Governments and school systems around the world use different policy interventions to address the risk or
emergence of concentrations of disadvantage and segregation along racial or socio-economic lines. Nous Group was engaged by the Australian Department of Education to undertake a policy scan of such reforms to explore their efficacy and transferability to an Australian context.

This report provides the findings to inform the work of the Review to Inform a Better and Fairer Education System (the Review), which in turn will serve as a key input into negotiations on a new National School Reform Agreement (NSRA).

For this research, Nous examined the literature on the ten interventions, analysed national and international
data sets, including from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Program
for International Student Assessment (PISA), and conducted ten research interviews with leading international education economics and policy experts.

The report presents a high-level assessment of the effectiveness of each intervention in terms of improving in-school diversity (in respect of racial, migrant background or socio-economic status) and improving educational outcomes (which are generally assessed in terms of improved attendance, graduation rates or performance on standardised tests).

Policy implications and recommendations:

• The greatest impact can be achieved through a combination of interventions – there is no single ‘fix’. The most effective policy interventions have been accompanied by other reforms that draw on a range of levers including funding, regulation and governance.
• Concurrent policies can also undermine each other – sometimes they work at cross-purposes, as in the case of the continuation of ‘tracking’ of students alongside the introduction of legislated quotas.
• Concentrations of First Nations students are a special case.
• International lessons transcend differences in politics, culture and geography.