Meat of Minister of Education, Julia Gillard's Speech on Leading Transformational Change in Schools. (November 24, 2008)

Just what will be demanded and provided won't be clear until the legislation is promulgated.

A NATIONAL AGENDA FOR REFORM

The next step of our Education Revolution begins now.

The Council of Australian Government meets on Saturday to finalise the new National Education Agreement together with new National Partnerships on teacher quality, improving disadvantaged school and literacy and numeracy.

And the Schools Assistance Bill, which stands as a companion to the new National Education Agreement and will provide $28 billion to non-government schools over the next four years, must also pass the Australian Parliament by the end of the fortnight.

Together the new agreements and the Bill will mean every jurisdiction will sign up to transparency and accountability for the same measures of achievement, from the readiness to learn of our youngest children to attainment at year 12 and its equivalent. A comprehensive framework of this kind is unprecedented in Australia.

Every school, government or non-government, wherever it is located, whatever its ethos, will provide information about its performance in national tests and other crucial areas of schooling as part of a national system that will help to put the information in its proper context. 

Every school, regardless of its sector or location, will make transparent the amounts and types of income it receives, in order that the whole community can gain a better understanding of the relationship between resourcing and performance through the operation of genuine public accountability.

In this new era of transparency, parents and community members will be able to compare schools in the local community and their own school with schools with similar student populations around the country.

If schools with similar populations are showing vastly different results then that isn’t about the kids.  Rather it is explained by the teaching, school leadership or resourcing.  That means it is about factors we, the adults, can fix so the children in the under-achieving school get a better education.

To those who oppose transparency the message is clear.  The Rudd Government is absolutely determined to achieve this reform for Australia’s children.

And the Rudd Government will work through COAG to agree and implement ambitious reforms through National Partnerships on teacher quality, improving disadvantaged school and literacy and numeracy.

The Rudd Government is prepared to invest half a billion dollars facilitating and rewarding reform at every stage of a teaching career.

Reform to attract the best by creating new ways of entering teaching.

Reform to offer new support for the development and leadership of our teachers.

Reform to establish new national professional standards for teachers which allow them to progress through their careers towards ‘highly accomplished’ status.

For disadvantaged school communities, we will go to the Council of Australian Governments offering new resources for a new partnership to execute targeted improvement strategies in specific disadvantaged schools and communities.

What needs to be done will vary from place to place.

It may mean rewarding accomplished teachers to work in the most difficult schools.

It may mean developing an extended or full service school offer, where breakfast clubs and after-school activities combine to offer children from chaotic homes or homes without a focus on achievement, extra learning opportunities and encouragement to pursue their studies in a structured and supportive environment.

It may mean bringing partnerships with other services – health, careers, policing – to address issues which can disrupt learning and prevent young people from fulfilling their potential.

In literacy and numeracy, we will work with school systems and school leaders to invest $557 million in a national action plan which targets resources at proven methods to boost literacy and numeracy across the board and especially among those students who are currently slipping furthest behind.

CONCLUSION

Let me conclude by saying we have an opportunity to build a new national effort and permanently change the expectations we have for Australian schooling.

Like Chris Sarra, Brett New and Michael O’Brien from Debney Park Secondary College here in Melbourne have proved schools can be turned around.

And Joel Klein has shown what can be achieved in New York City.

Drawing on that spirit we have to say what is good for the best of schools is good for the whole nation.

As a nation we have to say we will no longer tolerate an education system that under-achieves.

We will no longer turn a blind eye to results that say in our nation if you are a poor kid you are likely to fail at school.

Instead we must resolve to transform our schools.   We will demand change that delivers results, that sustains the effort to raise achievement for every student, that recognises disadvantage as a reason for underperformance but refuses to accept it as an excuse for failure.