The publication of NAPLAN results on the federal government's My School website is creating "fear and anxiety" among young children and should be stopped, according to the peak body representing primary school principals.
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The Australian Primary Principals Association, representing 7000 principals across all school sectors, argues in a discussion paper that My School is exposing students and schools to "blunt, arguably inaccurate and damaging" comparisons.
"The path taken in comparing schools has led to a stifling of creative and effective teaching, a narrowing of the curriculum and less teaching of those skills and literacies needed in the modern world," the association's president Norm Hart said.
"The resulting collateral damage is something we cannot afford."
Mr Hart stressed that primary principals support the NAPLAN tests and that results should be reported to students, parents and governments. But the APPA does not support the publication of results in a form that allows parents and media outlets to easily compare schools.
"Despite our support for NAPLAN, we regard the program as pernicious if it is used to produce broad-brush and unwarranted rankings and comparisons of schools," the principals association says in its discussion paper.
"We think it is counter-productive if it drives out and devalues other data and mechanisms for school evaluation and improvement.
"We think it is damaging if it distorts the curriculum and pushes schools and teachers to spend excessive time in test preparation. We think it can be destructive if it creates anxiety and fear in primary children."
The principals association says the NAPLAN tests could achieve most of their aims without results being published on the My School website.
Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority chief executive Robert Randall, who oversees the NAPLAN testing regime and My School website, said he disagreed with the report's conclusions.
"Transparency is key to education reform," he said.
"Removing nationally comparable data from My School would weaken transparency and accountability.
"Reporting NAPLAN on My School is done responsibly and accurately. We take care to compare similar schools with similar students and provide additional information and context to aid interpretation."
A Senate inquiry into the NAPLAN tests, released earlier this year, found that the comparative functions should be stripped from the My School site to "limit the disingenuous use of data to rank schools".
The Coalition went to the 2013 election saying it had "major concerns" about the publication of NAPLAN results, but Education Minister Christopher Pyne has softened his rhetoric since coming into office.
In its official response to the Senate committee, the federal government said it does not support removing the functionality that enables the ranking and comparison of individual school results.
"My School is a unique online tool that promotes transparency in education by providing parents, schools, governments and the wider community with high quality, nationally comparable data on the performance and progress of Australian schools," the government said.
"The My School website was purposefully designed to minimise the construction of crude league tables, which create unfair and indefensible comparisons of Australian schools."
