Quality of School Life and Intentions
for Further Education: The Case of a Rural High School

Year: 1989

Author: Bourke, Sid, Smith, Max

Type of paper: Abstract refereed

Abstract:
The quality of school life (QSL) as perceived by students in a NSW rural high school was found to be comparable with those in a Victorian study of 50 secondary schools. The patterns of sex and year level differences were very similar with the exceptions that mean scores on the Teacher and Identity scales were less favourable in the NSW rural school, while the Negative Affect score was more favourable. Using students as the units of analysis, the independent variables year level, sex and measures of ability (background variables) and the various QSL scales (intervening variables) were entered into regression equations with measures of the students' educational aspirations and intentions as successive dependent variables (outcomes). A causal model was developed and tested. In descending order of importance, ability (assessed by the school), year level, QSL, self perception of ability and sex were important for the students' educational aspirations and intentions. Of the seven QSL scales, the General Satisfaction and the Teacher scales were the ones most frequently related to retention at school and plans for further study. Other QSL scales related to some outcomes were the Achievement and the Identity measures.

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