Our analysis reveals the participation rate is alarmingly low for some groups of students, such as First Nations kids and students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Australian approach to lifting standards of schooling has a crucial blind spot: the role of the people and communities outside school in supporting students.
Australia has a wide gap in educational outcomes between children in poverty and their better-off peers. A new study indicates why reducing child poverty is the best way to lift our educational game.
Researchers reviewed 45 programs that aim to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. This is what they found, and their recommendations to make Australia’s education more equitable.
Students matching the ‘traditional’ applicant’s profile see university as a stepping stone to a good job. Those from less-well-represented groups care more about higher education’s intrinsic value.
Teens from low socioeconomic areas of Perth who took part in specialist sports programs were better engaged at school and their maths grades improved, my research shows.
During the lockdowns last year, many experts and parents were concerned children’s education would suffer. But on average, students did OK. A lot of learning is incidental.
When students shift to learning from home, they lose many of the in-school support structures and resources. While the priority is students’ well-being, schools have developed new teaching strategies.
Studies on homework are frequently quite general, and don’t consider specific types of homework tasks. So it isn’t easy to measure how effective homework can be. But here’s what we do know.
The national average in literacy and numeracy has been unaffected by 2020’s disruptions. But will have to wait until the full NAPLAN data is released to understand the affect on vulnerable students.
Sue Thomson, Australian Council for Educational Research
The evidence clearly shows one-on-one tutoring improves disadvantaged students’ skills. An Australian pilot program has now shown the benefits of online tutoring that supports students in their homes.
We conducted a study to see if students who set goals to try to improve on their past efforts were more engaged in school. We found the strategy was particularly helpful to disadvantaged students.
Selective schools are known for producing some of the highest final-year academic results. But it’s unclear whether students would get the same outcomes anyway, regardless of school.
School zones are a logical way to manage school enrolments, and the policy helps to create schools that are community hubs, ones that reflect the local areas they serve.
Sue Thomson, Australian Council for Educational Research
Students with expert maths teachers scored significantly higher on an international maths test than any other group. But a student’s level of advantage also affects assessment scores.
A survey of 414 schools across four states has found most school leaders and teachers do not regularly draw on research-based evidence of the sort universities provide.
A study compared students’ performance in schools that had banned mobiles and schools that hadn’t. They found students who weren’t allowed to use mobile phones in class had higher test scores.
Geoff Masters, Australian Council for Educational Research
The NSW curriculum review recommends students be assigned tasks based on their ability, rather than their age. This approach recognises the progress individuals make over the course of a year.
We compared the educational progress in years 3 and 4 in 2019 with 2020 – the year normal schooling was disrupted by the pandemic. Overall, students progressed at the same rate in both years.