Teach to the test, schools told

Fears over the My School website and league tables appear confirmed by instructions to schools to explicitly teach for the NAPLAN test and focus on certain students.

Teachers are already being advised to teach to the test and target borderline students as the first effects of league tables and the My School website reverberate through schools.

Advice from Loddon Mallee region instructs teachers and principals to run regular practice NAPLAN tests, and to "privilege the test as an event of significance", "explicitly teach for NAPLAN", and "provide additional assistance for students identified capable of making significant improvement".

The document confirms fears that the Government's publication of NAPLAN data has turned the tests from a useful diagnostic tool into a high-stakes verdict on school performance.

AEU branch president Mary Bluett said: "This is taking vital time and resources away from educating students. The region is proposing a 10-week program -- it confirms what we had warned that high stakes testing is going to narrow the curriculum."

The advice to identify students capable of significant improvement sets the stage for schools to focus on "borderline" students at the expense of those with no hope of reaching the expected standards.

Some AEU members have already told the union they will no longer enter students with learning difficulties for the test -- something they had done in the past to give those students the same experience as other children.

Schools quickly felt the impact of the launch of the My School site, with papers drawing up lists of the top and bottom schools based on raw results.

The AEU federal conference voted in January not to cooperate with NAPLAN in May if the Government fails to prevent the future misuse of My School data. Executive will meet after April 12, the deadline given for Education Minister Julia Gillard to act.

Ms Gillard has threatened to use the Government's Fair Work Act -- its replacement for WorkChoices -- to act against the union and members who refuse to hand out the tests.

The My School data was further undermined by question marks over the validity of its comparisons. The census data used to create lists of "like" schools covered all households in an area, not just those with children.

It also failed to give critical information such as whether the school was selective, student turnover, or whether English was the mother tongue.