Resource Hub
Data made clear
Access the evidence behind educational reform. Download datasets, explore methodology and build on our work.
Engagement
Student engagement is among the most studied constructs in education research, yet it is among the least consistently defined. It is variously understood as a behaviour, an emotional state, a cognitive disposition and a social phenomenon, and these dimensions do not always move together.
This collection examines what engagement is, how it is measured, and what the evidence shows about its causes and consequences across secondary schooling.
Environment and Structure
How time is structured, how students are grouped, how spaces are designed and how authority is distributed have largely remained unchanged since mass schooling began. But does the traditional model serve the engagement needs of contemporary secondary students?
This collection examines the evidence on how the structural and physical design of a school shapes student participation, and what alternative models reveal about engagement.
Learning and Content
What students are taught, how it is designed and how it is delivered are among the most debated questions in education.
This collection brings together research spanning curriculum design, instructional practice and the student learning experience across secondary schooling. It examines knowledge-rich approaches to student-centred models, examined through the lens of what sustains meaningful engagement in Years 7 to 9.
Media and Opinion
The evidence on student disengagement is not confined to research journals. This collection brings together news articles, opinion pieces and practitioner commentary from Australia and around the world that reflect how the public sphere understands the problem.
These pieces capture the voices of educators, journalists and commentators responding to what they see in schools — and reflect a growing consensus that secondary schooling needs meaningful reform.
Proposed Reforms & Future Directions
Understanding the problem of student disengagement is only part of the work. This collection brings together the proposals, frameworks and emerging practices that are attempting to reshape secondary schooling in response to the evidence.
From high-level arguments about the purpose of education reform through to practical models that schools and systems are trialling now. Technology is considered not as an end in itself but as one lever among several for personalising learning and building student agency.
Relationships
The quality of relationships within a school is one of the most consistent predictors of student engagement.
This collection examines how student-teacher relationships, peer connectedness, sense of belonging and family involvement shape whether students feel safe, valued and motivated to participate.
It pays particular attention to autonomy support, perspective-taking and behaviour management — not as a disciplinary function, but through its relational impact on the conditions for engagement.
Reports
Systemic data and parliamentary inquiry provide an essential complement to academic research.
This collection brings together key government and sector reports documenting the state of student engagement, attendance, wellbeing and learning outcomes across Australian schooling, alongside significant international reports where other systems confront the same challenges.
Together, they build a picture of disengagement not as an isolated classroom problem but as a systemic concern requiring coordinated policy attention.
The Learner
To understand why students disengage, schools must first understand who their students are.
This collection examines the evidence on adolescent development, motivation, identity and well-being—not as factors students must overcome, but as variables that shape how young people participate in schooling.
Effective responses to disengagement depend on schools recognising and accounting for the individual experiences students bring with them