New Survey Says Smarter Students In Disadvantage Schools Fall Behind Average Students In Good School

It could be said that education from a good school matters. After all, with a better school, students have more access to books, computers and so on and so forth. However, this belief has never been something studied before and now it has finally been studied and reported.

A new report and analysis by NAPLAN data by public policy think-tank the Grattan Institute reveals a shocking realization that disadvantage student are falling behind each year they attend school compared to students who are fortunate enough to be enrolled in better schools. What is sadder about this finding is that smarter and brighter children enrolled in poor schools cannot excel to their full advantage compared to average students in good schools.

"Bright kids in disadvantaged schools show the biggest losses, making two-and-a-half years less progress than students with similar capabilities in more advantaged schools," Grattan School Education Program Director Peter Goss said. "It is not the way things should work. That's not a fair go," he added.

What is more alarming is as disadvantage students move up from year three to nine the learning gap between disadvantage students from advantaged students increases from a 10 month gap to a whopping two year gap. The report also says that in a typical setting a teacher teaching a year nine class is dealing with up to a seven-year gap between their brightest and weakest students.

"Poor progress in school leads to lower skill level when students leave schools and reduces their opportunities in life," Gross commented on students in disadvantage settings. He also encourages school systems to "raise its sights" because the differences between advantage and disadvantage students are thoroughly alarming.

Could it be possible that school system can change their teaching ways or should student just strive to go to a good school? What do you think?