Gillard's hollow words on school league tables

Dr Kaye said: "Just three weeks ago, Ms Gillard together with the state and territory education ministers committed themselves to 'put in place strategies to manage the risk that third parties may seek to produce [simplistic league] tables or rankings'.
 
"In today's Daily Telegraph, Julia Gillard savagely attacks supporters of the Greens' amendment to state law that does exactly what her protocols demand.
 
"Ms Gillard cannot in all honesty call a measure designed to enact her own data protocols as 'a political ploy with nothing of benefit to schools'.
 
"Parents, teachers, students and community members would now be entitled to be very cynical of the Deputy Prime Minister's repeated protestations that her schools result website is not about crude league tables.
 
"Together with her NSW colleague Verity Firth she is happy to see rankings of schools that will damage educational outcomes and unjustly stigmatise schools that serve disadvantaged communities and disabled children.
 
"The nation's education ministers are busy ignoring the experience of UK schooling that has been devastated by a unsophisticated ranking system.
 
"Parents, newspapers and the community in NSW will still be able to access school results from Julia Gillard's website.
 
"They will still be able to debate the merits of individual schools," Dr Kaye said.
 
The June 2009 Australian Education Ministers council's 'Principles and protocols for reporting on schooling in Australia' is available at:
 
www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/Principles_and_Protocols_2009.pdf
 
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455