Ensuring equitable access to the curriculum guarantee in NSW primary and secondary education

Team Members

Assoc Prof Philip Roberts (Chief Investigator)
Dr Jenny Dean
Ms Natalie Downes

Partners

New South Wales Teachers Federation

Project Timeline: 2020-2022

One of the aims of public education in Australia is to provide access to schooling for all children regardless of school composition. School composition includes factors such as stage (primary, high, secondary), ICSEA, location, staff levels, school funding. In Australia, there are a number of policies and structures in place that aim to ensure all students are provided with equal opportunities in schooling. These include the Gonski funding reforms, the Australian Curriculum, and national goals for schooling.

In NSW (the state in which this study is based) education authorities implement a number of initiatives to support the notion of equitable access to curricular offerings. These include providing funding based on perceived need, additional staffing, and resources. However, despite these initiatives, there is little evidence to identify whether these policies are actually providing equal access to curriculum.

This project examines relationships between factors such as staffing size, teaching loads, and funding, and their connections to senior secondary subjects offered, high school electives offered, and enrichment programs offered (primary). This includes considering subject offerings in face-to-face and online modes, and primary enrichment programs that lead to later senior secondary outcomes. Possible relationships between school composition and all these factors will also be considered.

This project involves quantitative and qualitative approaches to analysing school subject availability and access, school staffing, school funding and resourcing, and principal decision-making.

For further information on this project, please contact us.