The Smarter Schools National Partnerships are part of a new funding approach that engages all school systems, including the non-government sector, in partnerships to improve educational outcomes for all students and targets support to students who need it most.
The Queensland Government has entered into these National Partnerships with the Australian Government in the key areas of addressing disadvantage, improving teacher quality, and raising literacy and numeracy outcomes.
More information about the National Partnership funding approach under the Intergovernmental Agreement is available from the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) website 
The National Partnership for Low Socio-economic Status School Communities runs over seven years, from 2008-09 to 2014-15.
The National Partnership for Literacy and Numeracy runs over four years, from 2008-09 through to 2011-12
The National Partnership for Improving Teacher Quality runs over five years, from 2008-09 through to 2012-3
The Australian Government is investing approximately $2.5 billion through the Smarter Schools National Partnerships:
States and Territories are co-contributing similar levels of investment in each National Partnership.
The Australian Government is providing funding to each state and territory under the Smarter Schools National Partnerships. States and territories are co-contributing funding to the National Partnerships, which includes matching co-investment in the case of the Low SES School Communities National Partnership.
The Queensland Government has worked with the Australian Government to develop detailed implementation plans for each National Partnership. The plans have been developed collaboratively with the Government, Catholic and Independent schooling sectors.
States and Territories have flexibility to decide how they implement specific reforms. That is, they are able to select initiatives and programs that are most relevant and appropriate to their state. States and territories will submit annual and progress reports to the Australian Government. Reports will be published on the Smarter Schools website .
Under the Improving Teacher Quality National Partnership all Governments will introduce consistent national approaches in areas such as nationally agreed and endorsed professional standards for teachers, teacher registration for graduate teachers and the certification/accreditation of Accomplished and Leading teachers.
Nationally there are nearly 2,500 primary and secondary schools participating in the National Partnerships for Low SES School Communities and/or for Literacy and Numeracy.
A list of Queensland schools participating in the National Partnerships is available from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) website (new window) 
The Improving Teacher Quality National Partnership does not identify individual participating schools as it targets all teachers with an emphasis on strategies to attract, train, place, develop and retain quality teachers and leaders. It is expected that all Australian schools and students will benefit from the initiatives supported through the Improved Teacher Quality National Partnership.
There could be a number of reasons why a school is not participating. In selecting participating schools, the department took into account a range of factors, including school performance data, the readiness of the school to participate in, and benefit from, the National Partnerships and the funding the school receives from other sources.
School level reforms are already being implemented and will roll-out progressively around all National Partnership schools. Participating schools will identify reform activities and the progress of those activities in their school level plans which will be published on school and education authority websites.
Yes. Reform activities under each of the National Partnerships have a strong focus on closing the gap between the educational outcomes of Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students.
Targets for improvement under the National Partnership for Literacy and Numeracy were negotiated with states and territories. The Council of Australian Governments will measure performance against these targets using NAPLAN data as well as local measures of literacy and numeracy.
States and territories will submit annual and progress reports which outline how they have implemented facilitation and reward reforms, and their progress in achieving milestones agreed in the Bilateral Agreement and Final Implementation Plan across the three Smarter Schools National Partnerships.
Facilitation funding is provided to states and territories to implement reform activities under the National Partnerships.
Reward funding is triggered by demonstrated achievement of negotiated targets in the Literacy and Numeracy and Improving Teacher Quality National Partnerships.
| National Partnership Funding | ||||
| Literacy and Numeracy | Low SES School Communities | Improving Teacher Quality | TOTAL | |
| State Breakdown | ||||
| New South Wales | $136.0m | $593.3m | $142.2m | $871.4m |
| Victoria | $89.4m | $275.3m | $112.9m | $477.6m |
| Queensland | $138.6m | $231.8m | $87.6m | $458.0m |
| South Australia | $40.4m | $159.8m | $32.4m | $232.6m |
| Western Australia | $61.7m | $96.8m | $45.0m | $203.4m |
| Tasmania | $12.9m | $70.1m | $10.5m | $93.5m |
| Northern Territory* | $14.9m | $70.1m | $5.4m | $134.7m* |
| ACT | $6.1m | $3.0m | $7.9m | $17.0m |
*Total includes Closing the Gap funding and may not add due to rounding.
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