As young people progress through high school, they start making plans for what they will do when they leave.

What factors influence their plans? And importantly, what helps them stay until the end of school?

In our new study, we looked at Year 10 students’ plans and their rates of school completion.

Our results suggest certain teaching approaches are linked with more academically focused plans and higher rates of finishing Year 12.

Why does finishing school matter?

Graduating from Year 12 is often a prerequisite for further education and training. It is also linked with a range of longer-term benefits, including higher lifetime earnings, more stable employment and better health.

A significant number of young people still leave school early. In Australia, only 75–85% of students complete Year 12. This is consistently lower in rural and regional areas than in cities.

Our study was based on an annual student survey collected by the NSW Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.

We looked at 40,000 government school students in Year 9 and Year 10. Students came from right across the state.

We asked Year 10 students about their plans for their education. Did they plan to complete high school? Go to university? Or attend TAFE or another form of vocational education?

We also looked at students’ experiences of teaching in Year 9 – did they receive what the research says is effective teaching?

We chose Year 9 because Year 10 is the final year of compulsory schooling in NSW. So Year 9 is one of the last chances for teachers to support students’ decisions about their education.

Our results revealed five common plans held by students in Year 10.

More than two-thirds of all students belonged to groups with strong plans to finish Year 12. But they........

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