Australian Financial Review: Time for the Unique Student Identifier

Each year in Australia, billions of dollars and a massive effort from individuals and organisations are invested in school education. But to what end? Over the past two decades, our performance has been fairly middling in global educational assessments. Our Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) scores have seen no improvement, while our Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results have declined.

If we want to improve Australia's educational performance, it is critical that we adequately measure the impact of our investment and build a picture of what is and isn't working. Key to this is focusing on the achievement and progress of each student.

We need to be able to track individual students as they progress through school and use this data to identify, as early as possible, who needs additional support. This will lead to a more efficient allocation of resources and help drive the improvements so critical to Australia's future.

Tracking progress is particularly important for students from disadvantaged backgrounds because on average they achieve poorer outcomes than their more affluent peers. But many disadvantaged students move schools, communities and states during the course of their education, with a frequency that can severely disrupt their educational journey.

Australia lacks the capacity to track all school students' educational progress over time because there is no national Unique Student Identifier (USI) system. While some states or sectors have implemented a USI, there's no national system that transfers across state and system borders.

The impact is twofold. We lose sight of the progress students are making and they are less likely to receive the support they need in a timely way.

And our ability to assess the impact of educational policies, initiatives and investments is seriously weakened. This is counter to our national efforts aimed at educational improvements.

A USI is not a new idea. The Council of Australian Governments endorsed one in 2009. The Productivity Commission's 2016 Inquiry into the National Education Evidence Base recommended work on a nationally consistent system of USIs be prioritised. But to date there has been limited progress.

Critics have raised privacy concerns - but Australia is vigilant about appropriate use of data. Others have suggested a USI could be used to 'label' students, limiting their opportunity to reinvent themselves at a new school. But when a student arrives at a new school with their educational data, there is an immediate potential benefit. It identifies where they are on their educational journey and helps the school tailor the support they need.

As CEO of The Smith Family, I've seen first-hand the value of a USI. In 2011, we started collecting educational data from thousands of Australian students on our Learning for Life program. We are collecting data on school attendance, achievement in English and Maths, Year 12 completion and post-school engagement in study or work.

Over time, this date has enabled us to evaluate and refine our programs to ensure they are positively impacting student outcomes.

Importantly, we've been able to demonstrate the strong link between school attendance in high school, and whether or not a student completes Year 12. In an Australian first, our data shows that if we can improve students' attendance as they move through high school, the likelihood of them completing Year 12 increases. This new evidence can help improve the educational outcomes of many Australian students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Such analysis – and the generation of new evidence to drive educational improvements – is only possible because each of the nearly 40,000 students on the Learning for Life program has a USI. It allows their individual outcomes to be monitored over the long term, regardless of how often they move.

This new evidence and the strong educational outcomes achieved by disadvantaged students on our program reinforce the value of a national USI for all Australian school students.

Of course there are costs in rolling out a national USI, but being able to monitor and evaluate our educational investments and initiatives must outweigh these concerns. A USI is a key element as we look to choose strategies to lift Australia's educational performance overall.

Dr Lisa O’Brien is chief executive of children’s education charity The Smith Family

Opinion originally published in the Australian Financial Review Monday 9 April 2018