TAC
The “difficult home environments” don’t account for all Australian households, and they are probably just a small % in reality, but across Australia there has been a major decline in maths and science, and the latest causality appears to be English.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/broad-effort-to-lift-english-proficiency/story-e6frgcjx-1225859043955

Without a solid foundation in maths, science and English, Australia is going to have a tough time in the future, should our markets for coal and iron ore decline (and there is strong indication that they will).

A favorite line often said by supervisors and managers in more advanced companies is “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions”.

Something perhaps the principals in every school should be displaying on a plaque placed above the door of their office.

Vanna,
You might be surprised that the % of difficult home environments is low, but very consistent across various schools. Difficulties arise in wealthy areas as well as poorer ones.
The AEU's point in relation to NAPLAN boycotting is that the ensuing league tables unfairly isolate underperforming schools, singling them out for retribution. My point is that there are various reasons for underperforming schools, not just incompetent teachers and bad methodology in the English, Maths and Science departments (though these do exist, especially since progressive education models came into vogue in the 70's). More importantly, we already know where the underperformers are - my previous school was shut down because it was an underachiever, well before NAPLAN was invented; though I would argue that the special efforts being made for those kids were a big help for them. Interestingly, the underperfomng school was shut down with the AEU's blessing using internal evidence not available to parents (many of whom wanted the school to stay open). The AEU in my town lacks credibility when it threatens boycotts of NAPLAN because of fear of ID'ing low-flyers and the ensuing persecution of underperforming schools.
Sorry Vanna, I don't have a magic managerial wand for you to solve the world's problems in schooling - but neither does the AEU.

TAC,
Most advanced companies also have a policy of open management, and the personnel are trained to be innovative and solve problems, not to think up excuses.

At a time when the public is demanding more and more open government, the teachers unions wants to hide data. Doesn't fit.

If the NAPLAN tests are banned, there will still be pressure by the public and by governments to get data out to the public, and the public has a right to that data, because they fund so much of the education system (but that does not include funding the AEU).

Vanna,
Reasons are not the same as excuses - business principles of management don't automatically apply in schools where there are living, breathing human beings being educated.
The AEU have decided not to boycott NAPLAN in the ACT as of today; so the melodrama is abating at least in that jursidiction in Australia.
You are right though Vanna, accountability is critically important and the AEU has certainly done itself a dis-service by appearing to be trying to disguise underperforming schools.
The question still remains unanswered though as to the ability of league tables (as developed from testing units like NAPLAN) to quantify intangibles of education. For instance, my year 7 band today was starting to produce good phrasing and breath control to realise a piece of quality music. Where do I record "growing sense of musicianship" and "good feel for music and style" on a league table? Where is a testing unit for something like students developing a feel for substantial music that touches the heart? Is there a bar graph somewhere which records the numbers of hairs that stand up on the back of parents' necks when they hear exciting music played by their own energetic kids? There are a lot of value-added disciplines in education that just don't make it on to pie chart, or a league table, or NAPLAN.