Secondary Education Commons^™

Reality Now: Tobacco And Vaping Report, Tamara Van Der Zant, Terese Hooper, Katherine Dix, Toby Carslake

Wellbeing

This report presents findings from data collected through the Reality Now program, providing a long-term study exploring tobacco and vaping behaviours among Australian secondary school students. Conducted from 2018 to 2024, the program collected nearly 30,000 responses from students in Years 7 to 11. Using a social norms approach (SNA), the program aimed to identify and correct misperceptions about peer substance use and promote healthier behaviours. This report focuses on tobacco and vaping behaviours, whereas the broader program also examined the use of alcohol, cannabis, and MDMA. The findings show that while actual tobacco and vape use remain low, students …

Pisa 2022 Australia Student And Achievement Data [Spss] [Data Set], Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This dataset (SPSS zipped) is a data source for the following reports:

PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume I: Student performance and equity in education

PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume II: Student and school characteristics

Pisa 2022: Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume Ii Student And School Characteristics: Data Tables [Excel] [Data Set], Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Zipped Excel file provides the data in tabular format that was used to prepare the figures presented in the report: PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume II: Student and school characteristics. The data covers the constructs reported in the report.

Pisa 2022 Australia School Questionnaire Data [Spss] [Data Set], Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This dataset (SPSS zipped) is a data source for the following reports:

PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume I: Student performance and equity in education

PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume II: Student and school characteristics

Pisa 2022 Australia School Questionnaire Data [Sas] [Data Set], Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This dataset (SAS zipped) is a data source for the following reports:

PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume I: Student performance and equity in education

PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume II: Student and school characteristics

Pisa 2022 Australia Student And Achievement Data [Sas] [Data Set], Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This dataset (SAS zipped) is a data source for the following reports:

PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume I: Student performance and equity in education

PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume II: Student and school characteristics

Pisa 2022. Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume I: Student Performance: Data Tables [Excel] [Data Set], Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This zipped excel file is the data behind the figures and tables in the report: PISA 2022. Reporting Australia’s results. Volume I: Student performance and equity in education. They cover Australian student performance in mathematical literacy, scientific literacy and reading literacy.

Australian University Outcomes: A National Study Comparing Ibdp And Non-Ibdp Students, Kylie Hillman, Daniel Edwards, Leyna Clarke

Higher education research

This study compares the university outcomes of students who completed the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) in Australia compared to non-DP students nationally. The findings are based on population-level data for all students who applied to and entered universities in Australia between 2013 and 2018. To address differences in DP and non-DP student characteristics, the researchers further examined outcomes by groups within the populations that are more alike, for example, by gender and socio-economic status. Across all cohorts, DP students gain offers of university admission, continue to their second year of study, and complete university for all check points …

Pisa In Brief 2022: Student Performance And Equity In Education, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Sue Thomson

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an assessment that measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students, an age at which they have nearly completed compulsory schooling. PISA assesses young adults’ ability to apply their knowledge and skills to real-life problems and situations rather than how well they have learned a specific curriculum. This PISA in Brief report provides a summary of student performance in the PISA 2022 assessment and tells us about their capacity to apply knowledge and skills in the domains of reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy.

Pisa 2022. Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume I: Student Performance And Equity In Education, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Sue Thomson

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparative study of student performance directed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA measures 3 core domains of reading literacy, mathematical literacy, and scientific literacy. The assessment focuses on young people’s ability to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems and situations. The term ‘literacy’ reflects a focus on broader skills. As a concept, literacy is more than simply being able to read and write. Eighty-one countries or economies, involving around 690,000 students, participated in PISA 2022. In Australia, 743 schools and a total of 13,437 …

Implementing Effective Tiered Interventions In Secondary Schools: Survey Of School And Support Staff, Paul R. Weldon, Jonathan Heard, Jessica Thompson, Tanya Stephenson

Literacy and numeracy

An online survey and a series of interviews were focused on students in Years 7 to 9 who lack the foundational literacy and numeracy skills that are required to engage with a secondary curriculum, in schools where most students have these skills. These students are referred to throughout this report as struggling students. The students in scope are likely to struggle to engage in classes without significant differentiation on the part of classroom teachers, and the skill disparity may be so great that differentiating lessons for them is not feasible. The project sought to address 4 questions: What methods and/or …

Validation Of The Child And Adult Social Support Scale (Casss) Which Measures Social Support In The Indonesian Version, Endah Mastuti, Fajrianthi, Fitri Andriani

International Conference on Assessment and Learning (ICAL)

Social support has an important role, so that students in online learning can reduce the various problems they face. Social support here comes from parents, teachers, classmates, close friends, and the school itself as an institution. Based on this, it is necessary to do research related to social support to get an overview of the support from whom students need in online learning. Furthermore, this can be used as input to intervene in the problems faced by students. To conduct this research, it is necessary to have a measuring tool to conduct social support research. One of the comprehensive measuring …

Infographic: Schools In 2021, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

How many students were enrolled in how many schools across Australia throughout 2021? How many full-time equivalent staff members? What was the average student-teacher ratio? Find out what schools looked like in 2021 in today’s infographic.

Within And Between School Variation In Achievement On The Programme For International Student Assessment (Pisa) In Australia: Pisa Australia Technical Paper, John Ainley, Greg Macaskill, Sue Thomson

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

Australian secondary school students vary widely in their academic achievement. Using the scores from the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) in 2018, for example, the range from the 5th to the 95th percentile of student reading scores in Australia was 359 points compared to the OECD average of 327 points (OECD, 2019a; Thomson et al., 2019). This considerable range in achievement scores has been described as reflecting a long tail in the distribution of achievement. In this paper, attention is focused on the variation in the achievement scores of 15-year-old students in Australia based on data from PISA 2018. …

Ways Of Orienting Secondary Schools To Becoming Learning Communities, Jennifer Bryce

Lifelong learning

This paper focuses on work carried out over the past two years at the Australian Council for Educational Research for a project entitled: Improving the Foundations for Lifelong Learning in Secondary Schools. Lifelong learning at secondary school level in particular is concerned with keeping students engaged in learning at school and developing in students those characteristics that will make learning an integral part of their lives when they leave school. To a large extent this involves developing the idea of schools as learning communities. The research is underpinned by an exploration of issues through the extensive literature on lifelong learning …

Infographic: Students' Awareness Of Global Issues, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

The latest edition of Snapshots, from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), digs into PISA 2018 data to explore the question: How aware of global issues are Australian 15-year-olds? Students were asked to report the extent to which they knew about seven issues. Today’s infographic looks at some of the results.

Exploring Excellence In Indigenous Education In Queensland Secondary Schools, Marnee Shay, Jodie Miller, Suraiya Abdul Hameed

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

In the national and international landscape, there is very limited exploration of cultural constructs of excellence, in particular, in Indigenous contexts. This pilot study aimed to centre the voices of Indigenous people in conceptualising excellence in Indigenous education, as well as to share understandings between Indigenous and non-Indigenous practitioners. Qualitative data collection methods were used including collaborative yarning, storying, and semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using cross-case analysis to examine the views of educators across three school sites. Indigenous participants highlighted the importance of nurturing culture and identity; building up young people; and, building a culture of inclusivity and belonging. …

Online School Assessments: Lessons From The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kavita Sanghvi

Teacher India

Kavita Sanghvi shares findings from an action research project aimed at understanding how students responded to online assessments administered by their school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Infographic: Vet In Schools, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

Annual data on school students in Australia undertaking vocational education and training (VET) as part of their Senior Secondary Certificate of Education has been released by NCVER. Today’s infographic looks at the headline figures, qualification levels and the most popular training packages for 2019.

Pisa 2018: Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume Ii Student And School Characteristics: Data Tables [Excel] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Zipped Excel file provides the data in tabular format that was used to prepare the figures presented in the report: PISA 2018: Reporting Australia’s Results. Volume II Student and School Characteristics. The data covers the constructs reported in the report.

Pisa 2018: Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume Ii Student And School Characteristics, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international study that measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students and how prepared they are to use these to meet real-life opportunities and challenges. Volume II is an examination of Australia’s PISA results in relation to student and school background characteristics, and how these are related to student performance. Each chapter focuses on different indicators that cover the school community, the school learning environment, students’ attitudes and beliefs, and the role teachers play in shaping students’ learning. Together, the different indicators of student and school life provide an illustration of …

Earning And Learning Research Project: Report To The Department For Education, South Australia, Julie Mcmillan, Shani Sniedze, Rachel Felgate, Petra Lietz

Vocational, adult and professional education research

The aim of the Earning and Learning Research Partnership was to explore the reasons why a substantial proportion of successive cohorts of students in South Australia had not completed the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) or were identified as potential non-completers. The project officially commenced in September 2019 and was completed in August 2020.The research particularly aimed to capture the student voice behind young people’s earning and learning pathway choices, specifically identifying: why students in Years 10, 11, or 12 leave school without a documented “valid” reason (leavers); and why some Year 12 students remain enrolled in high school …

Resourcesmart Schools And Wellbeing. Main Study, Katherine Dix, Toby Carslake, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Shani Sniedze

Wellbeing

This report presents the findings of a study into the wellbeing impacts of the ResourceSmart Schools (RSS) program in Victoria, Australia. The findings are based on a literature review and a state-wide survey of program schools to inform the development of the ResourceSmart Schools wellbeing evaluation framework, as a first step in the ongoing monitoring of the program’s wellbeing impacts in RSS schools.

The Gentle Man Who Taught Infinity, Sheshagiri K.M. Rao

Teacher India

Sheshagiri KM Rao describes the non-conventional teaching methods of his high school mathematics teacher Channa who helped students to discover the beauty in mathematics.

Supporting Examination Reform In Nepal, Mee Young Han

Teacher India

ACER is helping to ensure that school assessment in Nepal focuses on testing higher-order thinking skills.

Performance In First Year Mathematics And Science Subjects In Australian Universities: Does Senior Secondary Mathematics Background Matter? Final Report, Julie Mcmillan, Daniel Edwards

Higher education research

This study explores the extent to which study of mathematics in senior secondary school is a predictor of success in core mathematics and science subjects in the first year of university. The study looked at 16,436 first year students in biology chemistry mathematics and physics from twelve universities covering a range of types. It looked at their pass rates against the level of mathematics that they studied in year 12, including whether they had studied any mathematics of significance to a science degree. The study findings show that, in general, those who study higher levels of mathematics at year 12 …

Pisa 2018 In Brief I. Student Performance, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This document provides a summary of student performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 assessment and tells us about their capacities to apply knowledge and skills in the domains of reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy. In 2018, 79 countries and economies including Australia participated in PISA. The focus of this report is Australia’s performance results in an international context. It covers Australia’s performance over time, results for the Australian states and territories, school sectors, female and male students, the geographic location of schools, socioeconomic background, Indigenous background, immigrant background and language spoken at home.

Pisa 2018: Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume I Student Performance: Data Tables [Excel] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This zipped excel file is the data behind the figures and tables in the report: PISA 2018: Reporting Australia’s Results. Volume I Student Performance. They cover Australian student performance in reading literacy, reading literacy subscales, mathematical literacy and reading literacy.

Pisa 2018: Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume I Student Performance, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparative study of student performance directed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA measures the cumulative outcomes of education by assessing how well 15-year-olds, who are nearing the end of their compulsory schooling in most participating educational systems, are prepared to use the knowledge and skills in particular areas to meet real-life opportunities and challenges. The term literacy is attached to the assessment domains of reading, mathematics and science to reflect the focus on these broader skills and as a concept it is used in a much …

What Do Schools Want From Engagement With Business?, Sheldon Rothman

Program monitoring and evaluation

In recent years there have been policy discussions of the potential value of businesses engaging in the school education sector. However, the voice of educators is rarely heard and teachers’ perspective is vital to understanding what would ensure positive outcomes from such engagement. This research addresses this by engaging directly with school leaders and teachers around what they want from engagement with business, including reflections on experiences to date.