A systematic comparison of the academic results of state and non-government schools has been a long time coming. Last week, the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) released a report confirming what many have suspected but have not been able to prove.

After taking into account differences in family circumstances and the attitudes of students, non-government school students achieved significantly better academic results than state school students. That is, non-government schools, particularly independent schools, do something for their students that goes above and beyond any advantage conferred by parents’ income, occupation and education.

The first possibility that springs to mind is that the better average results in non-government schools can be explained by their much higher level of expenditure. We can compare the average expenditure per student in the different school sectors with their average results to see if this explanation holds up.

The simple answer is it doesn’t. The average Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Ranks in independent schools, Catholic schools and state schools were 78.2, 72.8 and 66.7, respectively. Average per student expenditures in 1998 were $8112, $5330 and $6425, respectively. The state school figure does not include payroll tax, long-service leave or the user cost of capital, so underestimates the true value by an estimated $1500, the addition of which makes expenditure differences almost disappear. This is consistent with the findings of sophisticated studies all over the world that financial resources are not directly related to school performance.

Another possible explanation is that a number of high-performing students in non-government schools elevate the average results. According to the ACER research, however, the success of independent schools has more to do with their ability to ‘markedly improve the performance of students who performed poorly in Year 9’. Independent schools seemed to achieve high averages not by just pushing the most talented students to the extremes of their ability, but also by lifting the performance of less able students.

What is it that non-government schools provide that state schools do not? Research by Dr Ken Rowe, also of ACER, has shown that teacher quality explains the greatest amount of variation in student achievement. Do non-government schools, particularly independent schools, have better teachers than state schools? This seems doubtful.

It is more likely that good teachers and principals are enabled to have a greater impact in non-government schools. The main operational difference between non-government and state schools is their greater freedom to make decisions about how best to spend their resources and educate their students. A study of results in the Third International Maths and Science Survey found that performance was closely related to the level of budgetary and educational control allowed to individual schools and teachers. Given the opportunity and motivation, it is conceivable that state schools would benefit from such freedoms. Victorian state schools are leading the way.

In the last thirty years, the proportion of children in non-government schools has increased steadily. In 2000, more than 30% of all students and more than 37% of senior secondary students attended Catholic and independent schools. It seems that parents may have long known what academics and educators either didn’t know or wouldn’t admit.

Now that we have hard evidence, what is the appropriate course of action¾for parents who want the best for their children and for educationists and others who seek to maximise the educational opportunities of all children?

Clearly we need to make choice of school¾state or non-government¾more readily available to all parents through either a system of tax credits or vouchers. Careful research over the last decade in the US and the UK has demonstrated that parental choice in schooling provides benefits for children and schools across the board. Where parents are given more choice in schooling, all schools raise their standards, parents became more involved with their children’s education, and both parents and students say they are more satisfied. Also according to US research, parental choice of schooling has resulted in less ethnic, religious and socioeconomic segregation, and private school students are more likely to volunteer for community projects, have more cross-racial friendships and are involved in fewer race-related conflicts.

Student-centred funding and school choice have been on the agenda in other countries for many years, yet still provoke knee-jerk responses and vitriolic abuse when raised in a public forum in Australia. It really is time for us to become more open to new ideas. To ignore this new evidence is shameful, and condemns us to another decade of ineffective policy and talking in circles.


About the Author:
Jennifer Buckingham is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies and author of Families, Freedom and Education: Why School Choice Makes Sense.