Canberra Grammar School uses aptitude testing and strict behavior policies to select only high-performing students from wealthy families. The school aims to produce students who achieve high scores on national testing by controlling the student body. Critics argue that aptitude testing only measures a narrow snapshot of a student's abilities and is designed more to exclude than assess potential. The school's focus on test scores may not prepare students for collaborative work environments.

1. Testing for GreatnessCanberra Grammar School has an excellent reputation in our Territory (State) and consistently produces students with the highest University entrance rankings. Their students go on to social, political and commercial greatness because on the whole their families have greater material wealth already and the co curricular courses allow them to make connections with other wealthy and influential families in Canberra. There is an expectation that if your child is enrolled at this school then they will outperform students at other schools. Class sizes are tightly controlled and the threat of expulsion from the school reigns in most poor behaviour. Being a selective school allows them to control who attends the school. There is a long waiting list and limited places at the school. One of the ways they control who is able to enter the school is through aptitude testing. Only those students who perform well in the entrance interview and aptitude testing are admitted to the school. Then of course fees have to be paid. The Grammar school is subject to the same National testing that Ed and Rachael have parsed and of course they perform consistently highly in the National testing; when you only accept the most capable students, their parents are paying high fees for students to attend, there are few behavioural issues, high cultural capital in the families and a desire to be successful in their future careers, the pressure is on and the students perform.

2. The aptitude testing at the school is in place to ensure that only ‘like’ students are enrolled. They thereby remove the challenge of needing to cater for diversity, the attitude of the parent community is that their students will perform well across all indicators, indeed that is what they are paying for. The rumour mill reports that a significant proportion of time is spent in preparation for the NAPLAN testing. The notion of exclusion is common to private schools where parents are prepared to pay to get results. The inherent ability of the student combined with the financial power of their parents is what gets them a place in the school. Students who are academically challenged through cognitive deficiencies are not welcome at the school. Some might say that such students would benefit from a school where the environment is tightly controlled and the classrooms run more smoothly. The problem with testing generally is that it is only a snapshot of student ability at any given moment. They are measured based on 1 or 2 hours of their lives and it is usually only conducted in a single or dual mode. The written mode is valued more highly by such tests. If knowledge is socially constructed then measuring a student in isolation from their peers only produces a fraction of the knowledge that collaboration produces. But such tests are designed to foster a feeling of competition amongst students. To set up learning environments that cater for workplaces of the future (which are collaborative at the very least) and then to test students in isolation from their peers in one particular moment in time produces what kind of data?

3. The Grammar School aptitude testing is designed to exclude. The publication of NAPLAN results on the My Schools website is designed to create ghetto schools as parents progressively move to ‘better areas’. When does the average child have an opportunity to shine?Enrollment Informationhttp://www.cgs.act.edu.au/enrolling_at_cgs.htmlNAPLAN Performancehttp://www.myschool.edu.au/Main.aspx?PageId=0&SDRSchoolId=ACTI00805_1021&DEEWRId=2060&CalendarYear=2009