ACT principals have warned a new website that provides information on schools around the country could lead to the creation of league tables even though the website has been designed to stop that happening.
Education Minister Julia Gillard previewed the myschool.edu.au at a meeting of 150 school principals from around Australia yesterday.
Ms Gillard insisted after the launch ''there is no part of this website that can be sorted into a league table by using sort functions on the computer. That is simply not possible''.
But principals still fear the new website, which collates data from the national assessment program literacy and numeracy tests conducted in more than 10,000 schools, could be used by parents and third parties to identify poorly performing schools.
ACT Principals Association deputy president Dennis Yarrington said, ''Our concern is there is no national curriculum, though that is coming, and that the NAPLAN test assesses the literacy and numeracy of students in years three, five, seven and nine but there are differences around Australia in how many years kids have had at school before they do the test so that could impact results.''
''So the elements that are being used to identify different elements of schools may give an inadequate representation of the different components of a school. And what can happen, as has happened in America and Britain, is that the curriculum gets narrowed as schools teach to the assessments.''
Ms Gillard said the Government understood teachers were nervous about the new website, but blamed the former government for giving league tables a bad name by advocating what amounted to a ''name and shame'' system.
She said the new website would ensure similar schools with similar students would be compared, ensuring that some schools were not unfairly evaluated.
''This is the most comprehensive information that Australia has ever had, school by school, to show what is happening in our schools. Who is going ahead, who needs an extra helping hand to make sure that they are developing kids as well as we want to see our young people get that start in life,'' she said.
''... Do I want them to get a well-rounded education that takes them through the worlds of creativity and sport and leadership and teamwork? Of course I do. But I also want them to be able to read and write. That's what national testing measures, that's what's on this website.''
But Calwell's Saint Francis Xavier College principal Michael Nuttall aired similar concerns to Mr Yarrington.
He said while it was important for parents to have information about schools, the website could over-emphasise the importance of the national testing program.
''We need to be offering children the opportunity to be creative, innovative, analytical thinkers. There does need to be core knowledge tested the NAPLAN skills are an important part of the curriculum but they are not all schools do. Comparisons may not be that valuable unless those comparisons are taken in the full context of the school.''
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