As things are at present parents in Oz are choosing achools for their children in a knowledge vacuum. The UK idea could have been of value but is horribly flawed, it seems, by the fact that 'independent' schools are not subject to the inspections that all public schools have to face. Clearly unjust and illogical.

For the idea to be used in Oz there would have to be major changes first. The plethora of different syllabi must be scrapped. That is essential. Secondly, because Oz has a far greater percentage of schools that are 'independent' (mainly religion based) the excising of them from the system would make the whole thing little short of farcical.

A further point is that although some attempt is made in UK to 'measure' the crucial matter of value adding, it appears to be done on suspect generalised ideas of the economic/social background of the school. For proper measuring of value added there must be regular testing of each child, that record following the individual so that the students own value add can be assessed. The schools value add would be a sort of integral of those individual performances. One thing is certain: the use of post codes as a measure is nonsense. Clearly there can be 2 or more schools in the same postcode but which have very different 'quality' of intake.
But at least this article faces the reality that something must be done. So a qualified pat on the head!

As a person who loves to learn I must say I am sad about the lack of innovation being shown by the major players in education.

I believe the school paradigm and all of its problems reflect the problem we are having in society as a whole.

Issues - The square cant seem to work with anything round, no matter that we carry the most up-to date knowledge - having all the buzz words in policy, it is a system run by a clone mentallity.

My greatest concern is not the learning standards at present, but the BULLYING issues. No one can learn when there is so much conflict and tension around the classroom.

a) among teachers
b) between students - see Western Australian report on Bullying. It appears it fell off the table.

I also believe that the school is acting out the poor governance or hopelessness workers experience out there in the adult world.To add depth if we can not help "kids at risk" how the hell do we expect to assist adults who suffer from a similar set of demographics.

We need to turn the lens back on community.

Australia needs to address these cultural issues. We are a strong nation and our strength can be as forceful for its negative performance as well as positive achievements.

I find many of the policies coming down to be empty. They lack the resources that are supposed to be in-built through their delivery.

I have personally tried as a small NGO here in Cape York to engage with education - especially to help with issues on community engagement. The result is that you cant do anything without respect. It seems they want the help - to build linkages that provide opportunities but there are no resources such as fuel, bus, incentives for work, program packages?

Until we get real, it is buzz - silo and apathy for anyone who cant overcome this kind of culture.

It appears this is the same for other departments promoting similar high standards that don't work.

We need a Mirror me thinks.

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Well said. Transparency of what goes on in our schools is the first step to making sure the system works well. It may well be OK but wouldn't it be nice to know.

The article seems to fly in the face of the argument put (above) by Andrew Leigh and the research he musters in his bibliography which seems to support the generally known fact (PISA, TIMMS etc) that inter school differences are small compared to intra school ones. There is of course the "elephant in the room", that is the major difference in outcomes in education correlates to the parents. In fact here is strong evidence that (I exagerate slightly) it is over bar the shouting by the time the child is three. If we really wanted bang for our education buck we would do more in developing parents to improve the child's early language environment and show more parental warmth.

Incidently ther is good research from Chicago - as they had had a system of randonly allocating choice of schools to parents that exercising choice seems to make no difference to outcomes.

Graeden , I am all for having an open and accountable Public schools System in Australia with a fairer share of public funds .

Something that does annoy me however and that I find most distastefull ,is the now all too common use of the terms " Secret ....[whatever] Business" as seen in your article heading .

This term , once used to describe very important religious and cultural events for Aboriginal men and women, is now being used often in an indifferent, insulting, sarcastic and derogatory way for all manner of whitefellow affairs, as once again we display our abysmal ignorance of Aboriginal cultural life.

The argument against disclosing performance data on schools as being simplistic and dangerous, is itself simplistic and dangerous.

The term 'league table' is used to scare and panic and suggest that a so-called 'poor, disadvantaged' school will be compared with an allegedly resource rich school in the 'leafy greens'.

This is nonsense of course, and comparisons are made on the basis of similar characteristics through like-school cohorts so that apples are compared with apples.

The argument against public comparisons is that public education departments will find great difficulty explaining why so many schools are medicore, have been for years, and nothing has been done.

Great schools can't wait to advertise their success through prospectuses or annual reports - as they should.

Ordinary to bad schools should not have the option to invoke the Code of Silence.