Indigenous Australian children begin school with similar levels of literacy and numeracy to their non-Indigenous classmates but fall behind as they move through the early years, according to this report by Tracey Frigo, Matthew Corrigan, Isabelle Adams, Paul Hughes, Maria Stephens and Davina Woods. The study identifies initial achievement, attendance, attentiveness in class, language background, region and school as factors influencing achievement. Students who attended schools from metropolitan and regional areas generally achieved at a higher level than schools from the more remote and very remote areas.