Statistically, diversity in Australian schools is synonymous with disadvantage and educational inequality. Alarmingly, students living in poverty frequently have a lower school retention rate than their more financially stable peers (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013, p. 32). Furthermore, the risk that a student will require special education or have to repeat a year of schooling increases by two to three per cent every year they endure improvised life (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013, p. 32). In the case of gender diversity, boys are four times more likely than girls to be permanently excluded from school (NUT, 2013, p. 3). This demonstrates that student diversity in the form of gender and socioeconomic status are subjected to disparity in the school system.
