Vignette -Focussing on what really matters

Michael Sciffer is a school counsellor and PhD candidate researching the drivers and outcomes of the segregation of low SES and Indigenous students. Sciffer noticed that the policy settings in Ontario mean school leaders and teachers approach their roles in a different way to their Australian colleagues.

“Australian public, independent, and Catholic schools compete like businesses for high status customers to raise institutional reputation and enrolment share. Advertising HSC results, scholarships for high achieving students, curricular and extra-curricular offerings, and an infrastructure arms race are all marketing tools Australian schools use to purchase the cultural capital of elite and middle-class families. Yet at the same time, the performance of high achieving students has been declining in international assessments.

Schools in Ontario operate very differently. Each public sector has the same financial resources and appear confident in their enrolment shares. This allows principals and schools to focus on what really matters, the learning and wellbeing of all students within their schools. I think this is a big part of why the academic performance of Ontario’s schooling system is well ahead of Australia’s on both excellence and equity.”