Margaret Wu: "NAPLAN results should never be published."

League tables: Conference puts government on notice

By

Bob Lipscombe

The recent elevation of Julia Gillard to the prime ministership, the appointment of Simon Crean as her replacement as Minister and the calling of the Federal Election have added new elements to the campaign to stop the publication of school league tables. And as if the Labor Government's position hasn't been bad enough, we now have the Federal Liberal/National Coalition calling for NAPLAN tests in each of years 3 to 10. In advance of this these developments, the Federation's 600-strong Annual Conference put the Federal Government on notice on league tables. It resolved overwhelmingly that the campaign to protect NSW school students and their communities from the harm caused by the publication of school league would be resumed with the full resources of Federation and its membership if the Federal Government failed to honour the commitments it made to settle the 2010 NAPLAN dispute.

The Annual Conference decision was made prior to the calling of the Federal Election but no one in the Federal Liberal/National Coalition should be under any illusion that the campaign would not resume if the Coalition failed to address the concerns of the profession on this most important issue. To this end, the Conference resolved that if the Federal Election was called before a resolution had been achieved, Federation would campaign strongly to obtain commitment from all parties to ensure that the publication of league tables would be stopped.

As part of the Federal election campaign, all members are urged to take all opportunities to raise the matter with their local Member of Parliament and any candidates contesting their electorate. Material to assist with this, including email messages and other useful material, can be found on Federation's website.

Interestingly, even though the Federal Election has been called, the Senate inquiry into the administration and reporting of NAPLAN testing established in May, following the lifting of the NAPLAN moratorium, will continue to operate until the day before the first sitting day of the new Parliament. In addition, the working party - comprised of Australian Education Union (AEU), principal and parent representation that was established as part of the settlement to the NAPLAN dispute - is expected to bring down its recommendations shortly after the election.

A national symposium in Sydney on July 23 added weight to the campaign. Arising from the symposium, Associate Professor Margaret Wu from the University of Melbourne has accepted an invitation to address Federation's Principals' Conference on July 16. Her excellent presentation addressed the appropriate and inappropriate uses of NAPLAN data, including issues to do with the usefulness of 'value-added' data.

To further facilitate the continuing public debate on league tables and the Federal Government's agenda, the AEU has secured Diane Ravitch, the assistant secretary of education under President Bush Snr, for a speaking tour of Sydney and other capitals in late March/early April 2011. Originally a supporter of mass testing and league tables, Professor Ravitch is now an outspoken critic of the very system upon which the Prime Minister has modelled some of her changes in education. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported last year: "Ravitch has shown the New York test scores have been mainly flat or declining in national standardised tests. 'Why anyone would want to copy this system is beyond me, particularly when Australia does better in all the international assessments and better than the US...Test taking and preparation for tests has become a substitute for education here.'" (February 2, 2009)

Bob Lipscombe is the President.

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July 2010 contents