Introduction The private versus public debate has been a topic of discussion in Australian education for many years. Since 2010, data published online by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has given parents access to Australian school academic rankings to assist them making decisions regarding school choice. This paper seeks to determine whether there is a clear link between private education and high academic results, or whether other factors influence educational outcomes. An analysis follows of the National Assessment Plan—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results of three Western Sydney schools before further research to investigate hidden factors that impinge on academic outcomes. Background History of …show more content…
Data presented in the form of tables and graphs provides an opportunity for parents to make comparisons of rankings in literacy and numeracy across other Australian schools with statistically similar backgrounds. The ACARA agreed that student and school factors determine the educational advantage or disadvantage of students attending a school and in response created the Index of Community Socio–educational Advantage (ICSEA) values scale to enable fair comparisons of similar schools performances in NAPLAN (ACARA, 2015). The ICSEA values seek to include dynamics such as parents’ occupations and level of education attained, the geographical location of the school, and the number of Indigenous students attending the school (ACARA, 2013), which are factors considered to influence a student’s educational advantage or disadvantage. Students who complete NAPLAN receive an academic report showing how they have performed against other students their age, the national average and the national minimum standard (2016f). NAPLAN results are also made publically available for each participating Australian school. The Australian Primary Principals Association (2014) states that the intention of My School was to provide transparency and accountability about school performance, however, they claim that it exposes schools to unwarranted and damaging rankings through school