Achievement in boys' schools 2010–12

2000

School type and academic achievement 2 ABSTRACT Using prospective data gathered over the course of an 18 year longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 668 New Zealand children, this paper examines the effects of single-sex and coeducational secondary schooling on children's academic achievement. This analysis showed a pervasive tendency for children attending single-sex schools to have greater success in the School Certificate examinations, higher Burt reading scores, greater school retention, less likelihood of leaving school without qualifications and less exposure to unemployment than children attending coeducational schools. These differences were evident for both boys and girls. However, a substantial amount of these differences were explained by pre-entry differences in children' academic, behavioural, social and family functioning. Nonetheless, even after control for selection processes, children attending single-sex schools tended to perform better than their coeducated peers across several educational outcomes, including School Certificate attainment, longer school retention and less exposure to unemployment. Possible explanations for these remaining differences are considered, including school gender composition, school climate and traditions, and the inadequate control for selection and confounding factors.

2006

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations Foreword PART I: CROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSIS 1. Introduction and Background The Issue Gender Equality in Education and Boys' Underachievement How the Report is Structured 2. What the Existing Literature Says Common Theories and Practical Analyses Gender Identity: Debating Masculinity The Interaction of Socio-Economic Factors and Gender Boys' Underachievement in the Wider Gender Equity Context 3. Varying Dimensions and Lessons Emerging from Selected Commonwealth Countries Social and Economic Background of the Countries The Issue: Commonalities and Divergences What Explains These Trends? The Initiatives How to Address the Issue: Lessons and Questions from the Initiatives The Need for Further Research and its Nature Conclusion PART II: THE CASE STUDIES 4. Australia: Socialisation and Socio-Economics What Does PISA Indicate? A Government Primary School in Queensland Conclusions 5. Jamaica: Alienation and High Drop-out Rates Defining the Problem Situ...

1999

2016

Trustee perspectives 3 Parent and whānau perspectives 4 Resources and support 4 Support and challenge 4 Communities of Learning 5 Issues facing secondary schools 5 2. Supporting students' learning 6 Laying the foundations in Years 9 and 10 6 Students' progress and curriculum at Years 9 and 10 8 Key competency learning experiences for students 9 The role of metatalk 11 The contribution of assessment practices to learning to learn 13 What are the barriers to teachers making changes? 15 Summary and discussion 16 3. Working with NCEA 17 An overview of principals' and teachers' views of NCEA 18 Consolidation of support for NCEA 19 Is NCEA seen as a credible qualification in the wider community? 20 Alternative qualifications 21 A focus on achievement, retention and transitions 21 Pressure to improve NCEA results 22 Responding to the needs of all learners 22 Vocational pathways 23 School systems to design and track learning pathways 23 Supporting students to stay on their qualification pathway 25 Teachers' curriculum thinking 25 The impact of NCEA on teacher workloads 26 Impacts for students 27 Summary and discussion 28 4. Learning with digital technology 30 School infrastructure and support for using digital technology 31 Support for teachers to implement learning with digital technology 33 Students' access to digital technology 34 Providing learning experiences with digital technology 34 Effects of learning with digital technology 37 Teachers' comments 40 How teachers were using online resources and technologies 42 Parent and whānau views of learning with digital technology 44 Trustees' perspectives 45 Summary and discussion 45

2007

Economic change requiring a more highly skilled workforce prompted worldwide concern over high school drop out. Dropouts are young people who leave school early, often without attaining formal educational qualifications. Much previous research centred on at-risk students and a range of individual, social, family and school factors associated with drop out were identified. This case study of student drop out and retention at three girls' state secondary schools over 2003 suggests that early leaving behaviour cannot be understood outside of the settings in which it occurs. Adopting an ecological perspective facilitated a deeper understanding of the complex interactions between the dropouts and their environment. From a narratives and numbers approach rich stories of early leaving emerged. Patterns of leaving were consistent with national trends: The lower decile school had the highest drop out rate, and dropouts were more likely to be Maori and Pasifika than European. Dropping out was shown to be a complicated and iterative process in which the influence of the environment is very important. Family and school relationships had a major impact but which had the greatest influence was inconclusive because there was a high level of interconnectedness between these proximal settings within the mesosystem and the bigger picture education and welfare systems. The extent of the contribution each level made to early leaving varied across individual stories, between schools and over time. Leaving school is an ecological transition that involves changing roles from high school pupil to that of tertiary student, mother, worker or benefit recipient. The students' stories show drop out to be both an outcome, and an initiator, of developmental change. An important challenge for schools is not necessarily to reduce the number of early leavers but to establish effective transition programmes that assist students to become proactive in navigating the many transitions anticipated over their life course. The implementation of such school programmes needs to be supported by parallel changes in government policy. x pupil of an all girls' school, into the interpretation and analysis of the stories of the young women who left school early in 2003. Analysis and interpretation are coloured by these experiences and those of the research journey, for "understanding is interpretation" (emphasis in original, ibid.). My hope in sharing my own story, alongside those of the leavers, is to contribute to an improved understanding of the way these young women come to leave school at that time. xi

1987

It is suggested that significant differencet remain between ethnic groups in New Zealand, specifically the Maori_and the non-Maori, or "Pakeha" (a term used by the Maori for New Zealandert of European descent), in terms of educational achievement. ThiS gap exists despite emphasis placed on education as a means of reducing social inequality. These differences, when combined with similar disparities in other social indicators such as life expectancy, employment, and composition of prison populations, pose a significant challenge to the belief in equality, social justice, and the potential attainment and maintenance of social harmony. Statistics reveal that over one-half of Maori students who took School Certificate examinations received grades below that required to proceed, whereas only 26.5 percent of non-Maori received a similar grade. Access to and progress through schools has been changed Significantly due to curriculum modifications, and greater attention is being paid to Maori language and culture; yet, educational ditparities continue. The development of: (1) educational programs aimed at the remediation of educational disadvantage and (2) research that seekt to discover clues to avoid entrenching educational diSadvantage continue to be of the greatest importance. Efforts will be needed in other public sectors such as health and justice and the Wider community if major changes are to result. Concluding the paper are 3 tables and 16 references. (WTH)

2012

A study analyzed a range of factors associated with male and female low attainment and the subsequent routes of low attainers leaving S4 up to the age of 19, using the Scottish School Leavers Survey data from 1978-96. The most significant trend was the extent to which low attainment declined, although significant differences in terms of gender were also found. In 1978, the extent of low attainment was broadly similar between the sexes, but females improved at a faster rate. Social background and area characteristics were the strongest predictor of low attainment. A large fall was identified in the numbers leaving school and entering directly into employment. A desire among low attainers for employment rather than training prevailed. A small proportion found stable employment; the routes of the majority were characterized by uncertainty with frequent switching between statuses. While more females entered employment, on leaving school they had lower levels of participation in training...

1999

It is clear that indigenous Australian students reject school, and education more generally, in proportionally greater numbers than any other group in the Australian community (Commonwealth of Australia, 1995). There is evidence to suggest that school rejection occurs because students are consciously aware of their educational powerlessness and the social disadvantage that their particular cultural difference brings with it (see McFadden, 1995, Munns & McFadden, 1997). The evidence suggests that many Aboriginal students believe school is not a place that works for them, and reject their unequal educational experiences both individually and in groups. In rejecting school, many indigenous Australians choose a pathway to further inequality and exploitation. The study described in this paper considers school rejection among indigenous Australian boys as a culturally supported masculine response embedded within a complex community and educational context (see Munns, 1998). However, this ...

International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2008

Recent policy initiatives in Australia, such as a mandated national curriculum, provoke reflection on the core issues facing educational research. Australian and New Zealand/Aotearoa (ANZ) governments cite socio-educational disparities associated with the unequal distribution of educational attainment and achievement as justification for these initiatives. Despite their intent to address socio-economic and racial inequalities, the extent of their reach and success remains an open question. Informed by over 40 years of international and domestic research, these systemic reform efforts incite a reassessment of how social stratification in educational policy is framed. A review of research on the effects of policy enactment in schools, as they relate to any variable distribution of curriculum and pedagogy, and system and school-level understandings and practices that bear on student attainment and achievement is needed. In addition to official policy there exists a palimpsest of cumulatively added prior policies sedimented in teachers' pedagogy. Additionally there are quasi-official phantom policies formed at the local level. These can also affect teachers' instructional stratification practices and beliefs in ways that may run counter to the desire of policy-makers (Albright & Kramer-Dahl, 2009a). The link between social stratification and reproduction in schooling needs to be framed within past and present official and local policies. To a large extent, antipodean policy makers and educational researchers have focused on between school variance to understand school stratification and its effects. Within-school social stratification of learning and achievement has not been sufficiently addressed.