PSP survey

2008 PRIORITY SCHOOLS FUNDING PROGRAM SURVEY

All eligible NSW government schools were invited to nominate for the 2008 Priority Schools Programs (PSP) Survey following consultation with school communities. The survey identified which schools will receive PSP support from 2009 to 2012.

The data from the survey was collated and analysed by the end of May 2008. The final stages of validation checking took place during June-July 2008. When complete, a new list of schools will be submitted to the Minister for Education and Training for approval. Following approval, participating schools will be notified about whether they will be supported by Priority Schools Programs for the period 2009 to 2012.

Schools with the highest concentrations of families from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds are included in PSP. Approximately 20 per cent of the students in government schools are supported by Priority Schools Programs.

PSP is underpinned by principles of equity and social justice in education. These principles have the aim of reducing, with a view to eliminating, the achievement gap in student learning outcomes for students who may be adversely affected in schooling due to their socio-economic circumstances.

PSP focuses on improving student outcomes in literacy, numeracy and participation. The program supports identified schools through the allocation of direct grants, extra staffing and consultancy services.

What is the history of the PSP Survey?

What is the strength of the PSP Survey?

What are the advantages of the PSP Survey?

Why not use Australian Bureau of Statistics Census statistics?

Which schools are included in PSP?

Does the PSP list change from one funding period to the next?

Which schools can do the PSP Survey?

What will be the review process for PSP?

What is the history of the PSP Survey?

A voluntary, confidential survey of school communities to determine socio-economic status (SES) has been used by the NSW Department of Education and Training for approximately 20 years.

In this time, the process has been reviewed and refined. It now results in a valid and reliable measure of the relative SES of school communities.

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What is the strength of the PSP Survey?

A significant strength of the survey is that it relates directly to the families of each participating school.

The process is transparent, objective and fair. It can be externally monitored and checked at every stage.

As a measure of socio-economic status, the Priority Schools Programs survey is extremely valid.

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What are the advantages of the PSP Survey?

• Data is current at the time it is used
• Data is provided directly by the families served by each school participating in the survey
• Data is confidential, no-one within the school sees the data, no-one who analyses the data knows who it comes from
• Data is based on a number of variables, appropriate for educational purposes
• Analysis applied to the data to construct a socio-economic status index of school communities is rigorous.

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Why not use Australian Bureau of Statistics Census statistics?

Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census statistics gives a result that, compared to the Priority Schools Programs (PSP) Survey is:

• not as current – the latest Census data was collected in 2006
• too broad for our specific educational purposes
• less valid and reliable and more logistically difficult to use
• less well accepted by school communities
• inconsistent with the much finer PSP survey information when tested by NSW Department of Education and Training officers
• less valid when making fine distinctions because ABS socio-economic status (SES) indexes use reported income as a factor, many asset rich people are able to minimise their incomes
• less rigorous because the Census measures of SES do not weight the factors used – their prime interest is in the SES of geographic communities rather than groups within those communities.

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Which schools are included in PSP?

Schools with the highest concentrations of families from low socio-economic status backgrounds are included in Priority Schools Programs. This is approximately 21 per cent of the student enrolments in government schools.

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Does the PSP list change from one funding period to the next?

The Priority Schools Programs survey normally results in between 25 and 30 per cent of schools supported in the previous funding period being replaced for the next four years. This reflects changes in the demographics of communities in NSW over that period.

Since the measure is of relative socio-economic disadvantage, it is difficult to predict which schools will become eligible that are currently not on the list and which will come off the list.

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Which schools can do the PSP Survey?

The basic considerations for eligibility for Priority Schools Programs of a school are:

• student enrolments at the school are full time
• student enrolments are long-term, that is greater than 12 months
• students are not enrolled at any other school
• the school serves a distinct, discrete and identifiable community which can be surveyed
• the institution is an identifiable school which can apply whole-school programs to its students

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What will be the review process for PSP?

Any school believing its survey results have not been accurate will be invited to apply for a review of its data. There is no provision for appeal on any other grounds than the survey data.

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Support materials for school communities

1. Procedures for Schools

2. PSP Survey brochure

3. PowerPoint presentation

4. Sample PSP Survey

5. DVD to understand the PSP survey

		Procedures for Schools Download the Procedures for Schools to be used by Principals and Survey co-ordinators in participating schools.
		Brochure Download and print this brochure to inform the whole school community about the PSP Survey.
		PowerPoint presentation Use this presentation with the whole school community.
		Sample PSP Survey Download this sample PSP Survey form 2008.
		This DVD is designed to assist school communities to understand the PSP Survey. View with Windows Media Player. View with Quicktime. The video files contained on this DVD may play more effectively if downloaded to your hard drive. To download the selected file: Right click on the “Windows Media Player format” or the “Quicktime format” button below and select “Save Target As…” Choose a location where you wish to save the video file Press OK