State scraps annual report detailing senior results of every high school
A report detailing the senior results of every high school in Queensland has been scrapped, in a move described as a significant blow for students, parents and teachers.
Education
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Queensland’s Year 12 scores will be kept secret after the state government scrapped an annual report detailing the senior results of every high school in the state.
Parents will be left in the dark over how each school performed following the controversial dumping, which was slammed by the opposition as evidence the education system was falling victim to “secrecy over transparency”.
Until this year, the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s annual Year 12 Outcomes Report detailed how every school’s senior students performed, including how many received top OP scores, senior certificates and VET qualifications.
But the transition to a new Queensland Certificate of Education system which saw last year’s Year 12’s receive an ATAR rather than an OP has coincided with the QCAA’s decision to dump the report.
The move comes six weeks after the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) banned schools and the media from publishing comparisons of school performance in national literacy and numeracy tests.
Education Minister Grace Grace said the 2020 published results were “reported this year in a way that provides important state-level data with a focus on individual students’ achievements”, and claimed it was “in line with the reporting practices in other states”.
But states such as Victoria have publicly released extensive information on each school’s 2020 Year 12 results, including the median study score for every school and the percentage of study scores of 40 and above.
And in previous report releases the QCAA even highlighted the benefits of releasing extensive data on Year 12 results, and said “the Queensland Government believes that parents and the wider community are entitled to know what students are learning and achieving at school”.
“Extensive information on student outcomes is published to give an accurate account of the range of educational options being provided by schools for students,” an information sheet on the report states.
LNP education spokesman Christian Rowan blasted the report’s dumping as a significant blow “for Queensland students, parents, principals and teaching staff”.
“This decision is an admission by Labor that it no longer believes that parents and the wider community are entitled to know how Queensland students and schools are performing” he said.
“It will do nothing to enhance the transparency of educational outcomes of schools across our state.
“The Palaszczuk State Labor Government has an abysmal track record on transparency and accountability, and sadly with the abandoning of the Year 12 Outcomes Report, our education system has once again fallen victim to Labor’s preference for secrecy over transparency.
“Labor cannot suggest that this has anything to do with league tables or unfair comparisons, because again Labor has for years made clear to Queenslanders that “the outcomes report is not a league table.”
Dr Rowan also accused Minister Grace of hiding “behind the decisions made by other state jurisdictions”.
QCAA chief executive Chris Rider said the new approach was endorsed by the QCAA Board and the Senior Assessment and Tertiary Entrance Implementation Taskforce, which included representatives from a variety of education stakeholders.
“The introduction of the new Queensland Certificate of Education system in 2020 was an opportunity to reconsider past reporting arrangements to ensure they appropriately reflect schools’ and students’ achievements,” Mr Rider said.
“These changes to the reporting of student achievement are in line with the Education Council’s principles and protocols for reporting on schooling.”
Mr Rider said the QCAA would provide individual schools with their own data on their students’ achievements.
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