Used a suite of Rasch measurement techniques to meet competing demands in establishing statewide benchmarks relating to the School Opinion Survey carried out over 1,200 government schools in 1 Australian state. Solutions to a variety of measurement and reporting problems were all found within the Rasch family of models. (SLD)

After a period of dramatic growth in secondary school completion in Australia, school retention rates are declining. Analysis of state, system, geographic, social, and gender patterns suggests that during the 1990s the downturn in completion rate has been uneven; some groups who had come to rely on schooling during the 1980s for future economic…