A summary of Indigenous students’ results in international tests of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy suggests that initiatives to improve the education of Indigenous students have, to date, had little effect. According to the achievement of Australia’s Indigenous students in PISA 2000-2006 released by ACER on 13 July, Indigenous students remain overrepresented at the lower levels and underrepresented at the upper levels of proficiency. The performance of Indigenous students has not improved over the time from 2000 to 2006.

The report brings together analyses of the achievement of Indigenous students in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy in each of the three cycles of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted in 2000, 2003 and 2006.

In conducting PISA, a special focus for Australia has been to ensure that there is a sufficiently large representative sample of Australia’s Indigenous students so that valid and reliable analysis can be conducted. This has been achieved in each cycle of PISA.  In 2000, 493 Indigenous students took part in PISA followed by 815 in 2003 and 1080 in 2006. Among participating Indigenous students, there were similar numbers of male and female students in each cycle. The distribution of Indigenous students by socioeconomic background was found to be substantially skewed, with 44 per cent of Indigenous students classified in the lowest socioeconomic group, compared to 25 per cent of students overall in Australia. 

The report shows that, across the three PISA cycles, Indigenous students have performed at a substantially lower average level in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy than their non-Indigenous peers. In each domain, the average for Indigenous students was more than 80 score points (or more than one proficiency level) lower than non-Indigenous students and more than 50 score points lower than the OECD average. In terms of proficiency levels, Indigenous students are overrepresented at the lower levels and underrepresented at the upper levels in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy.

“In terms of years of schooling, this represents a gap of around two years between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students,” said Dr John Ainley, ACER’s Deputy CEO (Research). “In terms of future opportunities, a large number of Indigenous students remain at a substantial disadvantage.”

The performance of Australian Indigenous students in PISA continues to raise concerns about the educational disadvantage faced by these students. From an international perspective, they are performing well below the OECD average and from a national perspective, they are achieving well below the performance of non-Indigenous students.

Of particular concern, more than one third of Indigenous students did not achieve a proficiency level in reading, mathematics and science literacy considered to be the minimum level necessary to meet the challenges faced in life beyond school.

“While lower average performance and attainment among Indigenous students in Australia in comparison to their non-Indigenous peers is not a new finding, these findings reinforce the need for this disparity to be addressed,” Dr Ainley said.

The achievement of Australia’s Indigenous students in PISA 2000-2006 by Lisa De Bortoli and Sue Thomson is available from the ACER research repository.

A further report to be released later in 2009 will examine both the attitudes of Indigenous students towards school and the extent to which socioeconomic background and other factors explain their low average levels of achievement.

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