A recent study has shown the practice of posting school results to an online database for comparison may not actually improve academic performance.

The Grattan Institute - an independent think tank - also says the Government may have it wrong in its approach to school autonomy. According to the report entitled 'The myth of markets in school education', test scores have little effect on school enrolments. Grattan Institute director Dr Ben Jensen said barriers that limited competition between schools include commuting distance, cost and the fact many high-performing state schools are full and only accept students who live in their enrolment zones.

The report also says there has been too high an emphasis placed on school autonomy, highlighting the fact that Victoria - which has given principals more power over how they run their schools - does not perform better than NSW, which had a centralised system until recently.

The report's timing is not brilliant for the Federal Government, with the Prime Minister meeting in Queensland today to try to convince Campbell Newman to sign his state on to education reforms based on some of the premises the report refutes.

As the PM was on his way to Queensland today, Opposition leader Tony Abbott commented that he should be offering the state more, though he couldn't say specifically what that would be; “it's really up to Mr Rudd to offer something different, something better to the Queensland government and to the people of Queensland,” said Mr Abbott.

The Grattan Institute report is available here.