The Aurora Education Foundation has released insights from its RISE Project, the largest Indigenous-led education evaluation in Australia, which shows how targeted support significantly improves Indigenous education outcomes, from addressing school refusal to bolstering academic motivation and aspirations.
RISE – Redefining Indigenous Success in Education – is a five-year initiative delivering and evaluating three levels of high school programs, ranging from basic tutoring to intensive in-person support including academic mentoring, cultural camps, and connections with Elders.
The 2025 RISE Impact Report shows how more in-depth programs that provide targeted funding, tutoring, and ongoing engagement and cultural enrichment activities, reduce school refusal, build academic motivation and confidence, and increase parent and carer involvement in their child’s education.
The report also shows a clear link between investment and impact, demonstrating that the most intensive programs achieve the strongest gains across academic mindset, school attendance and family engagement.
Highlights from the report show that:
- A modest investment is shifting student mindset. $1,000 per student each semester is linked to a 10 per cent increase in happiness at school and a stronger belief in the value of effort.
- Attendance and belonging increase with support: Only 17 per cent of students in the most intensive program want to stay home from school at least once or twice a week, compared to 35 per cent in the least intensive. Students in the most supported programs also report stronger feelings of school belonging (47 vs 41 per cent) and confidence in their future (76 vs 59 per cent).
- Tutoring use reflects both need and motivation: Students who are more motivated and in higher-need areas – particularly in schools with fewer RISE activities or less program uptake – are using tutoring the most, especially in maths. Indigenous students in Year 10 also accessed more than twice as much tutoring on average compared to students in all other year levels.
- Parent and carer confidence in supporting their child at school significantly increased with more in-depth support. Confidence among parents and carers in engaging with schools rises significantly with more intensive support – up from 53 to 75 per cent.
Aurora’s CEO, Wiradjuri woman Leila Smith, said this year’s RISE Report shows what’s possible when Indigenous students and families are heard, valued and supported.
“Targeted, culturally grounded support works. We now have the evidence to back what communities have long known, which is that strong relationships, high expectations and systems designed with us can deliver real change,” she said.
“RISE is more than a study. It’s an act of self-determination and a challenge to the education system: to expect Indigenous excellence and enable it.”
Download the 2025 RISE Impact Report via the Aurora website: https://aurorafoundation.com.au/
About Aurora
The Aurora Education Foundation is an Indigenous organisation that supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to realise their full education and employment potential – whether it is completing Year 12 or achieving a DPhil from Oxford. Through interconnected pathways, Aurora walks with students from high school through to university and the workplace, redefining Indigenous educational and employment success.
About RISE
RISE involves the delivery and evaluation of three distinct models of Aurora’s High School Program (HSP), which has been delivered since 2010 to champion Indigenous high school student outcomes. The three RISE models are being rolled out to 800 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander high school students at select partner schools in NSW, with student experiences and outcomes evaluated over five years. RISE is an Australia-first initiative, working to build an evidence base that champions Indigenous students and their families and drives future education policy reform.
The 2025 RISE Impact Report has been developed by the Aurora Education Foundation as part of the Redefining Indigenous Success in Education (RISE) Project. The RISE Project is funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions expressed in the report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Paul Ramsay Foundation.
