My School undermines national testing
13 Apr 2011
Media release Struggling students around the nation are being asked not to sit national tests as schools are worried about the publication of bad results on the My School website, said Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education.
"Today's report that parents of a student at a Gold Coast school were asked to sign a waiver to avoid testing is not an isolated case. A recent Senate inquiry found widespread evidence of students not being tested in an effort to manipulate results," Mr Pyne said.
Since the My School website was launched several examples of students not sitting the test and teachers being caught cheating have emerged.
"This sort of behaviour will only get worse as more and more emphasis is placed upon the test results and other information on My School.
My School, in its current format, is creating an unnecessary culture of fear and recrimination in our schools, and the students who are missing out are those who most need help.
The Coalition was the only party to take policies to the 2010 election aimed at ending this.
Our plan is to only publish school improvement on the website. Publishing improvement will actually encourage teachers to work harder in lifting the standards of struggling students, as the overall improvement will be higher.
We also plan to conduct national testing every year so genuine comparisons can be made and the tests become a commonplace feature of the school year.
These two measures will go a long way towards stopping the growing negativity surrounding the NAPLAN tests and the My School website.
April 11, 2011
Media Contact:
Adam Howard
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