Media Statement - 29th January 2010
The
Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, has welcomed the overwhelming
interest of parents and the Australian community in the new My School website.
On the first day of My School, 9 million hits were registered showing how hungry parents and the broader Australian community are for comprehensive, rich information about their schools.
My School has delivered more information to parents about their child's school than ever before.
My School allows parents to compare the performance of their child's school in national literacy and numeracy testing with the national average and statistically similar schools.
The Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) has been specially developed for the My School website to allow the comparison of schools with similar student populations.
Research has shown that children from disadvantaged families often need more help at school.
The Government understands that students bring different challenges to school with them, particularly if they are from a poor home, a home where English is not spoken, a home where neither parent finished high school or if they are Indigenous.
But the Rudd Government does not believe demography is destiny.
The Rudd Government wants to be able to identify which schools need greater assistance to ensure every student, no matter what their background, gets a world class education.
The Index has been developed by experts at the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and uses ABS data to determine how advantaged or disadvantaged a school's pupils are.
This is the first time we have ever had a robust measurement of educational advantage of the children attending each school around the nation.
In many cases, this comprehensive information will challenge long held assumptions about our schools and the students which attend those schools. That does not mean it is inaccurate.
The purpose of My School is to better inform parents, schools, governments and better inform the education debate in this nation.
The Rudd Government is standing ready with new money and new targeted programs to drive improvement in those schools that may be struggling, particularly with the foundation skills of reading, writing and mathematics.