Labor wants to rank schools on scores

All states will be asked to rank their schools, so the performance of students in literacy and numeracy tests can be compared and assessed, if Labor wins the federal election.

Fairfax newspapers have reported that most state Labor governments oppose school ranking tables but opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said the results of standardised tests in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 should be made public.

This would identify struggling schools, assist public policy decisions and identify the need for early intervention, Mr Smith said.

"If we can improve those kids' outcomes, we can improve our secondary school retention rates, and then ultimately we'll reduce the number of kids who eventually fall into unemployment or low-skilled jobs, which subsequently disappear."




In February, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said the states had a wealth of data about individual schools but refused to publish it, and that parents had a right to know which schools were performing.

Western Australia is the only state to publish school rankings.

A spokesman for Victorian Education Minister John Lenders said any suggestion on how to improve the way information was used to benefit students, parents and schools would be examined on merit.

In NSW, legislation was introduced to prevent the publication of school league tables after one school, Mount Druitt High, was branded a failure in the media in a comparison of university admissions in 1996.

Australian Education Union federal president Pat Byrne said literacy and numeracy tests provided only a tiny indication of how a school was performing.

Results could be skewed by factors such as high numbers of children from non-English-speaking backgrounds, for example, Ms Byrne said.


©AAP 2007