New research has revealed a shocking drop in the number of Year 12 students taking ATAR exams, that are needed to qualify for Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranks.

WA’s participation rate is 20% below the national average, pushing many to believe school ranking tables are partly to blame.

Andrew Taggart, Chair of the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre told Oliver Peterson on Perth Live that one of the major reasons is due to WA falling into the trap of publishing median ATAR scores for each school.

“It’s a really perverse table, I mean the ATAR is a ranking. It is really not appropriate to calculate a median score from a ranking,” he told Oly.

“So the challenge there has been too many schools wanting to get into the top 10, 20, 50 median ATAR scores and they take students out of ATAR who I believe are actually capable.”

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