1Julia Gillard and Labor
Let’s move Australia Forward
MORE LOCAL CONTROL FOR SCHOOLS TO DRIVE BETTER STUDENT OUTCOMES
The Gillard Labor Government will drive improved student performance and outcomesby giving principals, parents and each school community greater power to determinehow their local school is run
–
including greater responsibility for school budgets,determining the right mixture of staff, and setting local priorities.A national roll-out will commence with 1,000 schools over 2012 and 2013, with schoolsgaining responsibility for the following core elements, tailored to the needs of eachschool:
Enhanced school governance arrangements, giving school councils or boardsresponsibility
for strategic planning, and oversight of the school’s operations
andfinances. This will enhance parental and community ownership of local schools.
Responsibility for finance and the school budget, which will initially involve a singlebudget for staffing. Schools will then move to a one-line school budget that allowsthem to fully manage the allocation of all resources, to meet the unique needs of students at each school and drive improved student performance.
Management of the school staffing profile, including support staff, which will involvedetermining the right mix of staff, recruitment and staff selection.
Principals will have a greater role in staff performance management within existingenterprise bargaining arrangements.The specific functions each school will exercise will be determined by the school and the
education authority through an application process, and will be based upon the school’s
size and their current level of independence.The Gillard Labor Government will invest $484 million by 2018 to rollout these reforms,including $71.9 million over the forward estimates.Participating schools will receive a start up grant of between $40,000 and $50,000, as wellas support and training, so they can effectively undertake these new responsibilities. Intotal, $47.3 million over the next four years will be provided to schools in start-up funding.
Empowering local schools
2Julia Gillard and Labor
Let’s move Australia Forward
The Gillard Labor Government will also provide $17.7 million over the next four years toschool systems
–
government and non-government
–
to support this transition.An additional $6.9 million will fund implementation, including the development of aspecific training course for principals on leading and managing a more autonomousschool, the development of innovative governance models and a longitudinal evaluation.This reform will enable school communities to use their local knowledge andunderstanding of the needs of their students to allocate resources and make schoolbased decisions. This will drive localised educational responses and better learningoutcomes for students.
Why do we need more local control for principals and parents?
At the core of the Gillard Labor Government
’
s plan to deliver a world class educationsystem is the need for better outcomes at each and every school across the country.For the first time, through initiatives such as NAPLAN and MySchool, parents and thecommunity have access to comparable information about learning outcomes at theirlocal school. This has started a national conversation about accountability and whatschools should do to improve student performance.Evidence collected by the OECD, and other international and national research, suggestsprincipal autonomy can contribute to a stronger performing education system andstronger performing schools in terms of academic standards
1
.The Gillard Labor Government believes it is important that this accountability bematched by efforts to empower schools so that they can provide localised, timely andeffective support to their students. Every school community has intimate knowledge of
their student’s needs, and what needs to
change within their school to generate betterlearning outcomes. This initiative will give schools the ability to act on this vitalknowledge.Without control over decision-making, principals are limited in their ability to respond toproblems and are impeded in their attempts to improve student outcomes.And without strong governance structures like school councils or boards, parents arelimited in their ability to drive change within the school.By devolving core responsibilities to schools, within the framework of current legislativeand industrial arrangements, we are creating the best conditions for innovation andflexibility at the school level which will drive better results and outcomes for students.
What does this mean for principals and schools?
Schools and principals will be more accountable for student outcomes and will have thepower to make decisions to address problems, to focus on schools
’
priorities and to
1
OECD ‘Education at a Glance’ 2008
ACER, The Leadership Challenge: Improving Learning in Schools 2008
ACER, OECD, Program for International Student Assessment in Brief, from Australia’s Perspecti
ve 2001
3Julia Gillard and Labor
Let’s move Australia Forward
better support students. This reform will give principals and school communities morecontrol over how their school operates, its spending priorities and future directions.Importantly, decision making will reflect the needs of each school. Each school willdetermine what needs to change to improve student outcomes, drawing on theknowledge of teachers, parents and student performance information like NAPLAN andMySchool.Principals and other staff members will also be offered additional support and trainingso they can effectively exercise their new responsibilities, and generate better outcomesfor their students.By providing greater flexibility over the mix of staff within a school, principals will beable to devolve administrative responsibilities that currently occupy much of their timeso they can focus more on school leadership, teaching and learning.Individual teachers will also have more power to contribute to and shape school decisionmaking processes. Individual teachers know better than anyone what needs to changewithin the school environment to improve the performance of their students, and thisreform will empower them to make those changes with the support of the principal andparents.
What does this mean for parents?
Parents will have more opportunity to engage
with their child’s school and a greater say
in how it is run. For example, in many schools there will be new and enhancedgovernance structures, such as school boards, which will give parents the opportunity tobe a key decision maker in setting the priorities and strategic direction of the school. Inother schools there will be a more formal and meaningful role for Parents and Citizensassociations to contribute to school decision making.Greater involvement of parents and the broader community will help buildaccountability for
each school’s use of resources and their results.
This initiative will help build schooling as a true partnership between teachers, parentsand students, and will drive greater parent engagement in school communities.
What does this mean for students?
Students will benefit from greater local decision making based on their unique needs. Inmany schools the budget, the priorities and the mixture of staff are determined by theeducation authority, and are based on the needs of students across the whole system,not at an individual school.Under this initiative schools will have greater control and power over their resources.This will generate new and innovative solutions that meet the needs of the studentpopulation within each school. This will drive more individual learning responses, andultimately better outcomes and results for students.
How will the initial rollout work?
The Gillard Labor Government will ensure principals and school communities aresupported as they transition to greater empowerment and local decision making.
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Empowering Local Schools - Fact Sheet
The Gillard Labor Government will drive improved student performance and outcomes by giving principals, parents and each school community greater power to determine how their local school is run – including greater responsibility for school budgets, determining the right mixture of staff, and setting local priorities.
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