Indigenous school attendance

Policy Insights
ISSUE #4 MARCH 2016
Australian Council for Educational Research
INDIGENOUS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE:
CREATING EXPECTATIONS THAT ARE
‘REALLY HIGH’ AND ‘HIGHLY REAL’
TONY DREISE, GINA MILGATE, BILL PERRETT & TROY MESTON

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
BALANCING DEMAND AND SUPPLY 3
CURRENT RATES OF SCHOOL
ABSENTEEISM 4
THE GAPS GROW UP (SECONDARY)
AND OUT (REMOTE) 6
REASONS FOR MISSING SCHOOL 8
AUTHORISED AND UNAUTHORISED
ABSENCES 9
THE ‘CATCH 22’ NATURE OF THE
PROBLEM 12
RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS 14
DATA HAVE TO IMPROVE 16
SOME KEY LESSONS MOVING
FORWARD 17
WHERE NEXT FOR INDIGENOUS
AUSTRALIA? 19
REFERENCES 20

INDIGENOUS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 1POLICY INSIGHTS | MARCH 2016
INTRODUCTION
Educators and policy-makers are increasingly
calling for ‘high expectations’ in education,
including in Indigenous education. One of
these expectations is improved rates of
school attendance. The Council of Australian
Governments (COAG)1
has included school
attendance as a key Closing the Gap measure
in national Indigenous affairs policy. COAG is
seeking to close the gap between Indigenous
and non-Indigenous student attendance by
2018 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2014).
Ensuring that all school-aged children and
young people attend school regularly is a
worthy social outcome. Regular attendance
means learners are in a better position to keep
pace academically and stay connected socially
(Hancock, Shepherd, Lawrence & Zubrick,
2013; Zubrick, 2014).
In tackling social policy issues such as poor
school attendance, policy-makers have a
range of levers with which to try to effect
positive change. These include law-making,
public information campaigns, subsidies and
investment in community programs and public
1 The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is the
peak intergovernmental forum in Australia. The members of
COAG are the Prime Minister, state and territory Premiers
and Chief Ministers and the President of the Australian Local
Government Association (ALGA). COAG has developed a
framework with targets to Close the Gap between Indigenous
and non-Indigenous Australian in the early years, education,
health and life expectancy.
services (Australian Government, 2007).
Governments can also draw upon sanctions,
penalties and fines as ways to influence
behavioural change among citizens.
Public policy and political discourse about poor
school attendance among Indigenous young
people has, in recent years, been framed within
the context of behavioural change by parents
of Indigenous young people, namely through
welfare reform. Both of the major political
parties in Australia have signalled that welfare
reform would be used to lift school attendance
in Indigenous communities. And yet, single-
level, ‘top down’ interventions are unlikely to
have sufficient impact by themselves, especially
when they are devoid of ownership, leadership
and action at a community level.
Altman’s (2013) research on the Northern
Territory National Emergency Response (also
referred to as ‘the Intervention’) showed
‘top-down’ approaches to be disempowering
to communities. Yet, as the Australian Public
Sector Commission has stated, “Government
cannot solve complex problems alone”
(Australian Government, 2007, p.2).
In tackling this particular public policy issue of
Indigenous school attendance, expectations
should be both ‘really high’ (of schools,
students and parents and carers), and ‘highly
INDIGENOUS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE:
CREATING EXPECTATIONS THAT ARE ‘REALLY HIGH’ AND ‘HIGHLY REAL’
TONY DREISE, GINA MILGATE, BILL PERRETT & TROY MESTON

INDIGENOUS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE2 POLICY INSIGHTS | MARCH 2016
real’ (about the social and economic policies
that stymie educational success).
This Policy Insights paper commences with
a synthesis of publicly available data on
school attendance by Indigenous Australians,
highlighting areas of major risk. It explores
Australian and international literature
to develop an understanding of the risk
factors and protective factors involved in
strengthening school attendance. The paper
then articulates a number of design principles
to underpin future investment and intervention
policies, and concludes with proposed
guideposts which could be considered by
policy-makers going forward.
This paper posits that addressing poor school
attendance has to be seen in an holistic light:
firstly by recognising the multifaceted nature
of the challenge; and secondly by embracing
a suite of responses to meet the many
interdependencies involved. The paper argues
that issues concerning Indigenous students’
school attendance fundamentally represent
a broader social policy challenge, not merely
a challenge within education policy circles.
This paper questions whether a ‘one-size-
fits-all’ or an ‘across-the-board’ response may
be too blunt an instrument to effect positive
change. This paper argues instead, that a highly
focused policy design, targeted programs
and coordinated efforts at local levels, are
warranted.
Government cannot solve
complex problems alone

'Whole child'
development
Learner
centredness and
responsiveness
Building learning
cultures in
communities
DEMAND
Equitable school
resourcing and
infrastructure
An interesting yet
challenging
curriculum
Quality teaching
SUPPLY
BALANCING DEMAND AND SUPPLY
Public policy attention in Indigenous education
has arguably concentrated in recent decades
on the ‘supply’ side of Indigenous education:
teacher training, school leadership, curriculum
and school resources. It has too often
overlooked the equally important ‘demand’
side of the equation in the form of Indigenous
demand for high-quality and culturally
responsive education.
Measures that simultaneously empower learning
dispositions among Indigenous communities
(by facilitating the valuing of, and demand for,
lifelong and life-wide learning), and adequately
equip schools to meet the needs of the whole
child, are worthy of greater policy consideration.
In addition, when education policy and
practice adopts learner-centred approaches,
then Indigenous youth are more likely to
stay engaged in learning (Wierenga & Taylor
2015). Learner-centred approaches include
systematically listening and responding to the
voice of learners, and ensuring curriculum
offerings are balanced, interesting and provide
choice for Indigenous youth, without losing
academic rigour.
‘Lifelong learning’ is generally
considered to refer to learning
that is continued throughout
one’s life. ‘Life wide learning’
refers to students learning in
contexts that are real and often
familiar to them.
Figure 1 Balancing demand and supply

CURRENT RATES OF SCHOOL ABSENTEEISM
Like most Australian students, the majority
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
children attend school on a regular basis. For
example, 87 per cent of Indigenous children
in New South Wales (NSW) attended school
regularly in 2014 (NSW Department of
Education and Communities, 2014). However,
educational data from across Australia show
that absenteeism is higher among Indigenous
learners compared to non-Indigenous students
(Armstrong & Buckley, 2011; Helme & Lamb,
2011). Despite improvements over recent
decades, research points to a gap of 10 per
cent between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
school attendance (Purdie & Buckley, 2010).
It is neither accurate nor fair however, to
say that school attendance is a chronic issue
across the entirety of Indigenous Australia.
The gap in school attendance rates between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous students
widens as children grow older and tends to be
significantly greater in remote and very remote
areas (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015). The
Closing the Gap report, (Commonwealth of
Australia 2016a, p.16) further notes that
“IN 2015, the attendance rate for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander students was
83.7 per cent, little change from the rate in
2014 (83.5 per cent). Progress will need to
accelerate for this target to be met.”
At a jurisdictional level, the gap between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in
Year 10 is comparatively large, but has been
closing. In 2012, the Australian Curriculum,
Assessment and Reporting Authority
(ACARA) reported that there was a gap of
31% between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Year 10 students’ attendance in the Northern
Territory. In 2015, according to the Northern
Territory Department of Education, this gap
in attendance data now stands at a difference
of 27 per cent for Year 10 students (NT
Department of Education, 2015a).
National Year 12 retention data and data at
jurisdictional levels also point to improvements
in the rates of Indigenous attendance and
retention in schooling over recent decades
(Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2015).
In NSW, for example, the gap between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous students’
attendance has been closing between 2006
and 2014, as can be seen in Figure 3.
Additionally, Victoria, Tasmania and the
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are
on track to meet their attendance targets
(Commonwealth of Australia, 2016a). While
this is encouraging, the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander populations in these three
Figure 2 Gap between Indigenous and non-
Indigenous students in Year 10 in the NT
27%
The gap in
Year 10 school
attendance

jurisdictions are small compared with NSW,
the Northern Territory, Queensland, South
Australia and Western Australia.
Furthermore, as Ainley, Buckley, Beavis,
Rothman Tovey (2011) note, Indigenous
completion rates in vocational education and
training qualifications improved between
1996 and 2008, and the apparent retention
rate for Indigenous students from Year 10
to Year 12 also improved by four fifths of a
percentage point per year between 1995 and
2009. Meanwhile, the average attendance rate
in 2014 of 87 percent for Aboriginal students
in public schools in NSW was the highest rate
since 2006 (Centre for Education Statistics and
Evaluation (CESE), 2015a).
While improvements in school attendance
have been achieved in some parts of Australia,
there remains a considerable way to go. For
example, the Closing the Gap Prime Minister’s
Report 2016 indicates that in Semester 1, 2015,
79.3 per cent of non-Indigenous students
attended school 90 per cent or more of
the time compared to only 49.2 per cent
of Indigenous students. In the Northern
Territory, the Department of Education (2015)
indicates that the proportion of Indigenous
students attending school 90 per cent of the
time in 2014 was 37 per cent, compared to
88 per cent for non-Indigenous students (NT
Department of Education, 2015b).
Given this context, this paper seeks to pinpoint
areas where policy-makers, community groups
and educators should focus their collective
attention.
The gap
was almost
10 per cent
The gap
was slighlty
less than 6
per cent
In2006
In2014
Figure 3 The gap in school attendance rates in NSW
Connected Communities is a
New South Wales Government
initiative which targets
vulnerable communities and
strives to place schools at the
centre of community.

THE ‘GAPS’ GROW UP (SECONDARY SCHOOLING)
AND OUT (REMOTE)
National data show that where sizeable gaps
remain in school attendance, two factors are
generally at play:
[[ geographical isolation2
(along with
associated socio-economic marginalisation);
and
[[ disengagement from secondary schooling
(especially senior secondary schooling).
Greater attention has to be given to
geographical ‘hot spots’ and to Indigenous
youth who are disengaging from school at
far earlier and greater rates than their non-
Indigenous peers.
The higher risks of school absenteeism in
remote areas is illustrated in data from NSW
which show that Aboriginal attendance at
government schools in remote or very remote
NSW was almost 10 percentage points lower
than Aboriginal attendance in metropolitan
schools in 2006. These data also indicate that
the gap in Aboriginal attendance in public
schools between remote and urban areas has
narrowed between 2006 (almost 10 per cent)
and 2014 (6 per cent) (CESE, 2015a).
Similarly in Western Australia, Hancock et al,
(2013) found that attendance rates on average
between 2008 and 2012 were 72 per cent for
all secondary students in very remote areas
(where considerable numbers of Indigenous
2 Remoteness is calculated by the ABS using the road distance
to the nearest Urban Centre in each of five classes (major
cities, inner regional, outer regional, remote, very remote)
based on population size.
students reside), compared with attendance
rates of 85 to 88 per cent in regional and
metropolitan locations (where considerable
numbers of non-Indigenous students reside)
(see Figure 4).
Hancock et al (2013) also found that children
in Western Australia “have highly stable
attendance throughout the primary years [but]
attendance rates fall in secondary school.”
The authors also found undisputedly and
unequivocally that “relative disadvantage was
associated with poorer attendance, from the
very beginning of formal schooling” (p. iv).
in very
remote
communities
metropolitan
areas
Figure 4: School attendance rates among all
students in Western Australia

These data are consistent with those from
Queensland, as illustrated by the following
two maps (Figure 5). The map on the left is
sourced from the recent Dropping off the Edge
2015 report looking at multiple disadvantage
in Australia (Vinson Rawsthorne, 2015). The
regions shown in red are the most socially
and economically disadvantaged areas in
Queensland. The map on the right shows the
proportion of all state school students in each
region attending less than 85 per cent of the
time (Queensland Department of Education
and Training, 2015). The results in south-west,
north-west and far north Queensland help
illustrate the association between high levels
of socio-economic disadvantage and increased
levels of school absenteeism.
These data from Queensland, NSW, and
Western Australia show that the risk of non-
attendance generally increases the greater
the distance from capital cities. The data
underscores the importance of focusing on
geographically isolated communities. However,
attention has to also be given to innovative
responses to Indigenous youth who are
disengaging from education in secondary school
due to a lack of relevance in the curriculum.
This is not confined to remote areas of
Australia. The Learning Choices program
delivered by the Dusseldorp Forum (2014)
includes students from metropolitan, rural
and remote communities. The program keeps
students connected to learning and develops
their sense of agency, skill and capacity.
Figure 5: School attendance rates in Queensland
Proportion of all students in
each region attending less
than 85% of the time. State
schools only 2010.
22.4%
21.5%
17.3%
13.5%
17.7%
18.2%
19.0%
Dropping off the edge 2015
http://www.dote.org.au/
School attendance data
http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/statistics/student-attendance.html

REASONS FOR MISSING SCHOOL
The reasons for non-attendance at school are
many, varied and complex. In Queensland for
instance, data between 2010 and 2014 show
that ‘illness’ is the single biggest reason for
explained absences among both Indigenous
and non-Indigenous students. In some parts
of Indigenous Australia, ‘sorry business’ or
funerals is also provided as a major reason for
missing school.
While apathy, resistance and poor attitudes
among students and parents may provide some
explanation, such an explanation is dwarfed by
data indicating that issues such as poverty, poor
health and family stress are the most common
causes. Geographical isolation and an associated
lack of choices in secondary schooling
experience are also contributing factors for
school absenteeism in Indigenous communities
(Hancock et al, 2013, Zubrick, 2014).
With regard to the relationship between
poverty and school absenteeism, Australia is
not alone. International data show relationships
between the two, and these are not limited
only to developing countries. Zhang (2003) for
instance, established clear links between school
absenteeism and child poverty in parts of the
United Kingdom. Eleven years later, Clarke’s
(2014) research also in the United Kingdom
highlighted that adolescents from low socio-
economic backgrounds are still more likely to
underachieve academically and continue to be
in a cycle of poverty.
The relationship between poverty and school
absenteeism is not confined to geographical
remoteness either. Researchers in the United
States, for example, have explored the
relationship between locational disadvantage
and school outcomes in urban settings. For
decades, the US National Center for Education
Statistics has noted “the growing challenges
of educating urban youth who are increasingly
presenting problems such as poverty, limited
English proficiency, family instability, and poor
health”, concluding that “students flounder
in decaying, violent environments with poor
resources, teachers, and curricula, and with
limited opportunities” (Lippman, Burns
McArthur, 1996, p. v).
Almost 20 years later, Anyon (2014) highlights
the continued inequities in the political
economy explaining poor educational
outcomes in impoverished urban communities
in the United States. Such issues of social
inequity are equally pertinent in the Australian
experience, as highlighted by the Review of
funding for schooling (Gonski, Boston, Greiner,
Lawrence, Scales Tannock, 2011).

AUTHORISED AND UNAUTHORISED ABSENCES
A distinction between absenteeism and
truancy is important. Put simply, one might
choose to describe absenteeism as ‘willing
but unable to attend school’ while truancy as
‘able but unwilling to attend school’. Common
causes of absenteeism for all children and
young people relate to health, transportation,
family circumstances and obligations, mobility,
food and clothing. Common causes of
truancy can relate to feelings of educational
disengagement, peer factors (including
bullying), family factors (including violence), and
self-confidence (often referred to as ‘shame’).
These risks point to the importance of
protective factors such as child and adolescent
health and wellbeing.
Zubrick (2014) offers the following reasons for
poor school attendance:
1. truancy
2. ‘dropping out’ of school (compared with
engagement)
3. family mobility
4. absences (compared with attendance)
‘Truancy’ generally refers to ‘unauthorised
absences’ as defined by legislative remits, while
‘authorised absences’ generally relate to health
matters. Health is a leading factor in explaining
absences. For instance, the National Aboriginal
Community Controlled Health Organisation’s
Ear Trial and School Attendance Project in 2003
(Couzos, Lea, Mueller, Murray Culbong
2003) found that children with otitis media
(or ‘glue ear’) attended school only 69 per
cent of the days available compared with 88
per cent of other children in the same schools.
More recent work by Jervis-Bardy, Sanchez
Carney (2014) indicates otitis media and other
issues remain outstanding and are of significant
concern.
Poor health (both physical and mental) is
often cited within international studies to
explain school absenteeism. To illustrate: a
survey involving 1300 teenagers in the United
States found that ‘ill health’ (at 79 per cent)
was by far the most cited reason for school
absenteeism, followed by family obligations
(40 per cent), and ‘not feeling like it’ (at 21 per
cent) (Attendance Works, 2014). Meanwhile
in the United Kingdom, a survey of more than
3000 people who have experienced mental
health problems while in education found
that 24 per cent of respondents did not go to
school, college or university because they were
worried by what other people would say, and
15 per cent were worried about bullying (Time
to Change, 2014).
These findings illustrate the multi-causal
nature of school absenteeism. Causes include
but extend beyond young people’s attitudes
(including, at times, apathy) toward schooling.
To this end, it is important to differentiate
between positive and negative dimensions
to the notion of school ‘drop out’. On the
negative side, young people (namely teenagers)
may choose to resist school as they feel
Absenteeism is ‘willing but
unable to attend school’ while
truancy is ‘able but unwilling
to attend school’

alienated from what is being taught and
disengaged from how it is being taught. On the
positive side, young people can choose to leave
school as they find more meaning in vocational
studies, training or employment.
The Social Equity in Vocational Education
and Training (VET) Report (Rothman, Shah,
Underwood, McMillan, Brown McKenzie,
2013), found positive levels of participation in
vocational education and training among young
Indigenous Australians, including in traineeships
and apprenticeships. This report indicates that
where more choice is available for Indigenous
learners, it can lead to positive outcomes.
Helme and Lamb (2011) summarise the major
barriers to school attendance and completion
among Indigenous students, namely:
[[ physical barriers (such as geographic
isolation)
[[ cultural barriers (for example, due to
discrimination)
[[ economic barriers (which include the costs
associated with attending school)
[[ informational barriers (for example, due to
the lower levels of English language literacy
in Indigenous communities).
Similarly, Purdie and Buckley (2010) have
documented a number of out-of-school factors
that can lead to non-attendance at school,
including:
[[ funerals
[[ health
[[ ceremonies
[[ sporting activities
[[ religious or cultural activities.
Small-scale research undertaken by ACER
(Lonsdale Armstrong, 2012) in remote
parts of the Northern Territory is consistent
with the above finding about funerals. ACER’s
research found that the main reasons for
children not attending school was by far ‘sorry
business’ or funerals (40 per cent of reasons
offered for non-attendance); followed by
‘participation in sporting carnivals’; ‘student
illness’; and incidents of ‘family violence’.
In addition to these external factors,
Partington, Galloway, Sibbel, Gray, Grote
Gower (2009) also list a number of in-school
factors that influence school attendance,
including:
[[ differing socio-cultural backgrounds
[[ language differences
[[ cultural differences
[[ extreme levels of poverty
[[ racism.
National data show that Indigenous children
and young people are more likely to
experience the following stresses and inhibitors
to successful learning (Sims, 2011):
[[ family violence
[[ mental ill health
[[ overcrowded housing
[[ juvenile justice detention
[[ morbidity
[[ disability.
When both internal (inside of school) and
external (outside of school) factors are borne
in mind, it becomes apparent that addressing
non-attendance is a broader social policy
challenge, than solely one for the education
sector. The Federal House of Representatives
Standing Committee on Employment,
Education and Training in 1996 recognised as
much when it defined truancy and its causes in
the following terms:

TRUANCY IS the result of multiple negative
and cumulative influences originating from
the individual, the family, the school and
the community and is therefore a broad
social issue which needs to be addressed by
comprehensive social policies (p. 25).
More recently, Petray (2013) suggests that
punitive measures such as truancy officers and
income management, take agency away from
Indigenous people, and do not have a positive
impact upon educational outcomes, including
school attendance. Additionally, Justman
Peyton’s (2014) research indicates that linking
school attendance with welfare payments is
not feasible in the long term unless there are
measures where learners can see a value in
education. Programs that spark learner interest
and inspire learners to take ownership and
make choices about their lives, are therefore
required.

THE ‘CATCH 22’ NATURE OF THE PROBLEM
In Indigenous affairs policy discourse,
education is often cited by policy-makers
and commentators as the single most
important lever to turning around Indigenous
disadvantage. Langton and Ma Rhea (2009)
for example, argue that education is crucial to
building capacity in communities and creating
Aboriginal leaders, teachers, professionals and
self-sufficient individuals of the future. This is
supported by the Federal Member for Grey
in South Australia, Rowan Ramsey MP, who
suggests that attendance and education is the
key to a good future for children in Indigenous
communities (Scullion, 2015). On the other
hand, the prevalence of relatively high levels
of social and economic disadvantage continue
to hamper children’s and families’ abilities to
sustain engagement in, and reap rewards from,
formal schooling.
These views represent two equally valid
logical steps in understanding the risks to,
and benefits of, increased Indigenous school
attendance. Firstly, it makes intuitive sense
that increased school attendance among
Indigenous young people will lead to greater
educational attainment which will, in turn, lead
to more qualified people in jobs. Greater rates
of employment will then lead to a situation
where Indigenous people enjoy more economic
independence and a greater quality of life (as
illustrated in Logic Step Progression A Figure 6).
At the same time, the lack of quality of life in
many Indigenous communities, as measured
by rates of Indigenous unemployment,
standards of health (including mental health),
racism, overcrowded housing, and the
prevalence of acute poverty, makes the task
of attending and thriving in school all the
more difficult. Literature and data in Australia
and throughout the world show that people
from socially and economically disadvantaged
areas struggle to establish and maintain
engagement in formal education. This can
be due to unemployment, poor health and
poor quality of life as presented in Logic Step
Progression B Figure 7.
The challenge for education and social policy-
makers, including those working in Indigenous
affairs, is working out how to unlock this ‘catch
22’ scenario. This dilemma of how to work
with these understandings to maximise Logic
Figure 6 Improving Indigenous school attendance logic step progression A
Increased
education
Increased
employment
Logic Step Progression A
Increased
quality of life

Step Progression A and minimise Logic Step
Progression B highlights the importance of
simultaneous and coordinated action both
‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of the school gates.
Ainscow et al (2012) made similar findings in
the UK by pointing to the dual importance of
school leadership and reform coupled with
an improvement of home circumstances to
adequately tackle school attendance issues.
Before children begin formal schooling, racial
and socioeconomic gaps begin to form and
can be attributed to family-environment
factors. These data provide a salient lesson
about stronger investment in early childhood
education in Australia.
Indigenous participation in early childhood
education is showing signs of improvement
in the case of Indigenous child enrolment,
particularly in remote parts of Australia. The
Productivity Commission (Steering Committee
for the Review of Government Service
Provision, 2013) found that both enrolment and
attendance rates in the final year before full-
time schooling were higher among Indigenous
children in remote and very remote areas
(75 per cent), than among city-based Indigenous
children (65 per cent). These changes are
encouraging developments from the point of
view of school attendance later in life, given
the importance of establishing early patterns in
regular school attendance (Hancock et al., 2013).
Unemployment
and poor health
Poor quality
of life
Logic Step Progression B
Educational
disengagement
Figure 7 Improving Indigenous school attendance logic step progression B

RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS
School attendance however, is influenced by
the levels of social and economic disadvantage
that populations experience. Two recent
studies have once again emphasised the
disproportionate levels of social and economic
disadvantage confronted by Indigenous
communities. Firstly, the Addressing Entrenched
Disadvantage in Australia 2015 report by the
Committee for Economic Development of
Australia has found that Indigenous Australians
continue to be at high risk of facing long-
term disadvantage as measured not only by
income, but material resources, employment,
education, health and disability, social
connection, community and personal safety.
This report highlights the relationship between
intergenerational disadvantage and the
intergenerational transmission of educational
disadvantage.
Secondly, the Dropping off the Edge 2015
report (Vinson Rawsthorne 2015) illustrates
that social disadvantage, especially cumulative
and intergenerational disadvantage, is heavily
concentrated in the postcodes with sizeable
proportions of Indigenous residents. The
implications of these and other findings
are clear. This level of disadvantage is
disproportionate to the size of Australia’s
Indigenous population.
Analysis of international and domestic
literature suggests there has to be a
comprehensive suite of investments and
interventions so that communities are
resourced to co-produce stronger wellbeing
and growth among children and young people
(Wierenga Taylor, 2015). This approach is
illustrated in Figure 8.
Figure 8 Co-producing and enabling school attendance
Improved Indigenous Learning
Outcomes in ‘Place’
School Community
Government
Indigenous Australians
continue to be at high
risk of facing long-term
disadvantage as measured not
only by income, but material
resources, employment,
education, health and
disability, social connection,
community and personal
safety.

Holistic, multi-faceted, co-produced models
of interventions are particularly important
in communities that are experiencing high
levels of intergenerational and cumulative
disadvantage, acute poverty, and family
stress caused by social inhibitors such
as overcrowded housing, racism and
dispossession.
To increase school attendance two streams
of effort have to be embraced and run
concurrently:
1. Empowering communities (outside of
school gates); and
2. Targeting resourcing to schools (inside
school gates) to meet the needs of the
whole child.
Furthermore, it is critical to implement
programs that respond to the holistic needs of
disadvantaged children, not only academically
but emotionally, physically, culturally and in
terms of their identity development.
The best role for government is as an ‘enabler’
of community-led and community-devised
strategies. The enactment of this role has to
be context-sensitive, culturally appropriate,
collaborative, empowering and aimed at
re-energising a love of lifelong learning by all
Indigenous children and students.
With this notion of ‘public sector enabling’
in mind, policy-makers in Australia are being
asked to give consideration to the principles
outlined in the recent Empowered Communities:
Empowered Peoples – Design Report submitted
to the Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet in 2015 (Wunan Foundation, 2015).
This report calls for a paradigm shift from
centralised government control to empowered
communities across the Indigenous affairs
landscape. This is not new thinking in social
policy in Australia or internationally, as the
following examples demonstrate.
In Australia, the work of the Communities in
Control initiative (2016) helps to highlight the
merits of community-based investment and
empowered communities.
Internationally, conceptual contributions such
as that of McKnight and Kretzmann in 1993,
point to the strengths of mobilisation of
community-based assets to solve community
problems. With regard to community
empowerment models in educational contexts
more specifically, Nielsen (2007) captures
evaluation findings from the World Bank in
the Empowering Communities for Improved
Educational Outcomes paper. All of these
reports highlight the benefits of endogenous
effort and ownership within communities,
coupled with exogenous investment and
enablement from public, philanthropic and
other external funders to improve both
educational and broader social outcomes.
Social disadvantage,
especially cumulative
and intergenerational
disadvantage, is heavily
concentrated in the postcodes
with sizeable proportions of
Indigenous residents.

DATA HAVE TO IMPROVE
Alongside well-designed and targeted
programs to address poor school attendance,
it is important to improve data collection and
analysis at both system and program levels.
At the moment, there is a lack of consistency
in the data collected across jurisdictions. At
a national level, data on school attendance
are sourced from the Australian Curriculum,
Assessment and Reporting Authority
(ACARA, 2012). However, as the Productivity
Commission in its Overcoming Indigenous
Disadvantage Report (Steering Committee for
the Review of Government Service Provision,
2014) has acknowledged:
DATA ARE of acceptable accuracy within
individual school sectors within a State or
Territory, but are currently not comparable
across school sectors or states and
territories, due to differences in collection
and reporting processes (7.3).
In addition, some data collection at the
jurisdictional level is too broad to be useful for
informing investment and resource allocations
in education. Between 2010 and 2014 for
example, in state schools in Queensland the
highest recorded reason offered for non-
attendance by Indigenous and non-Indigenous
students alike was ‘illness’ followed by
‘unexplained’. Sharper data, such as reasons
for absence trends in participation data are
necessary to guide and underpin public policy,
program development and expenditure into
the future.
Similarly, Mr Warren Mundine, Chair of the
Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council,
has argued that the states and territories have
to improve the quality of the data collected at
a jurisdictional level to enable the Australian
Government to identify when Indigenous
children are falling through the cracks
(Everingham, 2015).
At a program level, Purdie and Buckley
(2010) have provided an extensive case
for improvements in the nature of the data
collected, and of the evaluations conducted
in Indigenous education. They cite a number
of Indigenous education programs that have
not been subjected to independent, publicly
available or longitudinal evaluations. Further,
they propose a key question for researchers
and policy-makers to address: ‘what constitutes
reliable evidence to evaluate programs and
initiatives so that good policy and actions
can be formulated to effect change?’ (p.16).
This question is one that requires further
consideration, as the collection of attendance
data has to be improved to guide optimal
policy development and program delivery.

SOME KEY LESSONS MOVING FORWARD
Going forward, coordinated interaction is
required both inside and outside school gates.
Literature about school attendance from
Australia and internationally points to a case
for coordinated and concerted interaction
between schools and communities to lift
school attendance. It is not a challenge for
schools alone, but this is not to say that they
are ‘off the hook’. As Indigenous educator
Dr Chris Sarra argues, school leadership is
essential in lifting Indigenous attendance. He
has made the following point: “we know for
sure from examples right across the country,
where school leaders go out of their way to
engage with parents and children and build
positive relationships, attendance improves”
(Sarra, 2011, p6). Relationships are therefore
important. This viewpoint is consistent with
calls from a principal in New Zealand, who
suggests that relationships are the key to lifting
school attendance:
IT IS not enough for the school to have
good structures and procedures in place
and to set standards and expectations for
attendance – what sits underneath all that
is relationships (New Zealand Ministry of
Education, 2011, p6).
The recent interim evaluation report of
the NSW Connected Communities Strategy
(CESE, 2015b, p.10) suggests that, “Many
of these issues are beyond the abilities of
schools to address alone”. The evaluation
found that attendance initiatives such as bus
runs and reward incentives are important.
Research under the former What Works
(Commonwealth of Australia, 2016b) initiative
in relation to school attendance highlights
the value of developing partnerships with
consistent engagement with the community.
In taking forward the issue of school
attendance, policy-makers must
simultaneously empower schools and
community groups alike to effectively bolster
school attendance in high-risk areas. A
new premium has to be put on strategies
that invest in child wellbeing, growth and
development: inside and outside school
gates. Tomaney (2010, p.6) describes these
approaches as ‘place-based’ strategies,
which is a “new paradigm of local and
regional development [that] emphasises the
identification and mobilisation of endogenous
potential, that is, the ability of places to grow
drawing on their own resources, notably their
human capital and innovative capacities.”
Successful examples of ‘placed-based’
strategies include breakfast and lunch clubs,
bringing Elders into schools, Aboriginal
teachers and teacher aides and implementing
programs that promote self-esteem and
confidence with culture and academic pursuits
(Behrendt, 2009)
The National Centre for Indigenous Excellence
(NCIE) based in Redfern NSW, provides a
holistic approach to education for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander students through
learning and innovation, sport and recreation,
arts and culture, and health and wellbeing.
According to KPMG (2014) through the
implementation of these initiatives, NCIE
has created $30 million in social impact.
The approaches proposed by NCIE are also
consistent with international models.

In Canada (Alberta) (Edmonton Public
Schools, 2007) under its Aboriginal Learning
Policy, schools strive to create an educational
environment that respects First Nations
Peoples and includes Elders. Schools also
consider spiritual, mental, emotional and
physical perspectives to teaching students
and infuse Aboriginal perspectives in the
curriculum.
The Harlem Children’s Zone is one example of
a model which seeks to address the needs of
disadvantaged children both in the school and
in the community (Ainscow et al, 2012).
In Finland, under the Basic Education Act
(World Future Council, 2016), provisions
to support school attendance include free
books and learning materials, a balanced
meal at school every day for all students and
free transport if students reside further than
5 kilometres from the school.
In the United Kingdom (RSM McClure
Watters, 2012) rewards for attendance are
given to individuals and to whole classes; there
is a free phone number for parents who want
to call or text to report a student’s absence;
pastoral support is available for long term
absences that recognise multiple disadvantages;
and breakfast clubs and homework clubs are
available for students.
In New Zealand, schools develop an
attendance plan that is underpinned by an
holistic approach towards school attendance,
including the provision of a safe and engaging
learning environment, and where schools see
themselves as the hub of the community that
connects education, health and community
services.

WHERE NEXT FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA?
Boosting school attendance in Indigenous
communities is a complex exercise. The task
has to be kept in perspective and responses
have to be focussed and well targeted. This
paper provides ideas for policy-makers to
consider in shaping policy and program designs.
The overarching principle that emerges from
the research, as drawn from international and
national evidence and data, is that schools
and communities require resources and
empowerment at the local level to devise
strategies that are context sensitive, culturally
appropriate, collaborative, and re-energise a
love of lifelong learning.
In summary, the following fifteen ‘guideposts’
are proposed for policy-makers and Indigenous
communities, to improve school attendance in
those communities that require it.
1. Set expectations early and establish
patterns early, through sustained
investments in early childhood education.
2. Build bridges between homes and schools
in Indigenous communities.
3. Foster high-performing school leadership
which is culturally responsive and externally
engaged.
4. Support joint school–community
collaborative initiatives in high-risk
communities over the long haul.
5. Emphasise fostering and stimulating
community demand for high-quality and
culturally responsive lifelong learning.
6. Think creatively and laterally about
community-based solutions and then
seed and fertilise innovation, by investing
in community-based human and financial
resources.
7. Embrace whole-child and place-based
models.
8. Integrate children’s academic development
with their health, wellbeing and safety by
supporting schools and the Indigenous
non-government community sector
simultaneously.
9. Improve data systems by making them
transparent and regularly reported.
10. Refine and sharpen the data relating to
why children and young people are missing
school.
11. Innovate and open up choices for
teenagers to retain their engagement
in school education, through vocational
education and training programs and also
through project-based programs, creativity
learning, work studies and entrepreneurial
education.
12. Create reward and recognition systems for
regular school attendees.
13. Undertake more rigorous assessments and
independent evaluations of intervention
measures, commencing with the Remote
Schools Attendance Strategy (see National
Employment Services Association, 2014).
14. Recruit Indigenous students into Initial
Teacher Education.
15. Foster the systematic professional
development of teachers to ensure that
there is continuous improvement in
learner-centred teaching.
Bolstering school attendance in those
Indigenous communities that require it is
clearly a challenge requiring cooperative and
concerted action between well-resourced
schools and well-resourced communities.

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cgi?article=1221context=research_conference

Previous issues
Issue 3:
Australian students in a
digital world
by Sue Thomson
Issue 2:
The teacher workforce in
Australia: Supply, demand
and data issues
by Paul R Weldon
Issue 1:
Is school reform working?
by Geoff N Masters AO

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Acknowledgements
Dropping off the edge 2015
Image from Dropping Off The Edge 2015: Persistent
communal disadvantage in Australia by Tony Vinson and
Margot Rawsthorne, with Adrian Beavis and Matthew
Ericson. Published by Jesuit Social Services and Catholic
Social Services Australia 2015. Reproduced by permission
of Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services
Australia.
School attendance data
Image modified from Figure 2, p.9 in Performance
Insights: School Attendance produced by the
Queensland Department of Education, Training and
Employment, October 2013 http://education.qld.gov.
au/everydaycounts/docs/performance-insights-report.
pdf. © State of Queensland (Department of Education
and Training). The image is licenced under a Creative
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