A tale of two cohorts: The identification and impact of student engagement in a South Australian high school

Abstract

School completion is a major factor that contributes to student success at school. It has been reported that young people who do not complete secondary schooling are at higher risk of underemployment, incarceration, and decreased wellbeing for the remainder of their lives. The main factors that contribute to student drop-out and non-completion are academic failure, low attendance, socio-economic status, cultural heritage and identity, and behavioural difficulties including delinquency. Student engagement is a high priority for most schools and is often cited in the Vision and Mission objectives to ensure that students general wellbeing is paramount and can therefore have short and long term gains both at school and beyond. Feeling well, happy and engaged in school life can improve a student’s academic achievement, social and emotional engagement through attendance and participation, and overall values and attitudes to life and learning. This study investigated two cohorts, the 2016 and 2017 graduates, throughout their schooling at one College in South Australia. Student grades, attendance data, ‘attitude’ grade as determined by their teachers, and multiple wellbeing surveys were analysed to determine perceived levels of engagement. The data reported quite different final completion results for each cohort. It was found that neither the academic achievement or the attitude grades indicated any significant difference in engagement; but the attendance data suggested that the cohort who had the lower school completion were more consistently behaviourally engaged. The results suggest that schools should focus on how to specifically identify engagement levels in their students before assuming that it is a primary factor in a specific cohort’s success. However, due to the limitations of this study, further research is needed to develop tools and methodologies that can better measure the identification of student engagement to happen.