The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority has set up a website that allows visitors to compare NAPLAN test results of almost 10,000 Australian schools.

One of the specific uses for such a tool is to help parents select a school for their child by comparing results on the literacy and numeracy tests from within a local area.

While the website is not hard to use, it is definitely worth reading some of the accompanying material, in order to get the most out of it.

In particular, it’s important to understand what the NAPLAN tests measure, how the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage is calculated and what it affects, and how to interpret the data on the website.

All of these topics are covered on the My School Resources page, as well as specific information for parents, an explanatory video, flyers in 18 community languages and a list of frequently asked questions and their answers.

Read more at http://www.myschool.edu.au/Resources.aspx

In particular, there has been heated disagreement about whether making such data available will lead to the development of ‘school league tables’.

According to the following paper, prepared by prominent Australian researchers for the Australian education ministers, nationally comparable data about school performances should be reported to the public, but should not be used to create league tables.

The report provides advice based on a review of recent Australian and international research and experience in reporting on the performances of schools.

The question remains, of course, even if the information should not be used to create league tables, will that stop people wanting to create league tables anyway.

Follow this link to look at what the experts told the ministers: http://research.acer.edu.au/ar_misc/8/