Canberra's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students face a two year NAPLAN gap behind their non-Indigeous peers, prompting a leading education expert to call for a concerted effort to end disadvantage.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
NAPLAN data from 2016 showed results for Indigenous students worsened between years 3 and 9, suggesting a widening gap as children progressed through school.
The most notable difference in a single year group was recorded in the year 9 writing test, where Indigenous students were almost 20 percentage points behind their non-Indigenous classmates in reaching the national minimum standard.
The average difference between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in major cities is 10 percentage points. By year 9, the ACT outstripped this on every test.
"Statistics relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students should be interpreted carefully due to the relatively small number (typically 90 to 130 participating in a NAPLAN year level) in the ACT," an Education Directorate spokeswoman said in a statement.
"The relatively small number of students results in natural variation in outcomes."
But University of Canberra Indigenous education expert Chris Sarra said the "bite-sized chunk" of students represented an opportunity for swift change.
"If the education department decided that they wanted to guarantee every Indigenous child hits at least minimum benchmark at years 3, 5, 7 and 9 for literacy and numeracy, the numbers are such that we could scaffold around them and do whatever's needed to ensure that that's the case," Professor Sarra said.
"Where it's not the case, we commit to making sure they get there by the next time around.
"Really, in some schools that means they've just go to do a bit of extra work for five or six kids and scaffold around them. It's as simple that."
Professor Sarra, who created the Stronger Smarter Institute aimed at delivering better outcomes for Indigenous students, said ACT schools should treat its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children "as if they've got tremendous potential to learn".
"Realise that this is a bite-sized chunk, be committed to the pursuit of excellence for each and every indigenous child and embrace them individually and scaffold around their individual interests and the things that they're good at, because given the numbers that's entirely doable," he said.
The education directorate spokeswoman said: "NAPLAN is one piece of the puzzle when it comes to tracking our students' ability in literacy and numeracy and our schools use many other methods together to assess and support our students.
"All students can experience success, regardless of their performance in NAPLAN. A strengths-based approach to learning is fundamental to student success by encouraging and supporting student engagement and participation."
University of Canberra policy analysts Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed wrote in Fairfax Media earlier this year that the proportion of Indigenous students achieving national minimum standards decreased in five of the eight areas identified in the Closing the Gap Report between 2008 and 2016.
As well, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students actually widened in six of the eight areas.
In an annual report hearings held earlier this year, Education Directorate student engagement director Jacinta Evans noted an increasing number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolling in year 12.
"What we are really focused on is that school is a positive place, students are attending, and therefore they have the best chance of going through," she said.
