Australian school uses neuroscience to improve grades of disadvantaged students

A Melbourne elementary school, located in the city's underachieving northwest, has improved student grades by implementing neuroscientific techniques.

Broadmeadows Primary School sits in an area of Melbourne which places in the lowest 12th percentile for socio-economic disadvantage, but its young students have defied the statistics.

In fact, the school's National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy results are the highest of any school in the area, and well above the national third grade average.

A number of different techniques have been incorporated into the curriculum which may be responsible for the encouraging results.

The school conducts interviews with its students and their parents to draw up contracts which target student needs.

The contracts do not set acceptable minimums for grades, but rather simple goals - like getting more sleep at night and eating properly - that can improve student output when they arrive at school.

They also employ permanent speech pathologist and physiatrist on staff, use an "emotion wall" to get a better gauge how students are feeling, and eat breakfast as a class.

Since their introduction of neuroscience, student behavior has improved drastically.

In 2011, 96 students from the classroom and 254 from the playground were removed from the environment for being aggressive or disruptive.

To date this year, only one student has been removed from the classroom and 36 from the playground.

The scheme was developed by Principal Keith McDougal based on similar models he observed in the United States and New Zealand. Endi