Failure to meet must be explained

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has questioned why education minister Julia Gillard refuses to meet with the union to discuss a proposal which would improve the My School website and stop schools being ranked in damaging league tables.

AEU federal president, Angelo Gavrielatos said it was regrettable the minister had refused to meet with the union since January despite the clear damage to students and school communities caused by the publication of crude league tables.

“We have put forward a proposal that would stop league tables and provide more accurate and comprehensive information to parents about schools,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

“Our proposal would see the full range of student results at schools reported on the My School website, not just a misleading average figure.

“Parents would also get a plain-English analysis of the results of each school in literacy and numeracy rather than just general information.

“Full details of school funding and resources would be added to the site and, under the AEU plan, the progress schools were making with students would be shown for the first time.

“It is disappointing that the minister refuses to meet. Instead she has handed an alleged letter addressed to the union to the media without sending it to us.

“Ms Gillard says crude newspaper league tables are damaging and make the job of teachers harder and yet through the My School website she provided all the information that the media needed to create them.

“A national survey of principals showed that inappropriately branding schools as failures based on test scores alone is having a devastating effect on students and parents.

“Nine out of 10 principals said they were concerned that nothing had been done to stop the creation of league tables using data on the site and a similar number said they believed My School does not present an accurate picture of school performance for parents.

“We can’t sit by and watch schools and students be inappropriately branded as failures. Not only is that damaging for students and schools, it makes the job of delivering a high quality education to those students much harder.”