The Problem with League Tables
There is a propensity in the Australian media to attempt to compare and rank schools on all manner of criteria. Newspapers regularly feature stories where you can look up the level of government funding received, the gender pay gap, contributions to building programs and the list goes on. Any reasonable person understands that the associated commentary may be biased by the views of the publication and that the data is often a single measure from which very limited conclusions can be drawn without additional context or information. Of more concern is when they rank schools based on unnuanced assessment data.
Every year we see the publication of league tables using the results from NAPLAN. Taking data from the My School website publications use average scores in each of the domains tested in NAPLAN to compare schools. This superficial treatment of the data does not reflect the true achievements of the students who have undertaken the testing. It does not account for schools with a high proportion of students from diverse language backgrounds or those with communities where there is a larger population of learners with diverse needs. More importantly, it does not show the growth of individual students as they develop as learners.
As a diagnostic tool to support teachers in differentiating the learning for the students in front of them NAPLAN is a useful tool. At MLC School this is our focus; we do not reduce the richness and rigour of our academic program by hot housing students with test preparation, but instead take it as a single measure on a single day that is used in conjunction with other evidence of student learning to assess where they are now and what they need to continue to grow.
The treatment of the Higher School Certificate (HSC) data is even more problematic. Each year the Sydney Morning Herald produces a league table of what are purportedly the top schools in NSW. But what do they mean by top? This data is in no way nuanced by contextual information and uses the simplistic calculation of number of Band 6 scores achieved as a percentage of examinations sat as the measure of success.
The first and most obvious issue with this is that it compares the results of cohorts from selective schools with that of general entry schools such as MLC School. If a school’s population is made up of the most academically able students, then they have a obvious advantage in the calculations. What we should celebrate are those schools who accept students of a broad range of abilities and support them to achieve outstanding academic results. MLC School is a general entry school with a very diverse student population and yet we maintain a median ATAR of 90 and above, surely this is a better measure of success?
The list of the top achieving schools only uses HSC data. It does not include any results from students completing the IB Diploma Programme (IB DP). In 2023 over 50 percent of our Year 12 cohort at MLC School completed the IB DP, so the figures do not represent the overall achievement of our cohort. If the results of the entire cohort were to be used for the ranking of schools our position would be substantially higher. Like in the HSC, our IB Diploma results are outstanding, and MLC School compares exceptionally well with leading schools both here in Australia and globally.
Finally, the simplistic nature of these tables is not nuanced to the complexity of the courses on offer. The ranking is worked out by calculating the number of Band 6 results achieved by each school as a percentage of the number of subjects attempted to create a success rate score that schools are then ranked on. The weakness of this method is that it does not consider schools such as ours, who encourage their students to attempt the most academically challenging courses they can in their areas of interest. In many cases a high Band 5 result will be of equal or greater value than a low Band 6 result for the calculation of their ATAR. The added benefit is that the girls have studied the subjects they are passionate about or that will be of use in their preparation for tertiary study. Our focus is on what will prepare the girls for their futures and enabling each girl to achieve her personal best.
As a community we need to stay focused on an education that develops the whole girl and does not reduce them to a number and a rank. We must remember that they are not defined by their ATAR nor should the quality of their education be judged on this. Academic merit is important; however, it is the social and emotional building blocks; the confidence to take bold approaches to challenges; the skills to embrace calculated risks; and the leadership opportunities that prepare our girls for career and life success that are also markers of a successful education. These are all things we do well exceptionally well at MLC School.
Further reading: https://www.educationreview.com.au/2024/02/league-tables-are-damaging-education-in-nsw/
– Linda Emms
Head of Learning and Teaching