Remote School Attendance Strategy Interim Progress Report
Remote School Attendance Strategy Interim Progress Report Report
- Author(s): Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,
- Published: 2015
- Publisher: Information and Evaluation Branch, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Abstract: The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS) is designed to lift school attendance levels in selected remote communities through employment of local School Attendance Supervisors (SAS) and School Attendance Officers (SAO) who work with schools, families, and children to ensure they go to school every possible day. RSAS was rolled out in two stages. Stage one commenced in term one of 2014 and included students from 44 schools in five jurisdictions – Northern Territory (NT), Queensland (QLD), Western Australia, (WA), New South Wales (NSW) and South Australia (SA). Stage two commenced in term two of 2014 including students from a further 33 schools in the five jurisdictions. This report predominately assesses the impact of RSAS on stage one schools. These remote communities were targeted because their schools have had low school attendance rates over recent years. Funding for stages one and two of the Strategy is $46.5 million over two calendar years, covering January 2014 to 31 December 2015. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) receives and analyses school attendance data for the RSAS schools every week and regularly monitors RSAS performance. Once the first year of information was available, two additional evaluation activities were undertaken, based on complementary evaluative methods: Quantitative data analysis analysing weekly school attendance data comparing the first year of trend data with the previous year, based on equivalent periods in 2013 and 2014. Information and Evaluation Branch, PM&C conducted this analysis in collaboration with jurisdictional education departments; and Thematic coding of qualitative data collected in Traffic Light Reports (TLR) for all stage one schools, and matching the qualitative data with quantitative attendance data to analyse the reasons for changes in attendance on a week-by-week basis. This independent analysis was conducted by O’Brien Rich Research Group between January and March 2015.
- Urls: https://www.niaa.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/remote-school-attendance-strategy-interim-progress-report.pdf
- Publisher Location: Canberra