School league tables poll

Peak teacher and parent groups have recently rallied to protest government plans to allow the publication of school league tables later this year.

The NSW Government have moved to overturn legislation, set by the Liberal Party 12 years ago, that will impose $55,000 fines for the publication of league tables.

Educational professionals and parents’ organisations argue that league tables had led to the distortion of national test results in Britain and the United States and now threatened to undermine the credibility of national literacy and numeracy testing in Australia.

Both primary and secondary school associations are concerned that the league tables will lead to a ‘narrowing’ in the curriculum which is evident in other countries that have adopted league tables. They believe schools will become very literacy, numeracy and science focused and will start to neglect subjects such as arts and sports that allow children to grow and develop in a broader way.

With the introduction of the national curriculum drawing near, many educators believe that we need to value a whole range of student outcomes beyond very narrow literacy and numeracy components.