OMG that is so ignorant! It SHOULD NEVER be used as a method of comparision between two schools!! That is NOT what the tests were designed for - that's the Government that decided that against the advice of every educator in the country. The tests were a diagnostic tool to be used in conjunction with all other assessments of the child throughout the year. Some schools are also able to withdraw children from the test with special needs/disbilities if they think that they will bring the school average down. What do you think people used to do before they had the NAPLAN to compare schools? The NAPLAN has not been around forever and only recently has it been used as a standardised test. Take the town I live in for example. The public school where my kids go has just under 300 students. The local catholic school has only 80 students. The catholic school always slightly outperforms the public school but they have an average of 10 students per year grade compared to 50 at the public school. They also have no ESL students (english as second language), no Indigenous students, have a higher socio economic status, and no special needs kids, whereas the public school has ESL kids, Indigenous kids, low income kids and special needs kids. BUT, to a person from out of town who is looking to move to the area and wants to check out the schools is going to get a totally wrong comparision of those two schools.

Here's a novel idea - actually go and visit the schools, talk to the principal, ask what programs they use for maths and literacy and how do they help children achieve their full potential and help those who need extra help, ask how the kids perform over the course of the year, read the annual school report, find out how much funding they direct towards buying resources for the school. Don't just sit in front of a computer looking at the bloody myschool website!