Flexibilities of the SACE part 2
The suite of subjects that came to be known as Community Studies was developed by the Senior Secondary (2S) project, part of Federal Transition Education program in response to increasing unemployment and a subsequent rise in retention. Influenced heavily the newly released report authored by head of the schools Commission Jean Blackburn “Schooling for 15 and 16 year olds which proposed that senior secondary education be a universal right and that curriculum be engaging and relevant for all young people not only for those fortunate few who were going to university. The 2S project drew on the work of Garth Boomer in Negotiating the Curriculum and looked to the development of alternative curriculum the STC in Victoria through the work of alternative educators in Victoria such as Marie Brennan and Bill Hannan. Drawing on the work of Bill Hannan 2S introduced a radical form of assessment, “”contract based assessment” (later changed to Work Required Assessment), where student contracts and teachers negotiated the work and learning that the students would undertake to meet the requirements of the units.
The curriculum units developed by 2S were distributed as small self-printed monographs that avoided having to be officially a sanctioned because they were only ever released as drafts and the schools engaged with them as” trials”. There was no accreditation attached, even under the Education Departments own Senior Secondary Certificate. This changed with the introduction of the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA). In an act designed to show that the Board was independent and prepared to be radical - all the subjects submitted to the Board were accredited under the name Community Studies suggested by CE of SSABSA. Though accredited by SSABSA it was deemed that the non – graded assessment recorded as, “achieved/ not yet achieved” meant that the subjects would not qualify for entry to university. They became the vehicle by which many students ““at risk”” were given students access to the SACE.
Vocational Education and Training
In the 1990’s schools again reacted to the challenge of a more diverse cohort of students by introducing Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs into schools and developing links with TAFE and business. Stemming from the Mayer report in 1992, Putting General Education to work and the development of key competencies, a common language was opened up between schools and training providers. Schools and SSABSA began to adopt employment related key competencies in order to respond to perceived need of employers. The move to competency-based curriculum and assessment in vocational units allowed schools to clearly see what was to be taught and how it could be assessed. Schools led the development of Vocational Education and Training as part of senior secondary education and working with business and enterprise sought to extend student learning beyond the bounds of the classroom.
Secondary Schools formed clusters to offer VET programs on a regional basis. Remaining committed to the idea of SACE being a single certificate The VET programs began to be recognised within the SACE at Stage 1 and with provision for them to be embedded within discreet subjects at Stage 2, being able to contribute to students overall learning plan. Take up was ad hoc and disruptions to timetabling and lack of suitably qualified teachers and trainers meant that the take up of whole certificates was slow.
STAR Projects and giving voice to Students
Despite the ability to choose from broad range of subjects and pathways, the ability to negotiate within subjects and the various special provisions and “flexibilities” within the SACE there were significant numbers of young people who were staying on at school, enrolling in, but not achieving, their SACE. This was exacerbated by increasing the age of compulsion, provisions for students to be in work or in school “learn or earn.” And a collapse in the youth labour market. “Students at risk of not completing year 12 without a suitable pathway’” became an issue in society, in schools and in SSABSA.
Three Student At Risk (STAR) action research projects and a SACE Literacy project were developed by the Board to try to find some solutions or at least ways forward, the most notable change to arise out of the STAR projects was the Recognition of Community Learning which was incorporated into SACE.
At the same time SSABSA the Education Department partnered with Flinders University on in depth study into young people’s experience of school detachment, this study published as “Listen to Me I’m Leaving.” gave voice to students and their experience of school and SACE. Despite the changes in curriculum, assessment and increased flexibilities through more open subjects and the community recognition - the retention and achievement in the SACE remained strongly correlated to location and wealth. School was alienating and SACE perceived as just for those who were going to university. A newly elected Labour government established a Ministerial Review into Post Compulsory schooling to revise the SACE and make it more accessible