Equity & Curriculum form: Access and achievement in the ACT Senior Secondary Curriculum

This project aims to understand the relationships between students’ demographic characteristics and access and achievement in the ACT Senior Secondary Curriculum. It does so to understand the influences upon access to, and achievement in, the ACT senior secondary curriculum at an individual and institutional (school) level. International studies increasingly show that student access to, and achievement in, the curriculum is mediated by socio-economic, institutional, and locational factors. The research will proceed along two interrelated strands. The first strand is a student level statistical data analysis in collaboration with the ACT Education Directorate and the ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies. The second strand will involve focus groups, interviews, and surveys with parents, students, and teachers in at least two ACT colleges to understand the influences upon student and school decisions pertaining to subject offerings. Considered together, the project references the principles of equity, access, and inclusion of the ACT Future of Education strategy.