Our research found that nine (9) student attributes correlated with school outcomes, some positively and others negatively. Thus, students who had fulfilment needs that were generically well supported in schools, such as, the need for competency, to be competitive, to have a sense of purpose, to relate well with others and resilience, were found to have higher motivation for schooling and better school outcomes. Alternately, those focused on intrinsic matters of self, such as the need for self-confidence, to be independent, to follow interests and those seeking approval were significantly less motivated and did relatively less well a school. The value of the SAS output is in assisting parents and educators identify the need fulfilment strengths and weaknesses of individual students. With this knowledge parents and teachers can motivate students by engaging their strengths (affirming individual attributes) while encouraging the development of other more “school-friendly” attributes that will assist in school transition. This data is particularly important in locations where school-choice is limited. If your child is lacking in the attributes that are pre-requisite for school success then they will need higher levels of guidance prior to and during the secondary school transition period and beyond.
When determining pupil engagement styles we look for particular patterns on the three (3) preference dimensions represented in the CPS graphical outputs. For example, a line descending from left to right, high in preference for organisational standards, medium for interpersonal care and low for tolerance of individual choices is indicative of a compliant socialisation style. These students prefer authoritarian school contexts. Furthermore, an ascending line from left to right indicates a self-determined style. These students have a preference for indulgent schooling contexts. A line “pitched” in the middle indicates a social style. These students have a preference for authoritative school contexts. A flat line indicates ambivalence, indicating no particular preference and a line that “dips” in the middle is indicative of an avoidant style. These students have a preference for impersonal schooling contexts. When we investigated student styles at a between-groups level, compliant students had the best school outcomes and avoidant students the worst.
Variance of student responses and cohort mean-scores on each of seven (7) school-culture components are of interest when discussing school improvement strategies. All participant schools in our research were found to have unique school-culture characteristics. However, it is important to note that overall at the cohort level, no significant differences in schooling outcomes were found between public, independent and single-gender schools on our components of school-culture. We concluded that schools should not be considered better or worse than one another overall, they are just different. This diversity of schools becomes important when we examine their suitability for individuals. For example, different school-cultures were found to align better with particular styles of students.
The same seven (7) schooling outcomes are used to evaluate suitability in each Student-School Suitability Sub-scale. We use a broad range of cognitive, engagement and achievement indicators that measure pupil satisfaction, academic motivation, dropout ideation and school anxiety, academic performance, academic self-efficacy and overall wellbeing relative to their age equivalent peer cohort. Student differences from cohort mean-scores on each school-culture component are of particular interest to parents when making school choices and to school personnel when evaluating school improvement strategies.
The detailed Pupil-School Matching Reports have three (3) very detailed colour coded tabular outputs that present multiple engagement statistics for comparison with each selected “School of Choice”. Our research findings demonstrate a positive correlation between pupil-school alignment and schooling outcomes on the dimensions of organisational standards and interpersonal care, while the inverse relationship was found for tolerance of individual choices. The PSM report reference tables show significant HiScores and LoScores for each of the pupil-school engagement statistics. Families can appraise these outputs to predict the relative suitability of selected schools. The PSM report can validate a preferred school of choice or predict more suitable alternatives.
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