The latest research by Dr Gary Marks was published yesterday in the Australian Journal of Education. Titled, ‘Do Catholic and independent schools “add-value” to students’ tertiary entrance performance? Evidence from longitudinal population data’, the research paper presents analysis of the academic performance of over 40,000 Victorian students. The analysis confirms that, yes, independent schools do add value – represented by an average gain of 8 ATARs over students in government schools. The gain is net of student SES, prior academic achievement, gender and language background.
According to Dr Marks’ analysis, non-government schools increase students’ tertiary entrance performance net of all unmeasured and stable differences between students, such as parental occupation and education, family income and wealth, and student intelligence, motivation and personality.
The full research paper is available (at cost) at http://aed.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/29/0004944115586658.abstract. However there is a free to view article by Dr Marks, summarising the main points of the research, published by The Conversation at https://theconversation.com/private-catholic-schools-do-add-value-to-students-results-42543. This article is available here.
Also available here is a media release The Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA) has issued today.
The table of points made by Dr Marks in his research article and included in the media release is included below.
