Innovative Research Universities calls for school outcome-statements for individuals and cohorts that unis can align to their courses

“It is a strange reality that the presentation of information in the senior secondary certificates disguises information about the person’s level of knowledge, capability and skill in favour of normalised information,” the IRU argues in a submission to Peter Shergold’s review of pathways from school to future education and employment.

IRU proposes;

* school leavers know what their results prepare them for; “if a gap emerges between the reality of school outcomes and the expectations for entry to follow on education it hampers students’ ability to engage well with further education and could put at risk their achieving the outcomes needed to complete later qualifications.”

* “The presentation of results should be transparent about the actual level of achievement.”

* To “contain” the ATAR to its “relevant use” as a course-rationing mechanism requires; senior secondary results to be reworked as “absolute statements about current levels of achievement” and “entry to most tertiary qualifications to be based on thresholds required for the course, not relative standing to other applicants.”