Data standards manual: Student background characteristics
The purpose of the Data Standards Manual Student Background Characteristics (PDF 358 kb) is to provide guidance to schools and school systems for the collection of information on student background characteristics using the nationally agreed, standard measures of the characteristics.
The manual is to be used by schools and school systems when enrolling students for the first time in the school year, or when collecting information, via special data collection forms on those students participating in national assessments.
The nationally agreed student background characteristics collected are:
- Indigenous status
- socio-educational background
- language background.
The student background information is linked to students’ results in the various components of the National Assessment Program (NAP), including the calculation of the index of community socio-educational advantage (ICSEA), which enables fair comparisons to be made between schools with similar students on My School.
This information is also incorporated into the socio-educational advantage (SEA) model, which contributes to school funding.
It is the responsibility of schools and school systems to review and adjust their data collection tools and data processing procedures to ensure their collections incorporate the standard definitions, question modules and data coding structure for each of the variables, as per the technical specifications provided in the manual.
What is new?
- updated information on privacy requirements
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions can be found here