QASMT accused of misleading parents on Year 12 results

The lack of public transparency over Year 12 results has led to a top academy being accused of allowing parents to be misled by over-inflated 2020 outcomes.

A top Queensland academy has been accused of allowing parents to be misled by over-inflated 2020 Year 12 results on a national website which ranks schools according to academic outcomes.

The claims have again highlighted the lack of public transparency over Year 12 results, which are controversially kept secret under Queensland’s new ATAR system.

Selective state school the Queensland Academy for Science Mathematics and Technology has been ranked as the state’s top school on the Better Education website for the majority of this year, ahead of prestigious private Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

For much of the year, the Better Education website – shared with parents via QASMT’s website – stated the academy had 78.6 per cent of its 2020 Year 12 students achieve an ATAR of 90 or higher, ahead of BGGS with 77.17 per cent.

A Facebook post from the school at the time the ATAR 2020 were released celebrates 157 students recording an “ATAR of 90+”.

Meanwhile the school’s annual report records 237 students receiving a senior statement in 2020, meaning by those figures, about 66 per cent of students recorded an equivalent ATAR of 90 or higher.

Selective state school the Queensland Academy for Science Mathematics and Technology has been ranked as the state’s top school on the Better Education website for the majority of this year.

Complicating matters was the fact QASMT students receive an International Baccalaureate, which is then able to be converted to an ATAR for university entrance.

But the school includes IB “adjustment factors’’ – awarded for things such as completing a second language or a university-level enrichment course – in later posts about its ATAR results, and later claimed more than 76 per cent of students received an ATAR equivalent of 90 or above.

This figure would see them ranked as the state’s No. 2 school for Year 12 results.

A concerned school community member recently alerted the Better Education website to the discrepancy after noticing the error.

The website has now included a disclaimer about the inclusion of bonus ranks and lowered the schools result to 76.3 per cent of students receiving an ATAR 90+, leaving BGGS ranked at No.1.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said the school was contacted by Better Education for its 2020 results, but said they did not provide them.

She also said the school was “unaware of the source or veracity of information on the Better Education website”.

Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology. Picture: Richard Walker

But on the school’s own website under the banner of “performance and achievement” a link directs parents to the Better Education website.

It also boasts it is “currently the #1 ranked school in Queensland”, with the school community member raising questions on why the school didn’t notice or attempt to rectify the error, given they were sharing the information with prospective parents on their own website.

“There is a general lack of transparency at the school and the discrepancies in year 12 data add to my distrust and lack of confidence,” the concerned school community member said.

“The school is overly concerned with its image, reputation and pushing students to achieve high scores and often, common sense, student wellbeing and a positive environment takes a back seat.”

Until 2020, every school’s Year 12 results were published in a report by the Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority, meaning results were available to be easily compared without error.

The scrapping of the report meant parents were kept in the dark of how their child’s school performed comparatively, with Year 12 result data information only published on a statewide basis or by individual schools at their own discretion.

“The department does not support the creation of simplistic league tables based on a narrow measure of academic performance,” the department of education spokeswoman said.

“These measures without context often do not summarise the diversity of education that schools provide.”