“People should find out about the school by going to the school, not a ranking of median ATAR which means absolutely nothing.
“The ranking wasn’t a fair playing field and wasn’t reflective of good education but was more of a business promotion for private schools – that’s about all it was.”
But WA opposition education spokesman Peter Rundle said the list should be publicly available so parents could have a clear picture.
He said other states released rankings and the opposition was increasingly concerned about the government’s transparency.
Mr Rundle said parents, teachers and students would lose the ability to monitor the development and progression of schools and students.
Making comparative results public could also act as an incentive for schools to strive for excellence, as well as promote academic programs achieving success.
Perth Modern tops the list again. Credit:Perth Modern website
“This, ultimately, will have an impact on student numbers at some schools,” he said.
The Tertiary Institutions Service Centre, which calculates ATARs and has traditionally provided the league tables to the School Curriculum and Standards Authority each year, said it had no say in the authority’s decision this year.
“There are different views on whether the ATAR ranking of schools matters,” acting executive officer Terry Bhatti said.
“ATAR is one of the primary factors considered for admission into the university and offers a good measure of students’ success at university.
“However, several alternative pathways have been introduced over the years, used independently or alongside the ATAR to measure the students’ capabilities for entry to their intended university courses.”
Trevor Cobbold is the national convenor of Save Our Schools, which advocates for equity of funding to public and private schools.
“School ATAR scores are worthless as a measure of school quality,” he said.
“They are highly misleading and inaccurate measures because they largely reflect the socio-economic background of students in the same way as do average NAPLAN scores. Publication of ATAR scores artificially boosts the ranking of private schools because on average they have a much larger proportion of students from high socio-economic status families than do public schools.
Loading
“Numerous research studies show that public schools in Australia have as good results as private schools with similar social composition despite having far fewer resources than private schools and government funding policies that have heavily favoured private schools for decades. The evidence indicates that private schools are less efficient in using their resources than public schools.
“Publishing school ATAR and NAPLAN scores actually harms education. It harms education by narrowing curriculum and teaching; discouraging collaboration between schools around improved strategies and practices; and promoting greater focus on school image rather than school improvement.”
Education Minister Sue Ellery said parents were not being denied access to data. The government had instead provided an online lookup tool providing individual schools’ year 12 performance statistics.
There was also a table showing schools with students in the top 15 per cent for each ATAR course, to celebrate the state’s top-performing students and teachers.
“I am not aware of any senior secondary certification authority that produces a median ATAR table,” she said.
The WA authority’s executive director Allan Blagaich said its board had always considered that comparing schools only on the basis of WACE achievement and median ATAR were not the only aspects that parents should consider when selecting a school.
Parents might also consider pastoral care and student wellbeing, subject choices and other factors that may affect their child’s educational needs.
Queensland has dropped public reporting of school comparison tables showing year 12 results.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
WA’s top-performing high schools revealed for 2021 despite secrecy
Source: Philippines Alive
