The Validity of Policy Interventions to Address Australian School Segregation

Michael G Sciffer

Socioeconomic school segregation and school compositional effects have been identified by Australian and international studies as being associated with a range of schooling outcomes including academic achievement. The tendency to separate students by socioeconomic background into different schools creates social contexts that increase the association between social disadvantages and learning outcomes. This exacerbation of educational inequalities has in part been associated with public policies and institutional behaviours; thus, policy reforms may have a capacity to address the deleterious effects of school segregation. But the validity of policy settings to address school segregation has been challenged by some researchers who have critiqued the veracity and strength of school compositional effects. Through a set of publications, this thesis considers the validity of policy reforms to address Australian school segregation by testing the socioeconomic compositional effect in light of prior critiques; identifying policy settings associated with variation in the socioeconomic compositional effect; examining the influence of the institutional structure of Australia’s schooling system on segregation; and proposing reforms that may support policy responses to school segregation. The studies are situated within the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration’s first goal to promote excellence and equity. Collectively the publications indicate there is a contradiction between the aim of equity and school marketisation reforms. Methodological critiques of the veracity of school compositional effects can be addressed through appropriate modelling techniques. Such techniques show that the school compositional effect is of substantive relevance to further research and policy focus. Variation in country-level policy settings partly accounts for international variation in the school compositional effect. Private and selective schools predict the degree of student segregation, which is partly accounted for by fees. A range of policy settings can be applied to report on school segregation and compositional effects in Australia. The veracity and strength of school compositional effects, alongside the limited application of school segregation research to Australia, indicate further research is warranted. The current policy of targeting funding to disadvantaged schools within a quasi-school market appears incapable of addressing the effects of school segregation. International examples of school desegregation reforms may offer insights into potential Australian reforms to meet the Education Declaration’s equity goal.

The Validity of Policy Interventions to Address Australian School Segregation

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