AN unprecedented coalition of educational groups has joined together to condemn the use of the MySchool website to form simplistic comparisons between schools.
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The Australian Education Union, the Independent Education Union, the Tasmanian Principals Association, the Tasmanian Catholic School Parents and Friends Federation and the Tasmanian Parents and Friends have released a joint statement opposing the creation of school league tables.
AEU state president Leanne Wright said each of the organisations had made it clear league tables were inaccurate, misleading, demoralising and unnecessary.
"Despite lobbying from a number of sources, the Federal Government has taken little action to prevent their publication," Ms Wright said.
IEU state secretary Angela Briant said the NAPLAN testing date, available on the MySchool website, was a snapshot of a narrow section of the learning that happens in schools.
League tables also attracted the ire of principals' association president Rob Banfield, who said they tried to simplistically compare complex organisations.
"This is a completely inappropriate way to use complex data and we strongly recommend that data is analysed at a local management level with educators and community members who understand the context of the information," Mr Banfield said.
Parents and friends president Jenny Grossmith said parents wanted useful information about schools, but said creating league tables was about finding winners and losers.
All acknowledged that data was useful for parents and the community to keep school's accountable, but said the misuse of that data was what caused problems.
No media organisation in Tasmania has so far used the data available on the MySchool website to create league tables of schools.