This was a dense unit! The break down of data to reveal trends in aspirations that had origins at year 3 (or younger) and life long consequences was astounding. Much of it to do with attributes the child has absolutely no control over: location they live in, race, gender, amount of dosh their parents have access to! It makes you wonder how many Marie Curie‘s or Bruce Pascoes’ we‘ve lost to Woolies and Coles.
I also found it interesting that most people looking to become doctors rated themselves as “well above average” for NAPLAN results. It’s a challenging career, no doubt! I do hope my doctors have great knowledge bases, fantastic critical thinking AND the soft skills required in order to treat us lowly patients respectfully.
Thank you for your detailed post, Clare! Although dense, Unit 4 certainly provides a lot of powerful information.