This paper draws from a longitudinal study investigating student retention beyond the compulsory years of schooling (taken as Year 10) in rural, regional and disadvantaged areas of the Australian State of Tasmania. In 2013, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Tasmania’s retention rate from Years 7/8 to Year 12 as 67.8%, compared with the national rate of 81.6%. Given that Tasmania is classified as a regional and rural State, this type of indicative data reflects what is happening across rural and regional Australia, and our study, funded by a competitive research grant from the federal government across three years, has implications at national and international levels.

The over-arching research question for the study was: What is best educational practice to enhance student retention in schooling beyond the compulsory years, especially for students in rural, regional, and disadvantaged areas? This question arose from the aims of the study, which were to:

• Investigate factors that influence students’ decisions to continue their schooling beyond Year 10
• Examine organisational issues, such as leadership and organisational culture, that contribute to an ethos and commitment among staff to pursuing student retention beyond current levels

• Identify and document

• key interventions at elementary, secondary and post-Year 10 school levels that enhance student retention
• school, community and home practices that enhance student retention
• specific practices related to the use of new technologies to enhance student retention

Provide recommendations to relevant stakeholders for implementing, developing and monitoring these interventions across local, national and international contexts.

The study focuses on progress from the elementary school years, especially of students of low socio-economic and rural backgrounds because, although evidence shows that post-compulsory participation has increased across all target equity groups in Australia (Marks, 2008), these groups remain under-represented in higher education, and their share has not changed over the last decade (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008; Centre for the Study of Higher Education, 2008). Early school leaving plays a significant part in this pattern (Lamb, Walstab, Teese, Vickers, & Rumberger, 2004). As a result, addressing retention issues beyond the compulsory years must occur well before the students are in the later stage of their education and, as such, action needs to be an integrated aspect of a student’s ongoing educational program (Winn & Hay, 2009).

As researchers such as Gonski (2011) note, there is “an unacceptable link between low levels of achievement and educational disadvantage, particularly among students from low socioeconomic, from regional and rural locations, and from Indigenous backgrounds” (p. XIII). Concerns about students exiting early from school are longstanding and this study confirms earlier findings such as socioeconomic status influencing aspirations, and attitudes about the value of schooling starting early (in elementary school).

The influences and factors shaping student engagement and retention are manifold. In this paper, we give voice to a commonly-overlooked set of potentially influential stakeholders, namely those in the community. Although many studies report on students’ and teachers’ opinions of the influence of the community on student engagement and retention, there is less reported about the attitudes and perceived influence of the community members themselves. This paper provides an analysis of 26 in-depth interviews carried out with members of the community during the larger mixed-methods study. Of the themes that emerged, the most salient was that of the provision of educational pathways for students. Other themes included job opportunities, both as a positive and negative influence on student retention, the responsibilities of the community from the perspectives of community members themselves, and their views of the importance of parents and teachers in relation to retention.

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