By Jewel Topsfield
PARENTS in the top income-earning occupations are not taken into account by the My School website when it calculates which schools are the most advantaged, prompting allegations it is producing grossly unfair results.
Schools and education experts say the ranking system on the revamped website - which also ignores parents at the bottom of the pay scale, including the unemployed - is fundamentally flawed.
They say it has led to bizarre anomalies, such as Douglas Daly Primary, a one-teacher school in remote Northern Territory, which was ranked the most advantaged in the nation according to the index used to calculate parental wealth, education and occupation.
In the latest examples, The Hamilton and Alexandra College in western Victoria is ranked as more advantaged than elite schools including Geelong Grammar, Haileybury College, Toorak College and Ivanhoe Grammar. Its fees are half those of Geelong Grammar.
Goulburn Valley Grammar in Shepparton is also ranked alongside some of Melbourne's most privileged schools.
The Hamilton and Alexandra College principal Bruce Simons said his school's ranking was ''grossly unfair'', particularly given 35 per cent of his students came from agricultural families, many of whom were doing it tough after years of drought followed by destructive rain.
''The school's ranking, in my view, is clearly and profoundly flawed,'' Mr Simons said.
Many private schools such as The Hamilton and Alexandra College are concerned federal funding to schools, which is under review, could be linked to these rankings. ''Any similar funding model which ranks us alongside much higher-resourced schools would result in a serious threat to the school's existence,'' Mr Simons said.
The widespread concerns about the credibility of My School is damaging for the federal government and Schools Minister Peter Garrett, who late last year was forced to delay the launch of the revamped website after conceding the financial data for some private schools contained serious errors.
This followed complaints from schools, which have been given access to the data before it goes public.
The Index of Community Socio-Advantage (ICSEA) rankings are used to group so-called ''similar'' schools on the My School website, to allow parents to compare results in national literacy and numeracy tests.
Independent Schools Victoria chief executive Michelle Green called on Canberra to delay the relaunch - expected early this year - until school rankings accurately reflected their level of advantage.
''If you asked any parent in the community they would believe the ICSEA score does include the number of professionals and unemployed parents at the school,'' she said.
''I don't care if it takes another 12 months - if you are going to publish data that can impact on schools' standing in the community and financial viability, make sure it's right.''
The Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority decided last year to use parental occupation and education - rather than students' postcodes - to calculate advantage on the revamped website.
However, the new method does not take into account the number of parents in the top-income bracket of senior management and qualified professionals. It also excludes those on the bottom of the pay scale, such as labourers, machine operators, hospitality staff or the unemployed.
Instead, it focues on the middle tiers of occupations. If a school has a high number of parents who are ''associate professionals'' - farmers, people in the arts, sports and media - it gets a higher ranking, while many blue-collar tradespeople means a lower ranking.
An ACARA spokesman said this had been done because it resulted in the best prediction of national literacy and numeracy test results. He said parental occupation and education scores were used along with factors such as remoteness to calculate the rankings.
But critics said this resulted in schools with high numbers of wealthy parents appearing less advantaged, and schools with high numbers of unemployed parents appearing better off.
Trevor Cobbold, head of public education lobby Save Our Schools, was surprised that ACARA considered family backgrounds of low-skilled occupations had no effect on student performance. ''This seems to go against all the findings,'' he said.
Director of Catholic Education Stephen Elder said it would be unfair for schools to be misrepresented by a flawed ranking.
Opposition spokesman Christopher Pyne said: ''A minister who has stuffed up green loans, roof batts and solar panels programs could hardly be expected to get MySchools right - and he hasn't.''