In a Class of Their Own is a series of discussion papers to extend CPD’s research on a more equitable school system, exploring different facets of how Australia’s contemporary school system segregates and divides students, families and communities, and concentrates disadvantage.
While the papers include a brief discussion of policy implications, the series is not designed to offer specific policy recommendations, but to explore different factors that increase segregation.
The first paper, A Creeping Indigenous Separation (Feb 2018) by Chris Bonnor, Christina Ho and Garry Richards, focused on disadvantage related to Indigenous students.
The second paper, Institutionalised Separation (Jul 2018) by Christina Ho with Chris Bonnor, looked at inequity within selective schools and their impact on other schools.
The third paper, Separating Scholars: How Australia abandons its struggling schools (Jan 2019) by Christina Ho with Chris Bonnor analysed how schools are changing over time, especially in terms of enrollment characteristics and the school achievement measures and results most familiar to parents and teachers.
The fourth paper, Ethnic Divides in Schooling (May 2019) by Christina Ho revealed that Australian schools do not reflect the ethnic diversity of their communities and that there is a divide in educational outcomes among ethnically diverse students.
The overall finding for the In a Class of Their Own series is that inequality is increasing in Australia’s schools and is setting up a system of winners and losers – disadvantage is becoming concentrated while advantage is being segregated out through choice.
