The latest report of the Productivity Commission shows that Indigenous children are still lagging behind in reading, writing and numeracy skills despite decade's long policies; good intentions and a lot of funding to close this gap.
According to Karen Chester, Deputy Commissioner of the Productivity Commission, the latest research was a self-initiated study.
She added that the Productivity Commission initiated the latest research based amongst other factors on the availability of a new set of nationwide data that allowed the Commission to link NAPLAN results with a whole range of students' data.
- Parents education
- School characteristics
- The level of remoteness of the school
- The number of Aboriginal Torres Islander Teachers in particular schools
This data allowed the Commission to dig deeper and identify what works and what doesn't work.
They were able to track the performance of particular Indigenous students in particular schools.
The report also identified a number of schools that stand out dramatically, punching way above their weights.
Indigenous students in these schools perform better than they should be doing based on all other indicators.
Karen Chester also enumerated a series of recommendations to Federal, State and Territory governments.
Authorities are advised to lift the bonnet on the schools that perform well, identify their secret ingredients and implement them elsewhere. Another recommendation is to carry out systematic evaluations of their policies to identify what is working and what is not.
The Productivity Commission's report also found that the key to lifting education achievement is higher quality instruction tailored to individual children.