Master teachers in schools next year

The master teacher program will be introduced in Queensland schools in 2015, the Minister for Education John Paul Langbroek has announced.

Master teacher initially formed part of Actions 5 and 6 of the government’s Great Teachers = Great Results program, but the position as it will be introduced next year will be very different from that initially proposed.

Following extensive negotiations, the QTU has been successful in protecting the existing classification structure by ensuring that there is no requirement for a master teacher to hold a Masters qualification, nor be an experienced senior teacher.

The QTU supports and encourages all members to undertake professional learning – whether in the form of additional study or ongoing professional development. However, as master teacher would be a band 5 classification, the Union believes that introducing a mandatory requirement of an additional qualification would undermine the classification structure.

The QTU acknowledges that a number of members have studied or are studying their Masters. However, as the position is about pedagogy and support for teachers, people without a Masters should not be excluded from consideration.

The role focuses on providing support for the teaching of literacy and numeracy in schools, and is similar to the role of literacy and numeracy coach or pedagogical coach.

The master teacher will develop teacher capability through:

• delivering professional development 
• researching and modelling “quality” teaching 
• coaching teachers 
• providing targeted student support 
• using evidence based assessment to inform teaching and learning 
• supporting staff in analysing and responding to systemic and student data. 

Master teachers will not be classroom teachers and cannot be used for non-contact time release, except in extenuating circumstances. They will be appointed for three years and will be remunerated at the level of a head of curriculum – stream 2, band 1 step 1 (the former band 5 step 1).

There will be 300 master teacher positions next year, working in 463 schools across Queensland. Consequently, a number of schools will be working in a cluster arrangement sharing a master teacher. Approximately 200 master teacher positions will be in primary schools and 100 in secondary schools. A number of special school clusters have also been established, following pressure from the QTU.

The process for allocating master teachers to schools was developed by DETE and not negotiated with the QTU. It automatically excluded schools at band 5, 6, 11 and executive principals and outdoor and environmental education centres (OEECs). The remaining schools were identified using two headline indicators from the School Assessment and Performance Framework:

• a comparison of NAPLAN mean scale score for similar Queensland state schools (SQSS) across year 3, 5, 7 and 9 reading and numeracy 
• a comparison on NAPLAN relative gain thresholds for SQSS of year 3-5, combined across reading and numeracy, and year 7-9, combined across reading and numeracy. 

Despite strong and consistent advice from the QTU, the allocation for schools within a cluster has not been determined by DETE. It is the department’s belief that schools within clusters will negotiate and agree to the relevant allocations of master teachers per school. The QTU has grave concerns about the lack of a more precise allocation and has raised this concern repeatedly with the department. If agreement cannot be reached, the department will convene a dispute resolution process to facilitate access by the schools within the cluster to a master teacher.

Further information regarding master teacher can be found at www.qtu.asn.au/masterteacher

Kate Ruttiman
Deputy General Secretary

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 119 No 8, 14 November 2014, p9