Policy Monographs
Schools in the Spotlight. School Performance Reporting and Public Accountability
Jennifer Buckingham’s new book ‘Schools in the Spotlight: School Performance Reporting and Public Accountability’, sets out in detail a consistent, fair and meaningful system of reporting and publishing comparative school performance, making a definitive case for the implementation of league tables in Australia.
She argues that current school performance tests could serve as a basis for a school performance reports, if only the government and schools would reveal this information. This information is deliberately kept secret, ostensibly to protect schools from ‘unfair’ comparison. In reality, masking school performance allows poor-performing schools to continue to provide substandard education, to the great detriment of students.
It also allows schools in both the state and government sector to capitalise on, or suffer from, undeserved and unsubstantiated reputations.
Buckingham’s proposal to release school performance to the public would allow parents to make informed choices about the best child for their school, by accurately identifying schools' strengths and weaknesses.
Although the government should set benchmarks against which school performance can be judged, final accountability must rest with parents and the community, since they are the source of the substantial funding which both public and private schools receive. In the case of underperformance, parents can respond by affecting change or by taking their children elsewhere.
