ACT Teacher Quality Institute

Transmittal Letter to the Minister (51kb)

SECTION A: PERFORMANCE AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT REPORTING

A1 The organisation

The ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) is an independent statutory authority established by the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010 (TQI Act).

TQI has statutory responsibility for the functions in section 11 of the TQI Act which are to:

• register or grant permits to teach to eligible people
• keep a register of, and records relating to, teachers working or intending to work in the ACT
• promote and encourage the continuous professional learning and development of teachers, and increased levels of skill, knowledge, expertise and professionalism
• determine standards for, and facilitate, the ongoing professional learning and development of teachers
• develop and apply codes of practice about the professional conduct of teachers
• determine standards, including assessment and certification standards, for the teaching profession
• accredit education programs for pre-service teachers and teachers.

TQI is a Territory authority for the purposes of the Financial Management Act 1996 (FMA). By a declaration issued by the Treasurer in February 2012 [Financial Management (Territory Authorities) Declaration 2012 (No 1)], TQI has been exempted from certain provisions of the FMA. Therefore, TQI is not required to produce a detailed statement of intent, statement of performance, or annual financial statement. However, in accordance with the direction issued by the Minister for Education and Training under section 25 of the TQI Act, TQI is required to provide a summary of its income and expenses each financial year in its annual report.

For the purposes of the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act 2004, TQI comes within the definition of 'public authority'.  Accordingly, TQI has prepared this annual report to comply with section 6(1) of that Act and in accordance with the requirements referred to in the Chief Minister's Annual Report Directions issued under section 9 of that Act. This annual report also addresses all the matters required by section 26 of the TQI Act.

A2 Overview

TQI completed its first full financial year of operations on 30 June 2012. In the past 12 months TQI has implemented the key activities and processes necessary for its practical establishment. Significant progress has also been achieved against most of its key statutory responsibilities. These statutory responsibilities underpinned the business planning of the Board and management.

Owing to its modest budget and staff resources TQI has established co-operative working arrangements with the Education and Training Directorate.  In particular, the Directorate offers a range of practical help in relation to financial, accounting and audit matters. Over the reporting period, the Directorate also offered accommodation to the TQI at no cost.

A3 Board

Section 15(4) of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010 requires the Minister to appoint the members of the Board other than the Chief Executive Officer. The appointment of a member, other than the Chief Executive Officer, must be for a term of no longer than three years. The Chief Executive Officer is a non-voting member of the Board.

Professor Denis Goodrum was appointed as Board Chair on 17 May 2011 for a period of three years. The appointments of all members to the Board were notified on 16 August 2011 for a period of three years.

Board meeting attendance as at 30 June 2012:

Table TQI 1: Board members and meeting attendance during reporting period

Information about TQI Board members is provided in Attachment 1.

Remuneration arrangements

Remuneration for the Chair is determined by the ACT Remuneration Tribunal in accordance with the provisions of the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1995. Other members of the Board are not entitled to be paid for the exercise of their board functions.

Board committees

Registration Committee

The Registration Committee was established with Terms of Reference approved by the Board at the meeting held on 20 September 2011 to advise on and guide the development of the teacher registration process. The members of this committee are:

Professor Denis Goodrum (Chair)
Ms Anne Ellis
Ms Lyn Caton
Professor Carolyn Broadbent
Mr Mark Hogan
Mr Jari Teivonen (TQI representative)
Mr Michael Bateman (Education and Training Directorate representative).

Committee meetings were held on 28 September 2011 and 17 April 2012.

A4 Highlights

Principal achievements

Professional teacher registration of ACT teachers

Teacher registration and permit to teach are key features of the TQI Act designed to ensure that all teachers employed in the ACT have appropriate qualifications, skills, and experience.  These regulatory functions contribute to protecting students and the community by ensuring that education in ACT schools is provided in a professional and competent way by approved teachers.

All applicants must provide certified copies of academic transcripts and consent to criminal history assessments. TQI assesses applicants under the Teacher Registration and Permit to Teach Policy. On approval a Certificate of Registration and a Registration Card are issued.

Three inaugural registration milestones were achieved in the reporting period:

• Completion of the initial implementation of teacher registration for existing teachers under the transitional provisions of the TQI Act (6539 teachers in total).
• Development and implementation of the online registration process for teachers seeking employment in the ACT from 1 October 2011  (1435 applications submitted to 30 June 2012).
• Processing over 6100 applications between 31 March and 24 April 2012, arising from the first registration renewal process for ACT teachers.

National Professional Standards for Teachers

The National Professional Standards for Teachers were developed by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) as a key component of the Improving Teacher Quality National Partnership. The Standards provide nationally consistent language to assist teachers and pre-service teachers reflect on and talk about their own practice and to understand, mentor and provide feedback to their colleagues.

The ACT is leading the national implementation of the National Professional Standards for Teachers through a number of TQI projects undertaken with ACT schools, universities and AITSL. This work focuses on the use of the Standards across the career stages of Graduate level , Proficient level and Highly Accomplished and Lead level.

Highlights in the reporting period were:

• completion of a cross-sectoral pilot on the use of the National Professional Standards for Teachers to enhance professional experience programs for pre-service teachers and their mentors. This pilot project was undertaken with three ACT schools, the University of Canberra and Canberra Campus of the Australian Catholic University. The pilot led to the collaborative development of common pre-service teacher reflection and assessment tools by the two ACT universities.
• co-development and delivery with the University of Canberra's Education Institute of a professional learning program on the use of the Standards to support quality mentoring. This full day professional learning program was delivered to over 275 teachers as part of the ACT Teacher Mentor Program.
• provision of information sessions on the use of the Standards to support teacher reflection, professional conversations and feedback to pre-service teachers and their associates and beginning teachers and their mentors and supervisors. Seven sessions were delivered in the first half of 2012 with over 500 teachers attending.
• commencement of a cross-sectoral trial in late June 2012 of the process for certification of highly accomplished and lead teachers against the National Professional Standards for Teachers. This work is being undertaken in partnership with AITSL and SiMERR (the National Research Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia) and involves teachers from 40 ACT schools.

TQI also coordinated ACT participation in training for the new process for accreditation of initial teacher education against national program standards and graduate teacher standards. The 11 ACT people trained came from schools, universities and the TQI Board and will be able to participate in local and interstate panels for accreditation of initial teacher education.

Relationships and communication

TQI has continued to place priority on the development of strategic partnerships with ACT Catholic, Public and Independent schools, the University of Canberra and the Canberra Campus of the Australian Catholic University.

A highlight in the reporting period has been the co-ordination of two collaborative  principal forums for ACT principals from all Public, Catholic and Independent schools. These cross-sectoral forums facilitated professional discussions on key national education reforms including the Standards frameworks and the Gonski Review.

A5 Outlook

In 2012-13, TQI will give emphasis to two further areas of its statutory responsibilities. It will develop, for the Minister's approval, a code of practice to provide guidance to ACT teachers about appropriate professional conduct. TQI will also develop a register of accredited education programs (namely programs that prepare pre-service teachers for employment, and programs suitable for the professional learning and development of established teachers throughout their careers).

At its meeting held on 8 June 2012 the Board noted the need to establish the Teacher Education Committee to oversee the accreditation of education programs early in the next reporting year.

TQI received $990,000 capital funding in the 2012-13 Budget to enable it to further develop its business systems. This funding will be used to ensure that TQI's business systems can effectively and efficiently support TQI in the administration of its statutory functions.

New Budget funding will also enable TQI to employ additional staff who will focus on accreditation of education programs and certification of teachers against National Professional Standards.

A6 Management discussion and analysis

TQI is a small organisation (5 x full time equivalent staff) with a modest budget in 2011-2012 of $1.3m.

In the reporting period, the ACT Government was the primary source of funding for the TQI. A small amount of grant funding was also received.

Staff salaries and on-costs (including the remuneration provided to the Board Chair) accounted for 49 per cent of total outlays. The Education and Training Directorate assists TQI by managing the payment of staff salaries. TQI has very modest funds to cover other discretionary expenditure.

In future years, TQI revenue will be supplemented by registration application fees from teachers.

A7 Summary financial report

The Minister for Education and Training, under section 25 of the Act, has directed TQI to provide summary details of its income and expenses for each financial year:

The surplus in 2011-2012 was due to the delay in the relocation of the Institute from its temporary premises, and the deferral of a component of the initial business system development. The surplus will be carried over to 2012-2013 and expensed in that financial year primarily on establishing the TQI's new leased premises, and programmed business system works.

A8 Requirements of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010

Section 26 of the TQI Act requires that the Institute's annual report include:

a.  a copy of any direction given by the Minister under section 25 of the Act – a copy of the direction given in 2011-12 is at Attachment 2

b.  a statement by the TQI about the action taken to give effect to a direction by the Minister – the TQI has included summary financial information in section A6 above

c.  the number of new approved teachers – a total of 7329 teachers were registered during the reporting period and TQI will report in future years on variations from this baseline number

d.  the education programs available for the professional learning and development of teachers – as noted in section A.4 above, developing the register of accredited education programs is a priority for 2012-13

e.  the current assessment and certification standards that are required to be met by teachers – the eligibility standards for each of 'full registration', 'provisional registration', and 'permit to teach' are at Attachment 3

SECTION B: CONSULTATION AND SCRUTINY REPORTING

B4 Legislation Report

ACT Teacher Quality Institute Amendment Act 2011

The ACT Teacher Quality Institute Amendment Act 2011 effected amendments on
4 October 2011 to the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010 (the Act) to provide for spent convictions to be assessed during the teacher registration process.

The definition of convictions in the Act did not include spent convictions and therefore spent convictions could not be considered as part of checks for teacher registration. This was at odds with the requirement of teacher employers to consider spent convictions as part of pre-employment checks. The amendment allows TQI to undertake full disclosure criminal history checks on applicants for teacher registration as part of the assessment process.

SECTION C: LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY BASED REPORTING

C17 Territory records

In 2012-13, TQI will introduce an electronic document records management system (EDRMS) to support the creation and management of administrative records relating to teacher registration and other statutory functions.

For more information contact:The secretariat, the Chief Executive Officer or the Board Chair of TQI.

Secretariat
ACT Teacher Quality Institute

Ms Anne Ellis
Chief Executive Officer
ACT Teacher Quality Institute

Professor Denis Goodrum
Board Chair
ACT Teacher Quality Institute

PO Box 263
Jamison Centre ACT 2614
(02) 6205 8867
Email: tqi@act.gov.au

Attachment 1 (127kb)

Attachment 2 (75kb)

Attachment 3 (124kb)