Category: Equity in education

The following is a summary of a new Education Research Brief published by Save Our Schools. It can be downloaded below.

Disadvantaged students in Australia are being denied equal opportunities to learn because they face far more shortages of teachers and material resources than advantaged students. The gaps in access to education resources between advantaged and disadvantaged schools in Australia, between rural and city schools and between public and private schools are huge. Not only are they amongst the largest in the OECD but they are also amongst the largest in the world. This is totally unacceptable for a country that regards itself as egalitarian.

Continue reading “Education Resource Gaps in Australia Remain Amongst the Largest in the World”

There is extensive research evidence of the impact of family background on student results. Many studies from the United States, the United Kingdom, the OECD and Australia also show a school socio-economic composition (SEC) effect whereby students attending schools with a high concentration of students from poor families tend to have lower results than students from similar backgrounds attending schools with higher proportions of students from well-off backgrounds.

Continue reading “New Study Shows that the Social Composition of Schools Strongly Influences School Results”

In a ground-breaking decision last week, the US Court of Appeals ruled that the US Constitution “provides a fundamental right to a basic minimum education” for all students and that the “Supreme Court has recognized that basic literacy is foundational to our political process and society”. The decision makes it clear that public education has a critical role in providing the right to a basic education.

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Data from the OECD’s Programme for International Assessments (PISA) in 2018 confirm everyday impressions of the vast gap in the resources of public and private schools in Australia. They show that private schools have far more, and better quality, teacher and physical resources than public schools. Despite the fact that public schools enrol over 80% of the most disadvantaged students, they are constrained by a lack of education resources.

While class sizes and student-teacher ratios are similar in public and private secondary schools, public schools have far fewer highly qualified teachers, more teacher shortages, more inadequately qualified teachers, more teacher absenteeism and more shortages of assisting staff than private schools. Much higher proportions of students in public schools have their learning hindered by a lack of educational materials, poor quality educational materials, lack of physical infrastructure and poor quality infrastructure than in private schools. There are also significant differences between the resources available to lower fee and higher fee private schools.

Continue reading “Private Schools Continue to Have a Massive Resource Advantage Over Public Schools”

The following is a summary of a new Education Research Paper published by Save Our Schools. The paper can be downloaded below.

New data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018 show that Australia allocates more and better quality teacher and physical resources to socio-economically advantaged secondary schools than to disadvantaged schools. The gaps are amongst the largest out of 36 countries in the OECD. The highest performing countries in the OECD generally allocate resources more equitably between low and high SES secondary schools.

Continue reading “Low SES Schools Have Far Less Resources than High SES Schools”

There is extensive research evidence that the social composition of schools is a significant factor in educational inequality. Students from different socio-economic status (SES) families who attend schools with a high concentration of students from high SES families tend to achieve higher test results and higher graduation rates. There are negative consequences for high and low SES students from attending low SES schools.

A new study published in the academic journal Studies in Educational Evaluation has found similar effects on educational inequality from social segregation in school systems. It found that social segregation within European education systems amplifies social disparities in educational achievement. Achievement gaps between low and high SES students tend to be higher in more highly segregated school systems.

Continue reading “Segregated School Systems Increase Social Inequality in Education”

The Gonski Institute for Education recently published a valuable paper on equity in education titled Improving Educational Equity in Australian Education. It discusses what is equity, why equity in education matters and makes recommendations for improving equity in education. However, its definition of equity in education is limited and imprecise. The paper should have adopted the equity definition of the original Gonski report because it offers a more effective guide for education policy and funding.

Continue reading “On the Definition of Equity in Education”