The ‘Little children are sacred’ report concluded that improving the quality of education provided the key to solving, or at least ameliorating, the incidence of child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. The report identified poor educational outcomes as being at the heart of the exclusion of Aboriginal people from confidently participating in either their own culture or mainstream culture.

Two years after the release of the ‘Little children are sacred’ report and after the introduction of the NTER, data were collected on the health and development of all Australian children. Data from the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) provide recent support for concerns that many children entering school in the Northern Territory are at a distinct disadvantage when compared to other children across Australia. This chapter examines data on the education-related measures, and is structured as follows:

• The first section describes the context in the NTER communities by examining data from the AEDI, which is a population measure of how young children are developing in Australian communities.

• The second section outlines the approach to the evaluation, including its scope and methodology, and methodological limitations.

• The third section describes progress that has been made in improving the quality of education services through the NTER sub-measures and other related programs and their likely contribution to improved educational outcomes for children in the NTER communities.

• The final section assesses evidence of any improvements in educational outcomes.