HSC subject hierarchy can lower students' horizons, says study | JordsBaker
The state's most advantaged students have better access to high-status, high-scaling HSC subjects, new research has found – raising concerns that limited, low-status curriculum offerings are causing poorer students to lower their aspirations.
The study comes as the NSW Curriculum Review interim report calls for an end to the "artificial and unhelpful" separation between academic and vocational subjects in the HSC – saying the number of courses should be cut, and the remainder be made more rigorous and to merge theory with skill.
"It is evident that overall [VET subjects] are studied by students of lesser average socio-economic status," the report said. The exceptions were those with "certain social cache" such as entertainment or tourism. "What we are not doing is making those accessible at a great rate to students who don't have [advantaged] backgrounds. We are also not making more applied subjects more meaningful to kids who come from advantaged backgrounds.Most schools make decisions about their subject offerings based on what students say they want to study, but need to have at least a dozen students, if not more, to make a class viable.
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