The AEU is at it again with its anachronistic approach to modern...

The AEU is at it again with its anachronistic approach to modern education. Will it ever enter the 21st century and realise that all professionals being paid from the public teat must be subject to public scrutiny. From today's Channel 9 News:


"Almost 90 per cent of school principals think the federal government's My School website is inaccurate, a new survey shows.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) on Thursday released the results of a survey of 1116 public school principals around the country.

It questioned them about the value of the My School website, which compares schools' literacy and numeracy scores with the results of statistically similar institutions and with the national average.

To make the comparisons, the site uses an index, known as ICSEA, which evaluates the socio-economic status of students.

Of principals surveyed by the AEU, 87.7 per cent didn't believe My School presented an accurate picture of "school performance" to parents.

More than a quarter thought the website's information about their school was wrong, and more than half believed their ICSEA rating was off.

Almost 90 per cent of surveyed principals said the index was not a valid way of determining which schools were similar.

School leaders' were also overwhelmingly concerned there was nothing to stop the creation and publication of league tables, which could be used to name and shame struggling institutions.

More than one-third of principals said their school had been listed in a league table this year, and of those, 58 per cent thought it would damage their school's reputation.

Just over half thought it would negatively impact on their students, and more than two thirds believed it would be detrimental to teaching staff.

AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said students were reportedly being bullied as a result of league tables.

"Stigmatising schools and school communities based on a single test makes it harder to lift student performance and retain teachers," he said.

At their federal conference in January, AEU members threatened to boycott the next round of literacy and numeracy testing - used to inform My School - unless more was done to stop league tables.

Mr Gavrielatos refused to back away from the threat.

"We cannot stand by and watch students, teachers and school communities being damaged by crude league tables created only for profit," he said.

The findings of the AEU's survey will be considered by their federal executive at a meeting in Canberra later on Thursday."