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2010/04: Is the My School Internet site a good idea?





Introduction to the media issue

Video clips at right:
TOP: An ABC news report on the first day of the myschool website's operation, with comments by educators and the education union. .

LOWER: an Australian Education Union video clip published in December 2009. This video should be treated as COMMENT. The caption for the video reads as follows:
"Members of the AEU in South Australia gather outside the Department of Education & Children's Services to protest against the creation of school league tables, the inevitable result of the Federal Government's My School website. A delegation of AEU member school Principals took their message to State Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith with a request for her to lobby Julia Gillard on behalf of South Australian educators, students and parents."

If you cannot see these clips, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clips, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.

What they said...
'Yes, I expect that there will be difficult moments - for governments, for schools, for me.
But ultimately I welcome those difficult moments too - because they will mean that those of us with responsibility for the quality of children's education in this country - the adults - will be challenged about whether, collectively, we are doing a good enough job and what more we need to be doing.'
Julia Gillard, federal Minister for Education

'This is not the path to school improvement. Students in these schools will be humiliated and demoralised. Students who are humiliated for their learning accomplishments are unlikely to respond positively in their future learning. It makes the task of teachers and schools that much harder'
Save Our Schools education lobby group

The issue at a glance
The My School website was launched on 28 January, 2010, and had over nine million hits on the first day of its operation. This was significantly higher than expected. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has since increased the capacity of the site to handle the very high level of interest.
The website includes a report card for almost 10,000 Australian schools. Each report card provides performance and contextual information about the individual school.