The Australian government has launched the MySchool website. This allows anyone who is interested to investigate a school’s vital statistics (number of students, number of staff and some other key metrics). It also compares the school’s NAPLAN results against similar schools and all schools. (NAPLAN tests cover the fundamental skills of reading, writing, spelling, numeracy and grammar). This initiative has been received with mixed reaction.
My thoughts are mixed. I think the tool is extremely useful but it is the application that makes me nervous. In financial effectiveness, the mantra is “What is measured is what is managed” and as a school, producing adults who are capable of all the skills tested by NAPLAN must surely be high, if not number one on the agenda.
Having this focus on the results allows a school to determine their comparative success in achieving this objective. They can also seek out the schools that are outperforming them and collaborate to raise the scores. Everyone wins.
My concern is, what about numbers 2 through 10 on the school agenda. Where are the metrics that measure creativity, innovation, passion, discipline, creation of future leaders and so on. If you have a moment, you must watch Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on how school’s could be killing creativity.
A targeted focus on “reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic” could see Australian schools losing that spark that creates musicians, dancers, leaders, inventors, paradigm breakers, game-changers....
Perhaps, to give a more well-rounded picture of the success of a school, the benchmarking should also include what past students of each school have gone on to achieve once leaving school - that would interest me as a parent and give me a sense of career accomplishment as a teacher.
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