Data Release Strategy

PROPOSED VASSP STRATEGY ON MINISTER’S POLICY ON RELEASE OF SCHOOL PERFORMANCE DATA FOR PUBLIC SCRUTINY

ÌThat VASSP both write to and meet the Minister to request a review of the On Track program and the public release of its data.

That both in the letter and at the review VASSP postulate

  1. That the release of any data on school performance which allows the media and others to draw comparisons between schools is divisive, counterproductive and harmful, and cannot possibly work in the best interests of state education.

2.  That the release of data of an aggregated scope and nature is acceptable to VASSP, provided that the data is reliable and has been rigorously verified,. And provided that VASSP has been consulted re its usefulness to schools and the wider community.

3.  That the release of the recent On Track data, while providing an overwhelmingly positive view of the performance of state schools in successfully providing demonstrable evidence to the public that schools were providing and delivering a multiplicity of education, training and employment pathways for their students, nevertheless contained serious defects which have in some cases proved quite misleading, skewed and unnecessarily destructive.

  1. In particular, the data was released to the media, prior to schools or to VASSP. Had schools and VASSP had access to it prior to it being publicly released, the research’s defects and inaccuracies could have been identified, in order that more accurate information and analysis could have been provided for media and public consumption.
  1. VASSP and its members have identified a number of inaccuracies and research defects which have allowed the media and indeed both the Office of the Ministry and the Office of Schools to draw misleading and wrong conclusions in a number of key areas:

·  The category “seeking employment” is ill defined and covers a multiplicity of reasons why students have not taken up university, TAFE or employment pathways, e.g. some students have deferred, some are travelling overseas, others are between jobs, others are awaiting the commencement of courses or jobs.

·  For the media and others to draw conclusions about a school’s performance based on the proportion of its exit students “seeking employment” is dangerously and destructively misleading.

·  The size of the sample per school surely skewers the conclusions some have drawn. This was particularly the case in respect to Doveton Secondary College – a school unjustly pilloried in the media, despite DE&T’s admission that the figure of 36% should have in fact been 19%. That 19% was of just 13 students!

·  The method of survey – phoning students – can discriminate against some respondents, and may well have contributed to misleading information being provided.

·  The information from the On Track research is quite at odds with information contained in many schools’ own MIPS research: in these cases, the number of MIPS respondents exceeded the number of respondents in the On Track research.

  1. VASSP was appreciative of the efforts of DE&T personnel to provide support for schools whose data it identified as possibly attracting unfavourable media focus. In this respect, it believes, that DE&T had acted far more professionally and caringly than it had over the release of the VCE performance data.

ÌThat VASSP email this draft strategy to all members for comment, prior to Committee endorsing it as policy and having it published in the Bulletin.

ÌThat VASSP lobby the media re the strategy, through the President’s regular discussions, and through media interviews and through letters to editors.

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IanW June 03