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Our CES Australia Vision

Who We Are

Quality education shapes lives for the common good and effectively equips graduates to contribute to the flourishing of society. Effective schooling should therefore be orientated towards the formation of persons and recognise and celebrate the cultivation and shaping of both hearts and minds within all of our educational communities. But how do we seek to measure our effectiveness in shaping lives that contribute to the public good once they leave our schools?

For nearly a decade, the Cardus Education Survey (CES) has collected data on the social, academic, and spiritual outcomes of nationally representative samples of secondary school graduates (aged 25 – 39) in the USA and Canada. The CES data reveals that school communities are very important cultivators of moral character and civic virtue that can be leveraged more broadly for the common good and the flourishing of society. The CES aims to go beyond the politics to understand the building blocks of society itself. What are the conditions for student flourishing? Where do students learn to respect and love one another and others? How can we scale these lessons to maximize their potential for democratic citizenship?

A consortium of Australia Christian school associations collaborated in 2019 to implement the survey in Australia, leading to the formation of the CES Australia Project. Whilst the project is overseen and licensed through Cardus and their appointed lead Researcher Associate Professor Albert Cheng; the Australian implementation of the CES has been entirely funded and coordinated by the consortium project team consisting of of 6 Australian Christian School Associations: Adventist Schools Australia (ASA), Associated Christian Schools (ACS), Australian Association of Christian Schools (AACS), Christian Education National (CEN), Christian Schools Australia (CSA) and Swan Christian Education Association (SCEA).

Through these collaborative efforts The Cardus Education Survey (CES) has now been able to be developed and undertaken in Australia. The consortium project team look forward to sharing the findings of this landmark research project that will contribute to the narrative regarding education for the public good in Australia into the future.

About Us

Educating for the Common Good

What We Do

2020 CES Australia Reports

The Cardus Education Survey has become recognized as one of the most comprehensive and valuable surveys of its kind among schools practitioners, leaders, and policy-makers alike. These surveys, conducted in the United States

in 2011, 2014, and 2018, and Canada in 2012, 2016 and 2018, contribute to an understanding of school-sector influence on a number of academic, spiritual, cultural, civic, and relational outcomes. More broadly, the CES seeks to understand the life patterns, views, and choices of graduates from various kinds of schools in order to assess their contributions to a shared good. You can access previous Cardus Education Survey Reports here.

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Measuring What We Value

The Cardus Education Survey assumes that “If something is worth doing, it is worth measuring.” The CES provides one of the very few credible, statistically significant and reliable quantitative survey instruments that measures and

substantiates any claims (positive or negative) about public and private education and its impact on the common good.

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CES Australia Project Partners

Cardus Research

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Cardus Education Survey Australia

Resources from the Cardus Education Survey conducted in Australia