The First Step

The Issue

When the Independent Expert Panel convened by Minister Jason Clare asked the vital question, “What contributes to poor performance?” in Australian education, its first and most striking answer was definitive: “Australia’s schools are highly segregated along socio-economic lines.”

Despite our shared belief in a fair go, Australia now operates one of the most socially segregated school systems in the OECD. This structure directly undermines student achievement. Research shows that a school’s socioeconomic makeup can be a stronger predictor of academic success than a student’s individual family background. Low-SES students attending low-SES schools are three learning years behind their identical peers in schools with students from a mix of backgrounds.

After completing its comprehensive review, the Independent Expert Panel recommended “that governments, school systems and approved authorities commit to increasing socio-economic diversity by… reviewing existing policy settings by the end of 2027 and implementing new policy levers to increase socio‑economic diversity in schools and lift student outcomes; tracking (and annually publicly reporting on) the socio-economic diversity of schools and systems by the end of 2025, to monitor the level of diversity and support further work to increase diversity as part of the next Agreement and its implementation framework.”
(p.88, Improving Outcomes for All, The Report of the Independent Expert Panel’s Review to Inform a Better and Fairer Education System)

If we want a better and fairer education system, we must stop hiding from the data and actively fix the structural policy settings causing this divide. And Minister Clare must implement the recommendations of the review he commissioned.

Our Call to Action

We call on the Federal Education Minister and all State and Territory Education Ministers to fully implement the landmark recommendations of the Improving Outcomes for All independent expert review.

Specifically, we call on the Commonwealth and state and territory governments to urgently implement:

1. Annual Measurement and Public Reporting of Socioeconomic Diversity

Amend the Australian Education Act 2013 to mandate that ACARA and the Department of Education track and annually report on the socioeconomic diversity of Australian schools, sectors, and systems. This transparency must include:

• The extent to which highly disadvantaged and disadvantaged students are concentrated in schools with peers from similar backgrounds.

• Whether school student profiles genuinely reflect the socioeconomic diversity of the local communities they serve.

• The proportion of disadvantaged students (including low-SES, Indigenous, rural/remote, and students with disabilities) enrolled across the Public, Catholic, and Independent sectors.

• The real impact of compulsory fees, enrolment practices, and funding disparities on school accessibility and social segregation.

2. A Review of Policy Levers to Enhance Diversity

Commission an Independent Expert Review to evaluate existing policy settings driving segregation and to identify new, proven policy levers to increase socioeconomic diversity. This review must explicitly look at lessons from comparable international school systems that have successfully utilized policy levers to maintain choice while protecting fairness, equity, and top-tier academic results.

Why This Matters Now

We cannot build a "Better and Fairer Education System" while ignoring the structural segregation that the Minister's own expert panel identified as a primary driver of educational decline. Measuring the problem annually ensures accountability; studying successful international models gives us the roadmap to fix it.

Minister Clare, it is time to act on the evidence you commissioned. Turn these expert recommendations into national policy.