Comprehensive Report: Issues and Challenges in School Improvement

This report provides an analysis of the issues and challenges in Australian school improvement, particularly focusing on the Smarter School National Partnerships (SSNP). The executive summary outlines the major changes in Australian schooling, including standardized assessments, professional standards, and the Australian curriculum. The report delves into the contextual factors influencing education policy implementation, such as funding and governance. It critically analyzes the SSNP, which aims to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes and enhance teacher quality. The report examines the roles of various stakeholders, including teachers, students, and parents, and discusses the reforms undertaken by SSNP, such as those for literacy, low socioeconomic status schools, and teacher quality. The report also highlights the factors that influence the implementation of the SSNP, such as governance, funding, and the need for effective evaluation frameworks. The analysis includes recommendations for enhancing the policy's effectiveness, such as providing support for teachers and influencing policy at all levels. The report concludes that SSNP has the potential to improve teacher and school performance, emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement and collaboration.

RUNNING HEAD: Issues and challenges in school improvement
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Issues and challenges in school improvement

Issues and challenges in school improvement 1
Executive summary
The Australian schooling has undergone through major changes. It comprises the
standardized national assessments in literacy and numeracy, professional standards for
teachers and principals and an Australian curriculum. There are education policies to face the
issues and challenges faced in the school curriculum. This report comprises the brief
description of the Smarter School National Partnerships (SSNP) for the school improvement.
The report includes the contextual factors which influence the implementation of the
education policy. Al last the policy is critically analyzed.
Finally it can be concluded that the SSNP is capable enough to improve the performance of
the teachers as well as school. However the recommendations are given to further enhance
the effectiveness of the policy.

Issues and challenges in school improvement 2
The Australian education system has undergone through the major changes in the last few
decades through the education policies. These policies put implication on the school for the
improvement. The Australian government is also offering significant funds to improve
schools and for implementing systematic and sustainable education reform. The schools are
adopting new policies for the improvement issues of the schools. The smarter school national
partnerships (SSNP) provide significant funding in order to implement systematic and
sustainable education reform. This education policy aims to improve literacy and numeracy
outcomes along with strengthening the capacity and driving quality and improvement in
teaching. The partnership is achieving significant reform at the national, state and local
school community levels (Ahmmed & Mullick, 2014). This education policy deals with the
school improvement issues at K-12 settings. “The schools in Australia faces the problem of
the professional standards for teachers and principals”. Additionally, there is a lack of school
curriculum and standardized national assessments in the literacy and numeracy. The SSNP
provides funding to implement systematic and sustainable education reform to improve
literacy and numeracy outcomes and drives quality and constant improvement in teaching.
The national partnerships are achieving significant reforms at the community levels. The
professional development of the principals, leaders, teachers, other staff and the on-going
professional learning outcomes influences the implementation of the education policy. The
policy aims to improve the performance of the school by enhancing the performance of the
staff. It focuses on fostering and supporting the on-going professional learning communities
(Chodkiewicz & Boyle, 2017). The education policy induces into working in partnerships
with schools and trains to students on a student mentoring role. The national and numeracy
national partnership is adopted with the aim of literacy or numeracy improvement. It
strengthened the leadership in principals and improved learning cultures in schools. The
major stakeholders involved in the education policy are teachers, students, and parents.
There are three reforms of the smarter schools national partnership such as for literacy and
numeracy, for low-socioeconomic status school communities and for improving teacher
quality. The national partnership for literacy and numeracy supports teachers and schools to
focus on the approaches which are effective in improving literacy and numeracy outcomes of
the students. It causes to improved outcome of the students and boosted the capacity of the
students. This policy helps school leaders to make well-versed decisions about the best
strategies for the school and students. The policy funds a range of approaches which leads to
improvement in literacy and numeracy outcomes of the targeted students and school. The

Issues and challenges in school improvement 3
state and the non-government education authorities concentrate on the key areas of the
quality teaching, school leadership and on the student’s performance in delivering constant
improvements so that sustained improvements in literacy and numeracy can be delivered
(Chao, Forlin & Ho, 2016).
The smarter schools national partnership for the low socio-economic school communities
helps students in the most disadvantaged communities to perform better at school. The
reforms undertaken under this policy are helpful in improving the quality of the teachers. It
allows students to be flexible enough in operating and encouraging various modes of learning
so that the need of the students can be met (Allami, Fauzee & Sin, 2017). Fostering wellbeing
of the students and inspiring better connections with the families and local communities are
the features of this partnership.
The national partnership for improving teacher quality identifies that teachers have the
greatest influence on student’s engagement and achievement. The improvement in the quality
of the teachers necessitates principals’ strong school leadership and innovative approaches to
teacher recruitment, retention, and reward. The local government of Australia is instigating a
range of significant reforms to target precarious points in the teachers’ lifestyle to appeal,
train, develop and retain quality teachers in the schools and reforms. These measures are
supported by other reform which supports the development of the workforce planning,
improvement of the teacher’s remuneration structure and professional development. This
policy offers a platform to enhance the student’s performance and support other reforms
focusing on low economic status (Cooper & Yan, 2015).
The smarter schools national partnership is seeking to develop and improve performance
across schooling to reinforce the student learning achievement specifically for the students
who may be falling behind. This education policy uplifts the performance of the students in
literacy and numeracy for the students who are falling behind and require extra support. It is a
whole school approach for the quality teaching (Eacott, 2017). It inspires leadership towards
a culture of constant improvement. The policy also makes use of data and evidence in order
to recognize and identify the most effective resources. It builds capacity with the help of
professional learning. It also believes in collaborating and sharing responsibility (Lee & Wu,
2017).
The factors which lead and influence the implementation of the smarter schools national
partnership education policy are governance and funding. The education system in Australia

Issues and challenges in school improvement 4
directed nationally through agreements and is focused on the education priorities and
funding. The school funding lacks transparency which influences the implementation of the
education policy. Various studies have shown that it is difficult to determine how individual
schools are funded. The schools in Australia have a positive learning environment and
comprise well-prepared teachers. There is a requirement for an effective education policy in
order to maintain the evaluation and assessment framework (Dowden, 2014). The rural and
indigenous population in Australia have lower academic performance and less access to the
education which leads to the implementation of the education policy. The policy aims to
prepare well for the students and enhance their performance. The effective secondary and
tertiary pathways in the country aim to prepare well for the students for the social and labor
market integration. It can be possible with the help of an effective education policy. Australia
has maintained positive learning environments comprising strong academic leadership and
well-prepared teachers. It is possible with the implementation of the education policy which
aims to make improvement in the classroom with the clearer information on the areas to
improve (Hopkins, Stringfield, Harris, Stoll & Mackay, 2014).
The smarter schools national partnerships have considerably implemented activities which
progressively incorporated national developments with the help of national professional
standard for teachers and principals. The policy also worked on the Australian curriculum.
This policy ensured to maximize the benefits from all the investments in the education system
of the country. the smarter schools national partnership is capitalizing for the three national
partnerships such as providing high quality, appropriate professional development, and
opportunities for the principals to strengthen school leadership (Mulryan-Kyne, 2014). As per
the report of 2011, 289 schools participated with a total enrolment of more than 83,500
students under the education policy. Many other schools were also involved across the state
through a specific target which provided support to more than 7,000 students. The targeted
students provided support to over 6500 children and youngsters through ICAN local
community grants. It funded to schools and community-based programs and youth
development programs. The education policy undertook professional development and school
capability building activities by evaluating the performance of the principals, teachers and
other school staff (Lim, Xia, Skitmore, Gray & Bridge, 2015).
From the above discussion, I realized that the smarter schools national partnerships helped
around 750 teachers and school leaders in the Catholic sector assumed professional learning
workshops. It concerns the execution of the Australian curriculum in the specific learning

Issues and challenges in school improvement 5
centers. It is considered that the introduction of new performance and development policy
announced by the minister for education and child development supported performance
counts training workshops. The attendance of over 500 teachers at professional conversations
workshops associated with the national professional standards for the teachers. The adoption
of the policy offered the greater reliability of practice in the literacy and numeracy
improvement. The implementation of the education policy created opportunities for the
principals to strengthen the educational leadership (Tekola, et. al. 2016).
The SSNP informs schools of national developments concerning the national professional
standard for the students. Various models of the performance management and the appraisal
are presented to the schools linking potential applications of the professional standards for the
teachers. The policy also guides for the implementation of the national professional standard
for the teachers. The policy induces models for early career teachers and provides a
framework for the communities regarding professional learning. Introductory workshops in
the rural, regional and metropolitans locations provide a foundation to the national
professional standard for the teachers. It offers opportunities for the teachers to acquire a
strong sense of ownership of the standards. It helps in building professional capacity by
supporting professional conversations regarding teacher practices and professional
development planning (Rudman, 2014).
The framework analyzing SSNP comprises four frames and considers analyzing
characteristics of the education policy. The first frame analyses the background and
underlying principles which are required to be focused on analyzing the characteristic of the
SSNP. The principles of the education policy enhance the art of principalship which is the
essential knowledge. The principal also includes school improvement along with improving
teaching and learning at every level. It comprises mentoring successful leaders. The
principals aim to build leadership capacity for the middle managers and women in leadership.
The second frame observes the policy formulation process. The Australian government
provides significant funding for systematic and sustainable education aims to improve
literacy and numeracy outcomes. The SSNP has achieved substantial reform at the local, state
and national community levels. The progress of the SSNP can be evaluated from the
innovative strategies implemented. The states and territories are contributing through fresh
funding and redirection of the existing resources (Urbanovič, Wilkins & Huisman, 2016).
The territory and state facilitation funding improved teacher quality in total $94 m. The
funding in state and territory reward projected to improve teacher quality by $350 m in 2008-

Issues and challenges in school improvement 6
2013. The literacy and numeracy comprise reward funding which is subjected to the
attainment of the agreed performance targets. The third framework examines the execution
process and the gaps between the implementation and the planning. The framework
conducted a workshop for the stakeholders to share information and discuss the resources
needed in order to strengthen the parental engagement. The teachers were advocated for the
greater orientation to the role of the teacher in in relating parents and families in schooling
(Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, 2016). The SSPN supported to promote parental engagement and
new resources as developed by the project. Many efforts have been made to enhance the
quality of the teachers by creating a specialised institution. The last one concentrates on the
effects of the policies. The government in Australia reviewed SSNP and examined challenges
and the funding approaches. It enhanced the relationship between student performance and
the teacher’s standard of teaching (Yikici, Altinay, Altinay & Dagli, 2016).
After analyzing the SSNP, it is recommended to create provision of opportunities and support
teachers in the development and enhancement of the professional practice. The policy should
seek to be influential at all levels of policy making. It is recommended to protect and enhance
teacher’s right to define how to teach within the context. The teachers should be supported in
setting the direction of development and contributed to the learning. The teachers should be
guided to build collaborative relationships with parents or guardians. The policy is
recommended to enable teachers in participating activities which lead to the formation and
transfer of professional knowledge.

Issues and challenges in school improvement 7
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