With respect, I don’t think it’s right to simply brush aside the amount of effort, hard work, perseverance of high achievers at those schools with “oh they’re rich, it’s easier for them”. It’s a very one-dimensional way of looking at this very complicated issue. There are many, many more important aspects such as family background, culture, expectations, peer influences, and personal beliefs and preferences which affect someone’s ATAR to a much higher extent than money.
Saying that income has correlation to high ATAR isn’t wrong but it’s not looking at the full picture. Correlation doesn’t equal causation. Just some food for thought.
I'm not trying to brush that aside. No one gets high scores easily, but
everyone who gets high scores has to work very hard. Family background, culture, expectations, peer influences, and personal beliefs and preferences affect everyone, not just high ses students, however the research shows that the major influence on atar is SES status, not any of these other factors (there has been studies on this for decades, and the influence of ses on education attainment is widely accepted in sociology), to say that these other factors affect atar to a higher extent than ses (ses status is not just money) is simply not true, and this has been shown in studies for a long time (although
this is an interesting article on other factors that affect education attainment within socioeconomic bands, if you're interested).
I'm not saying that every single person who comes from a high ses background will have an easier time of vce than those who come from a low ses background, but I am saying that
on average ses status predicts how well students do in vce.
On average, students from high SES backgrounds are at an advantage compared to those from low SES background. That is a fact supported by many years of studies and not something that can simply be ignored in favour of saying that everyone who does well works hard (although interestingly, the effect is not the same when it comes to tertiary study).
I would get rid of the restriction of only a maximum of 6 subjects counting towards the aggregate and taking only 10% of the two lowest scores.
I think we should encourage students to study as much as they want to and capping the max number of ATAR-contributing subjects at 6 discourages students from exploring more fields of study.
The 10% increment of bottom two is ridiculous. Students don’t put in only 10% of the effort. All these rules just restrict people who want to explore more interests and potential pathways because it is also important to maximise your score. But with the current system, it punishes students who want to have a wider range of knowledge.
Here’s my ‘fix’:
Students should be allowed to study any number of subjects they like, and all of them could contribute (FULLY) towards the ATAR.
However, to stop students from doing a large number of subjects for the sake of getting a higher aggregate (cos theoretically, if you did more subjects and all count towards the ATAR, you’d be more likely to get a higher aggregate even if you performed poorly in all of them), scores would only count if they achieve a certain threshold, for example, raw 25 or something.
That way, students are encouraged to both explore all areas of interest, and have the incentive to work hard as otherwise their scores won’t count.
Would love to hear what people think of this!
Agree with sine about this, don't think it would be healthy for students. At my high school anyone can do any electives, which meant I got to continue studying a variety of subjects I was interested in, without the pressure of having to try and get a good score in them (there was also no study required outside of class which means more time to study for subjects you get a score for, although I did spend a fair bit of time with my fishies anyway). I think this is a much better system than doing more vce subjects, although it would require a bit of a change in the education system to work at most schools (e.g. allowing students to do vce subjects earlier so they have room in their timetable for electives during vce).