Reasons for poor achievement in NAPLAN for Indigenous students? Or Poor achievement in School.

The Educational systems and governments all over Australia have been trying to pinpoint the reasons for why Indigenous students are under-performing in schools, pinpointing it especially to the statistical data of NAPLAN. In my perspective however there is not one set valid reason to why Indigenous students are achieving such low results. To support my argument I found an interesting article that states that improved attendance of Indigenous students does not necessarily improve their NAPLAN results. The article 'No relationship between attendance and school performance' by Caddie Brain pinpoints that school performance does not improve NAPLAN results, and that students' spirits and encouragement for schooling should be high in order for their performance to improve.

What more can be done to make Indigenous students feel inclusive and apart of the school culture
   ?
There are many explanations to why Indigenous students have low achievement and retention rates at school, which may include many factors whether it was school or home environment. Factors include:
- Poor attendance
- Low income of parents to support children
- Motivation of Indigenous learners is low
- Culturally inappropriate curriculum 
- Health and disability issues
The achievement gap and 'closing the gap' have set goals in which they strive to achieve which include to

• halve the gap [between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students] in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children by 2018

• halve the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 (or equivalent) attainment rates by 2020.  (http://www.coag.gov.au/closing_the_gap_in_indigenous_disadvantage).

However these programs are not necessarily closing the gaps but making them worse. This is due to the fact that NAPLAN and structured exams are not going to improve by improving the retention rates of Indigenous students. The use of culturally inappropriate testing is just going to present low results rather than using the results of the NAPLAN results to cause a rise of change in testing methods and the curriculum in general.
In my perspective Indigenous students do not only need to be retained at school for the sack of keeping them in schools for longer, there needs to be a clear understanding of the lack of cultural practices and studies in schools that the educational systems should work towards achieving. Is it necessarily to figure out the poor achievement in NAPLAN or to try to improve their achievement at school in general?
In the article I mentioned above, it states of a five year study that was undertaken by Co-operative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation is looking at how education can best meet the needs of remote communities. Senior research fellow Sam Osborne, from the University of South Australia, compared the data to school attendance.  He found and commented that, "But our research has shown there really is no relationship between improved attendance and improved outcomes with NAPLAN results over the five years." And as Katrina Tjitayi, former PYEC Director and School Improvement Co-coordinator for the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands puts it "It's very important for kids' spirit to be strong.."
So as I believe and the article supports Indigenous students need more than a strive to improve in statistical data of NAPLAN. But more in working to improve connection with school culture and not thinking about Indigenous education radically but implementing change in the curriculum to help fit their needs and aspirations. 
As Ober (2009,39) defines it this way:
'Both ways education is about drawing on and acknowledging skills, language, knowledge, concepts and understandings from both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems. It's about everything that makes up an Indigenous person's identity, and then finding a bridge from this knowledge to link into new Western academic knowledge.'
 For a closer read on the article above; http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-19/nrn-naplan-school-attendance/4967690

References:
- Margot Ford (2013). Achievement gaps in Australia: what NAPLAN reveals about education inequality in Australia, Race Ethnicity and Education, 16:1, 80-102, DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2011.645570
- Ober, R. 2009. Both ways: Learning from yesterday, celebrating today, strengthening tomorrow. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. V. 38, 34-39.