resistance’ reflects nothing more than a genuine desire to have their professional knowledge and judgement respected by being able to genuinely contribute to and influence the debate.

While the federal government made a public commitment last year to talk to teachers and teacher unions this hasn't happened.

Unless we get this accountability right we run the very real risk of perpetuating the same negative outcomes that have been experienced in other countries as a consequence of ‘public reporting’.

The New York model of ranking schools might sound attractive to some but first-hand experiences of front-line educators reveal a flawed system in which students with greatest need attract least support.

In a flurry of enthusiasm for chancellor Joel Klein’s model, Education Minister Julia Gillard has praised Klein’s passionate commitment to the “identification of school need, the comparison of like-schools and the identification of best practice”.

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.  The schools that have been ‘merged’ or closed have been in low socio-economic areas.

The face of teaching is also looking worse for wear.

An IEUA member, returned from several years teaching in New York, is among those bemused at the Minister’s praise for this testing-obsessed system. In a letter to the IEUA he reports “complete paranoia” about the testing, with “a lot of good teaching going by the wayside”.

Under the New York system teachers, coaches and principals are appointed and paid on performance regardless of what their teaching and learning is like. Retention of top teachers has become a problem as they are attracted to the higher pay from the wealthiest and best-ranking schools.

Our schools and our students deserve an accountability model that addresses problems where they exist, not one that potentially creates ghetto schools across our country.  This can only happen if there is a genuine dialogue with those who know, the teachers.  To date this has not happened.

The Independent Education Union of Australia believes parents should have access to timely and meaningful information about their children’s progress. They are entitled to comprehensive and accessible reports.

Let’s not lose sight, however, that the purpose of assessment and reporting is to improve student learning. It is intended to inform teaching in the classroom and provide parents with an insight into their children’s progress.

When we forget this, it’s the quality of education that suffers. The curriculum narrows and the focus moves from the individual child to the attainment of a school rank. Tests become the curriculum.

By all means let’s discuss, debate and consult widely among education professionals, to ensure our testing models are best practice. And let’s be sure to learn from international experience.