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The Forum > Article Comments > Just another disappointing sequel > Comments

Just another disappointing sequel : Comments

By Dan Haesler, published 24/3/2011

My School 2.0 tells us nothing we didn't already know - what a plot twist.

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Sorry, Dan, but what a load of tosh! Firstly, who says NAPLAN and MySchool are all about parent choice? Politicians and polemicists maybe but everyone knows that the reason kid A goes to school B is complex and mostly little to do with "parent choice". Secondly, which "governments" tell us that we only need to have two pieces of information about a school to make our "choice"? In your car example you say that as a consumer you need to know more than price and fuel economy. How true - but imagine if you were told that you had to make your choice but were not allowed to know the price and fuel economy!
Anyway that's all irrelevent because NAPLAN and MySchool were never about parent choice but instead about accountability and transparency for governments, systems and teachers (unions). No longer can state governments or unions make inflated or absurd comments about "how great our schools are at this" or "if only we did more of that" and get away with it. When Queensland says "We're the Smart State" and our system is as good as any in the world - ahh, no it's not! When teacher unions say if only we reduced class sizes it would lead to better outcomes - ahh, no it doesn't! Now with the addition of funding sources we can finally have an informed debate about what the minimum funding level is to guarantee a quality education and ask why the the Feds are "topping up" private schools to a level well above this when state schools are well below it.
So sorry, Dan, but back to school for you. Can only give you a D- for this.
Posted by Fritz Blacksmith, Thursday, 24 March 2011 12:28:25 PM
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Fritz, thanks for your comment mate...

I want to pick you up on one point though...

Early in 2010, Julia Gillard (then Education Minister)said...

"before My School, parents would do everything they could to find out as much information as possible about the schools in their suburb – maybe they’ve moved suburb, moved cities, moved states, want to know which is the school that their child should go to and that’s been a hard battle for them to get the information. Now, as one source of information they will be able to get on My School and see more comprehensive information than they’ve ever had access to before."

I'd argue that is only about the notion of choice.

I hope that at least gets me an upgrade to a "D"
:)
Cheers,
Dan
Posted by Dan Haesler, Thursday, 24 March 2011 4:59:59 PM
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I can see no problems in having a standard curriculum with standard exams for all students.

Most of what is in primary and secondary school education is hundreds of years old.

For example: Most scientific and mathematical laws were developed centuries ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_law

So why does each school need to be different. The teaching methods between teachers can, and should, be different, but the general curriculum should be standard so as to include the standard scientific and mathematical laws.

A test of any school would be to see if a student’s marks gradually increase as they move from grade to grade through the school.

If the average student in a school was getting B’s in grade 8, and then the average student began getting A’s by grade 10, then that would be a “good” school.

What is definitely missing from the MySchool website is data relating to the wellbeing of the students in the school, such as student injury rate, student absenteeism rate and student satisfaction rate.

Ironically, I don’t know of any school that publishes such data, while nearly every school emphasises that they are interested in the wellbeing of their students.

If there was a company with a high rate of employee injuries, and a high rate of employee absenteeism, and a low rate of employees satisfaction, very few people would join that company.

Similarly, if there was a school with a high rate of student injuries, and a high rate of student absenteeism, and a low rate of student satisfaction, very few people would enroll their children in that school.
Posted by vanna, Thursday, 24 March 2011 6:12:39 PM
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Vanna - student attendance info is on the site.

Overall, I am not a fan of MySchool. I work in a school in South West Sydney and our results were very strong. Does our school look good on the site? Yes! So why don't I like it?

Well, I see my colleagues in other schools, working with students of high disadvantage, becoming increasingly discouraged. All the site shows is that their kids did poorly in NAPLAN. Now I KNOW, by talking to local families, etc that these children are happy with the schools, feel valued and have a positive experience of school. They just happen to struggle academically. Can MySchool show this? No. No website can show near enough to the full picture to give, well, the full picture.

As I said, personally I have no barrow to push as my school looks good on the site. That doesn't mean I can't stop patting myself on the back for a few minutes and consider those being sold short by a sub-standard attempt to compare the incomparable...
Posted by rational-debate, Friday, 25 March 2011 11:12:44 AM
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rational-debate
"with students of high disadvantage"
So what causes the disadvantaged students, and what are teachers doing to reduce the number of disadvantaged students?

"They just happen to struggle academically"
So why do they struggle academically, and what are teachers doing to reduce the number of students who struggle academically?

As you may be able to tell, I really am over the stage where I automatically believe anything said by a teacher.
Posted by vanna, Friday, 25 March 2011 3:57:54 PM
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No answer from rational-debate.

I would think this typical, because I have noticed an increasing reluctance by teachers to answer questions.

“Conversely, the number of children aged 0–14 years living with one parent is projected to increase in Series II and III, from 745,000 in 2001 (19% of all children) to between 875,000 (23%) and 1.3 million (33%) in 2026, reflecting the effect of increasing numbers of separation and/or divorce of partners
with children.”

http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/DF2989BFFA7392E1CA256EB6007D63F4/$File/32360_2001%20to%202026.pdf

I have heard of no concerns from anyone in the education system regards this, and this in itself is very concerning, because their silence basically means that they are accepting of the situation.

It is becomes very important because so many single parent families result in “disadvantage children"
Posted by vanna, Sunday, 27 March 2011 10:20:02 AM
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