What My School teaches us about improving transparency and accountability through public access to school data

24 Novembre 2016

australia_my_school.jpg

Title Text: 
Participants of the My School study visit in Australia

IIEP and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) recently organized a Study Visit dedicated to exploring the use of the My School web page, an innovative initiative of ACARA that makes school level data publicly available online.

The visit which took place from 10 to 14 October was entitled “What My School teaches us about improving transparency and accountability through public access to school data”. In order to explore this question, participants were welcomed by government departments and schools in both Sydney and Canberra.


“Raise expectation and quality will rise.” With these opening remarks Robert Randall, CEO of ACARA, characterized the benefits of opening up school level data to the public.


Regional gathering

Delegations from seven countries – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan and the Philippines – participated in the one-week visit. Besides exchanges with numerous Australian organisations such as ACARA itself, the Federal Department of Education, the New South Wales Department of Education, Parent Associations and the federal Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Study Visit also included excursions to primary and secondary schools to help understand the perspective of front-end users.


The numerous exchanges with the different Australian authorities allowed participants to gain a multifaceted perspective of the My School initiative, from data collection to data usage, and from federal level down to classroom level.


During the school visits, participants were also able to experience how primary and secondary schools use data to improve their teaching. They were shown how teachers use the results of the National Assessment Program on Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) in the classrooms to support student growth on an individual basis*.

Participants' views

 


 

The visit allowed for rich exchanges among the delegates and with the Australian authorities. These exchanges helped emphasize that public access to data is not enough to bring about improvements in schools or in student learning. Open data initiatives need to be participatory, allowing the public to use the data and to act on it. Another common issue raised during the discussions was the need to ensure fair and meaningful comparisons of school performance.

This Study Visit was carried out as part of IIEP’s research project on the potential of open data initiatives to improve transparency and accountability in the education sector. This project headed by Muriel Poisson, head a.i. of IIEP’s Research and Development team will continue in 2017.

* NAPLAN is a nationally administered test for all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.