Understanding the Low SES School Communities National Partnership

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Understanding the Low SES School Communities
National Partnership A joint initiative of
the Australian and NSW Governments
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Education National Partnerships
Teacher Quality
Low SES School Communities
Literacy and Numeracy
www.nationalpartnerships.nsw.edu.au
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Why a focus on Low SES School Communities?

• Currently, there is a significant and
  unacceptable gap between the average achievement
  of students from low socio-economic status
  families as a group and all students.
• Achievement differences widen across the stages
  of schooling

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Achievement differences widen across stages of
schooling because

• Demands on learning and behaviour become more
  complex
• The cultural resources of poorer families decline
  in relative value
• Social area processes accumulate multiple
  disadvantages in poorer schools
• Professor Richard Teese, The University of
  Melbourne, Address at the NSW DET Low SES
  Symposium May 2009

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Low SES School Communities National Partnership

• The aims of the Low SES School Communities
  National Partnership are to
• transform the way that schooling takes place in
  participating schools and to address the complex
  and interconnected challenges facing students in
  disadvantaged communities
• improve the educational outcomes of students,
  including literacy and numeracy outcomes, in
  targeted schools as well as to improve students
  transition rates to further education and
  employment.

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What are the links to the other National
Partnerships?

• Teacher Quality National Partnership
• There is compelling evidence that high quality
  teaching is the most effective method of
  improving results for students in low SES school
  communities. This is why the Low SES School
  Communities National Partnership mandates reforms
  drawn from the Teacher Quality National
  Partnership.
• Specific related initiatives include
• Highly Accomplished Teachers (HATs)
• Paraprofessionals
• Centres for excellence

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What are the links to the other National
Partnerships?

• Literacy and Numeracy National Partnership
• In recognition of the aim to improve literacy
  and numeracy results, schools will be able to
  implement evidence-based reforms, such as
  specific literacy and numeracy interventions,
  from the Literacy and Numeracy National
  Partnership.
• The Information Package for the Literacy and
  Numeracy National Partnership along with
  associated resources can be found at
  http//www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/
  national/index.htm

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A focus on Aboriginal Education

• All of the partnerships and in particular the
  Low SES School Communities National Partnership
  include specific reforms and strategies to
  accelerate progress in
• improving outcomes for Aboriginal students
• increasing the number of Aboriginal teachers and
  Aboriginal school leaders
• strengthening sustainable partnerships between
  schools and their local Aboriginal communities.

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Low SES School Communities National Partnership
in NSW

• 510 schools in NSW originally identified by the
  Commonwealth Government 447 government and 63
  non government schools
• Additional government schools added in October
  2009, bringing the total to more than 550
• Four rounds of schools with implementation
  staggered between 2009 and 2012. 7 years in total
  implementation
• Identified schools will be funded for a period of
  4 years.

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Two methods of identification

• A list created by the Australian Government to a
  national methodology. The methodology was based
  on the Australian Bureau of Statistics Index of
  Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD),
  constructed from the 2006 Census.
• Additional Government schools using State based
  criteria

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What is IRSED data?

• IRSED is obtained using Socio-Economic Index for
  Area (SEIFA).
• The SES variables for all the households within
  an area are averaged to produce the measure for
  the area. Because families associated with any
  specific public school may reside in more than
  one census area, SEIFA can only approximate the
  SES of a school community.
• IRSED summarises 17 different variables
  including those relating to housing, income,
  education, employment and occupation, LBOTE,
  access to transport and the Internet.

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State based criteria

• Any new or continuing school supported by the
  Priority Action Schools Program not already
  included in the Commonwealth list
• The 30 next most disadvantaged schools identified
  by the Priority Schools Programs survey as
  meeting the criteria for the Priority Action
  Schools Program
• Any school not covered by the above criteria that
  had a greater than 25 percent enrolment of
  Aboriginal students (averaged over a three year
  period).

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Low SES School Communities National Partnership
in DET

• 18,300 Aboriginal students, representing 46.6
  per cent of the total Aboriginal students in
  government schools in New South Wales
• 69 primary schools, 18 secondary, 8 central
  schools, 5 Schools for Specific Purposes (SSPs)
• Enrolments in these schools are divided into 55
  primary, 39 secondary schools, 5 central
  schools and 1 in SSPs
• 21 of the schools are small schools with an
  enrolment of less than 52
• 6 of schools are considered remote or very
  remote
• 68 of all government schools participating in
  this National Partnership also receive Priority
  Schools Programs resources.

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Key messages

• Innovation not compensation transform schooling
• High expectations of significant and sustainable
  improvements in student learning outcomes
  lasting value
• Build capacity
• Change outcomes not experiences
• Maximise the use of the schools total resource
  and where appropriate the total resource
  available across a community of schools.
• Summarised from Professor Richard Teese, The
  University of Melbourne, Address at the NSW DET
  Low SES Symposium May 2009

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Priorities

• To improve outcomes for students, the absolute
  priority in this National Partnership will be on
  steps that directly lift the availability of high
  quality teaching. While schools have the
  flexibility to try new and innovative approaches,
  and to engage closely with their community, this
  should be done within a framework where teacher
  quality interventions are the building-blocks for
  reform in each school.

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Mandatory actions

• To ensure that resources are directed to the
  highest priority teacher quality reforms, schools
  are required to, as a first priority, undertake
  the following two mandatory elements within the
  school plan
• Actions to improve the availability of high
  quality teaching. These actions connect to Low
  SES Reform 1
• Professional development for school executives
  and teachers to help them use and analyse data to
  cater to student needs. These actions connect to
  Low SES Reform 4
• Aspects of these elements are also reflected in
  Reforms 2 and 5.

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Six Reforms

• Schools should ensure that the mandatory
  elements are evident in the school plan along
  with strategies to address each of the following
  six Low SES School Communities Reforms

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Reform 1

• Incentives to attract high-performing teachers
  and principals
• Options are aimed at both attracting and
  retaining high quality staff and improving the
  capacity of existing staff.
• Sample strategies
• Highly Accomplished Teachers (HATs), mentoring
  programs for Principals, cross sectoral
  professional networks, site-based professional
  learning, working with academic partners

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Reform 2

• Adoption of best-practice performance measurement
  and staffing arrangements that articulate a clear
  role for principals
• These reforms acknowledge the role of school
  leadership from school executives to teachers.
• Sample strategies
• experienced teachers and mentors supporting
  early career teachers, shared executive across
  sites eg. middle years.

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Reform 3

• 3. School operational arrangements that encourage
  innovation and flexibility
• The success of the Partnership will rely on the
  ability of schools to put in place clear
  strategies that will have a direct impact on
  student outcomes. These reforms promote
  innovation in school organisation.
• Sample strategies
• employ paraprofessional staff, flexible
  organisation practices including timetabling and
  extended school hours, working in local
  communities of schools, expanding curriculum
  using technology, teaching teams working across
  schools with Aboriginal, ESL and refugee
  students, shared timetables

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Reform 4

• Provision of innovative and tailored learning
  opportunities
• Identifying and targeting specific student needs
  will be essential if schools are to make
  measurable improvements. The ability to use
  student assessment and other data to identify
  individual, class and school needs will be
  critical to the success of the reforms.
• Sample strategies
• implement evidence-based and focused
  interventions, transition plans for students,
  individualised learning plans for particular
  students, Personalised Learning Plans for
  Aboriginal students, professional development for
  school executives and teachers on data analysis

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Reform 5

• 5. Strengthen school accountability
• Transparent planning and reporting mechanisms
  that clearly outline the goals to be achieved,
  the strategies to be implemented and the methods
  to be used for assessing outcomes against the
  plan.
• Sample strategies
• interviews with the whole school community,
  strengthened assessment of teachers and school
  leaders, develop teams across sites to evaluate
  outcomes of school plans, external evaluation,
  case studies of students and cohorts, publicly
  available annual reports

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Reform 6

• 6. External partnerships with parents, other
  schools, businesses and communities and the
  provision of access to extended services
  (including through brokering arrangements)
• This reform direction will strengthen schools
  ability to address identified needs through
  ongoing engagement with the broader community.
• Sample strategies
• extension of schools as community centres,
  parents participate in school planning, workshops
  with parents to help children with learning,
  transition programs, partnerships with key
  community organisations eg. AECG, transition to
  school programs, allied health services,
  employment of partnership officers to build
  parent and community partnerships

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Support

• Advice for schools is located at
• www.lowsesschools.nsw.edu.au

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Support

• Regular newsletter

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www.lowsesschools.nsw.edu.au
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How do schools get started?

• Conduct a situational analysis
• Participate in joint planning
• Revise School Plan
• School Education Director approves revised School
  Plan

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Situational analysis

• The situational analysis involves an assessment
  of the schools quantitative and qualitative
  data. The assessment of data and information
  collected through the analysis will inform the
  school situational analysis report.
• This will be a brief report that will enable the
  aggregation and synthesis of information to
  support a school to determine the most
  appropriate strategies to significantly improve
  learning outcomes, teaching and leadership
  practices and community partnerships.

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Who should be involved?

• The Principal will lead the situational analysis
  in consultation with the whole school community
  including representatives from the staff,
  students and key stakeholder groups within the
  school community.
• school executive
• teaching staff
• students
• parents
• Parents Citizens Association
• local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group
  (AECG)
• key community groups involved in the school (as
  appropriate)
• regional officers

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What do schools need to do?

• Undertake a SMART training workshop (or
  equivalent regions may have already undertaken
  a process with schools)
• Analyse the schools NAPLAN data in literacy and
  numeracy for areas of strength and those for
  further development
• Use the schools electronic Data Summary Sheet
  (2008 eDSS) to gather information about
  attendance, retention, enrolment, SC and HSC
  results

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What do schools need to do?

• Compile a Staff profile for the purpose of
  targeting professional learning experiences
  schools may wish to use their OASIS staffing
  report, DASA survey, professional learning audit,
  TPL financial report, survey information from
  staff, lesson observations
• Conduct a community/parent survey or focus group
  discussions to establish some baseline
  information about community engagement sample
  focus group questions, surveys and data input
  templates will be provided to support schools
  with this process should they wish to use them
• Communicate their findings using the
  situational analysis report template provided at
  www.lowsesschools.nsw.edu.au (or an equivalent).

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Situational analysis data source
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Situational analysis data source
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Timeline for the Situational analysis
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Situational Analysis report

• CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
• The Situational Analysis team identified through
  rigorous NAPLAN analysis that
• Data collected also identified that
• The surveys and focus groups indicated that
• There is evidence that
• Teachers need
• Students expressed
• Effective partnerships with parents and carers
  must be further developed

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Situational analysis report sample
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Joint planning

• Following the completion of the situational
  analysis, your school will be required to
  participate in joint planning with other schools
  participating in the Low SES School Communities
  National Partnership to share outcomes of the
  situational analysis and develop mutually
  beneficial strategies from the reforms.
• Schools must work with parents and their
  community throughout the planning phase. In
  particular, for schools with Aboriginal students,
  this includes engaging with Aboriginal families,
  Aboriginal community members and the local
  Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG).

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Joint planning
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Revising the School Plan

• The strategies in the School Plan should
  explicitly reflect the six Low SES Reforms and
  identify funding from the Low SES School
  Communities National Partnership and other
  funding sources.
• Strategies must be
• linked to achieving school targets and intended
  outcomes within the key priority areas identified
  in the Office of Schools Plan
• linked to achieving outcomes in the Aboriginal
  Education and Training Strategy 2009-2012
• weighted to those that are close to the classroom
  and directly impact on student learning outcomes
• weighted to those that are designed to improve
  high quality teaching and strengthen community
  engagement

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Approval of School Plans

• School Plans demonstrating strategies linked to
  reforms and NP funding, will be approved by
  School Education Directors
• attesting that the school is implementing the
  most effective options from the reform menu for
  the school context
• and submitted to the Regional Director for
  endorsement.

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Approval of School Plans

• Upon endorsement by the Regional Director
• schools are required to publish the School Plan
  on the school website.
• regions will forward an electronic copy of the
  endorsed School Plans to schoolplans_at_lowsesschools
  .nsw.edu.au

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How is funding allocated?

• Participating schools will receive Low SES School
  Communities National Partnership funding for four
  years.
• These funds should be used in conjunction with
  other resources available in the school to
  support school improvement.
• In Term 4 each year, schools will be advised of
  their notional allocation from the Low SES School
  Communities National Partnership for the
  following year.
• Allocations will be distributed to schools each
  calendar year as two semester payments.

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Accountability

• The School Plan and the Annual School Report
  remain the key documentation for planning,
  implementing, monitoring and evaluating the
  effectiveness of the reforms implemented as part
  of the Low SES School Communities National
  Partnership.

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Performance measures

• Schools will be required to report publicly on
  the outcomes of their School Plans through Annual
  School Reports.
• Performance measures will include
• Student attendance
• Literacy and Numeracy performance (NAPLAN)
• Year 12 or equivalent attainment
• Student destinations
• School satisfaction (students parents)
• Student and school community engagement

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State and National evaluation

• A coordinated assessment framework across all
  three National Partnerships
• A consistent evaluation framework to enable
  responsiveness to emerging evidence
• A national evaluation commissioned by the
  Commonwealth Government

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www.lowsesschools.nsw.edu.au