My school is the same. I dont know if its public schools? Cause around my area its only private or selective that have restrictions on who can do a class
The private/selective schools are more worried about their performance, that is why. I have around 5-10 students in my current Year 12 Physics classes who should not be there, if they were not there, then my percentages of band 4/5/6 would go up and my lower bands would go down.
Say I have 30 students doing Physics, but if I had it my way I would have 20.
Out of the 20 students who I think should be doing Physics, 4 of them get band 6, 10 band 5 and 6 band 4.
Out of the 10 students who I think should not be doing Physics 1 gets a band 4, 3 get band 3, 5 get band 2 and 1 gets band 1.
What gets reported is the 'percentage' of students who achieve in whichever band and schools gets judged whether or not they are on-par/above/below the average.
In the scenario with 20 students I have 20% Band 6, 50% Band 5, 30% Band 4
In the scenario with 30 students I now have 13% Band 6, 33% band 5, 23% Band 4, 10% Band 3, 17% Band 2, 3% Band 1.
With these statistics, the top scenario appears to be better, but in reality they are the same, its just that the bottom scenario allows the students in who perhaps should not be doing the course..
This is where the statistics which 'compare schools' are flawed.
Which teacher has been more successful?
Teacher A: Taught students who all achieved band 6 in School Cert Science and Maths. Achieves HSC marks of 40% Band 6, 50% Band 5 and 10% Band 6
Teacher B: Taught students who all achieved the lowest band in School Cert Science and Maths. HSC marks of 0% Band 6, 0% Band 5, 10% Band 4, 30% Band 3, 60% Band 2.
Although the reported statistics show that Teacher A has been more successful due to the absolute marks, to me it seems like Teacher B has added more value to the education of the students. That is what should be important, how much they improve by. Not what mark they get.