A recent opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald by Associate Professor Marian Vidal-Fernández (School of Economics at the University of Sydney) invites us to look more critically at school rankings and what they actually measure.
In “School rankings don’t teach us much… unless you include this key variable”, Assoc. Prof. Vidal-Fernández explains that raw rankings based on test scores often reflect socioeconomic advantage rather than teaching quality. They also capture only part of what education is, focusing mainly on literacy and numeracy while leaving out other important aspects such as curiosity, creativity, collaboration and resilience.
The piece highlights that student progress over time can offer a more meaningful picture of a school’s impact. NAPLAN results provide a useful snapshot, but they should not be treated as a complete measure of a child’s skills or a school’s value.
Read the full article in The Sydney Morning Herald: “School rankings don’t teach us much… unless you include this key variable.”