Transcript Completing Twelve Years of Schooling

Literacy and Numeracy
Development for Indigenous
Students: A Longitudinal Study
Nola Purdie
Improving Learning
www.acer.edu.au
Aims
Assess English literacy and numeracy skills
Measure growth in skills over time
Explore learning environments and relationships
with literacy and numeracy development
www.acer.edu.au
Study Features
Longitudinal (2000 – 2004 )
Qualitative and quantitative data
Indigenous research team
www.acer.edu.au
Acknowledgements
Tracey Frigo
Isabelle Adams
Paul Hughes
Maria Stephens
Davina Woods
Matthew Corrigan
Ken Rowe
Cathy Underwood
Kathy Nolan
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The Study

13 schools in 2000 (4 metro, 5 regional, 4 remote)
– 10 more schools in 2003
– 2 more schools in 2004 (urban, all Indigenous)

Quantitative data
– English literacy and numeracy assessments
– Student background information
– Teacher questionnaire

Qualitative data
– Field visits by Indigenous research team
– Questionnaires, interviews, school documentation,
observation
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English Literacy Achievement
Ass. 1
Ass. 2
Ass. 3 Ass. 4
Ass. 5
LLANS
47.4
60.4
66.4
77.2
85.5
ILLANS
48.8
55.2
59.9
64.3
74.1
N (LLANS) 911
795
744
698
648
N (ILLANS 113
71
63
89
82
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Numeracy Achievement
Ass. 1
Ass. 2
Ass. 3 Ass. 4
Ass. 5
LLANS
44.7
62.2
62.6
71.5
79.0
ILLANS
49.2
62.0
67.6
70.2
68.9
N (LLANS) 911
798
747
697
650
N (ILLANS 117
73
63
86
84
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Student growth trajectories for English literacy
School 4 ILLANS Literacy
Standardized Score
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Mar-00
Sep-00
Mar-01
Sep-01
Date of ILLANS Assessments 1 - 5
Mar-02
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Mean Literacy Score
Mean Literacy Test Scores for your School and Alll Schools in the
Sample
27
25
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
9
7
5
Australian NonIndigenous
Students
Australian
Indigenous
Students
School G NonIndigenous
Students
School G
Indigenous
Students
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Mean Test Score (with 95% Confidence
Interval
Mean Literacy Test Scores for Your School and All
Schools in the Sample
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
Australian NonIndigenous
Students
Australian
Indigenous
Students
Inala
SchoolPS
x NonIndigenous
Students
Inala PS
School
x
Indigenous
Students
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Mean Test Score (with 95% Confidence
Interval)
Mean Literacy Scores for Your School and all School in the Sample
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
All Schools NonIndigenous
Students
All Schools
Indigenous
Students
School B NonIndigenous
Students
School B
Indigenous
Students
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Factors relating to growth

School factors

Location

Teachers’ ratings of student achievement
(compared with peer ratings and ‘official’
results)
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Student factors relating to growth

Initial Achievement

Absenteeism

Attentiveness

Language Background
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Factors NOT related to achievement

Parents’ occupational status

Gender

Age

Pre-school attendance

Mobility
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Case Studies
Focus on:

School learning contexts

Classroom practices
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Case Study Themes: The School

Recognition and celebration of Indigenous
cultures

Literacy and numeracy programs

Other programs and initiatives

School-community partnerships

Parent friendly
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Recognition and celebration of
Indigenous cultures
School-wide recognition and celebration of
Indigenous cultures and languages was
viewed positively by the Indigenous
community and facilitated positive schoolcommunity relationships
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Literacy Programs
Most common: First Steps, Walking Talking Texts
and the Scaffolding Literacy Program
Other programs and literacy resources : Early
Years Literacy Program, State-Wide Early Literacy
Learning, Koorie Literacy Links, Spalding and
Reading Recovery
ESL teachers and teaching strategies featured in
many of the schools, particularly those in more
remote locations
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Teacher, on Scaffolding Literacy
Looking at the school results, it’s had a big
impact on children’s confidence to read, and
some kids who couldn’t read like “Yuk Soup’
and Transition books like that now read Paul
Jennings books. Having said that, they
haven’t has such successful transfer rates.
They can’t pick up an unseen text and read it
without no hiccups and inaccuracies, but
they’ve got the confidence to at least have a
go and read, so I think that’s the best thing
about scaffolding [is] the confidence it’s
building.
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AIEW, on Scaffolding Literacy
I’ve seen some positive feedback with kids
that hadn’t been attending much – and now
they’re coming five days a week. [The
students] have an understanding quicker
than if a teacher uses all different systems of
teaching… you see great leaps from the kids
who’s not reading at Year 1 level now in Year
2…I think what matters the most is their
attendance… if they get to school on a
regular basis, the chances of reading are
great
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Numeracy
Numeracy programs
 State curriculum programs
 Count Me In Too
 Lots of hands on
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Other programs and initiatives

Pre-schools

Health Room

Behaviour management
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School-community partnerships

ASSPA Committees

Visiting Indigenous speakers/
elders/parents

Employment of Indigenous people

Schools going out to communities
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Parent friendly schools

The Principal’s office is used as a workplace –
nothing more, nothing less. I don’t interview
parents in there, I don’t interview kids in
there, because I think we need to realise that
a lot of the parents have particular hang-ups
about Principals’ offices, from when they went
to school themselves, as places of authority
and places of pain…it puts me at an unfair
advantage to be asking the parent to come in
there because the chances are that they work
themselves up into a pretty fair frenzy to even
come up to the school. [Principal]
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
There is a lack of what we know as involvement in
education and the school… the things like coming
up to the school, coming into the classrooms,
collecting reports, turning up for events you know
those kind of thing that we see as being
involved…teacher things you know [but] I know if I
go down to the club, a lot of the parents of my own
class will come to me and talk to me. How's my
little son going at school? And they really want to
know, but they won't do that anywhere else.
[Teacher]
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Case Study Themes: The Classroom






Classroom structure
Recognising culture
Supporting language
Pedagogical practice
 Literacy teaching strategies
 Numeracy teaching strategies
 Assessment and recognising
achievement
Collaborating with AIEWs
Teacher attitudes and beliefs
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In the classrooms






Classroom structure
Recognising culture
Supporting language
Pedagogical practice
 Literacy teaching strategies
 Numeracy teaching strategies
 Assessment and recognising achievement
Collaborating with AIEWs
Teacher attitudes and beliefs
www.acer.edu.au
Enabling Learning Environments
Enabling factors

Strong leadership

A shared vision

Quality teachers

Learner-centred teaching

High expectations
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Factors that militate against success

The attitude of staff in the staffroom was generally one of not
wanting to be there…some conveyed that they were middle
class and generally gave the impression that this was just a
job that they had to have

There was a core group of community people who came into
the school on a regular basis, and were paid with special
funding. However a number of the teachers were critical of
the community members and indicated that they felt it would
be better if they didn’t come.

She [teacher] made a tasteless comment about Aboriginal
families…

The Deputy said that Aboriginal people, if disadvantaged, are
only disadvantaged because they are too lazy to get to school.
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Good teachers
Early intervention
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