Schools for young adults: senior colleges in Australia.

Polesel, John

Student dissatisfaction, low achievement, poor transition outcomes for some including early leavers, and persistent inequalities place considerable barriers in the way of schools' efforts to improve participation in education. This paper argues that there is a need to took beyond current structures of provision for models of schooling better able to deal with these issues. The existing research evidence on Australian initiatives to introduce senior school or multi-campus models of provision is reviewed and three case studies of the model presented in order to examine the potential of this model. The paper argues that this approach to schooling facilitates the provision of a broad and relevant curriculum (including VET), provides a more appropriate schooling environment for post-compulsory aged students and allows teachers (at both the junior and senior sites) to focus on the needs of their particular students.

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Need for change

Public education at the secondary level is exposed to many tensions in Australia. These include early leaving, low achievement and poor transition outcomes for some groups, student dissatisfaction, teacher malaise, poor employment outcomes for early leavers and persistent inequalities in participation and outcomes.

Retention rate growth, once considered unstoppable, peaked nearly ten years ago and has since declined (and stagnated) at a level which sees seven in ten students finishing their secondary schooling (Lamb, 1998). Many of those who remain in school do so frustrated by the scarcity of work for teenagers (Lewis & Norris, 1992). For these students, disenchantment with school and with teachers is accompanied by poor motivation and failure. Low achievement and poor transition outcomes, even for those who complete their schooling, haunt sections of our capital cities and some regional settings. Teese (2000) notes that urban working-class regions with high migrant concentrations will see one-third of gifts and over four in ten boys fail the least demanding mathematics subject in the curriculum. Low grades afflict the children of semi-skilled and unskilled workers much more severely than they do those of professionals and managers, and these in turn impact on transition to tertiary education and employment (Ministerial Review, 2000). The relationship between low achievement and delinquency is yet another sad aspect of the fir-reaching impact of failure (Putnins, 1999; Winters, 1997).

Early leaving affects different groups in different ways--its geography is uneven. In some regions, early leaving affects as many as 30 per cent of gifts and 40 per cent of boys (Ministerial Review, 2000). Moreover employment outcomes for early leavers are poor in a labour market which has seen a severe decline in full-time jobs for teenagers (Lewis & Koshy, 1999). Whereas those who dropped out in the past outnumbered their persisting peers and perhaps achieved the respectability associated with normal behaviour, early leavers are now viewed as an aberrant minority, their behaviour carrying the stigma of deviance and bolstering a perception of them as unemployable.

Teachers, too, find themselves under pressure from loss of autonomy, from greater stresses in the workplace and increasing accountability requirements (Gewirtz, 1997) and teachers in lower achieving schools find themselves more dissatisfied with various aspects of their working life, including their relationship with peers and with the curriculum (Shann, 1998).

In the face of these persistent tensions, objectives for change need careful formulation. Formal access to secondary schooling, once considered the precursor of equal outcomes, has long since been achieved. Growth in participation and completion rates now form the central objective of government plans, as in the recent Ministerial Review (2000) in Victoria. However such growth, when seen in the context of the problems outlined above, presents a major policy challenge. What incentives are there for students to persist with school when they are failing and when the educative process is mired in tension and conflict? What incentives exist when persistence presents no guarantee of effective pathways to work or other providers? What are the curriculum alternatives available to teachers to deal with an increasingly diverse clientele?

The debate over `seamlessness' and a more effective integration of programs offered by schools and the vocational education and training (VET) sector provides an indication of recent government thinking in this area. State education authorities now acknowledge the barriers to growth implicit in systems which cannot provide a quality learning experience and pathways to work and lifelong learning for all students.

Need for diversity

The pressures outlined above--the shrinking numbers of full-time jobs for teenagers, declines in traditional apprenticeships and a growing expectation that schools will prepare young people for entry to the labour market--have all combined to expose secondary schools to a wide range of client groups in the population. They have also created a need for a range of comprehensive curriculum programs. This need has placed pressure on a system designed principally with the objective of university preparation in mind--a system largely separated from the needs of the labour market and from the needs of young people requiring vocational skills.

A key consideration in tackling these broader needs has been the ability of schools to offer a comprehensive curriculum in the senior secondary years. As far back as 17 years ago, a Ministerial Review (1985) in Victoria was arguing that most secondary schools were too small to offer the comprehensive curriculum necessary to cater for students' needs in an em of mass participation. The evidence that students who are fully engaged with school and curriculum are less likely to drop out (see, for example, Newmann, Wehlage, & Lamborn, 1992) further highlights the importance of broad curriculum provision in any plans for reform.

It is in this context of an increasing need to cater for curriculum diversity and flexibility of pathways that this article approaches the emergence of senior schools on the Australian educational landscape. Economic imperatives and administrative and organisational demands often underpin the development of an initiative such as senior schools. Greenall (1987) notes that declining enrolments provided much of the impetus for the push towards the re-organisation of secondary schooling in the 1980s, with senior schools regarded as a major element of this reform process, and some would argue that most educational reforms are driven by expediency and funding considerations (see Hargreaves, 1986, on the establishment of middle schools in Britain). However it can also be shown that the need for curriculum breadth and flexibility, as much as any funding rationale, has been central to the interest shown in the concept of senior schools in Australia.

What is the senior school model?

Any discussion of the Australian experience must also be prefaced by the clarification of some definitional issues. Terms such as senior schools and senior campuses are sometimes used interchangeably and incorrectly. Moreover the year levels and types of curriculum offerings which constitute senior secondary schooling may vary considerably.

Many educational reforms occur as responses to funding or organisational difficulties (such as declining enrolments) and many relate to local and specific community needs. For these reasons, the models or organisational structures adopted in the establishment of different senior schools in Australia have differed considerably, both from state to state and from situation to situation.

In most instances, senior schools have been established as part of a broader `co-operative' plan of regional provision, in the context of surrounding Years 7-10 feeder institutions. This is the system-wide model adopted in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It is also the dominant model in the cases of newer senior colleges being established in other Australian states. In the case of an existing school setting, it is usually achieved by nominating one of a group of existing high schools as a senior secondary provider, and the remaining schools are `lopped' (turned into Years 7-10 feeders). Even within this approach, variations are possible. On the one hand, the schools in the cluster, although united by the bonds implicit in the junior-senior relationship, may operate as individual entities (each with its own principal and school council, etc.). On the other hand, the schools may actually be campuses forming part of a single multi-campus institution with one overall principal and a number of campus principals. Both approaches are used in the two largest state systems--New South Wales and Victoria.

In other instances, senior schools have been established as stand-alone Year 11-12 institutions with no dedicated `middle-years' feeder schools. There are also a number of these senior schools operating in Australia. In such cases, the senior school, which has no natural constituency, must encroach upon the constituencies of other local high schools. It is forced to operate in a context of regional `competition', fighting for the students who graduate from Year 10 and might be expected to continue to Year 11 in the same neighbouring high schools. This has, in some cases, had the effect of depleting senior student numbers in these neighbouring schools and, perhaps worse, weakening the student mix in those schools by recruiting the most able students (Polesel, in press). Recruitment of students with ability often reflects the senior school's popularity and community standing, factors which lead to demand exceeding supply, rather than any pre-conceived notion of focusing provision on an academic clientele.

Moreover there are also stand-alone senior schools, with no official relationship to surrounding schools and no dedicated Years 7-10 middle-school feeders, which do not compete for students. In one working-class metropolitan area, the senior school plays a role in providing for a diverse and needy clientele which is not welcome or cannot be catered for in other institutions. Rather than recruiting the most able, it takes in young people who have been expelled from other schools or have dropped out, adult re-entry students and, in some cases, recently released convicted criminals.

Nevertheless the effect of uneven patterns of student recruitment in some stand-alone schools seems to have been noted by the system providers and recently established senior schools in both New South Wales and Victoria are adhering to a collegiate or multi-campus structure, rather than a stand-alone approach.

Further variations in the mission or structure of senior schools are also possible. Although Years 11 and 12 most commonly form the basis of a senior school, some existing examples in Australia include Year 10. In two such schools, the Year 10 School Certificate and the Certificate of Spoken and Written English (AQF Certificate I level) were added to the school program to cater for the large numbers of adult re-entry students needing basic literacy skills before they could tackle the senior years of the curriculum. There is indeed a number of senior schools which play a strong role in adult re-entry programs, whereas others focus on an almost exclusively academic curriculum. Most, however, seem to fulfil the role of comprehensive providers, and offer a range of curriculum options (from university-oriented studies to VET) and many play a role which extends beyond the usual provision for continuing school-aged clients to include mature-age and re-entry students.

The feeder schools also vary in nomenclature. They may be referred to as middle schools, bridging between primary and post-compulsory education. Or they may follow the American terminology of junior high schools. Both terms are used in Australia.

The existing examples of senior schools in Australia cover this spectrum of possibilities and each reflects the local, administrative and economic imperatives apparent at the time of its formation. These differences provide a rich source of data for examining the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to the structuring of secondary schooling.

Research evidence

Research into senior schools is relatively rare and the applicability of international findings to the Australian context circumscribed by differences in structures of provision. In many European models and in the United States (US), the division of secondary schooling into junior and senior phases is the norm and therefore not subject to comparative research.

The United Kingdom (UK) provides more fertile ground, with the debate there linked to moves towards the establishment of comprehensive curricular provision. Reid and Filby (1982) argue that senior secondary schools (sixth-form colleges in the UK) contribute to greater educational participation for all groups and help to break down the view of senior secondary education as an option reserved only for a narrow social elite. Arguing from a neo-Marxist perspective rather than a narrowly economic rationalist one, they focus on the advantages of integrated and comprehensive provision rather than issues of efficiency.

The other major argument for senior secondary schools relates to their more adult environment, which is regarded as more conducive to the development of mature and responsible behaviours, both in the learning and in the social contexts (see, for example, Anderson, Saltet, & Vervoorn, 1980; Greenall, 1987; & Polesel, Teese, & O'Brien, 2001). In the British debate on the introduction of sixth-form colleges in the 1960s and 1970s, Macfarlane (1978) pointed to the incongruity in the assumption that sixth-form students are `on the one hand, to behave like young ladies and gentlemen and, on the other, to set an example of conformity to rules applicable to eleven-year-olds'). He argues that 16-19 year-olds need clear guidelines for behaviour and the security of firm parameters, but also require the opportunity to experiment with the responsibilities of adulthood. This is a theme which emerges strongly in the research conducted in Australia, with parents, in particular, emphasising that students at this stage of their schooling are learning to become adults rather than adults already (Polesel, in press).

Other researchers have questioned the appropriateness of senior students (eighteen years or even older) forming relationships with children three or four years younger and have highlighted the conflicts which might arise where younger children are exposed to older role models whose potential for inappropriate behaviours is so much greater (King, 1968; Macfarlane, 1978). These researchers have relied on data ranging from policy analysis to comprehensive surveys and case studies to stress the potential for damage to the younger group of students. In the Australian context of schools where adult re-entry programs operate and in the current climate of extended senior secondary programs which may accommodate Year 13, senior certificates taken over a period of two or even three years and VET studies, it is becoming increasingly common for adults and children with rising age differences to be thrown together on the same school sites. In addition to the pressures which this places on curriculum structures, schools are now also exposed to the social and cultural pressures of dealing with increasingly diverse age groups.

Well-documented concern at the lower rates of school participation for boys, compared with gifts, and the difficulties which some boys experience in dealing with authority structures also add some urgency to the debate over the appropriateness of the organisation of our schools (Hickey & Fitzclarence, 2000; Lamb, 1998). Recent research in Australian senior schools suggests that levels of morale among male students may be improved in a senior college context, suggesting a line of reform particularly relevant to the needs of our most disaffected school users--teenage males (Polesel et al., 2001).

Strong community support for senior schools is also noted in the literature (Fitzgerald, 1984; Greenall, 1987; Sharpe, 1981). Research conducted by the University of Melbourne for the New South Wales Government (Polesel, in press; Polesel et al., 2001) strongly supports these findings. Further evidence may be found in the soaring enrolments and long entry waiting lists which have generally accompanied the establishment of senior schools in Australia.

Data providing a student perspective on the learning environment in senior colleges are rare. Anderson's review of the ACT senior schools conducted in 1979 (Anderson et al., 1980) is an exception. This longitudinal study, which showed a marked increase in satisfaction with school among Year 12 students in senior schools over a period of seven years (from 1972 to 1979), provides evidence that senior schools contribute to the provision of a better learning experience for young people. The authors argue that this is largely due to a `change in student-teacher relations--a move away from traditional teacher dominance towards a relation based more on co-operation, in which students have a measure of independence and self-responsibility' (Anderson et al., 1980, p. 125). They go on to argue that the strength of the impact of the establishment of the senior school model was due to the totality of the change affected by the colleges in `school structure and organisation, staff, curriculum, and assessment methods ... Any piecemeal alterations could not have achieved as much' (Anderson et al., 1980, p. 125).

Data collected as part of a national Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs study conducted between 1.994 and 1996 by the Educational Outcomes Research Unit at the University of Melbourne provide further evidence of increased student satisfaction in senior colleges. Although the purpose of this study was to ask students their views on the quality of teaching, their perceptions of their teachers and their opinion of the school's ability to provide a successful learning environment, it was not specifically intended to investigate senior schools. Nevertheless the fact that five senior schools were included in the survey in New South Wales provided an opportunity for comparing senior school students with their regular high school peers. These data, reported in a study commissioned by the New South Wales Department of Education and Training (Polesel et al., 2001), broadly confirm Anderson et al.'s findings. They confirm that students in senior schools were more likely to endorse their school's success in achieving various academic and personal goals than their peers in Years 7-12 high schools. They were also more positive about their teachers as instructors, more positive about their relationship with teachers and more likely to believe that the curriculum catered for all students (Polesel et al., 2001).

Despite the generally favourable findings reported in the literature, the growth of the senior secondary school model in Australia has been slow. The model has been widely adopted in Tasmania and the ACT, but in other states &e steps taken have been more tentative. In Victoria, there are 23 senior schools (or clusters of senior and junior schools), whereas there are 14 in New South Wales. In both states, the establishment of each senior college has usually been in response to local needs and demographics. In some cases, the establishment has been driven by declining enrolments. In others, it has formed part of a broader plan of regional provision. In others still, a niche market was identified and captured. There has been no consistency in approach, although recent initiatives in these states suggest that regional provision will play an increasingly greater role. Elsewhere in Australia, senior schools are either entirely absent or a negligible element of the system.

Australian senior colleges--three case studies

The data presented in the following discussion were collected as part of the 1996 Department of Education, Employment and Youth Affairs study and as part of two New South Wales Department of Education and Training funded studies of senior colleges during 2000 and 2001. Complete reports of the New South Wales findings may be found in Polesel et al. (2001) and Polesel (in press).

Provincial Senior Secondary College

Provincial Senior Secondary is situated in a non-metropolitan setting. It operates in the context of a collegiate setting, with four dedicated Years 7-10 feeder schools, although, administratively, each school is a separate entity. It was established in the late 1970s in response to seriously declining enrolments in the five government state schools in the provincial city where it is located. A decision, strongly supported by the community, was taken to transform one of the high schools (located centrally in the city) into the senior school and to re-cast the other high schools as the junior schools.

Enrolment growth was slow in the first few years, but the school now boasts nearly 2000 students in Years 11 and 12 and its reputation as a high-quality comprehensive provider has resulted in student drift from the private sector and even from distant country high schools.

From the point of view of the principal, much of the school's success may be attributed to the fact that it is well resourced and able to take advantage of the economies of scale. This enables the school to offer comprehensive VET programs and specialist teachers, programs and resources, and also enables it to broker effective job placements. Yet size is credited with a further advantage, not related to resources. The principal believes that, in a school of this size, all students are able to find a niche, regardless of their interests or social needs. The issue of the effects of school size (i.e. enrolments) is one on which the literature is at best ambivalent (see Elsworth, 1998; Monk & Haller, 1993), with some arguing that the advantages of a broader curriculum need to be weighed against the possible alienating effects of a large impersonal environment.

For the students, however, other advantages come to the fore. They believe that a significant aspect of the school is the ability it confers upon them to manage Year 11 and Year 12 flexibly, a feature highlighted by the huge range of subjects available. A further advantage is the trust vested in them--one which is related to heightened expectations of maturity and responsible behaviour. Moreover the break which occurs between the middle years and the senior school is regarded as contributing to the fresh-start ethos which the school cultivates. Past indiscretions are forgotten and conflicts with past teachers are left behind.

For the teachers, the strengths of the school are mainly in its ability to cater for the range of needs exhibited by the students. The teachers believe that the school is able to add value for all, offer an effective VET program, offer wide subject choice and `cater for the old tech school clientele'. That these strengths are all so strongly linked to breadth of provision and the comprehensive curriculum environment is suggestive of the pressure exerted by the university-oriented curriculum on teachers working at the senior secondary levels.

Whereas the organisation of the school and its curriculum has been driven by this dominance, responses to the needs of students who will not attend university (over half of the Year 12 exiting cohort across Australia) have had to take second place. The pressures of attempting to cater for diverse needs with a limited curriculum armoury are clearly not felt at Provincial Senior Secondary College and the programs nominated as relieving these pressures strongly feature the role of VET.

VET has become a major focus of the school, with approximately one-quarter of the school's population now enrolled in a VET program. The school's size allows it to offer a considerable range of programs in-house with the school acting as the registered training organisation (RTO), which allows it to by-pass the local technical and further education (TAFE) institute. Recently the school has begun to offer VET programs to other schools and is seriously considering the expansion of its role as an RTO more broadly.

Many of the qualities of the school nominated by staff and students are highlighted by parents (subject breadth and VET) but parents also value the socialising aspect of the school. Provincial is regarded as an environment where students learn mature and responsible behaviours in an atmosphere of considerable freedom, but also of support, structure and guidance. The parents also highlight the school's strong outcomes. The school is regarded as a provider of diverse and effective pathways, especially into local jobs and local tertiary courses (both at university and TAFE). Given the financial and emotional burdens carried by parents across regional Australia when faced with the prospect of sending their children to work or study outside their community, the school's efforts to cultivate these local pathways are greatly appreciated.

Harbourside Senior College

Harbourside Senior College provides a fascinating contrast to Provincial. No less an inspiring school to visit, it boasts a dedicated set of staff and a happy and committed student body. Nevertheless its history and its relationship to its educational environment are vastly different from Provincial's. This school occupies a new purpose-built building in a small provincial city and shares a multi-sector site with a university and a TAFE Institute. The school does not form part of a multi-campus or collegiate structure and therefore has no Years 7-10 feeder schools. As such, it recruits its students from neighbouring schools (independent, Catholic and state), all of which are Years 7-12 high schools.

As is the case in Provincial, the principal nominates the adult learning environment and breadth of curriculum provision as the school's greatest strengths. Flexibility in curriculum offerings is greatly enhanced by proximity to the university and to the TAFE, where students at the school can access VET courses on site and, in some cases, get credit towards a degree qualification by doing university subjects. The curriculum is further enhanced by timetabling flexibility--courses can run through to the evening. Vocational education is strongly supported (information technology, retail and childcare courses are popular), with almost 40 per cent of the school's population enrolled in two or more VET units. Students enrolled in information technology graduate with a VET certificate at AQF III level, as well as their senior certificate. Many students nominate subject choice as their main reason for coming to this school. They are impressed by the facilities and by the school's extracurricular activities--TAFE, art, dance, drama, sport, drama camp and competitions are all mentioned.

Students are also impressed by the adult environment and the independence it confers. They enjoy sharing a campus with the older TAFE and university students, and express the view that it contributes to their maturity. There is also a perception that the senior school certificate can form the focus of the school's efforts more effectively than in a Year 7-12 high school, since there are no distractions from the lower year levels--`the 7-10s don't respect you or understand the pressure you're under to do well in the [senior certificate]'.

Students reserve particularly high praise for the teachers themselves, whom they address by their first names and who are described as being more relaxed than teachers elsewhere. The students perceptively note that teachers do not have the stress of chasing up younger trouble makers and this translates into a more relaxed student/teacher relationship and greater freedom for them.

The teachers, too, focus on the students in their comments. They describe the environment as one which will not suit all students, but which gives great opportunities to develop independence and maturity to those who can manage the associated responsibilities. The teachers also praise the flexibility of the curriculum which allows all students to find a combination of offerings best suited to their talents. Like the principal, they are positive about the role and the image of VET. They believe this is partly due to the fact that students can attend VET classes on campus.

These views are typical of the reasons given for strongly supporting senior schools elsewhere in the literature. However a question arises at Harbourside which relates not to the school's internal operation but to the school's relationship with its educational community. When it was first established, the school accepted all applicants but, as numbers grew and the school reached capacity, procedures were put in place to select applicants on the basis of their school reports. The school is careful to stress that its emphasis in the process is on teacher comments regarding application and effort, rather than on grade results. Students with only positive teacher comments are given priority. Students with some negative comments may be interviewed, and are required to commit strongly to their studies. The end result, however, is the capture of the most highly motivated students from neighbouring schools. This fact does not endear Harbourside to its neighbours.

This is a scenario typical of stand-alone senior colleges in various settings. Initially the task of finding senior students requires the school to accept all applicants. With no junior feeder schools and without a Years 7-10 population of its own, the school is required to compete for senior students from other high schools. As the school establishes its reputation and as its natural competitive advantages come to the fore (namely the ability to specialise in the delivery of the senior curriculum), student demand outstrips available places and the school finds itself faced with the problem of selection. It is inevitable that, at this point in the school's development, it will begin to select the more able students (whether ability be defined in terms of academic outcomes or in terms of commitment and behaviour).

Having said this, Harbourside provides an excellent model of inter-sectoral co-operation. The sharing of facilities, access to higher education and VET and increased flexibility in hours of operation give this school considerable advantages in the delivery of curriculum over other schools. In addition, the more adult environment appeals to teachers and students. All these advantages underline the strength of the senior school model.

Inner City Arts Senior College

Inner City Arts presents a third model of provision and, although the only example of its kind in Australia, represents an approach which has been tried in the past and which has been proposed in various settings for the future. Wholly located within the VET sector and operated by an inner city TAFE institute, Inner City Arts was established as an alternative school setting for senior secondary students. The school targets two main types of clientele.

First, it offers artistic and vocational studies to students disaffected with the curriculum regimes of traditional secondary schools. Secondly, it provides a refuge for those students who do not conform to the behavioural expectations of local schools. The principal describes these students as disaffected with the hierarchical and authoritarian codes of behaviour in most secondary schools or as having experienced bullying, harassment or criticism regarding their appearance or dress. Although a stand-alone college (with no 7-10 feeder schools), the school cannot be said to be in competition for senior school students in the way that a school like Harbourside is. Rather the school plays a complementary role, accepting those students who cannot find a niche within the structure of traditional government and non-government secondary schools in the area.

The school's strengths lie invariably in similar fields to those of other senior schools--namely an adult environment and a diverse and responsive curriculum. Regarding the first of these, the school places emphasis on its acceptance of youth culture, the egalitarian nature of its staff/student relationships and the absence of symbols typifying the rigidity of school routines--bells, uniforms, dress codes. With regard to the second, the TAFE `parenthood' of this school ensures that `both TAFE and senior certificate are core business'. The school's strong emphasis on artistic studies further defines the nature of its niche status but, like most other senior colleges, it is able to offer a broad and comprehensive curriculum which includes both traditional academic subjects and VET studies. The fact that the school is a (separate) campus of a TAFE Institute, with the main campus located nearby, gives the school an added dimension of flexibility and access to VET programs. As in the other institutions included in these case studies, the school's size (a population here of over 500 students) contributes to its ability to offer a wide choice of programs.

It is instructive to draw attention to the school's administrative arrangements. Located in the VET sector, it is a rare example of a TAFE incursion into the traditional domain of schools, albeit using a non-traditional approach to delivery. Such incursions have their precedents. Hervey Bay College in Queensland operated under such arrangements, as did the senior colleges established in Tasmania. In both cases, `ownership' of the schools was returned to the school sector, although the reasons for this are unclear. Certainly differences in the industrial conditions of VET sector and school sector teachers played a part.

Common approaches and diverse challenges

These three examples of senior secondary schooling are perhaps as striking in their differences as in their similarities. Their clienteles range from motivated, capable learners to school `drop-outs'. In settings other than those described in the case studies, the target clientele may also include mature-age adults and re-entry students.

Despite this diversity, the case studies point to certain commonalities

of approach arising from the nature of the senior school. The inherent flexibility of the senior school curriculum in a senior college setting is perhaps the most obvious. The larger student population of most senior schools provides a significant advantage in the provision of a wide range of curriculum options. Many of these schools have as many students in Years 11 and 12 as other schools have right across the Years 7-12 range. It is easier to reach the critical mass needed to offer less popular subjects, and specialist teachers who would be beyond the means of a smaller school can be employed. The result is greater curriculum choice and the ability to offer VET (not an option in many small schools). Moreover teachers emphasise the ability to form faculties or departments when sufficient numbers of students allow the employment of more than one teacher working in a particular field. Bidwell and Yasumoto (1999) argue that this type of collegiality allows the formation of a base of expertise in schools which facilitates a school's 'collective capacity to solve instructional problems'. Further advantages in access to VET teachers, facilities and resources can be gained through strategic alliances with TAFE institutes or through site sharing, an option taken up in a number of Australian senior schools.

The more adult environment of senior schools is another significant factor. Although this operates in different ways in different settings, depending on the range of students at the school, it is underpinned by independent learning:

 Whether these schools are dealing with mature-age and re-entry students, or
 teenagers expelled from other schools, or motivated and independent
 learners, the freedom to make choices regarding attendance and behaviour
 emerge as a central feature of an environment in which young adults are
 given the opportunity to try out their `mature personas' (as one parent put
 it). (Polesel et al., 2001)

The importance of providing adult re-entry opportunities for older students has been emphasised in the literature (see, for example, Astone, Schoen, Ensminger, & Rothert, 2000) and the greater suitability of a senior school environment for this particular clientele is a salient point.

Finally strong relationships between students and teachers seem to feature prominently in senior schools. On both sides, there is evidence of warm and trusting (rather than authoritarian and hierarchical) relationships underpinning the learning process:

 In the `adult' non-compulsory environment of senior schools, teachers are
 freed of many of the obligations to enforce attendance--and to deal with
 duty of care issues outside lesson times, issues of discipline, and the
 stresses of dealing with younger students. This frees up their time and
 opens up their ability to act as mentors and guides to learning. (Polesel
 et al., 2001)

All of these themes recur in the literature. Yet the emergence of senior schools has not gone unchallenged. Despite evidence of strong student and community support for senior schools, the growth of the senior school (or collegiate) model has been uneven and slow. In some smaller systems (ACT and Tasmania) it has become the norm for secondary provision; but in both of those systems, the establishment of senior schools was designed to resolve issues with which great urgency was then associated. Anderson et al. (1980) describe the political idealism and the mood for social reform which spurred the initiative in the ACT in the early 1970s. They speak of the desire to give senior students a measure of responsibility and freedom commensurate with the aspirations and ideals of the era. In Tasmania, the economic and geographical realities of a sparsely populated state gave rise to a similar reform, but with vastly different motivations. Whereas senior colleges in the ACT were regarded as an opportunity to provide an adult and comprehensive learning environment in which all young people could take the first steps towards participating in the democratic world of adulthood, Tasmania's colleges were intended to draw together the small groups of students intending to use Years 11 and 12 as a springboard to university from different schools (fewer than 15 per cent of the commencing Year 7 cohort at the time of their establishment in the early 1960s).

In Victoria, there are some long-standing and successful collegiate clusters in Melbourne and in provincial cities, with some tentative steps being taken towards the establishment of others. In New South Wales, a small number of stand-alone senior schools (without a network of Years 7-10 feeder schools) is now being supplemented with the establishment of a considerable number of new clusters, each centred upon a senior campus surrounded by Years 7-10 feeders. Yet the reasons for caution in expanding the model are not difficult to find. Three principal challenges face the establishment of senior schools.

School and community

The first relates to the relationship of the school to its educational community. This requires us to ask whether the school contributes to the overall quality of provision in its community, as typified by senior schools built within the structure of Years 7-10 feeder schools, or whether it competes for senior students, thus depleting and demoralising its neighbouring institutions. If the positive influences of senior schooling are diluted by a concentration of failure, social and behavioural problems and demoralised staff and students in other neighbouring school sites, where is the benefit of the senior school model?

It is dangerous to attribute to individual schools the capacity to effect significant change without regard to the institutional and social context within which they operate (Ball, 1981, 1987; Ball & Bowe, 1991; Corbett, 1991). The implementation of an effective model of senior schooling cannot be effected in isolation, without regard to neighbouring schools. If senior schools are established as quasi-selective institutions operating in competition with other providers, the resulting hierarchy will ensure that comprehensive provision and breadth of curriculum remain unattainable.

Years 7-10 schools

The second barrier relates to the quality of provision which occurs in the 7-10 feeder schools. Schiller (1999) argues that the success of the transition from junior to senior high schools in the US depends heavily on the academic outcomes of students in their junior school settings. Yet, in Australia, there is little evidence to support any view (negative or positive) of the efficacy of junior high schools. Although some evidence of improvements in school satisfaction among senior students is available, such data have only now begun to be collected in the junior schools. Questions remain as to the level and quality of change which has occurred in these institutions.

Anderson et al.'s (1980) study, for example, although showing an increase in satisfaction with school among Year 12 students in senior colleges, found no such increase among Year 10 students, who continue to be worried by over-authoritarian teachers and lack of freedom and responsibility. The authors found that there had been little change in student satisfaction in the junior high schools generally over the seven years and that student satisfaction with teachers had even decreased marginally (Anderson et al., 1980, p. 128).

While speculating that the expectations of Year 10 students have been changed by the existence of the senior colleges or that the junior schools may have attracted more conservative and authoritarian teachers, the authors conclude that students at the junior school age are at the most difficult stage of adolescence and are facing many personal

and social challenges. However they also acknowledge that there is room for improvement in the delivery of middle schooling and they argue that not a great deal of thought has been given to the special needs of Year 10 students. For example, the ACT reforms included a statement of aims for the senior colleges, but no such guidelines for the junior schools: `In retrospect it seems that not a great deal of thought was given to the specific needs of the Year 10 students or the particular problems experienced by those who teach them' (Anderson et al., 1980, p. 129).

Anderson et al. suggest that Year 10 students, among whom the strongest disaffection lies, be allowed a transition to the senior colleges through attending elective subjects at the senior campus, thus allowing them to mix with older students and with teachers committed to different teaching styles. This would both treat their concerns regarding the rigid authority of the junior colleges and ease the transition to senior schools. This could also diffuse the demarcation between senior and junior high school teachers. Other solutions suggested by Anderson include group-based learning programs at Year 10 level, rather than traditional teaching arrangements, or even a form of the Geelong Grammar adventure curriculum, where students spend a year away from school in the wilderness, thus `enabling teachers to harness the peer group orientation of this age group instead of having to battle to subdue it' (Anderson et al., 1980, p. 132).

The recent New South Wales study (Polesel, in press) suggests that the challenge of junior schools is being taken somewhat more seriously in the current climate of reform. It is now widely acknowledged that disaffection and resistance to schooling are well entrenched by the time students reach the senior secondary years and that solutions, if they are to be found, must be applied to the junior (or middle) secondary years.

Teachers in the newly created junior schools in New South Wales have given a tentative but broadly based endorsement of the junior school's activities. The perception that these schools can focus on their junior school clientele without the pressures of the Higher School Certificate undermining their efforts was widespread. The usual allotment of the best resources (teachers and facilities) to the senior students in a Years 7-12 school was regarded as a major disincentive to improving the quality of teaching and programs for the younger students. Teachers felt that the junior schools offered an opportunity to focus on these younger students as core business--to develop programs, teaching styles and school structures devoted to their needs.

Teacher concerns

However teacher endorsement of senior and junior high schools as places of learning is not necessarily matched by their perception of these schools as a place to work. The third major factor in resisting the establishment of the senior school model has been the unease expressed by teacher groups. Teacher resistance has usually been centred on issues of mobility and advancement. Where teachers are `relegated' to a junior high school, there is considerable and justifiable concern regarding their prospects of being able to move to a senior school in the future. Where promotions, positions of responsibility and status are often aligned to teaching senior classes, there is a further concern that opportunities for advancement will be limited for those teachers working in a junior high school setting--a concern noted by teacher unions (e.g. Kronemann, 1986).

These concerns are justified to an extent, as the international and domestic evidence might suggest. The junior high school system in the US assigns its teachers a differential status from that of senior high school teachers, which confirms the worst fears of Australian teachers (Greenall, 1987). In other systems (Italy, for example), the middle school teachers (scuole medie) are qualified and registered according to different criteria from those which apply to senior school teachers (scuole superior).

These are legitimate and powerful concerns which, if they are not resolved, will ultimately block the process of establishing senior schools. Yet these concerns must not be allowed to drive the agenda. It has been argued that the person `who will only teach the third form because he is also allowed to teach the sixth is the wrong person to be teaching the third form at all' (King, 1968). Reid and Filby (1982) and Macfarlane (1978) acknowledge teacher concerns regarding mobility and conditions, but emphasise that the impact of reforms with the potential to improve outcomes for young people must be weighed carefully against the need to accommodate the monetary and prestige-related needs of teachers.

This is not to argue that teacher resistance is either blind, or absolute. In the 1980s, the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association raised various concerns with the concept of senior schools, but suggested that the issues of concern to teachers, namely mobility and promotion prospects, could be resolved by adherence to a model of multi-campus rather than multi-school sites (Zbar et al., 1986). Where senior schooling formed part of a multi-campus approach, the union argued, mobility between junior and senior sites would be guaranteed, since these sites would remain components of a single school. By way of contrast, individual Years 7-10 and senior schools (even operating in a collegiate relationship) would place administrative barriers to movement between junior and secondary classes.

In the New South Wales study, teacher resistance was, similarly, uneven. Some teachers viewed the development of junior and senior high schools as providing opportunities to specialise at either the junior or senior level. Others were accepting of the development, conditional on opportunities for mobility not being hampered. A third group was bitterly opposed, citing both career limitations and the desire to teach at senior and junior levels as their major reasons. It was evident from this study that, although resistance is not absolute, we are still some distance away from the acceptance of senior high schools as a regular aspect of the educational landscape.

Conclusion

Senior colleges do not present a comprehensive solution to the challenges we have outlined in this paper. Moreover their establishment needs to be placed in the context of the relationship with neighbouring schools and a careful consideration of the relationships and allegiances which can be formed with the VET sector.

In addition, the very nature of the collegiate model both requires and provides the opportunity to re-examine the ways in which, we teach students in the middle years. Although improvements in provision for senior students are essential, they will not benefit students whose experience of the junior secondary years has led to disenchantment, failure and early leaving.

Teacher concerns also remain to be considered. A disaffected or resistant teaching force will not facilitate change in the context of an initiative which will require considerable structural, organisational and industrial flexibility and good will.

However the alienation experienced by many secondary students in traditional schooling structures and consistently low rates of school participation in Australia, compared with many other OECD countries, further requires us to re-examine a system of educational provision which has remained largely the same as when it was instituted a century ago. Senior schools now deserve serious consideration as one aspect of such reform.

Keywords

curriculum
equal education
high schools
postcompulsory education
secondary colleges
vocational education

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges Dr Merryn Davies for her contribution to the field work in Victoria and Associate Professor Richard Teese for his advice and critical feedback.

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Dr John Polesel is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education Policy and Management in the University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010.