Bradley, Steve and Draca, Mirko and Green, Colin and Leeves, Gareth (2007) The magnitude of educational disadvantage amongst indigenous minority groups in Australia. Journal of Population Economics, 20 (3). pp. 547-569. ISSN 1432-1475
Abstract
Indigenous groups are amongst the most disadvantaged minority groups in the developed world. This paper examines the educational disadvantage of indigenous Australians by assessing academic performance at a relatively early age. We find that, by the age of 10, indigenous Australians are substantially behind non-indigenous Australians in academic achievement. Their relative performance deteriorates further over the next 2 years. School and locality do not appear to be important determinants of the indigenous to non-indigenous achievement gap. However, geographic remoteness, indigenous ethnicity and language use at home have a marked influence on educational achievement. A current focus of Australian indigenous policy is to increase school resources. Our results suggest that this will not eliminate indigenous educational disadvantage on its own.