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How to make sense of My School website
A LEADING education consultant has developed a way parents can cut through the confusion surrounding the controversial new My School website to see how their kids' schools are performing against national averages. Consultant Russell Boyle recommends that parents use a Value Added Learning (VAL) index to compare the performance of schools using the My School website data - a simple calculation that shows how your school rates against the rest of the country in a range of subjects. INSTRUCTIONS AT THE END OF THIS STORY While he lauds the Federal Government and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) for making the data available to the general public, he says the ICSEA index - used on the My School website to determine a school's statistically similar schools - is unnecessarily complicated and lacks transparency. And parents contacted by the Sunday Herald Sun say they are confused by the data on the website. "If one school is scoring ten points more than another on a particular index - is that significant? The website doesn't tell us what ten points means,'' one western suburbs mother said. Mr Boyle said: "A figure that you cannot work out for yourself should always be treated with caution, even suspicion. "The VAL index is little more than a ratio of averages converted to a percentage. "Parents can easily calculate VAL for a given school on any or all of the five NAPLAN scales of Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation, and Numeracy. "They can then compare their figure with the average figure across all Australian schools. Mr Boyle said the VAL index currently compares the performance of two different groups of students, as the 2008 cohort of students will not sit for the NAPLAN tests again until later this year. "When the 2010 data is published, Australians will be able to calculate VAL for the same group of students two years apart," he said. "This will provide them with an even better indication of how much value is being added by schools in each of the five NAPLAN scales." Mr Boyle said there was measurement error in all statistics and that in this respect the VAL index was no different from ACARA's ICSEA index. "When you add the VAL index to the My School ICSEA and average score data, you start to build a comprehensive picture of school performance: one that will drive improvement and raise standards in our schools,'' Mr Boyle said. Meanwhile Professor Ken Rigby, a member of the National Centre Against Bullying, wants parents to be allowed to put forward their own views on bullying on the website, using it like a scorecard. Professor Rigby said schools could also highlight their actions on the issue. "Allowing parents to put forward their own views on bullying, and including provision for schools to show what they are doing to address any bullying problems, would greatly assist the national campaign against bullying,'' he said. HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF THE MY SCHOOL WEBSITE Use the available data to do your own calculation: PRIMARY SCHOOL NUMERACY STEP 1. Find your child's primary school's 2009 Year 5 average numeracy score. STEP 2: Find your child's primary school's 2008 Year 3 average numeracy score. STEP 3: Divide the first score by the second score and multiply by 100. STEP 4: The number is your primary school's numeracy VAL. Compare this with the numeracy VAL for all Australian primary schools of 123. (If your school's score is better than 123 then it is performing above the national average.) HIGH SCHOOL NUMERACY STEP 1. Find your child's secondary school's 2009 Year 9 average numeracy score. STEP 2: Find your child's secondary school's 2008 Year 7 average numeracy score. STEP 3: Divide the first score by the second score and multiply by 100. STEP 4: The number is your secondary school's numeracy VAL. Compare this with the numeracy VAL for all Australian secondary schools of 108. (If your school's score is better than 108 then it is performing above the national average.) PRIMARY SCHOOL READING STEP 1. Find your child's primary school's 2009 Year 5 average reading score. STEP 2: Find your child's primary school's 2008 Year 3 average reading score. STEP 3: Divide the first score by the second score and multiply by 100. STEP 4: The number is your primary school's reading VAL. Compare this with the reading VAL for all Australian primary schools of 124. (If your school's score is better than 124 then it is performing above the national average.) HIGH SCHOOL READING STEP 1. Find your child's secondary school's 2009 Year 9 average reading score. STEP 2: Find your child's secondary school's 2008 Year 7 average reading score. STEP 3: Divide the first score by the second score and multiply by 100. STEP 4: The number is your secondary school's reading VAL. Compare this with the reading VAL for all Australian secondary schools of 108. (If your school's score is better than 108 then it is performing above the national average.) |
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