My School
{{short description|School}}
{{Infobox website
| name = My School
| logo =
| logocaption =
| screenshot =
| collapsible =
| collapsetext =
| caption =
| commercial = No
| type = School performance monitoring
| registration =
| language = English
| num_users =
| content_license =
| owner = Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
| author =
| editor =
| launch_date = {{Start date and age|2010|01|28|df=yes}}
| alexa =
| revenue =
| current_status = Online
| footnotes =
| url = {{URL|https://myschool.edu.au/}}
}}
My School is a website administered by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) which provides access to information about Australian schools. Nearly 10,000 schools across Australia can be searched.{{cite web |url=http://www.det.act.gov.au/school_education/my_school_website_information |title=My School Website Information |date=23 February 2012 |publisher=ACT Department of Education and Training |accessdate=9 April 2012 }}
The site reports data from the annual National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests which compulsorily assess reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and numeracy at years 3, 5, 7 and 9 for all Australian school students. It also displays information such as school missions, staffing, financial information, its resources and its students' characteristics.{{cite web |url=http://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/my_school_website_page.html |title=My School website |publisher=Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority |accessdate=9 April 2012 }}
The website does not allow users to directly compare schools of their choosing.{{Cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/finding-meaning-the-greatest-test/story-fnd17met-1226320005793|title=Finding meaning the greatest test|author=Knapp|first=Peter|date=7 April 2012|newspaper=The Australian|accessdate=9 April 2012|publisher=News Limited}}
Launch
The website went live at 1:00 am on 28 January 2010, but later in the morning the website became unavailable due to extremely high demand.{{Cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-01-28/my-school-site-a-victim-of-its-own-success-gillard/312026|title=My School site a victim of its own success: Gillard|date=28 January 2010|work=ABC News|accessdate=9 April 2012|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 9 April 2012.}} It was launched by the then Minister for Education, Julia Gillard.
Update
An update to the site was expected in December 2010, however its roll-out was delayed until March 2011.{{Cite news |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-04/myschool-website-data-has-grave-inaccuracies/1966252 |title=MySchool website data has 'grave inaccuracies' |accessdate=9 April 2012 |date=4 March 2011 |work=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation }} The primary aim of the changes was to increase funding transparency.
Opposition
Teachers' unions and some parent bodies have expressed concerns that the data is being used to formulate league tables of schools. Principals claim that students have been asked to leave some schools because their performance on NAPLAN tests was expected to damage those schools' rankings.{{cite news|first=Tim|last=Leslie|date=24 March 2010|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/25/2855409.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717025749/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/25/2855409.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 17, 2012|title=Principals unite against 'unfair' My School site|work=ABC News|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=9 April 2012}} Independent think tank the Grattan Institute calls for schools to be judged on the individual improvement students make every year rather than the comparison based on raw test scores used on My School.{{cite news|first=Justine|last=Ferrari|date=27 January 2010|url= http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/my-school-website-data-inaccurate-and-unfair/story-e6frg6nf-1225823772133|title=My School website data 'inaccurate and unfair'|work=The Australian|publisher=News Limited}} The Australian Education Union has resolved to boycott future NAPLAN testing if the My School website is used in this way.{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/teachers-plan-test-boycott-over-league-table-fears-20100118-mgtb.html|title=Teachers plan test boycott over league table fears|last=Patty|first=Anna|date=19 January 2010|work=Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=9 April 2012|publisher=Fairfax Media}}
See also
{{Portal|Australia|Education}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.myschool.edu.au My School website]
- [http://www.acara.edu.au Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority website]