A longitudinal study of literacy and numeracy development in Australian Indigenous students, presented by Nola Purdie at the 2004 Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Melbourne.

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Literacy and Numeracy
Development for Indigenous
Students: A Longitudinal Study
Improving Learning
Nola Purdie

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Aims
Assess English literacy and numeracy skills
Measure growth in skills over time
Explore learning environments and relationships
with literacy and numeracy development

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Longitudinal (2000 – 2004 )
Qualitative and quantitative data
Indigenous research team
Study features

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Acknowledgements
Tracey Frigo
Isabelle Adams
Paul Hughes
Maria Stephens
Davina Woods
Matthew Corrigan
Ken Rowe
Cathy Underwood
Kathy Nolan

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The Study
13 schools in 2000 (4 metro, 5 regional, 4 remote)
– 10 more schools in 2003
– 2 more schools in 2004 (urban, all Indigenous)
Quantitative data
– English literacy and numeracy assessments
– Student background information
– Teacher questionnaire
Qualitative data
– Field visits by Indigenous research team
– Questionnaires, interviews, school documentation,
observation

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English Literacy Achievement
Ass. 1 Ass. 2 Ass. 3 Ass. 4 Ass. 5
LLANS 47.4 60.4 66.4 77.2 85.5
ILLANS 48.8 55.2 59.9 64.3 74.1
N (LLANS) 911 795 744 698 648
N (ILLANS 113 71 63 89 82

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Numeracy Achievement
Ass. 1 Ass. 2 Ass. 3 Ass. 4 Ass. 5
LLANS 44.7 62.2 62.6 71.5 79.0
ILLANS 49.2 62.0 67.6 70.2 68.9
N (LLANS) 911 798 747 697 650
N (ILLANS 117 73 63 86 84

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Student growth trajectories for English literacy
School 4 ILLANS Literacy
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Mar-00 Sep-00 Mar-01 Sep-01 Mar-02
Date of ILLANS Assessments 1 - 5
StandardizedScore

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Mean Literacy Test Scores for your School and Alll Schools in the
Sample
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
25
27
Australian Non-
Indigenous
Students
Australian
Indigenous
Students
School G Non-
Indigenous
Students
School G
Indigenous
Students
MeanLiteracyScore

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Mean Literacy Test Scores for Your School and All
Schools in the Sample
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
Australian Non-
Indigenous
Students
Australian
Indigenous
Students
Inala PS Non-
Indigenous
Students
Inala PS
Indigenous
Students
MeanTestScore(with95%Confidence
Interval
School x School x

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Mean Literacy Scores for Your School and all School in the Sample
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
All Schools Non-
Indigenous
Students
All Schools
Indigenous
Students
School B Non-
Indigenous
Students
School B
Indigenous
Students
MeanTestScore(with95%Confidence
Interval)

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Factors relating to growth
School factors
Location
Teachers’ ratings of student achievement
(compared with peer ratings and ‘official’
results)

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Student factors relating to growth
Initial Achievement
Absenteeism
Attentiveness
Language Background

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Factors NOT related to achievement
Parents’ occupational status
Gender
Age
Pre-school attendance
Mobility

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Case Studies
Focus on:
School learning contexts
Classroom practices

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Case Study Themes: The School
 Recognition and celebration of Indigenous
cultures
 Literacy and numeracy programs
 Other programs and initiatives
 School-community partnerships
 Parent friendly

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Recognition and celebration of
Indigenous cultures
School-wide recognition and celebration of
Indigenous cultures and languages was
viewed positively by the Indigenous
community and facilitated positive school-
community relationships

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Literacy Programs
Most common: First Steps, Walking Talking Texts
and the Scaffolding Literacy Program
Other programs and literacy resources : Early
Years Literacy Program, State-Wide Early
Literacy Learning, Koorie Literacy Links, Spalding
and Reading Recovery
ESL teachers and teaching strategies featured in
many of the schools, particularly those in more
remote locations

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Teacher, on Scaffolding Literacy
Looking at the school results, it’s had a big
impact on children’s confidence to read, and
some kids who couldn’t read like “Yuk Soup’
and Transition books like that now read Paul
Jennings books. Having said that, they
haven’t has such successful transfer rates.
They can’t pick up an unseen text and read it
without no hiccups and inaccuracies, but
they’ve got the confidence to at least have a
go and read, so I think that’s the best thing
about scaffolding [is] the confidence it’s
building.

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AIEW, on Scaffolding Literacy
I’ve seen some positive feedback with kids
that hadn’t been attending much – and now
they’re coming five days a week. [The
students] have an understanding quicker
than if a teacher uses all different systems of
teaching… you see great leaps from the kids
who’s not reading at Year 1 level now in Year
2…I think what matters the most is their
attendance… if they get to school on a
regular basis, the chances of reading are
great

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Numeracy
Numeracy programs
 State curriculum programs
 Count Me In Too
 Lots of hands on

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Other programs and initiatives
 Pre-schools
 Health Room
 Behaviour management

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School-community partnerships
 ASSPA Committees
 Visiting Indigenous speakers/
elders/parents
 Employment of Indigenous people
 Schools going out to communities

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The Principal’s office is used as a workplace –
nothing more, nothing less. I don’t interview
parents in there, I don’t interview kids in there,
because I think we need to realise that a lot of
the parents have particular hang-ups about
Principals’ offices, from when they went to
school themselves, as places of authority and
places of pain…it puts me at an unfair advantage
to be asking the parent to come in there because
the chances are that they work themselves up
into a pretty fair frenzy to even come up to the
school. [Principal]
Parent friendly schools

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There is a lack of what we know as
involvement in education and the school… the
things like coming up to the school, coming
into the classrooms, collecting reports, turning
up for events you know those kind of thing that
we see as being involved…teacher things you
know [but] I know if I go down to the club, a lot
of the parents of my own class will come to me
and talk to me. How's my little son going at
school? And they really want to know, but they
won't do that anywhere else. [Teacher]

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Case Study Themes: The Classroom
 Classroom structure
 Recognising culture
 Supporting language
 Pedagogical practice
 Literacy teaching strategies
 Numeracy teaching strategies
 Assessment and recognising
achievement
 Collaborating with AIEWs
 Teacher attitudes and beliefs

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In the classrooms
 Classroom structure
 Recognising culture
 Supporting language
 Pedagogical practice
 Literacy teaching strategies
 Numeracy teaching strategies
 Assessment and recognising achievement
 Collaborating with AIEWs
 Teacher attitudes and beliefs

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Enabling Learning Environments
Enabling factors
 Strong leadership
 A shared vision
 Quality teachers
 Learner-centred teaching
 High expectations

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Factors that militate against success
 The attitude of staff in the staffroom was generally one of not
wanting to be there…some conveyed that they were middle
class and generally gave the impression that this was just a
job that they had to have
 There was a core group of community people who came into
the school on a regular basis, and were paid with special
funding. However a number of the teachers were critical of the
community members and indicated that they felt it would be
better if they didn’t come.
 She [teacher] made a tasteless comment about Aboriginal
families…
 The Deputy said that Aboriginal people, if disadvantaged, are
only disadvantaged because they are too lazy to get to school.

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Good teachers
Early intervention