This means that most young people complete school, but there is still a sizeable proportion that don’t. Completion rates also vary by location — they are higher in city areas (86 per cent) compared with regional (74 per cent) and rural areas (74 per cent).
School completion is a required prerequisite for many post-school education and training pathways, and is also linked with many other benefits in life, including higher lifetime earnings and better physical health.
Some students navigate to successful pathways without completing school — such as through traineeships or apprenticeships.
At the same time, the positive outcomes that follow from school completion mean that educational bodies and governments set targets aiming to increase school completion rates.
To help achieve those targets, it's important to identify the elements that encourage school completion among students.
There are many factors that influence whether students finish school, such as family background and what job opportunities there are available.
However, it's also crucial to look at what happens inside schools to guide what teachers and schools can do to help more students graduate.
Unravelling these in-school factors can inform what actions to take from Year 7 onwards to keep students on track to complete their education.
In a recently published study, this is what we set out to address by looking at a range of factors across six years of secondary school.
We considered factors from the start of secondary school in Year 7, as well as in Year 9 and 10, through to final school completion in Year 12.
We examined this process among students generally, and also looked at whether there were any differences across students in city, regional, and rural areas.
Factors implicated in school completion
Our study involved 9,151 students from New South Wales (NSW) government schools who were tracked from Year 7 to Year 10 through their participation in the department’s annual student survey.
We also had access to students’ Year 12 completion status from the NSW Education Standards Authority. In our sample, there were 7,120 students from city areas, 1,434 students from regional areas, and 597 students from rural areas.
Students answered questions about the teaching support they received in Year 7, their motivation in Year 9, and their academic intentions in Year 10.
There were three types of teaching support assessed in Year 7:
- Emotional support looked at students’ sense that their teachers advocated for them. For example, did teachers show care and concern for students?
- Instrumental support looked at students’ perceptions that teachers held high expectations for their learning, used explicit teaching strategies, managed learning time effectively, and selected relevant learning tasks and content. For example, did teachers set clear expectations and make the learning material relevant?
- Management support looked at students’ sense that their teachers used effective classroom management strategies. For example, were there established rules and routines in the classroom?
Motivation in Year 9 was measured through students’ learning confidence, how much they value school, and their goals to further develop their academic skills.
Academic intentions in Year 10 were measured by asking students whether they intended to complete school.
School completion in Year 12 was measured through students’ successful completion of the Higher School Certificate (HSC).
What did the study find?
Our findings showed that across the whole sample, teaching support in Year 7 was linked with greater motivation in Year 9.
In turn, Year 9 motivation was linked with greater academic intentions in Year 10, and then greater likelihood of school completion in Year 12.
These findings highlight a process from the beginning of secondary school, through teaching and learning factors, to eventual school completion.
When we conducted our analyses for the different location groups, we found that teaching support played an additional role among students in rural areas.
For rural students, teaching support in Year 7 was also directly linked with greater academic intentions in Year 10.
For students in both rural and regional areas, we also found that academic intentions were particularly important in Year 10.
These intentions were a strong predictor of whether students in all geographic areas would finish school, but this link was even more pronounced for students in rural and regional areas compared with those in city areas.
What do the findings mean for teachers and schools?
Our findings show that there are factors throughout secondary school that matter for school completion.
Teaching support in Year 7 appears central for all students. This finding is noteworthy considering we know that it can be difficult for students to adjust as they make the transition from primary school to secondary school.
Teaching support at the start of secondary school appears to be one way to help promote motivation in Year 9.
Teaching support also appears to be a particularly important focus for students in rural areas given it was linked directly with academic intentions in Year 10 for this cohort.
We saw that motivation was a noteworthy factor in the middle of secondary school for all students. It played a linking role between Year 7 experiences and Year 10 academic intentions.
Academic intentions were relevant to all students, and again seem to be particularly important for students from rural and regional areas.
Intending to complete school in Year 10 means that students are more likely to go forth and do that.
This finding is noteworthy and suggests that boosting intentions may be one way to help reduce the gap in school completion rates across different areas of Australia.
Prior research provides ideas for embedding teaching support and promoting motivation and academic intentions, including:
- Investing time to learn about students
- Offering encouragement and support to assist students with their particular needs and goals
- Making sure content and activities are engaging and relevant to students
- Explaining the relevance of schoolwork to other subjects or real-world scenarios (e.g., current events or jobs)
- Setting clear, consistent, and appropriate expectations for classroom behaviour
- Considering students' viewpoints and involving them in the creation of classroom rules and expectations
There are further ideas and resources available at the NSW Department of Education’s What Works Best webpage.
With thanks to Alison Le and Anaïd Flesken from the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, NSW Department of Education.
