Julia Gillard to follow New York on school ranks

EDUCATION Minister Julia Gillard has endorsed aspects of the New York system for ranking schools based on student performance.

EDUCATION Minister Julia Gillard yesterday endorsed aspects of the New York system for ranking schools based on student performance and progress.

As the teaching unions and state Labor governments railed against moves to rank schools, Ms Gillard called for a national system to compare the differences between schools and identify the most disadvantaged.

But the Acting Prime Minister stopped short of supporting the New York system for grading schools from A to F based on their performance, saying the goal was to compare similar schools to identify those in need of further assistance. "This is not about simplistic league tables. This is about rich performance information about our schools," she said.

Addressing the Australian Council for Educational Research conference in Brisbane, Ms Gillard pointed to the New York model as one from which Australia could learn and said she was inspired after meeting New York City's schools chancellor Joel Klein.

"We can learn from Klein's methodology of comparing like-schools with like-schools and then measuring the differences in school results in order to spread best practice," she said. "Something Joel Klein is personally and passionately committed to is the identification of school need, the comparison of like-schools and the identification of best practice.

"The answer is not league tables and it's not A to F reporting, but it's making sure we have this rich performance information available, school by school."

In New York, school progress reports are issued each year comparing students' performance levels year on year. The reports also compare schools within a group of 40 peer schools to the same type of schools across the city.

Schools are then graded from A to D and F based on student test results, the progress of students in a year, and the school environment as determined by attendance and a survey of parents, student and teachers.

Schools rated as A or B receive financial rewards and are used to demonstrate good teaching practices. Schools graded D or F are given assistance to improve and if no progress is made over time, the school is restructured, the principal changed or it is closed.

Last year, 50 of the 1400 schools in the New York evaluation system were rated an F.

Unions yesterday rejected Ms Gillard's comments as divisive.

Some state governments said the publication of such information could stigmatise schools.

Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos described Ms Gillard's comments as "a divisive sideshow on league tables".

"Raising overall student performance and addressing underachievement requires investment. Teachers know it and parents know it," he said.

Independent Education Union of Australia federal secretary Chris Watt supported sharing good teaching practice between schools, but said international evidence showed publicly ranking schools lowered the quality of education.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the state already published data on the performance of all government and non-government schools and she was "very comfortable" discussing what else could be done.

But NSW Premier Morris Iemma said comparing schools in different parts of the state could prove difficult, while Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike said the information parents received about their own child was more important. "We're better off identifying the kind of extra value that education offers so that we measure the progress people are making," she told ABC radio.

But Ms Gillard said that reporting on school performance need not stigmatise schools but could be used in a positive way to assist and improve schools. "This isn't about shaming people or telling people that they've done badly," she said on ABC radio. "This is about understanding what's going on so that we can help schools that need extra assistance, and it's only by helping those schools that need extra assistance that we're really going to have an education revolution for all Australian kids in all Australian schools."

Ms Gillard later repeated the point in her address to the ACER conference, saying the best education systems in the world left no one behind.

"Failure is recognised and addressed. We must refuse to accept that low socio-economic status makes it OK for poorer children to fail school," she said.

Ms Gillard outlined a national system reporting on a school-by-school basis the demographics of the school population, supplemented by data from the Australian Early Development Index on the physical and emotional development of children.

Student attainment should then be tracked, enabling the comparison of like schools with like schools and the identification of the reasons for any wide variations in results between two comparable schools.

"We should be able to identify best practice and innovation, and work systematically to ensure that they are spread more widely," she said. "We should be able to especially assist those schools that need it. We must expect high standards for every child. Dumbing down is unacceptable."