Students in Illawarra’s more affluent northern suburbs have been achieving better NAPLAN results than their southern counterparts.
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These results are similar nationwide, according to a first of its kind study which found NAPLAN outcomes clearly align to socio-economic advantage of the suburb the school is located in.
The new Macquarie University research published in Geographical Research today, found inequality has increased Australia-wide since NAPLAN began.
The researchers analysed every school’s Grade 5 NAPLAN results from 2008 to 2016, using mapping software.
The team found that above average and below average school results are increasingly concentrated in different parts of every city.
Further, non-government schools performed better than public schools in disadvantaged areas.
Lead author Crichton Smith said the findings show the area a school is based in has more bearing on NAPLAN results than whether the school is public or private.
The PhD candidate at Macquarie University’s Faculty of Business and Economics said the research found that Wollongong, like most Australian cities, had a "very clear and visual spatial delineation when schools’ NAPLAN results are mapped".
“Schools with above average results were predominately concentrated in the suburbs close to and north of the Wollongong CBD.,” Smith said.
“While a small number schools with results below the national average were north of the city near Corrimal, the majority of schools with below average results were concentrated south of the city.
“Schools south of Five Islands Road were predominantly below the national average.”
The study is the world’s first school-level spatial analysis of educational differences across an entire country, and confirms a disadvantage across rural and regional Australia.
Smith said the results were confronting.
“Virtually no schools in any city’s advantaged suburbs are below the national average, and almost no schools in disadvantaged areas are above average,” he said.
“Education quality should not be limited by a school’s location. Unfortunately the location-based divide has increased since NAPLAN began.
“With 10 years of NAPLAN results now available, it is difficult to see a policy solution to bridge a gap that is so wide, and growing….those children whose families lack the means to live in, and more so for those living outside of the cities or send them to schools in, disadvantaged areas are increasingly missing out.”
He said the findings provide evidence of Australia’s spatial educational inequality – and demonstrate that geographical information systems can be used to identify clustering patterns.
“We’ve shown NAPLAN can be used in a positive way by providing evidence of Australia’s increasingly observable spatial educational inequality,” Smith added.
“It doesn’t matter who owns the school, it’s where the school is located that matters.”