Drop in Cape York school days

ATTENDANCE at schools in Cape York has fallen since the introduction of Noel Pearson's education reforms three years ago.

ATTENDANCE at schools in Cape York has fallen since the introduction of Noel Pearson's education reforms three years ago, an evaluation conducted for the Queensland government has found. And it is unable to determine whether student results are improving.

The Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy yesterday disputed the findings, saying they ignored the improvement in attendance since the introduction of welfare reforms in 2008, and the testimony of teachers and parents on the progress of students in literacy and numeracy.

The Australian Council for Educational Research report says large amounts of missing data in the students' results in national literacy and numeracy tests prevented it from drawing a conclusion on whether the CYAAA initiative was having an impact on student learning.

But the report found some "weak evidence" of a greater proportion of students at or above the minimum standard in one of the literacy tests, grammar and punctuation.

The ACER evaluation says student attendance has declined in two campuses during the period of the CYAAA initiative "despite the perception by many stakeholders that it has increased".

The report notes that attendance at the school Aurukun, which increased markedly after the introduction of the welfare reforms, has not returned to the low levels recorded before the reforms.

The CYAAA started in 2010 with schools at Aurukun and Coen, with Hopevale joining in 2011, implementing an approach developed by Mr Pearson's Cape York Institute that uses a form of explicit instruction developed in the US, called Direct Instruction.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said because the project was still in the early stages of implementation he had decided to extend funding for a year.

CYAAA chief executive Don Anderson said the report on attendance was frustrating.

"Attendance now at CYAAA is higher than before the welfare reforms, but it's moving around and we haven't been able to maintain or build on the terrific growth we had early on," he said.