Accountability and the public purposes of education

• Alan Reid
• Australian Education Union

Read the full text

02 August 2010This paper frames MySchool as an accountability strategy in the context of the purposes of education. The presenters reason for doing this is because the debate about MySchool has largely been conducted in the absence of an articulated set of reference points – that is claims and counter claims about the importance or the consequences of MySchool are often made in a vacuum. That they are self evidently good or bad. The paper argues that the reference point against which such judgments should be made is the public purposes of education.

Professor Alan Reid is Emeritus Professor, Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, School of Education, University of South Australia. This paper was presented at a national symposium in Sydney, entitled, Advice for Ministers and ACARA on NAPLAN, the use of Student Data, My School and League Tables.