Selective schools in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 are government high schools operated by the New South Wales Department of Education and Training

New South Wales Department of Education and Training

The New South Wales Department of Education and Communities, a department of the Government of New South Wales, is responsibile for primary schools, secondary schools and Technical and Further Education colleges...

, that have accepted their students based upon their academic merit. Each year, approximately 13,000 Year 6 students from across the state of New South Wales optionally undertake the Selective High Schools Test to seek one of the 3600 places offered for first year entry into selective high schools. For Years 8 to 12 entry into selective schools, students do not take a test, but apply directly to a school for entry. The application package is common to all government selective schools, with a selection committee considering applications each year in August–September.

History

The first government selective high schools in NSW were established in ????. They included Sydney High School (now Sydney Boys High School

Sydney Boys High School

Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective public secondary school for boys, located in the City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with 1,180 students, from years 7 to 12...

 and Sydney Girls High School

Sydney Girls High School

Sydney Girls High School is an academically selective, Public high school for girls, located at Moore Park, in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

), Bathurst High School

Bathurst High School (Australia)

Bathurst High School or as it is now known, Bathurst High Campus, is a secondary school in Bathurst founded in 1883. Along with Kelso High Campus it makes up Denison College of Secondary Education....

, Goulburn High School and Penrith High School.
There are currently 30 selective government high schools, including 17 fully selective high schools, 9 partially selective high schools (high schools with both selective and comprehensive classes) and 4 selective agricultural high schools. Of the 30, 25 are located in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. From 2010, 14 more comprehensive high schools will become partially selective, with one or more classes of selective students, and a "virtual school" bringing together a single class of students from regional NSW.

Performance

Selective high schools traditionally outperform the other schools in the state. Based on the Higher School Certificate (HSC) results, the majority of secondary schools that are ranked at the top of the state are selective high schools. In 2005, eight of the top ten high schools were government selective schools. James Ruse Agricultural High School

James Ruse Agricultural High School

James Ruse Agricultural High School is one of four New South Wales Government agricultural high schools. It is a selective, co-educational public high school located at Carlingford, New South Wales, Australia...

 has been ranked as the top secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 of the state for fourteen years.

Selective high schools test

The Selective High Schools Tests are currently developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in Victoria under contract to the NSW Department of Education. The project officer for the development of this test is Dr John Lindsay. The test is designed to be a test of ability and is therefore as curricular free as possible. It is set to test the cohort of Year 6 students who apply for entry to a selective high school. The test has three parts, English, Mathematics and General Ability. In 2004, the test was extended to include a Writing task.

Three parts of the test (Reading, Mathematics, and General Ability) consist of multiple choice

Multiple choice

Multiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer out of the choices from a list. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections-- when a person chooses between multiple...

 questions, each lasting for 40 minutes. The last task is the Writing task, which students are given 20 minutes to complete. Students are given a break in between each test. The Selective High Schools Test normally starts at 9:00am and finishes at 1:05pm.

The examinations for Year 6 students take place in March, and results are published in early July. All students are required to select by preference a maximum of four selective high schools of their choice on their application form.

How the profile score is calculated

In general, entry into a government selective school is determined by a profile score, which is derived by combining school marks in English and mathematics with the marks received in the Selective High Schools Test in reading, writing, mathematics and general ability.

The profile score is computed simply by adding the English, mathematics and general ability component scores which are marks out of 100 to form the profile score out of 300.

The component scores are computed as follows:

• In general ability the test marks are scaled on a statewide basis to a mean of 60 and a standard deviation of 12 to form the component general ability score out of 100.
• In mathematics the test marks are likewise scaled on a statewide basis to a mean of 60 and a standard deviation of 12 to form the scaled mathematics test marks out of 100. However, in mathematics the process of determining the component score is slightly more complex because in mathematics there is a school mark to consider in addition to the test mark. To include the school mark the next step of the process is to calculate the mean and standard deviation of the scaled mathematics test marks for each school. Then, school at a time, the mathematics school marks for each student are moderated (or scaled) to the same mean and standard deviation as the scaled test marks for students for that school. The scores formed from this process are called the moderated school marks and are also out of 100. The reason for scaling the school marks and test marks to the same mean and standard deviation is to ensure that both school and test marks have the same value in the final component score. The component score in mathematics for each student is then approximated by averaging that student's scaled test mark and the moderated school mark. These approximated scores are then scaled on a statewide basis to a mean of 60 and a standard deviation of 12 to form the final component score out of 100. The reason for scaling all component scores to the same mean and standard deviation is to ensure that each component is given an equal value in the profile score. If this were not to occur then the component with the highest standard deviation would have the greatest value.
• In English this process is even more complex because there are two test marks (reading and writing) and only one school mark (English). However, the school mark contains both reading and writing components so the process is fair and valid. Put briefly, the procedure described above for mathematics is repeated twice in English. The school English mark is moderated first for reading and then again for writing. The resultant scores for reading are then given a weighting of two thirds and the resultant scores for writing are given a weighting of one third. These two scores are then added to give an approximate component score for English. This approximate score is then scaled on a statewide basis to a mean of 60 and a standard deviation
  Standard deviation
  Standard deviation is a widely used measure of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average...
  
   of 12 to form the final component score in English out of 100.

Scaling and moderating school and tests marks ensure that

• school and test marks have the same value;

• school marks from each school are placed on the same scale as the test marks achieved by students from those same schools thereby making it possible to fairly compare school marks from one school with school marks from each other school;

• each component (English, mathematics and general ability) has the same value.

The process also includes 'wild-score' processing which identifies students who, based on their school performance, may have done much worse than expected in the test. Where such students have been identified the moderating process takes this into account and adjusts scores accordingly. This ensures that students will not be disadvantaged by other students who attend the same school and who may have been done much worse than expected because of serious illness, misadventure or other cause.

By early July students receive letters informing them of one of three outcomes concerning their application to each school:

• offer- the student can apply immediately for enrolment in the certain school.
• reserve list- the student is placed on a waiting list, with the possibility of entry if their place on the list is reached
• unsuccessful- the student is not being considered for a place

In some cases, an application can be put on 'hold', meaning it is awaiting the result of further enquiries by the Department of Education.

Other criteria include age and grade, and current residency status in Australia. This usually requires students to be between 11 years and 5 months and 13 years at the start of the year they wish to commence Year 7, be in Year 6 the year before they wish to enter, and be either a citizen or permanent resident of Australia or a citizen of New Zealand. However, exemptions to some of these requirements may be given in special circumstances or through consultation with the Department of Education.

Debate

The existence of government selective schools in NSW, which do not exist in any other Australian state apart from Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 and Western Australia, has not been without controversy, with much of it centred on the discrepancies between selective high schools and comprehensive

Comprehensive school

A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

 high schools.

The existence of selective high schools have always been a political and bureaucratic article in the Australian Public school system with many academics and intelligent observers viewing this issue as purely political. The first debate about selective schools in New South Wales began in the 1950s and 1960s where the Director of secondary education, Hedley Yelland (known for his implementation of the Wyndham Scheme), believed that selective schools were unnecessary because adequate competition was possible in a properly run large comprehensive, and wasteful because, while great students fared well in selective, the merely good fared much better in comprehensives.

As a compromise, it was decided that entrenched selective schools, such as Fort Street High School, were to be retained, but there were to be no new selectives. This stance of government was altered after Hedley Yelland's promotion to the public service board in 1969.

A significant dismantling of the selective schools system was proposed by an inquiry in 2002, funded by the NSW Parents and Citizens Association and the NSW Teachers Association. At that time, the report called for the changing of 12 of the state's 19 selective high schools to partially selective high schools, retaining only the seven most established schools: Fort Street

Fort Street High School

Fort Street High School is a co-educational, academically selective, public high school currently located at Petersham, an inner western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

, North Sydney Boys'

North Sydney Boys High School

North Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective, public high school for boys, located at Crows Nest in Sydney, Australia.- History :...

, North Sydney Girls'

North Sydney Girls High School

North Sydney Girls High School is an academically selective, public high school for girls, located at Crows Nest, on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

, Sydney Boys'

Sydney Boys High School

Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective public secondary school for boys, located in the City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with 1,180 students, from years 7 to 12...

, Sydney Girls'

Sydney Girls High School

Sydney Girls High School is an academically selective, Public high school for girls, located at Moore Park, in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

, Sydney Technical

Sydney Technical High School

Sydney Technical High School is an academically selective, state-funded high school for boys in Bexley, a southern suburb of Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1911 as part of Sydney Technical College, the school was one of the six original New South Wales selective schools...

, and St George Girls'

St. George Girls' High School

St George Girls High School is an academically selective, Public high school for girls, located in Kogarah, a Southern Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

. Hornsby Girls' High School

Hornsby Girls' High School

Hornsby Girls' High School is an academically selective, public high school for girls, located in Hornsby, a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.Founded in 1930, the school's first principal was Sarah Agnes Angus Brewster....

 and other schools were also changed to selective schools. The recommendation were justified, from the viewpoint of the inquiry's chair UNSW Professor Tony Vinson

Tony Vinson

Tony Vinson AM is "one of Australia's leading social scientists and outspoken public intellectuals", an honorary Doctor of Letters in Social Work from the University of Sydney, as well as being an Honorary Professor in the School of Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney from...

, by the fact that 'wherever possible, talented students should be able to remain within mainstream schools to maximise social cohesion and "an inclusive school community"'.

However, although the report had the backing of the then NSW Education Minister John Watkins

John Watkins (Australian politician)

John Arthur Watkins is a former Deputy Premier of New South Wales, serving between 2005 until his resignation from Parliament in 2008...

, most of the Vinson enquiry's recommendations, including most of the recommendations concerning the status of selective schools, were not implemented by the NSW Government. Another report commissioned by the Department of Education, in 2005, drew on consultation with the public across the entire state school system and found that opinions are still polarised on whether they should continue to exist. Currently, selective schools appear to have the support of the government.

External links

• Selective high schools: Year 7 placement