Priority schools survey deadline closes in

By David Ferguson

Schools who have received an invitation to participate in the NSW Department of Education and Training's Priority Schools Programs survey only have until September 17 to reply.

Unless your school participates in the survey it cannot be eligible for Priority Schools Funding Program (PSFP) or Priority Action Schools (PAS) funding, staffing, consultancy and other support from 2009.

The survey, to be administered in March next year, is highly regarded as statistically rigorous and reliable. The new survey form has been redesigned to be as simple as possible for families to complete and is just one page long. Survey participation by families is voluntary and strictly confidential.

The information from the survey of families at each school is used to produce an index of relative concentrations of socio-economic disadvantage. The outcome of the survey and index is the compiling of the list of schools that will receive funding from 2009. The resulting list of schools will produce a cut-off for program eligibility at around 20 per cent of the total NSW public school student population.

As highlighted by Professor Peter Freebody from the University of Sydney at the recent Department of Education and Training Equity Conference, the correlation between socio economic status (SES) background and student achievement has been one of the most enduring results demonstrated in educational research. The rationale for the maintenance of a discrete low SES program is as strong now as it was when established by the Whitlam federal government as the Disadvantaged Schools Program in 1975.

To its credit the NSW Government has continued to use the available Commonwealth funding to support schools in poor communities. Unfortunately this is no longer the case in all states. The NSW Government also funds extra staffing and provides teacher consultancy support for schools.

Schools on the PSFP (currently 573) receive significant funding of up to $160,000 per annum, based mainly on school size, plus teacher staffing supplementation through an enhanced staffing formula. A smaller number of very needy schools (currently 80) also receive significantly increased funding through the PAS program.

Both the PSFP and PAS lists of schools will change in 2009. On past indications between 25 and 30 per cent of schools will be replaced on the new list.

Federation remains strongly committed to the continuation of targeted equity programs for schools serving students in low SES communities and is involved in consultation about the implementation of the programs in our public schools.

David Ferguson is a City Organiser and the Officer attached to Equity Programs.

For further information

August 2007 contents