This report highlights progress in 2017 towards the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians agreed by Australian education ministers in 2008.

The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2017 addresses the eight areas of commitment to action specified in the Melbourne Declaration. This written report describes the national policy and reporting context for school education in Australia and reports against the nationally agreed key performance measures (KPMs) for schooling, covering student participation, student achievement in national assessments and student transitions to further education and work. A selection of other statistical information on Australian schooling in 2017 and for the nine-year period 2009–2017 inclusive is included.

More extensive data sets are available through the National Report on Schooling data portal, which is also a component of the National Report on Schooling in Australia. The data portal provides readers with interactive access to a wide range of data on schooling in Australia, including general statistics on enrolments and funding, and data on the agreed KPMs. In most cases, the portal allows readers to download data by state and territory, by school sector, by calendar year and by other breakdowns, such as gender and Indigenous status, as well as at the national level.

This is the ninth annual National Report on Schooling in Australia to address the Melbourne Declaration and the twenty-ninth annual report overall.