My School is a website administered by the
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is the independent statutory authority responsible for the development of a national curriculum, a national assessment program, and a national data collection and reporting pr ...
(ACARA) which provides access to information about Australian schools. Nearly 10,000 schools across Australia can be searched.
The site reports data from the annual
National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a series of tests focused on basic skills that are administered to Australian students in year 3, 5, 7 and 9. These standardised tests assess students' reading, writing, ...
(NAPLAN) tests which compulsorily assess reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and numeracy at years 3, 5, 7 and 9 for all Australian school students. It also displays information such as school missions, staffing, financial information, its resources and its students' characteristics.
The website does not allow users to directly compare schools of their choosing.
Launch
The website went live at 1:00 am on 28 January 2010, but later in the morning the website became unavailable due to extremely high demand.
It was launched by the then
Minister for Education,
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...
.
Update
An update to the site was expected in December 2010, however its roll-out was delayed until March 2011.
The primary aim of the changes was to increase funding transparency.
Opposition
Teachers' unions and some parent bodies have expressed concerns that the data is being used to formulate
league table
Standings or rankings are listings which compare sports teams or individuals, institutions, nations, companies, or other entities by ranking them in order of ability or achievement. A table or chart (such as a league table, a ladder or a leaderb ...
s of schools. Principals claim that students have been asked to leave some schools because their performance on NAPLAN tests was expected to damage those schools' rankings. Independent
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
the
Grattan Institute
Grattan Institute is an Australian public policy think tank, established in 2008. The Melbourne-based institute is non-aligned, defining itself as contributing "to public policy in Australia as a liberal democracy in a globalised economy." It is ...
calls for schools to be judged on the individual improvement students make every year rather than the comparison based on raw test scores used on My School. The
Australian Education Union
The Australian Education Union (AEU) is an Australian trade union, founded in 1984 as the Australian Teachers Union, which is registered with Fair Work Australia as an employee group, and is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Union ...
has resolved to boycott future NAPLAN testing if the My School website is used in this way.
See also
*
Education in Australia
Education in Australia encompasses the sectors of early childhood education (preschool) and primary education (primary schools), followed by secondary education (high schools), and finally tertiary education, which includes higher education (Uni ...
References
{{reflist
External links
My School website
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority website
Australian educational websites