Is all kinds of rankings a true reflection of the strength of the school?
In Victoria, schools are usually ranked according to the proportion of VCE 40, but is this a true reflection of the quality of school teaching?
Every December, Australian 12th graders anxiously wait for their college entrance examination to eventually become a grade, but their schools are equally anxious because the scores go relationship directly to the school rankings.
In Victoria, many school rankings are based on a very broad number that is of little use in itself.
In addition, these rankings often put the best performing public schools at a disadvantage. However, many parents use these rankings to decide where to send their children to school.
So why is the ranking flawed? Can we do better?
Defects in school rankings
In the state, most of the rankings are used in the percentage of the original academic performance of some of the schools in the state of the state, which is 40 +. But as a result of several factors, this figure is meaningless.
First of all, the original academic performance does not mean that different subjects can be compared.
Because the original scores measure achievement compared to their peers in the same discipline, it is as meaningless as comparing apples and tangerines.
All VCE scores need to be scaled before generating ATAR rankings.
The scores will be adjusted according to the differences of the student groups participating in each subject. The result of scaling is as if all the 12 th graders have taken the course. The adjusted score is essentially different from the original score.
In food and technology, for example, students with 40 points may end up with 35 points after scaling; Latin`s original score is 40 points, and the adjustment may be 50 points.
That`s why all Australia`s college entrance examination scores are scaled and then ranked ATAR for universities and other higher education institutions to admit.
But the VCE40 rankings regard these two scores as the same.
Second, the threshold of 40 is arbitrary.
Parents of a student struggling with grades may be interested in a low-threshold school; however, if a parent wants a child to score high enough to score for law academic degree, they will find that 40 points are too low.
Third, for a single student, it is important to know which subjects the school achieved 40+, not the overall proportion of 40+.
For example, for students interested in the arts, even if a school science score is high and the ranking is high, it is not used for them.
On the contrary, if he wants to study science and engineering in the future, then if a school only relies on some liberal arts, art subjects to increase the proportion of 40%, then no matter how high the ranking is useless.
Meaningful ranking
If the ranking is to make sense, you must take into account the scale.
For example, a percentage of students based on ATAR scores is very different from VCE40`s.
The following figure shows:
As you can see from this table, some schools, especially those public schools, have been at a disadvantage in the VCE40 rankings, and if they are expanded in proportion to subjects, they are all very popular schools.
The importance of disciplines
These bare rankings also blur the performance of these schools in different disciplines. The following figure shows:
The John Monash Science School`s ranking on the ATAR 90 + is much higher than on the VCE40 + because it is very strong in science, and the scientific score is usually scaled up.
But we can also see that all three schools have different advantages, neither VCE40 nor ATAR90 rankings show this.
The object of study is important, but it is clear that a single number comparison is always required. However, if VCE40 is meaningless, why choose ATAR90?
Rankings based on ATAR99 or ATAR80 are equally effective and may be more relevant to some people. But unfortunately, for a single number ranking, do we choose 80, 90 or 99? This is very important for the performance of schools in the rankings.
The private schools Loreto and Camberwell Grammar are the same in the ATAR90+ ranking, as shown in the following table:
Camberwell Grammar students score much higher on ATAR99, which puts them in Virginia No. 7. But does that mean Camberwell Grammar is better than Loreto?
Perhaps not, Loreto students rarely score below ATAR80 scores. So which school ranks higher depends on the actual needs of the students.
What we need is better data to make the ranking more meaningful.
What suits your children is the best school.
When we do not have a more scientific ranking, this requires parents to choose a school according to the situation of their children.
Choosing a high-ranking school is more important than choosing a school for kids!
Therefore, parents in the choice of school, must not only look at the school ranking, to synthesize a variety of factors, for their children to choose a suitable school.
