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Fair to compare? : Comments
By Jennifer Aberhart, published 29/3/2006Dunce’s hats and public disclosure of rank disappeared from classrooms because they were deemed unfair, so why is it now fair to pit schools against each other?
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As Jayare put it thus: "test scores will vary from day to day depending on a whole range of variables, so how can test scores become the only criterium to determine which school ranks better than another?" The response to Jayare is simply that this is not how one picks a school.
Having recently completed my education in NSW, I remember the drawn out process of visiting and choosing a school, which involved not only investigation into academic results (only possible by knowing teachers from certain schools), but also co-curriculum, philosophy of education, religious affiliation, style of religious education, facilities, routine/regimentation, discipline, community spirit, class sizes, sport, and so on, and so forth. This is not an unusual process, and to assume that parent would just look up a league table to determine that is simply ludicrous.
Just the same, people are aware of the differing abilities of students and the different backgrounds at a certain school. Two points should be made to this: firstly, some parents do wish for their children to be educated at a school with a certain ethnic balance, such as is evident in higher rates of Irish Catholics at some Catholic schools and other Catholic groups at others, this is part of school community, and is a valid choice on which to decide a school because there are marked differences caused by it; secondly, it's unfair to con parents into sending students to schools where they are not best suited just because they cannot view a league table as part of the process of choosing a school, in fear of ranking schools with many migrants behind schools without them.