Warnings about the accumulating impact of social segregation in Australian schools grow

In an international context, Australian schools rank among the most socially segregated within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with significant effects on student outcomes.

The findings have been supported by new research from Murdoch University’s PhD scholar Michael Sciffer, who showed that the current schooling framework fails to properly identify and meet equity needs, and that urgent changes are needed. Sciffer was one of the delegates on a study tour supported by ALL and the Leading Educators Around the Planet (LEAP) investigating how Canada’s school system worked to promote fairness and achievement.

According to Sciffer, low SES students typically attend schools with high concentrations of disadvantaged peers, while their non-low SES counterparts are more likely to attend socially diverse schools – but there is nothing in the Measurement Framework for Schooling in Australia specifying how to measure school segregation, school socioeconomic context, nor how they relate to schooling outcomes.

The negative effects of attending low SES schools in Australia occur at primary and secondary school levels and also extend to post-school outcomes.

Sciffer’s research recommends the following improvements:

• Enhancing reporting and measurement by improving the National Report on Schooling to include data on school socioeconomic content and segregation.
• Addressing school segregation by implementing policies to reduce the concentration of disadvantaged students in disadvantaged schools.
• Reforming accountability measures to ensure there is a focus on equity and socio-economic composition of schools.
• Focusing on equity in policy.
• Providing targeted support and resources to schools with high levels of disadvantaged students to improve learning outcomes.

The full research, “The Systemic Inefficiency of Australian Schools: A Policy and Measurement Review,” is available in the Australian Journal of Social Issues.