In 2014, the Queensland Government commenced the Great Results Guarantee, a four-year funding initiative to improve student outcomes. This program passes on to Queensland state schools funding provided by the Australian Government's Students First initiative.
For 2015 (the second year of the initiative) the Queensland Government is investing a total of $183 million in additional funding for state schools to improve student performance.
Expenditure guidelines
All Queensland state schools (including Independent Public Schools) will receive a share of the funding and will enter into an agreement that commits them to guarantee that every student will either:
achieve the National Minimum Standard for literacy and numeracy for their year level or
have an evidence-based plan, developed by the school, in place to address their specific learning needs.
The funding will include base components calculated using student enrolments and loading components to provide additional resources based on student and school characteristics and student achievements in mathematics and English.
Under the Great Results Guarantee, Queensland Low SES National Partnership (NP) schools with a partnership agreement lapsing in 2015 will continue to receive the agreed NP rate of $800 per student per annum for the duration of their original NP agreement. Those Queensland Low SES NP schools with partnership agreements lapsing at the end of Semester 1 2015 will receive funding at the rate of $400 per student for Semester 1 2015 (half year equivalent of the agreed NP rate of $800 per student) and funding for the remainder of the year on the same basis as non-NP Schools.
For 2015, Independent Public Schools must establish an agreement with their School Council and all other state schools are to enter into an agreement with the Director-General of the Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE).
These agreements will outline how schools will invest the additional funding in 2015 to improve student outcomes and school performance. Schools will also publish their agreements on their websites so that the community can see how this funding is being used.
Schools will have the flexibility and autonomy to decide how the funding should be invested. Student performance is measured throughout the year and schools are required to demonstrate to the school community how the extra funding is helping to maximise learning outcomes for all students.
Schools will report on the success of their strategies developed for the 2014 Great Results Guarantee by publishing a simple report on their website incorporating a 'traffic light' system to identify the status of each strategy. This system will operate on a three-tier grading - green, amber and red - to demonstrate if outcomes have been met or exceeded, had substantial progress made, or achieved only limited progress.