Data release scores ‘F’
CRUCIAL school performance material has become a fiercely guarded state secret, with parents the big losers in the state government’s move to quash the release of essential information.
Two major reports previously published by the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority outlining every school’s NAPLAN and Year 12 results have been dumped entirely this year.
Until now, the QCAA released a detailed report outlining the OPS every student and school received, giving parents a comprehensive picture of each school’s performance.
It allowed parents to see which schools had achieved the top academic results as well as how schools performed comparatively.
But under the new Queensland Certificate of Education system, where students are awarded an ATAR, only statelevel data is released. Despite a vague promise from Education Minister Grace Grace that the release of each school’s median Year 12 ATAR score would be considered, parents are still in the dark months later.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk refused to comment on the information suppression, and yesterday handballed questions to Ms Grace.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli slammed the move, and called for the information to be made public without delay.
“This information belongs to our parents, teachers and students and should be released in real time,” he said.
“Honesty, accountability and transparency matters to Queenslanders, particularly for parents when it comes to their children’s education.”
But Ms Grace claimed the new reporting system “has worked well”, and said no changes would be made.
She said it was “inappropriate to use the information not in the matter it was produced”.
“The ATAR is the primary mechanism used nationally for tertiary admissions and as agreed by all education ministers, should not be used to rank schools,” she said.
“Parents who wish to compare different schools have a wealth of information available to them, including the My School website and school annual reports.”
Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland secretary Jack Mcguire said parents deserved to know why such key reports were now being kept secret, calling it a “kick in the pants”.
NAPLAN results were also now under lock and key, with the QCAA previously releasing every school’s result at the same time as the national data was available, which occurred this week. School information will be uploaded in March next year to My School – almost a year after the tests were held.
But even then, comprehensive comparisons will not be available after the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority made the decision to restrict such measures on the national website this year.
Even school-by-school information such as attendance and suspensions – which used to be freely accessible on the government’s open data portal – is now restricted and delayed.