A study published by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has shown that poor school experiences, such as suspension, repeating a grade and risky behavior, such as drug taking and smoking, are important predictors of whether a student will complete year 12.

 

The School completion: what we learn from different measures of family background report, led by Jacqueline Homel and researchers from ANY’s Social Policy Evaluation, Analysis and Research, uses simple measures of family background to paint a clearer picture of the relationship between disadvantage and educational outcomes.

 

The study combines data from both the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) and the Youth in Focus (YIF) survey.

 

“The comparison of LSAY data and the YIF survey provide a broad set of disadvantage measures such as parental and family characteristics, family income, welfare receipt history, students’ early experiences at school and their participation in risky and/or antisocial behaviour,” commented NCVER Managing Director, Dr Tom Karmel.

 

“The inclusion of these broader measures shows that commonly used indicators of disadvantage, including parental education and occupational status, are less significant than previously indicated. In addition, current family income has only a small effect on Year 12 completion.

 

“Students who have repeated a school year have a 30 percentage point lower probability of completion (YIF), while students who were ever suspended were 19 percentage points less likely.

 

“Plans to participate in Year 12 and go on to university increase the probability of achieving these goals by 24 and 8 percentage points, respectively.

 

“Risky activities such as smoking and alcohol consumption are also a marker of a lower chance of competing year 12.”

 

The Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), track young people aged 15- 25 as they move from school into further study, work and other destinations. Analysis of LSAY is produced by NCVER on behalf of the Australian and state and territory Governments with funding provided through the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

 

Copies of School completion: what we learn from different measures of family background are available from: www.lsay.edu.au/publications/2503.html