School Quality in Australia: Exploring the Drivers of Student Outcomes and the Links to Practice and School Quality. Final Report

The Department of Education and Training ('the Department') engaged Deloitte Access Economics to undertake research into the drivers of school quality in Australia, with the goal of expanding the evidence base available to the Department in analysing, evaluating and developing school policy. In particular, this work provides a new empirical framework for assessing these drivers in the Australian context, and presents the results of this framework using the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data. The goal of this study is to develop a framework that links elements of practice and student outcomes, and which is capable of utilising existing data sources to empirically estimate this link, in order to provide evidence of: (1) The factors that drive student outcomes in Australia, and in particular the role that school quality plays in driving student outcomes; (2) The attributes of practice that define school quality, and how these attributes may be measured; and (3) The role that governments can play in influencing school practice and driving improvements in school quality. [This report was prepared by Deloitte Access Economics.]