Innovation and best practice in schools: review of literature and practice

This report is an outcome of the Full Service Schools (FSS) Program, a national program designed to assist school to meet the needs of students at risk of not completing Year 12. This review was undertaken as a component of the Best Practice and Innovative Strategies Project, one branch of the FSS. It aims to answer the following questions: 1. Why do young people leave school early, and what factors increase the likelihood that this will happen? 2. Why are young people unlikely to return to secondary school once they have left and what difficulties do they face if an attempt at returning is made? 3. What role can schools play in reducing the chances of early school leaving? 4. What makes for “best practice” in school-based or school-linked programs and what do we know about what works and what doesn’t? 5. What issues face teachers responsible for these students? 6. What can policy makers do to ensure these students’ needs are met?

Findings indicate that lack of interest, boredom and negative experiences with teachers are the most common reasons for leaving school. Young people are much more likely to leave because of a negative experience of school rather than a positive sense of what exists outside school. Reasons for not returning include refusal of entry back into school because of past negative/troublesome behaviour; lack of adequate financial support; having to return to an environment that allows individuals the minimum of autonomy and responsibility; and finding school and the curriculum even less relevant to them once they had made the attempt to establish themselves as independent adults.

Interventions which may help to keep students in school include:

1. Student Focused Initiatives – these can encompass tutoring/peer support, case management, mentoring, counselling, and gender equity programs.
2. Curriculum Initiatives – these are programs and activities that aim to develop or change knowledge, skills and/or attitudes. They can be concerned with cognitive, emotional, behavioural, interpersonal, intrapersonal and physical development.
3. School Organisational Change – this involves making changes to curriculum and operations across the whole school, rather than concentrating on individual strategies.
4. Community Oriented Approaches – the mission of schools is broadened to address the needs of young people for support beyond learning knowledge and skills.
5. Systemic Change – this refers to statewide or regional changes in policies and programs for assisting at risk students. Without systemic change, effective innovative initiatives that support marginalised young people will in many instances remain isolated, and perhaps even fade away when the personal energy or funding runs out.

This report was funded under the Full Service Schools Program.