The Phase Two Review makes the following recommendations to improve the appropriateness and effectiveness of the program both in terms of its policy underpinnings and its delivery.
General
- IEDA supports strategic interventions that complement mainstream education programs and services.
- IEDA be refocussed to enable the development of more strategic interventions that clearly focus on the key priority areas that support the overarching program goal.
- Program guidelines be re-written to clearly articulate a single overarching outcomes- focused goal of accelerating the learning outcomes of Indigenous students. IEDA program interventions would be expected to develop more detailed objectives, but it is expected each intervention would demonstrate a linkage to the overarching program goal.
- Integration of IEDA interventions with other relevant education activities and the development of partnerships with other relevant education providers in the local area should be encouraged.
- IEDA.s interventions should emphasise overcoming local barriers to improving educational outcomes and the development of solutions which are tailored to local circumstances.
- Strategies be developed to fund more strategic initiatives to improve educational outcomes of Indigenous students and to be more innovative and creative in their approach to such initiatives.
- Mechanisms be developed to facilitate greater exchange and dissemination of information regarding successful IEDA interventions.
Performance Reporting Framework
- A performance framework be developed to assess the impact of IEDA on student learning outcomes.
- An overarching evaluation strategy be developed to collect additional qualitative and quantitative data from a selection of project interventions operating in diverse circumstances. Lessons from the evaluation be used to inform future Indigenous education policy and program directions.
- Information and data obtained from the new performance reporting system and evaluation strategy be circulated to other areas of DEST and to the wider community to support their development of strategies to target their assistance.
DEST Staffing
- DEST National Office and State Offices ensure that appropriate training of DEST staff occurs to enable them to actively engage with school communities using a community capacity building approach, with a focus on student learning outcomes.
- That Indigenous Education Units. current role in monitoring the accountability requirements be expanded to include more focus on learning outcomes as opposed to outputs. This is likely to require additional training especially in areas of strategic planning and evaluation.
- That Indigenous Education Unit officers receive appropriate information and training to better inform them of the educational issues relevant in their State and Territory and in relation to school decision-making processes.
Policy
- IEDA should encourage community capacity building strategies that recognise and build on the strengths of parents, ATAS tutors and communities.
- Strategies need to be developed to ensure that ATAS tutors have appropriate expertise and cultural awareness to provide appropriate and high quality tutoring to students.
- IEDA should encourage arrangements for parental involvement that are directly targeted towards improving student educational outcomes through linkages to school development plans and the genuine engagement between parents and teachers and principals.
- DEST should engage with Indigenous parents and communities at a local level to encourage their focus on innovative strategies that rapidly improve the learning outcomes of Indigenous students.
- DEST National Office explore with other Commonwealth agencies, especially DEWR, ATSIS and FaCS opportunities for collaboration in relation to capacity building, employment and training of ATAS tutors and whole-of-government activities.
- Homework centres be renamed Learning Centres and options be explored for improving their effectiveness and making their environment more conducive to learning and receiving assistance from suitably qualified and appropriate supervisory staff.
- ATAS be retained as a significant focus of IEDA, but be renamed ITAS (Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme).
- To ensure the continued development of the tutorial assistance scheme, on-going evaluations of the appropriateness and effectiveness of tuition during school hours in primar schools must be conducted.
Funding
- DEST should consider moving IEDA into the same legislative framework as that of the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme to improve planning and delivery at both institutional and individual levels. This could enable the development and use of a single performance reporting framework and complementary policy approaches to be more transparent and aligned under a single framework. It would also enable IEDA funding to be more efficiently allocated, spent and reported on a calendar year basis.
- Priority for IEDA funding be given to initiatives that clearly support a transition from supplementary to mainstream-funded educational services, rather than inadvertently increase students. reliance on supplementary services.
- DEST National Office develops an equitable funding allocation mechanism to be applied to the allocation of IEDA funding. This methodology should be consistent with the views expressed in the Commonwealth Grants Commission Report on Indigenous Funding 2001, specifically in relation to the need to take into consideration the extra cost of delivery in remote areas.
- Consideration be given to moving funding for Learning Centres out of ATAS and into a new Projects of Strategic Intervention component.
Implementation
- A risk assessment should be undertaken as part of the implementation strategy and reassessed each six months.
- Each DEST State and Territory office should establish a state-based IEDA advisory group (use existing group if possible) to provide assistance with the development of State IEDA Plans and targeting strategies.
- State and Territory Offices. IEDA Plans include local risk management assessments.
- DEST develop a communication strategy to support the implementation of the revised program. The strategy include targeting of specific locations, stakeholders and education providers which have the most to benefit from participating in IEDA strategic interventions, rather than only focusing on a broad, generic communications and promotions strategy.