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Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in Australia

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Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes

Part of the book series: Education Policy & Social Inequality ((EPSI,volume 4))

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of (a) the Australian education system (including a historical overview from 1970 to today); (b) an exploration of socioeconomic inequality in IQ, academic achievement in high-stakes tests, and critical non-cognitive factors from the start of school to near the end of middle school; (c) an exploration of socioeconomic inequality in achievement in adolescent birth cohorts from the 1960s to 2000; and (d) a reflection on how education policy has influenced inequality and what may need to be done to redress it in the future. We find that inequalities present at the beginning of school tend to get larger as children age and that historical inequalities have also tended to increase over time. While Australia has had a large number of private schools since the 1970s, we argue that recent cultural changes have resulted in schools being seen as a market and that this has driven up ability stratification between schools and may account for increased inequality over time.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, Australia

    Philip Parker, Jiesi Guo & Taren Sanders

Authors
  1. Philip Parker
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  2. Jiesi Guo
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  3. Taren Sanders
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip Parker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Brock University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Louis Volante

  2. European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy

    Sylke V. Schnepf

  3. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    John Jerrim

  4. University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Don A. Klinger

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Parker, P., Guo, J., Sanders, T. (2019). Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in Australia. In: Volante, L., Schnepf, S., Jerrim, J., Klinger, D. (eds) Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes. Education Policy & Social Inequality, vol 4. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9863-6_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9863-6_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-9862-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-9863-6

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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