Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

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Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory Bruce Wilson remote and very remote attendance occurred over the period when the Every Child, Every Day policy might have been expected to begin to show results. Table 4 – Northern Territory Government Schools Attendance Rates by Geolocation, 2009 and 2012 Indigenous 2009 2012 Non‐ Non‐ Indigenous Total Indigenous Indigenous Total Provincial 80.8% 90.6% 88.7% 82.8% 90.7% 89.2% Remote 80.2% 92.0% 86.6% 78.0% 90.9% 84.8% Very Remote 61.8% 89.3% 65.5% 58.1% 88.8% 62.1% Total 69.7% 90.8% 81.4% 67.8% 90.6% 80.6% Does attendance affect achievement? The first question addressed by the review is whether it is worth focusing on attendance at all. Little work has been done on inflection points: those levels of attendance that seem to result in improved learning. If there is a pattern, it would make sense to focus effort on getting children to those levels. The attendance effort in schools occupies significant staff time and other resources. If this effort is not well targeted, it is likely that it detracts from the resources available to those students who attend regularly and who are engaged with schooling, without a corresponding benefit. Figure 19 shows attendance bands for all Northern Territory Indigenous students and their relationship to achievement of the reading national minimum standard in NAPLAN. The graph demonstrates that up to 60% attendance (three days a week) very few students achieve the standard. Above 60% achievement doubles with each additional day of average attendance. The measurable improvement occurs once attendance rises over 60%. DRAFT Figure 19 – NT Government Indigenous students – % at or above national minimum standard by attendance band Proportion of students at or above National Minimum Standard 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 100.0% 0.0% >0% TO
Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory Bruce Wilson Where should effort be directed? The review has proceeded on the assumption that attendance will be substantially improved by the areas in which recommendations have been made. This includes increasing efforts to improve community engagement, engage children and their families during early childhood, ensure effective literacy learning, provide high quality secondary education, manage wellbeing and behaviour issues systematically and improve the quality and effectiveness of school personnel and programs. In addition, though, there is a need for programs designed to address attendance issues directly. The review proposes that what is missing is a clear strategic focus. At present, efforts have been directed to the full range of children who are not attending schools. Instead, energy should be directed to those children with whom we are likely to achieve the greatest improvement in attendance and student achievement. This suggests that the attendance effort by schools should be mainly directed to those students who are attending three days a week or more. There is likely to be little benefit in schools pursuing children who are attending less than this. By contrast, shifting a student’s attendance from three to four days a week roughly doubles the chance of NAPLAN achievement. Primary schools Primary‐aged children should be the first focus. The Telethon report on student attendance and educational outcomes notes that ‘most achievement disparities are in place at the outset of Year 3’ and that these achievement gaps remain in place throughout the school years. The report argues that improving the attendance of disadvantaged students might help to reduce these achievement gaps or prevent them from becoming wider (Hancock et al, 2013: vii). The role of schools should be to work with all primary‐aged children (and families in early childhood), seeking to establish a relationship with each family and an initial attendance pattern. Once attendance patterns are clear, schools should focus their own efforts on children attending at least three days a week, while maintaining regular contact with the families of low‐attending students. DRAFT In some communities we saw evidence that primary‐aged children were uncontrolled in the community, staying up for much of the night, making their own decisions about attendance and failing to engage with schools. If these children are not attending regularly, schools are unlikely to achieve improved attendance. At the primary phase, there is a realistic chance that a child can be re‐engaged successfully with schooling and establish a pattern of attendance that offers the chance of normal achievement. The use of stronger measures should be the means by which this is achieved. Where children are attending less than three days per week on average, the Every Child Every Day program and the Australian Government measures should undertake the main effort to manage their attendance. These children should be the principal focus of these stronger measures (rather than secondary students or higher attending primary children). Secondary schools Secondary schools should focus their efforts on young people already attending at least three days per week. In these cases, there is a realistic chance that attendance levels can be progressively improved so that the students gain substantial benefits from their schooling. 86
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Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

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