Why our school information has become a state secret

Until recently, Queensland school performance was an open book but now it’s become a fiercely guarded secret, blocking parents from making crucial school decisions. VOTE IN POLL

Crucial school performance material has become a fiercely guarded state secret, with parents the big losers in the State Government’s move to quash the release of essential information.

Two major reports previously published by the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority outlining every school’s NAPLAN and Year 12 results have been dumped entirely this year.

Until now, the QCAA released a detailed report outlining the OPs every student and school received, giving parents a comprehensive picture of each school’s performance.

It allowed parents to see both which schools had achieved the top academic results as well as how schools performed comparatively.

But under the new Queensland Certificate of Education system, where students are awarded an ATAR, only set of state-level data is publicly released.

Despite a vague promise from Education Minister Grace Grace that the release of each school’s median Year 12 ATAR score would be considered, parents are still in the dark months later.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk refused to comment on the information suppression, and yesterday handballed questions to Ms Grace.

Education Minister Grace Grace

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli slammed the move, and called for the information to be made public without delay.

“This information belongs to our parents, teachers and students and should be released in real-time,” he said.

“Honesty, accountability and transparency matters to Queenslanders, particularly for parents when it comes to their children’s education.”

But Ms Grace claimed the new reporting system “has worked well”, and said no changes would be made.

She said it was “inappropriate to use the information not in the matter it was produced”.

“The ATAR is the primary mechanism used nationally for tertiary admissions and as agreed by all education ministers should not be used to rank schools,” she said.

“Parents who wish to compare different schools have a wealth of information available to them, including the My School website and school annual reports.”

Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland secretary Jack McGuire said parents deserved to know why such key reports were now being kept secret, calling it a “kick in the pants”.

He also hit back at QCCA boss Chris Rider’s assertion that schools would still get their own individual information.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli

“This isn’t new, its standard practice and it’s been happening for decades but a statement like that proves the transition to the new QCE system of ATAR rather than an OP in 2020 has led to the decision to dump the report,” he said.

“Common sense goes out the window in favour of political grandstanding and for all the wrong reasons.”

NAPLAN results were also now under lock and key, with the QCAA previously releasing every school’s result at the same time as the national data was available, which occurred this week.

School information will be uploaded in March next year to My School – almost nearly a year after the tests were held.

But even then, comprehensive comparisons will not be available after the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority made the decision to restrict such measures on the national website this year.

Even school-by-school information such as attendance and suspensions – which used to be freely accessible on the government’s open data portal – is now restricted and delayed.

Zero Year 12 results are available on the website, while the majority of major Queensland schools have chosen not to publish ATAR results in their annual reports.

QCAA’s Mr Rider said the decision to dump the NAPLAN report was over concerns about the misuse of NAPLAN data.

He also said the decision was informed by the “Education Council’s principles and protocols for NAPLAN reporting that state reporting should involve balancing the community’s right to know with the need to avoid the misinterpretation or misuse of the information”.

Minister Grace said the decision was made in 2019, and was “not a decision of the Palaszczuk Government”.

Opposition education spokesman Christian Rowan said the scrapping of the key reports was a significant blow to parents.

“With the failure ... to release the median ATAR result for individual schools, it is clear that Labor believes that Queensland parents should be left in the dark,” he said.

“After another year of disruption to education in Queensland, surely it is not too much for parents and school communities to ask for some certainty, and to know that this important data will be made publicly available.”

Firmly backing the secrecy over the once freely-accessed information is the Queensland Teachers’ Union, with president Cresta Richardson saying the ATAR was “not a measure of student achievement”.

“It is used by universities to select students for high demand courses,” she said.

“Teachers know about how their students have performed and have extensive information from the QCAA to understand how this student achievement compares with others.”