MySchool revision wont stop test cheats

The Government revamp of the "My School" website, occurring less than a year after its launch, indicates the level of concern in the community over the impact of the site.

The "My School" website has been heavily criticised for publishing data that could easily be transformed into leagues tables that simplistically rank schools, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"During the last round of national testing (NAPLAN), shocking examples emerged of teachers cheating on tests to improve scores and struggling students being told to stay at home to avoid lowering a school's rating," Mr Pyne said.

"The Coalition has been calling for a review of the site to remove raw test data and only publish school improvement, and we took that policy to the 2010 election," he said.

While I welcome the Government's decision to take up the Coalition's policy and publish improvement on the site, the data is presented in a confusing manner, so rather than increasing transparency, this diminishes it.

The raw test data also remains on the site, making it difficult to understand how the new site will lessen the instances of cheating and other activities designed to artificially inflate test scores.

"The Coalition will be watching closely to see whether this new website fares any better than its predecessor," Mr Pyne said.

November 17, 2010

MEDIA CONTACT:

Adam Howard

0400 414 833