NAPLAN league tables

It's that time of year again!

With the release of school NAPLAN results, league tables will soon emerge. Council has compiled this short guide on how to write to The Canberra Times to condemn this practice.

You should send your email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Alternatively, you can send a letter to:
The Editor
Canberra Times
PO Box 7155
Canberra Mail Centre
ACT 2610

What should I write about?

Council recommends you focus on the misleading and unfair nature of publishing league tables. Your letter does not need to be long.

You could say:

  • It is simply invalid and misleading to compare Canberra's diverse schools on one table
  • League tables only show where a school's students are, not how far they have come. They don't show how far the school has taken them.
  • To take this data from the context of the My School website and place it in another is extremely misleading. A school should only be compared to schools that have similar student backgrounds (as is the restriction on My School).
  • ACARA, who publish the My School, site themselves call league tables 'misleading'.

Feel free to talk about your school and your child's experiences. We want to show that there is much more to public schools in the ACT than a ranking of average NAPLAN score.

There is more information about league tables and why they are a problem in this article.

Other Tips

Your chances at having your letter publish greatly increase if you include your full name, address and phone number. They'll never publish this information (and you can always ask them to withhold your suburb or last name should you feel the need to do so).

Make sure you keep your letter polite, short and to the point.

Council would like to know if parents are sending letters, so feel free to copy us in or send us a note about your letter.

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