NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT FOR
IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY

BILATERAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN
THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA AND
NEW SOUTH WALES

Purpose

1.	This agreement sets out the role and responsibilities of the State of New South Wales (‘New South Wales’) and the Commonwealth of Australia (‘Commonwealth’) in relation to the National Partnership on Improving Teacher Quality (‘the Partnership’), signed on 29 November 2008.

2.	New South Wales remains firmly committed to working with the Commonwealth and other jurisdictions to achieve the goals expressed in the National Education Agreement; to improve the educational outcomes of our students to ensure the continued prosperity and progress of Australia; and to encourage young people to pursue productive, fulfilling lives.

3.	New South Wales enters this Partnership in the spirit of cooperation and commitment to work towards achieving improvement in high-level outcomes for schooling agreed by Council of Australian Governments and set out in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians.

4.	This Agreement outlines New South Wales’ financial, monitoring, reporting and auditing commitments regarding the National Partnership on Improving Teacher Quality. 

KEY REFORM AREAS AND INDICATIVE ACTIONS

5.	New South Wales’ Implementation Plan details comprehensive indicative actions against the six reward reforms, in addition to the twelve mandatory facilitation reforms specified in the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Teacher Quality. The Implementation Plan indicates the scope of New South Wales’ reform agenda and outlines how the State’s reforms under the National Partnership reflect the teacher ‘lifecycle’ continuum. It also shows the interrelation of the three Smarter Schools National Partnership agreements and the importance of Teacher Quality in underpinning the other two agreements.

6.	The Commonwealth and New South Wales agree the State Implementation Plan to be a ‘living’ document, subject to periodic review as agreed by both Parties.

BUDGET

Facilitation payments

7.	Commonwealth facilitation payments and State co-investments to be made in support of the Teacher Quality National Partnership reforms in New South Wales are agreed as follows:

	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	
	($m)	($m)	($m)	($m)	($m)	
Australian Government	1.92	4.16	10.89	13.13	0	
State Co-investment	0.79	2.05	3.43	3.20	0	
Total Facilitation Budget	2.71	6.21	14.32	16.33	0	

Facilitation Payment Milestones

Due date	Milestone	Facilitation Payment	
July 2009	Signing of bilateral agreement and State Implementation Plans.	$1.92m (full payment 2008/09)	
December 2009 	Acceptance of NSW’s Final Implementation Plan.	$3.12m (75% payment 2009/10) 	
April 2010	State annual report for 2009.
	$1.04m (25% payment 2009/10)	
October 2010 	State progress report (January – June 2010).

NSW has revised Implementation Plan with priority actions for 2011.	$8.16m (75% payment 2010/11)	
April 2011	State annual report for 2010.

Professional Learning:
o	DET School Leadership Capacity Framework developed
o	NSWIT Framework for Teachers expanded to encompass accreditation/registration of teachers
o	professional learning opportunities provided to support quality teaching
Quality Teachers/ Highly Accomplished Teachers have:
o	been employed by sectors/schools where specified
o	been recognised and rewarded for their quality teaching undertaken a formal induction program where appropriate.
Paraprofessionals have:
o	been employed by sectors/schools where specified 
o	undertaken a formal induction program where appropriate.
2010 Centres for Excellence have:
o	provided professional learning opportunities to support quality teaching
o	developed collaborative relationships with partner schools where a hub and spoke model is used
o	developed partnerships with universities where appropriate 
o	published a Fact Sheet on the NSW National Partnership website (DET will have a generic Fact Sheet)
o	revised and submitted a school plan for 2011, where the Centre for Excellence is a school 
o	DET Centres for Excellence have published the 2011 school plan on the school website.
2011 DET Centres for Excellence have:
o	been selected and announced
o	commenced consultation and planning.
DET Increased School-based Decision Making Pilot Project:
o	Data Analysis Skills Assessment training undertaken by principals 
o	progress report sent to DET’s Audit Review Committee 
o	risk management plan prepared 
o	evaluation strategy developed and externally evaluated and validated
o	2010 Annual School Report which includes National Partnership activity completed for each school.	$2.72m (25% payment 2010/11)	
October 2011	State progress report (January – June 2011)

2010 Centres for Excellence:
o	bonus incentive payments made to principals where appropriate.

NSW has revised its Implementation Plan with priority actions for 2012.	$9.85m (75% payment 2011/12)	
April 2012	State annual report for 2011.

2011 Centres for Excellence have:
o	provided professional learning opportunities to support quality teaching
o	developed collaborative relationships with partner schools where a hub and spoke model is used
o	developed partnerships with universities where appropriate 
o	published a Fact Sheet on the NSW National Partnership website (DET will have a generic Fact Sheet)
o	revised and submitted a school plan for 2012, where the Centre for Excellence is a school 
o	DET Centres for Excellence have published the 2012 school plan on the school website.	$3.28m (25% payment 2011/12)	

Reward payments

8.	The following sets out the maximum allocation of reward funding available to New South Wales, subject to the achievement of agreed reward milestones:

	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	
	($m)	($m)	($m)	($m)	($m)	
Australian Government	0	0	0	56.03	56.03	
Total Reward Budget	0	0	0	56.03	56.03	

9.	In order to achieve the objectives of the National Education Agreement and to sustain the significant national reforms under the National Partnerships, states and territories that receive reward funding must use this funding for education purposes and must agree the distribution of reward funding with any non-government sectors that are party to the agreement.

Reward Payment Measures and Targets

The following table outlines the measures and targets that must be obtained for the successful achievement of full reward funding for the Improving Teacher Quality National Partnership: 

Date	Triggers	Reward Payment and weighting	
July 2011	•	50 mentors appointed	20% 	
	•	35 quality teacher positions created*	20%	
	•	35 paraprofessionals appointed	20% 	
	•	15 enhanced decision-making schools in place	20% 	
	•	50 schools participating in Indigenous community engagement programs	20%	
	TOTAL:	$56.03m
(20% = $11.2m)	
July 2012	•	100 quality teacher positions created*	20% 	
	•	100 paraprofessionals appointed	20% 	
	•	30 enhanced decision-making schools in place	20% 	
	•	65 payments provided to principals	20% 	
	•	100 schools participating in Indigenous community engagement programs	20% 	
	TOTAL	$56.03m
(20% = $11.2m)	

* Highly Accomplished Teachers and Catholic and Independent sector equivalents.

NON-GOVERNMENT SECTOR PARTICIPATION

10.	In developing this Agreement, the Catholic systemic sector was represented by the Catholic Education Commission NSW and independent schools were represented by the Association of Independent Schools of New South Wales.

11.	The ongoing participation, reporting, monitoring and auditing responsibilities of Catholic systemic schools in this Partnership will be managed by the Catholic Education Commission NSW.

12.	The ongoing participation, reporting, monitoring and auditing responsibilities of independent schools in this Partnership will be managed by the Association of Independent Schools NSW.

13.	Commonwealth funding for New South Wales schools will be received by the NSW Treasury on behalf of the State of New South Wales. Facilitation funds will then be disbursed to the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET). NSW DET will, in turn, distribute agreed funding allocations as follows:
o	To the Catholic Education Commission NSW for distribution to Catholic systemic schools;
o	To the Association of Independent Schools NSW for distribution to independent schools; and
o	To government schools (i.e. from NSW Department of Education and Training’s allocation of total facilitation funding).

14.	A detailed breakdown of New South Wales’ co-investment contribution is provided in the Implementation Plan.

INDICATIVE ACTIONS AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

15.	An indicative set of performance measures is provided in the Implementation Plan.

MONITORING AND REPORTING ARRANGEMENTS

16.	New South Wales will monitor and report on the progress made in this National Partnership as agreed with the Commonwealth and detailed in the Implementation Plan.

17.	New South Wales agrees to provide reports to the Commonwealth detailing progress against the agreed reform milestones and timelines, as set out in the Implementation Plan. New South Wales acknowledges that summaries of the state reports will be published.

18.	New South Wales agrees that the Second Annual Report in April 2011 will address the following:

o	Update on implementation of national facilitation reforms in NSW
o	Number of scholarships delivered 
o	Number and detail of quality teachers (or sector equivalents) appointed
o	Number and detail of teacher mentors appointed
o	Number of Centres for Excellence established and the number of schools participating in the initiative
o	Detail of Centres for Excellence illustrating the range of strategies being put in place
o	Number of principals provided with payments to lead School Centres for Excellence 
o	Detail of community engagement activities, including university partnerships and Aboriginal community engagement
o	Number and detail of  paraprofessionals appointed 
o	Number of schools participating in the increased school-based decision-making pilot project and detail of strategies put in place
o	Case studies from individual schools illustrating a range of scenarios operating within the Partnership.

19.	New South Wales also agrees to share information of best practice arrangements and successful reform interventions with other states and territories through the dissemination of National Partnership annual reports. New South Wales will periodically review the effectiveness of the reforms being undertaken in this Partnership, and will make these results available to states and territories. For more detail on evaluation, refer to the Implementation Plan.

20.	Monitoring and reporting arrangements will reflect the requirements of Schedule C to the Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations.

21.	New South Wales notes that where agreed Performance Indicators under the NP agreement contribute to the objectives and outcomes of the National Education Agreement, the COAG Reform Council will assess these performance indicators in the context of its analysis and report on the National Education Agreement and its subsidiary NP agreements.

22.	New South Wales agrees that where individual school data are provided and the NP agreements do not provide for that level of analysis to be published, standard privacy protocols should prevail.

PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS

23.	The Commonwealth of Australia and the State of New South Wales will acknowledge the Bilateral Agreement as a joint Commonwealth and State initiative in all publications, promotional and advertising materials, public announcements and activities, or any products processes or inventions developed as a result of the implementation of the Bilateral Agreement.

AUDIT ARRANGEMENTS

24.	During the term of this Agreement, New South Wales will, upon 7 days’ notice from the Commonwealth during normal business hours or as otherwise agreed, permit and provide persons ("Auditors") nominated by New South Wales supervised access to relevant information to verify compliance with the obligations under this Agreement. The Commonwealth is not entitled to use this right of access for purposes that are not related to this Agreement.

GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS

25.	This National Partnership and its associated implementation, reporting, accountability and evaluation requirements will be monitored by a cross-sectoral steering committee which will provide advice to the NSW Minister for Education and Training on issues requiring action.

The Parties have executed this agreement as follows:

Signed for and on behalf of the
Commonwealth of Australia by

……………………………………….
The Hon. Peter Garrett AM MP
Minister for School Education	

Date:

Signed for and on behalf of the
State of New South Wales by

……………………………………………	
The Hon. Verity Firth MP
Minister for Education and Training 

Date: