Hill Top Public School principal Mark Gardiner said data sets such as the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) "don't give the full picture".

"A data set is one view of a school," Mr Gardiner said.

"That's why in Education Week we invite the community to come out and see what we can achieve."

ICSEA measures educational advantage using data collected and collated by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

ACARA released a nationwide ICSEA data set for 2014 that included 20 Southern Highlands public and private primary schools.

Hill Top Public School was ranked lowest of the local schools with an ICSEA score of 950, despite an average level of funding per student of $11,289.

The ICSEA benchmark is 1000, and to be ranked lower or higher indicates the relative educational advantage of students who attend the school.

The 20 local schools weren't ranked against each other but against a composite of 60 schools found to have similar socio-educational standing.

Measures of socio-educational advantage include "student factors" and "school factors".

Student factors include the students' parents' occupations and education.

School factors include its physical location and student demographic.

Former chairman of ACARA's board, Professor Barry McGaw AO, defended the authority's approach to evaluating aspects of school quality.

"You can't judge the quality of a school simply by the level of the achievement of its students, because those achievements are not created by the school alone," Prof McGaw said.

"Students' homes make a very important contribution. It's important to know because students' levels of socio-educational advantage generally affect their levels of educational achievements, and they also influence other outcomes."

Mr Gardiner said he "firmly" believed education was about "the whole child".

"I hope during Education Week we've able to showcase that, irrespective of data sets, our school is a fantastic place providing quality education," Mr Gardiner said.

"When parents want to know about schools, I always encourage them to get as many sources of information as they can.

"Talk to people in the street, look online, read newspapers, and visit the school in person."