Academic performance (wave 4 teacher report, year 5 academic testing)

A questionnaire was sent to the child’s teacher as soon as feasible after the wave 4 home interview [12], and on average, was completed 2 months after the interview. Questionnaires were completed for 3269 children (response rate 75.6%). The teacher was asked to compare the child’s reading, mathematics and overall progress to other children of the same level, on a 5-point scale. Response options were collapsed into three categories for the analysis: “far below/below average”, “average”, “above/far above average”.

NAPLAN assesses all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 (aged 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, and 14-15 years, respectively) across four domains: reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation), and numeracy, using national tests held on the same day in May across Australia each year. Scores are standardized to range from 0 to 1000 for each test, enabling comparisons within and across school year levels [13]. NAPLAN data for 4159 children were linked to the LSAC dataset (98.4% of those who consented to NAPLAN access, 83.5% of the total sample at wave 1). Of those who were not matched, 552 were not asked for consent as they did not participate in wave 3 or wave 4, 117 forms were completed incorrectly, 68 could not be linked and 48 refused permission [13]. Because the children did not all begin school in the same year, the Year 5 NAPLAN tests were completed in 2009, 2010 or 2011. For children who repeated a grade and sat the same NAPLAN test more than once, the latest score was used. NAPLAN data were available for 2158 children included in this analysis.