ABSTRACT
In this chapter, data from Australia's National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy, the My School website and the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) are considered together to draw out a nuanced view of how broader factors of social disadvantage are implicated in educational outcomes measured via standardised testing regimes. Of particular concern is the bracketing out of social, economic and educational disadvantage, which allows policy makers, education commentators and school leaders to make claims about students, teachers and schools that are decontextualised and overly simplified. The chapter considers how schooling in Australia has been reframed by shifting the emphasis from equity to quality, which in turn established the conditions for standardised testing. It examines how the construction of ICSEA and the My School website masks socio-educational disadvantage, which then provides a false 'level playing field' for school comparison. Finally it makes a case for resisting the bracketing out of social disadvantage and the reframing of equity as quality.
