The Greens’ Meredith Hunter is leaping upon doubts raised by a single education expert Professor Brian Caldwell over publishing of school performance data.
- “We expect the Education Minister to address concerns about the potential negative effects of the introduction of new testing and reporting systems that will make compiling league tables possible – a policy that the Minister has already signed the ACT up to.” Ms Hunter said today.
“It’s important for Minister Barr to explain why he backs these radical changes to our education system, and how he will make sure that we won’t get league tables and an unfair attack on individual schools and teachers as a result.”
Because crap teachers wasting precious education opportunities available to young minds should always be protected?
UPDATED: Andrew Barr appears to have given up on the Chief Minister’s media office and has put out his own media release trying to reframe the issue:
- The debate about so-called league tables – from both sides, for and against – is a distraction.
Nothing in these reforms will help those who want simplistic league tables which rank schools according to raw test scores. Additionally anyone who wants to can already do so based on results currently published in ACT school annual reports and available under ACT Freedom of Information laws.