This approach not only provides fair comparisons but offers a basis for school improvement that we have not had in this country before. For most schools, the comparisons will reveal other schools that are working more effectively with similar students. Principals will wish to make contact with their fellow principals in the schools that outperform theirs in this way to see what lessons they might learn from the policies and practices in the higher-performing schools.

Schools that are outperformed by others working with similar students will not be only those working in disadvantaged communities. The fair comparisons on the My School website will show that some schools performing above the national averages and so thought to be doing well are ''coasting'' and actually doing much less well than other schools with students similar to theirs.

Schools differ in the resources available to them as well as in the students they enrol and it is fair to claim that the My School website does not provide information on the differences in resources. That data does not presently exist but it is being collected and will be included in the next release using 2010 data.

With its use of NAPLAN results it is reasonable to ask whether there is a risk with My School that schools will narrow their curriculum to focus on literacy and numeracy at the expense of other important areas. Several things work against this tendency. One is the professional commitment of teachers and principals to the full development of their students. Another will be the publication of the new national curriculum for which the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is also responsible. It will make clear to parents and students as well as to teachers what students are entitled to learn across the whole curriculum. A third is a development of the literacy and numeracy tests that we are considering in ACARA. There is a limit to how much time individual students can spend taking NAPLAN tests so there are some limits to their coverage even of literacy and numeracy. It is possible to develop tests that cover a wider domain and to have individual students take only part of the tests. When the tests are properly developed it is still possible to compare all students but, overall, there is a much richer picture of student performance. Further, teachers could not focus on some narrow dimensions of literacy and numeracy since their students will receive different test in ways that they could not predict and in ways that cover the full scope of these important, basic skills on which other learning so heavily depends.

The My School website provides the public and the profession with better information than has been available before and information that can be used productively to improve Australia's schools. Moreover, it will be further developed and improved. In 2010, students tested in years 3, 5 and 7 in 2008 will be tested again in years 5, 7 and 9 and it will become possible for the first time to compare schools on the basis of growth they have achieved with their students as well as the level the students have reached.

Professor Barry McGaw is chairman of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.