This was partly due to extra government funding and a keener focus on literacy in the wake of school closures.In one of the worlds first empirical studies on the impact of COVID-19 on student learning, researchers at the University of Newcastle found students at disadvantaged schools with an Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage ICSEA value of less than 950 achieved greater growth in mathematics and equivalent growth in reading in 2021 compared with similar students in 2019.ICSEA is a measure of school-level advantage that accounts for school location, parent education and percentage of Indigenous students.
The Andrews government’s merger of Shepparton’s four struggling high schools into one mega-campus stirred anger in the town, and the Coalition hopes to cash in.