Canberra's public education system has introduced a new policy aimed at creating an environment of high expectations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
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Schools will be handed an annual payment - on top of extra funding allocated for each Indigenous student - to help them build "cultural integrity".
"Cultural integrity describes the environment a school creates to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and to welcome and engage their families and communities," an explanatory statement said.
"The whole school community will benefit from higher cultural intergrity, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives embedded throughout teaching and learning, and into the physical school environment."
Each school is allowed to interpret and implement the policy to their liking. One primary school has introduced an after-school club run by parents and staff which offers an arts and environment program aimed at supporting Indigenous students to connect with their mob, country, local history and heritage. Younger siblings are welcome to participate.
At Ainslie School, teachers have attended professional learning with Indigenous consultant Grant Sarra, and each Friday join with Canberra High School to mentor Aboriginal students on land and culture.
"Cultural integrity and this policy and the cultural integrity continuum that the directorate’s developed helps people in schools to explore what Indigenous students and their families may bring with them to the learning experience," Ainslie School principal Wendy Cave said.
"It’s not about helping them to fit the system, it’s about working with all people to encourage a strong sense of identity and belonging and feeling valued and safe."
Ms Cave acknowledged most teachers were white Australians of middle class backgrounds.
"We’ve had habitual patterns on perceiving and judging and behaving. This work for me ... is stretching us towards habits of critical self-reflection," she said.
Analysis by Australian National University researchers released late last year found ACT schools were letting down Indigenous students. While their results in standardised literacy and numeracy tests started well in their early years, they didn't improve at the same rate as other states.
Other research has found Indigenous students in Canberra are up to two years behind their non-Indigenous counterparts in NAPLAN tests.
Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service chief executive Julie Tongs said Indigenous students' results wouldn't improve until issues with racism and bullying were addressed.
She questioned how the outcomes of the cultural integrity policy would be monitored. An Education Directorate spokeswoman said the finance team could access schools' financial records any time, but "schools are primarily accountable for the outcomes achieved by their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students".
Ms Tongs said: “I think a lot more needs to be done.
"It’s easy to throw those words around, but what does that actually mean."
Introducing the cultural integrity policy in the Legislative Assembly earlier this year, Education Minister Yvette Berry said the ACT could pride itself on taking a lead role in putting into
practice a strengths-based, non-deficit approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education.
Schools had been provided with "a range of resources" to implement the policy, she said, including a self-assessment tool to identify areas for improvement, monitor progress and engage with families and communities.
"This is what it means to pursue reconciliation in action," Ms Berry said in her statement.
"Absolutely, there is still progress to be made. No one is trying to deny that schools can always do better. But this policy shift will set ACT public schools decisively on the right path."
