Indigenous students attendance at one Australian urban primary school (2005–2015): A case study

Abstract

Urban Indigenous students’ school attendance and factors contributing to annual attendance rates are relatively unknown, and yet almost 80% of the Indigenous population resides in non-remote regions. Our longitudinal study evaluated an urban primary school where Indigenous families preferentially enrolled their children because they recognised it supported their children in ways that celebrated Indigenous culture and ameliorated school-related symptoms of poverty. Indigenous students’ attendance influences appeared in phases: Indigenous status, poverty, and family characteristics, until significant influences for attendance were exhausted. While Indigenous students’ mean attendance rates were bounded between 80% and 90%, and below non-Indigenous peers’ attendance in each year, slight improvement occurred, even as poverty universally pervaded the Indigenous community. As poverty among non-Indigenous students increased, their mean attendance also declined below the 90% national benchmark.