Factors influencing the decision to move schools at the end of year 10

Abstract

Acknowledgements: This research was funded by a small Australian Research Council grant to the authors. We wish to thank the students, principals and staff of the participating schools for their ready cooperation and Ms Fran Brew for her assistance on this project.

It has been assumed that the dezoning policy in the NSW public school system would lead to increased opportunities for students and increased mobility between schools in the senior years as students change schools to obtain a preferred set of subject choices. This paper investigates such issues by asking a sample of 1048 year 10 students about both subject choice and their intended school for the senior years. Students who expected to change schools or who intended to remain at the same school despite a subject mismatch were asked for the reasons for this decision. Subject choice plays a relatively unimportant role. Overall, there is great hesitation to change schools unless there are clearly perceived benefits, such as changing to a Senior High School. Implications for the advising of year 10 students by Careers and Guidance Officers are discussed.