Govt to push ahead with schools website

The federal government is determined to publish school performance comparisons, despite threats from teachers to ban national literacy and numeracy tests in protest.

School teachers are threatening to boycott the tests in protest against the My School website, which will rank schools in league tables.

The Australian Education Union's national conference is expected to endorse the move later on Tuesday.

Education Minister Julia Gillard says the move will not stop the website's launch next week.

"The worst thing in the world is for a child to be at an underperforming school and for no one to know that, and no one to do anything about it," she told ABC Radio.

"I will not be deterred by threats of banning tests," she said, adding that the government would not rule out taking action against any boycott.

Fairfax newspapers report the union's national executive could endorse the boycott at its federal conference in Melbourne.

"This is a touchstone issue for the profession," AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos told Fairfax.

"We have provided governments with no shortage of research and evidence showing the damage caused to the provision of education."

"As a profession, we take our ethical responsibilities very seriously, and we cannot stand by and be party to an agenda that will be damaging to students and school communities."

The boycott will be put to the vote at the conference, where it was expected to be overwhelmingly endorsed.

If successful, the union will give the government until April to show how it will stop test results from being misused.

If the government does not comply, teachers will be ordered by the union not to open boxes containing the tests.

Children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are due to take the tests in May.

Ms Gillard denied the My School website would act as a league table.

"Any disruption to national testing would be bad for students, bad for parents and bad for the future of the nation's education system," she said.

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