Comparing schools with My School

Comparing schools used to rely on word of mouth, glossy prospectuses and the occasional newspaper league table. Today the most important public tool is My School, the website run by ACARA, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. It holds a profile for every school in the country, government and non-government alike. It's rich, free and easy to misread. This guide explains what My School shows, how its comparisons work and how to use it to shortlist schools without being misled by a single number.

What My School shows

According to ACARA, My School provides information about each school's profile, NAPLAN results, funding and finances, enrolments, attendance and student and staff numbers. For a family weighing up a non-government school, the useful sections are:

• School profile: sector (government, Catholic or independent), school type, year range, location, enrolments, and student and teacher numbers.
• NAPLAN: results in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy, for the year levels tested.
• Similar-background comparisons: how a school's students performed compared with students across Australia from a similar background.
• Student progress: how much students' results improved between two NAPLAN tests.
• Finances: where the school's money comes from, including government funding and fees and charges paid by parents, and its capital expenditure.
• Attendance and enrolment: attendance rates and changes in enrolment over time.

Each section answers a different question. None answers the question families most want answered, which is whether this school will be good for their child.

Understanding ICSEA

ICSEA stands for Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage. My School describes it as a scale that represents the levels of educational advantage of a school's students. It's built from information about parents' education and occupation, the school's geographic location and the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Two things to know:

• The average ICSEA value is 1,000, with a standard deviation of 100. ACARA's guidance notes that values typically range from about 500, representing very disadvantaged backgrounds, to about 1,300, representing very advantaged backgrounds.
• ICSEA is not a rating of the school. ACARA is explicit about this. It describes students' backgrounds, not the quality of teaching, the culture or the care the school provides.

ICSEA matters because student background strongly influences test results. A school with a high ICSEA would be expected to have higher raw NAPLAN averages whatever its teaching was like. That's why My School offers comparisons that take background into account.

Comparisons with similar students

Rather than comparing every school with every other school, My School lets you see how a school's students performed compared with students from a similar background across Australia. ACARA describes this as comparing results with students with similar levels of parental education and occupation, location and Indigenous status.

This is more informative than a raw average. A school whose students consistently do better than similar students elsewhere may be adding a lot of value, even if its raw averages look ordinary. A school with high raw averages that are merely in line with similar students may be doing exactly what its intake would predict.

Student progress

My School also shows student progress, measured between NAPLAN tests two years apart, for example from Year 3 to Year 5 or Year 7 to Year 9. Progress is often a better guide to what a school adds than a single snapshot, because it follows the same group of students over time.

When you look at progress:

• compare the school's progress with students who started from a similar score and background;
• look across several years, because a single cohort can be unusual;
• remember that small schools have small cohorts, so results can swing a lot.

Reading the finance section

The finance section shows a school's recurrent income by source, such as Australian Government funding, state or territory government funding, and fees, charges and parent contributions, along with capital expenditure. It's useful for understanding how a school is funded and how much it relies on parents.

It is not a fee schedule. The amount a particular family pays depends on the year level, sibling discounts, scholarships, bursaries and extras. Always get the school's current fee schedule and the conditions that come with it. Our guide to understanding school fees explains what to look for.

Common mistakes

Treating NAPLAN as a league table. Raw averages reflect intake as much as teaching. Ranking schools by them tells you mostly about the families who choose them.

Over-reading one year. Results move from year to year, especially in small schools. Look for patterns across several years.

Ignoring what NAPLAN doesn't measure. NAPLAN covers literacy and numeracy at four year levels. It says nothing direct about pastoral care, wellbeing, the arts, sport, languages, support for students with disability or the culture of the school.

Using ICSEA as a status symbol. A high ICSEA means advantaged families, not a better school. ACARA says it is not a rating.

Confusing size with quality. Enrolment and student-teacher numbers are useful context, but smaller classes don't automatically mean better outcomes, and larger schools often offer a wider curriculum.

A practical way to use My School

1. Make a long list of schools you could realistically get your child to each day, including government options.
2. Check the profile of each: sector, year range, size and location.
3. Look at similar-background comparisons and progress rather than raw averages.
4. Note anything that stands out, good or bad, and turn it into a question for the school.
5. Check the finances to understand how reliant the school is on fees.
6. Shortlist three or four schools to visit. Our guide to school tours and open days explains what to look for when you go.

Turning data into questions

The best use of My School is to prepare for conversations. If progress looks strong, ask the school what it does differently. If attendance has fallen, ask why and what's being done. If enrolments have changed a lot, ask about class sizes and staffing. If results in one area are weaker, ask how the school supports students in that area. A school that answers openly, with specifics, is telling you something about how it works. Our list of questions to ask a school has more ideas.

Looking beyond the numbers

My School can't tell you how your child will feel walking through the gate. It can't tell you whether teachers know students by name, how bullying is handled, whether a shy child will find a place or whether a gifted one will be stretched. Those things come from visiting, talking to current families and watching how staff interact with students. Use the data to narrow the field, then use your own eyes and judgement to decide.

Comparing across sectors

My School puts government, Catholic and independent schools in the same format, which makes it easier to compare across sectors. That matters because the government school down the road may be performing as well as, or better than, a non-government school you're considering, once background is taken into account. Comparing honestly across sectors helps you decide whether the extra cost of a non-government school buys something your child actually needs.

Data for primary and secondary schools

Primary schools sit NAPLAN in Years 3 and 5, and secondary schools in Years 7 and 9, so the data available depends on the year levels a school teaches. A school covering Kindergarten to Year 12 will show both. For senior secondary results, such as Year 12 outcomes, check what your state or territory publishes and what the school itself reports, and ask how it presents those results.

Key points

• My School, run by ACARA, profiles every Australian school, including non-government schools.
• ICSEA describes student background; the average is 1,000 and it is not a rating of the school.
• Similar-background comparisons and progress measures are more useful than raw NAPLAN averages.
• The finance section shows funding sources, not what you'll pay. Get the school's fee schedule.
• Use the data to shortlist and to prepare questions, then visit.