Coast is head of the class

Schools top OP results

TWO Gold Coast public schools topped state OP results but one prestigious principal – questioning low participation rates at some sites – is happy the system is being replaced.

Benowa State High School and Tamborine Mountain State High outranked more than 500 other schools across the state for 2019 Year 12 results based on percentage of participating students to get an OP 1 to 5. The two schools beat some of the region’s top private institutions, results released by Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) show.

But analysis shows public school participation in OP testing was significantly more selective with 29 per cent of Coast state school seniors assessed under the program, compared to 66 per cent of private school students. In the past 10 years, participation rates on the Gold Coast have dropped from 53 per cent to 46 per cent with a steeper drop overall in public schools to 29 per cent.

Somerset College headmaster Craig Bassingthwaite said his school, ranked in the state’s top 50, had 83 per cent of seniors participate in the program. The participation rate was among the highest on the Coast, only topped by AB Paterson College with a rate of 84 per cent.

“We are very proud of our results given we have one of the highest percentage rates in the state for participation in the OP system,” he said.

“Those who are OP ineligible mostly do the IB Diploma which is academically rigorous. It’s clear the OP system needs replacing when so many schools have 80 to 90 per cent of their students opt out and become ineligible. It makes for some statistically questionable

reports.”

The 2019 student cohort will be the last class of Queensland students to receive an OP score, with the state moving to the new Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranks from this year in line with other states.

At Benowa State High, the highest ranking OP school in the state, nearly three quarters of the 11 students who participated in the university-grading system received an OP between one to five.

Of Benowa’s 175 seniors in 2019, six per cent took part to receive an Overall Position (OP) score, the lowest participation rate on the Coast.

Just over double as many of the school’s senior students (23) instead chose to partake in the International Baccalaureate, an internationally recognised university grading system.

Benowa Principal Mark Rickard said the school worked with each student to identify the best curriculum program.

At Tamborine Mountain State High, 16 of the 29 students (55.2 per cent) who sat the test obtained an OP scored between one and five. It was followed by All Saints Anglican with a 40.3 of OP students in the top bracket.

BULLETIN VIEW, P14