School equity, marketisation and access to the Australian senior secondary curriculum

ABSTRACT

This study examines how access to the academic curriculum creates patterns of inequality in Australian schools. Examining students’ access to the academic curriculum gives an indication of how schooling is structured to support students in pursuing higher education opportunities. To date, little research attention has been given to the opportunities schools offer students to access the academic curriculum in order to enter university. Using administrative data on students and schools, we find that there are fewer average curriculum subjects, and less complexity in the subjects offered, in schools with low levels of socio-educational advantage. We argue that curriculum differentiation across schools is a systemic constraint that students in schools with higher levels of socio-educational disadvantage face in progressing to university because these schools are less able to provide students with access to core academic curriculum subjects in the final year of secondary school. Previous research has highlighted the social differences reflected in both educational access and outcomes due to the marketisation of schools and policies of school choice. Our findings indeed demonstrate that there are relationships between access to the academic curriculum, school socio-educational advantage and the social composition of schools, and these factors have important educational policy implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic curriculum
• educational inequalities
• Australia
• marketisation
• school choice
• school social composition

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the support of the NSW Education Standards Authority in facilitating access to the data used in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. As well as receiving at least some government funding, private schools in Australia charge fees from parents, are divided into two sectors, Catholic and independent, and comprise about one-third of all student enrolments. Schools in the private sector are mainly run by churches and other religious bodies, but also comprise some non-affiliated schools. The remaining two-thirds of students are enrolled in government schools (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2020), are largely free of compulsory fees and usually operate according to conditions which mean they must admit all students whose parents live within a certain radius of the school. While students are guaranteed a place at the government school in their area, parents may apply for admission to any private school of their choice. In addition, government selective schools in NSW are open to any student resident in the state regardless of where they live, subject to their academic ability and an application process (NSW Department of Education, 2020).

2. For example, former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam aligned increases in school spending to principles of equity in his 1972 Australian election speech, in which he said: “Education is the key to equality of opportunity” (Whitlam, 1972, n.p.).

3. Data are examined under University of Canberra Human Ethics approval number 20170077.