Authors: Louise Watson, Jenny Chesters, Affrica Taylor, Adam Murray, Stephen Lamb, Michael Long, Merryn Davies and Esther Doecke

Evaluator Company/Business: University of Canberra and University of Melbourne

Year: 2014

URL or PDF: Download the Evaluation of school external partnerships: Bridges and Barriers, the challenges of building external partnerships in low SES school communities, progress report 5 (PDF, 1.03MB)

Summary:  This report presents survey data on teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of external partnerships undertaken by their schools under the low socioeconomic status school communities National Partnership (Low-SES NP). Survey participants were from 636 schools in both government and non-government sectors with a total of 2,408 respondents. Survey findings indicate that the Low-SES NP has had a positive impact on low-SES schools’ capacity to engage with parents and carers and the wider community on a number of indicators. The findings also indicate that levels of school-parent engagement in secondary schools remain lower than in primary schools, and that teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the Low-SES NP differs, according to their age, length of service in their current school, and their professional role.