High School Graduation in Australia: Do Schools Matter?
| Author | Paul W. Miller,Anh T. Le |
| Date | 01 May 2004 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.0036-9292.2004.00302.x |
| Published date | 01 May 2004 |
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION IN
AUSTRALIA: DO SCHOOLS MATTER?
Anh T. Le and Paul W. Miller
n
Abstract
This study examines the determinants of high school graduation in Australia.
It uses two main approaches to estimation. The first of these is a conventional
probit model based on a range of family background and demographic variables.
This approach is then extended through consideration of a random parameters
probit model. The results show that schools matter to the chances of completing
high school in Australia. However, the school effects seem to have more to do with
the selection of more able students with superior socioeconomic backgrounds than
with the independent creation of favourable school or classroom climates.
I Intro ductio n
Studies of high school completion in Australia have attempted to quantify the
influence of a range of student background and institutional factors. It has been
shown that ability, father’s socioeconomic status, parents’ levels of education
and residential location affect whether a student will complete high school (see,
for example, Williams and Carpenter, 1990; Williams et al., 1993a, 1993b; Miller
and Volker, 1989; Long et al., 1999; Marks et al., 2000; Le and Miller, 2002).
This literature also shows that there are pronounced school system effects. At
the school sector level (i.e., government versus private schools), the type of
school attended certainly matters.
Recent studies in the education literature have attempted to unravel the
reasons for school effects of this nature, and a large, sophisticated literature on
school effectiveness has emerged. This literature has widened the scope of the
factors that may impact on school effectiveness by considering the effects of
school organisation, or within-school processes. They have done this using
random coefficient models, and have had a focus on individual schools. This
more recent literature reinforces the view that schools matter. This represents a
reversal of the position on the role of the school formed in the early literature
(see Coleman et al., 1966).
Prior research using random coefficients models has emphasised the role of
the school in the determination of output measures, such as test scores. In
n
The University of Western Australia
Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 51, No. 2, May 2004
rScottish Economic Society 2004, Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
194
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