This research shows Mission Australia’s Flexible Learning Options (FLO) program in South Australia not only successfully re-engages hundreds of disadvantaged high school students with learning, but also has a significant transformative and potentially life-saving impact on young people who are facing a range of complex issues.

This second report in the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report series continues its assessment of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal on education (SDG4) and its ten targets, as well as other related education targets in the SDG agenda.

It is widely understood that Australia’s school performance (as measured by international test scores) has been falling. What’s less understood is that this headline buries a stark, unpalatable fact: our international test results show that kids at the bottom of the performance distribution are falling faster and further than kids at the top.

This resource is the first Australian study to demonstrate the predictive relationships between a set of educational outcomes as young people move through school. These outcomes are students’ school attendance, achievement in English or Maths, school completion and involvement post-school in work or study.

Why do some regions perform better with disadvantaged learners than others? Identified through the analysis of a number of data sources, this research explores the strategies and practices in place at TAFE and other private and community education providers.