Indigenous Education Support Structures Pilot Evaluation

Summary Report

Date: / 1 June 2011
Trim Ref #: / 11/106745
Evaluation Team: / Projects Team, Indigenous Education and Training Futures, Department of Education and Training
Evaluation Timeframe: / March 2008 – March 2010
Audience for Evaluation: / Director-General, Department of Education and Training
Assistant Director-General, Indigenous Education and Training Futures, Department of Education and Training
IESS Cluster Schools

Right to Information

I am of the view that the contents or attachments contained in thisdocument are suitablefor publication

Steve Armitage

Executive Director

Indigenous Education

Indigenous Education and Training Futures

Department of Education and Training

……………………………………………………………… / /

Indigenous Education Support Structures Pilot Evaluation

This summary report for the Indigenous Education Support Structures Pilot (IESS) Evaluation provides an overview of the IESS Pilot background and evaluation design and presents an overview of the evaluation findings, conclusionsand recommendations.

1. Background

1.1 Indigenous Education Support Structures Initiative

Closing the Gap in education, health and economic outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is a major challenge for federal, state and territory governments alike.

The idea for the Indigenous Education Support Structures (IESS) initiative arose from the Mt Isa district where the Spinifex State College implemented an innovative case management approach to improve attendance, retention and achievement of Indigenous students. The State Government provided $10 million in funding across four years from July 2007 to June 2011 to support schools to pilot key elements of the Spinifex approach.

The IESS initiative involved the three education sectors, Queensland Catholic Education, Independent SchoolsQueensland and the Department of Education and Training (DET).

While all three sectors focused on improving attendance, retention and achievement of Indigenous students, each sector tailored their approach to suit their context and schools.

The Catholic sector embarked on the Indigenous Pathways Project to raise awareness of programs and opportunities available to Indigenous students, while the Independent sector decided to provide increased learning support for Indigenous students through the Literacy Enhancement Project.

The state school sector established five member support teams across five regional clusters to participate in a three year Indigenous Education Support Structures Pilot (IESS Pilot or the Pilot).

Throughout the life of the initiative all sectors were invited to participate in the professional development and training provided as part of the overall project management of the departmental Pilot. Professional dialogue and networking were key features of cross-sectoral involvement.

1.2 Indigenous Education Support Structures Pilot

The Indigenous Education Support Structures Pilot was conducted across three school years from 2008-10.

The aim of the IESS Pilot wasfor support teams in five state school clusters to work with Indigenous students and their families and teachers to improve outcomes in the four priority areas of the Partners for Success Action Plan:

  • student attendance
  • student achievement

1

  • student retention
  • workforce capacity and leadership.

The five clusters were selected through a criteria-based consultation with regions. The clusters selected were Cairns, Cunnamulla/Charleville, Moreton, Rockhampton and Mt Isa. SpinifexState Collegewas the only school involved in the Mt Isa cluster. The number of schools involved across the three years of the Pilot in the other clustersvaried, ranging from two schools in the Cunnamulla/Charleville cluster to ten in the Rockhampton cluster.

Each cluster was provided with funding to engage the following five support staff across 2008-2010 to reflect the staffing arrangements and functionality of Spinifex State College:

  • a Learning Support Teacher to provide learning support to Indigenous students (Teachers’ award – Band 3)
  • a Case Manager to work with Indigenous students and their families to support student attendance and engagement in schooling (AO6)
  • two Professional Support Teachers to work with teachers to improve their capacity to respond to the learning needs of Indigenous students (Teachers’ award – Band 5)
  • an Administrative Officer to provide administrative support for the IESS Pilot (AO2).

Clusters were also provided with opportunities for their staff to participate in an extensive professional development program as part of the Pilot, with a focus on Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives in Schools (EATSIPS) and meeting the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D)learners.

2. IESS Pilot Evaluation

The internal evaluation of the IESS Pilot in state schools was conducted from March 2008 to March 2011 by the Division of Indigenous Education and Training Futures, in DET. The overall aim of the IESS Pilot evaluation was to report on progress of the IESS Pilot and inform future support practices for Indigenous students.

In 2008-09, the evaluation was formative in nature to guide ongoing implementation of the IESS Pilot. In 2010, the evaluation had a summative focus examining the impact of IESS support on attendance, retention and achievement for targeted Indigenous students and workforce capacity across the three years of the Pilot.

The evaluation involved a multi-faceted approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. The data collection methodologies included cluster site progress reports; school progress reports; teacher surveys; and discussions with Cluster Support teams, governance groups, and Indigenous students, their teachers and families. Using a variety of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies provided an opportunity to examine consistency in findings across data sources and presented a more holistic view of project outcomes.

To encourage a performance culture, a key expectation of the Pilot was that schools would set their own student outcome targets, collect relevant data and report on progress in relation to their targets. There was a reasonable amount of variation in how this was managed across clusters and it was evident some schools found it challenging, as a first time experience, to set a manageable number of realistic targets and identify relevant baseline data.

Extrapolating from these quantitative findings alone is cautioned as the data sometimes involved small numbers of targeted Indigenous students. Furthermore, the process of local target setting and self-reporting on progress may have introduced potential biases in the results observed.

Drawing attention to these limitations does not downplay the importance of the evaluation outcomes in supporting the findings of other research into aspects of Indigenous education. The evaluation design acknowledged that figures do not always tell the whole story and need to be viewed in tandem with the rich descriptions of individual successes, and personal and professional learnings that emerged from discussions with participants.

It is also important to remember that very few pilots and programs occur in isolation. Schools are dynamic places often participating in several new or continuing programs and projects. As IESS was possibly one of several projects occurring simultaneously in many of the schools over the life of the Pilot, the impacts need to be considered with that inter-relatedness in mind.

The IESS Pilot provided an impetus for change. It was the vehicle for explicit conversations about Indigenous cultures and it put the issue of ‘the gap’ on the staffroom table. Participants in the IESS Pilot, particularly the cluster support staff, embraced this opportunity with commitment and enthusiasm and their efforts across the three years of the Pilot are acknowledged and commended.

Acknowledging these factors, the following conclusions and findings have been drawn from the evaluation data.

3. Conclusions

The evaluation concluded that the support provided to Indigenous students, their families and teachers as part of the IESS Pilot was successful in:

  • helping to raise the level of cultural awareness in cluster schools and cultural competence of school staff
  • increasing levels of awareness and engagement of parents of Indigenous students and Indigenous community members in school activity
  • assisting the development of productive partnerships with local Indigenous community groups
  • increasing the desire and the capacity of cluster schools to implement strategies at a local level to improve outcomes for Indigenous students.

In relation to the support model that was piloted, the evaluation data confirmed case management of the learning needs and attendance of individual Indigenous students, and individual learning support, were effective support strategies. However, it was also clear that support for Indigenous students and their teachers is most effective when it is provided as an integral part of whole-of-school activity in a context where cultural change and curriculum development are being driven by the school leaders.

Theevaluation data also highlighted the positive impact of the support provided by the Professional Support Teachers and the intensive professional development in EATSIPS and the language needs of Indigenous EAL/D learners, on increasing cultural awareness and competence of school staff. There was ample evidence in all clusters that teachers highly valued this support and that it was making a difference to the capacity of teachers and schools to better understand and respond to the needs of Indigenous learners.

The extent of progress towards targeted outcomes for Indigenous students in attendance, achievement and retention varied amongst cluster schools. With respect to attendance, while progress overall appeared positive in 2009, this was not sustained in 2010. It is not possible from the data to ascertain the causes of this decline; contributing factors may include the impact of having very small numbers of students in some target cohorts, or inappropriate targets being set at the cluster or individual school level. Because the attendance data covers a two-year period only, trend analysis is not possible. However, one common theme emerging from discussions with participants in the Pilot was the negative impact of student mobility on efforts to improve attendance.

Overall, progress towards meeting achievement targets was more positive in 2010 than in 2009. While the majority of 2010 achievement targets were not met, there was evidence in all clusters of trends in improvement in the results of some targeted Indigenous students.

Progress in relation to retention overall was difficult to determine from the data provided in the Semester progress reports because the targets set by schools varied markedly in terms of how improvement in retention was defined, conceptualised and measured. However, the data showed in 2009 and 2010 some schools were successful in improving the retention of targeted Indigenous students across key schooling junctures, for example Year 7 to 8 or Year 10 to 11.

It is important to note that while there was variation across clusters and schools in progress towards targets for attendance, achievement and retention, success stories emerged from discussions with participants in all clusters about support strategies that were making a difference to educational outcomes for Indigenous students.

There is strong evidence from the Pilot data that time is an important factor. The cluster which showed the greatest progress towards identified targets involved a single school, operating across two campuses, which was building on existing support structures that had previously proved successful in one of the campuses. Similarly, in the area of workforce capacity, teachers who had worked with the Professional Support Teachers for longer were more likely to report that their awareness and practice had changed significantly.

While the extent of progress towards targets varied amongst clusters, there were some common strategies that had been successful in contributing to improved educational outcomes for Indigenous students. These strategies will be useful to share with other schools to inform their efforts to close the gap in educational outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

It is hoped cluster schools will sustain the skills and capacities they have developed throughout the Pilot and promote school leadership and ownership of the initiatives that have been implemented to continue to improve outcomes for Indigenous students. Additionally, it is important the momentum reached in strengthening productive partnerships with local Indigenous community groups is not lost, as the positive impact of the partnership involvement on student outcomes and teacher capacity is apparent from the data.

4. Key findings

The following key findings have been drawn from the evaluation to inform ongoing efforts by schools to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students.

Improving outcomes for Indigenous students

  1. Support structures for Indigenous students and their families and teachers are most effective where cultural change is driven by school administration and curriculum leaders, and targeted support for Indigenous students and their teachers is provided as an integral part of school activity.
  2. The following strategies contribute to improved outcomes for Indigenous students:
  • tailoring case management to engage parents in the learning process and assist individual Indigenous students, their families and teachers to manage transition, attendance and learning
  • providing direct learning support both in and out of the classroom that explicitly focuses on students’ achievement, particularly in language, literacy and numeracy
  • providing professional development and support to teachers both in and out of the classroom to increase their cultural awareness and competence, develop their repertoire of teaching strategies to respond to differential learning styles and assist them to meet the language needs of Indigenous EAL/Dstudents
  • developing strong and productive relationships between the school and Indigenous community groups, and involving Indigenous parents and community members in student learning and school organisation
  • making learning purposeful and relevant to Indigenous students and assisting students to identify realistic and achievable learning goals and career pathways
  • providing culturally safe and appropriate school spaces for Indigenous students and integrating Indigenous culture within school organisation and procedures.
  1. Improving educational outcomes for Indigenous students and achieving relevant targets takes time and requires sustained and informed commitment at a whole-of-school level, particularly when aspirational targets are set.
  2. It is important to celebrate the personal and academic successes of individual Indigenous students, particularly where students have complex needs and progress appears slow.
  3. Indigenous students highly value access to individual and targeted learning support, dedicated assessment or tutor rooms to access learning support, relevant and achievable learning and attendance goals, being expected to succeed, and feeling that their Indigenous culture is valued by the school community. They also value dedicated spaces in the school environment that they perceive as culturally relevant and safe. This is particularly important when Indigenous students represent a small minority in a large school.
  4. Parents of Indigenous students value case management of their child’s learning and attendance needs, opportunities to be involved in the learning process and school activities, and having an accessible point of contact with the school.

Ongoing challenges

  1. Improving attendance of Indigenous students remains an ongoing challenge in some schools, particularly in areas where Indigenous families have high levels of mobility. This continues to impede efforts to improve achievement and retention outcomes for Indigenous students.
  2. Other ongoing challenges for schools that emerged from the evaluation data included:
  • promoting high expectations and building the aspirations of Indigenous students
  • continuing to increase parental and community confidence to engage in school activity
  • exploring ways to address the needs of Indigenous students from a diverse range of communities
  • sustaining the skills and capacities developed through the Pilot
  • addressing staffing issues
  • continuing to increase teacher cultural awareness and competence, particularly their capacity to meet the language needs of Indigenous EAL/D students
  • assisting teachers to interpret and use student data to inform teaching strategies and learning support.

Increasing teacher capacity to respond to the needs of Indigenous learners

  1. A supportive school culture is a key factor in improving teacher capacity to respond to the needs of Indigenous learners.
  2. Increasing teacher capacity takes time, particularly where teachers are resistant to change. Success is most likely where school leaders actively promote whole-of-school change to address the Closing the Gap agenda and teachers are encouraged to experiment with content and teaching strategies and engage in professional discussions about ways to improve outcomes for Indigenous students.
  3. The following strategies help increase teacher cultural awareness and capacity to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students:
  • in-class modelling of teaching strategies that suit Indigenous learners
  • practical help with embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in planning and teaching
  • professional development in Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives in Schools (EATSIPS) and meeting the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) learners.
  • engagement with Indigenous families and involvement of Indigenous community members in classroom practice.
  1. Teachers who had changedtheirpractice to meet the learning needs of Indigenous students reported they were:
  • incorporating Indigenous perspectives in their planning and classroom activities
  • more aware that Indigenous students may be EAL/D learners and were planning and explicitly teaching to meet their learning needs
  • using more hands-on and contextualised learning activities to suit a diverse range of learning styles
  • making learning more relevant and meaningful.

Implementation issues

  1. Regions and schools need sufficient lead-up time at the beginning of new initiatives to conceptualise implementation models, establish governance arrangements, and recruit and provide relevant professional development to support staff.
  2. Implementation of new initiatives to improve outcomes for Indigenous students is more likely to be successful where:
  • governance groups have a high degree of involvement in the initiative and include representation of regional and school leaders, Indigenous community members and other key participants
  • there is ongoing and clear communication to key participants about the intent of the initiative and ongoing implementation issues
  • school leaders opt to participate and are involved in conceptualisation and governance processes
  • Indigenous community members are aware of, involved in, and supportive of the initiative
  • the scoping of implementation models realistically matches allocated resources
  • regions and schools are given the flexibility to select and adapt support strategies and use allocated resources according to local priorities.

Staffing issues