More than one in every three high school students do not finish the SACE, figures indicate
PUBLIC schools are using a “stoplight system” to check student progress in a bid to raise SACE completion rates, as data indicates more than one in three students are failing to gain their high school certificate.
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PUBLIC schools are using a “stoplight system” to track student progress in a bid to raise SACE completion rates, as figures indicate more than one in three students are failing to gain their high school certificate.
Most students begin studying for SACE in Year 10 by doing the Personal Learning Plan subject in which they set individual, education and career goals.
The 7500 public school students who achieved their SACE last year equates to 62 per cent of the more than 12,000 who were in Year 10 two years earlier.
While there are complicating factors such as students moving between the public and private sectors, the Education Department has not disputed the figures and says it is trying to accurately assess the scale of the problem.
Of the students doing Year 12 this year aiming to complete their SACE, 96.3 per cent did so. A record of more than 15,000 students across public and private schools achieved their SACE this year.
The Education Department is exploring the extent of the issues, including students who do not attempt the SACE, students in alternative “flexible learning options” (FLO) programs who generally do not achieve the certificate, and students who gain vocational qualifications but not the SACE.
The department’s executive director for learning improvement, Susan Cameron, said strategies that were already showing results included “stoplight systems”, where principals compiled reports on individual student progress every six weeks.
Based on criteria including attendance and completing assignments, students are designated green, amber or red lights, with “red” students flagged for various supports.
“What we have been doing is making sure schools are accountable for every single student,” Ms Cameron said.
Some schools are using the stoplight strategy as early as Year 8. Ms Cameron said performance reviews of schools were making principals accountable for tracking outcomes of all types of students.
She said many of the hundreds of additional students who completed their SACE in 2015 compared to the previous year were from public schools, indicating strategies were starting to work.
But public schools had the vast majority of students with disabilities and mental health problems that were the biggest barrier to SACE completion, Ms Cameron said.
Salisbury High School principal Ann Prime said paying recent old scholars to tutor Year 12s was one initiative behind stellar Year 12 results, with As achieved for more than one in five subject results.