Since the mid-seventies reform of education in Victoria has been relentless The intention of the paper and presentation is to describe and critically reflect upon two school improvement frameworks currently in use in Victorian schools. Improving student outcomes requires strategic and well focused school planning, accountability and review arrangements. Schools are required to implement an improvement and review process over a three to four year cycle. The most recent major education reform across Victorian government schools, Blueprint for Government Schools is aimed at improving literacy and numeracy, retention rates and successful school completion. The reform program includes (Department of Education and Training, 2003): • Enhancing student learning through new curriculum frameworks, improved assessment and reporting, and improved sharing of best practice in teaching and learning. • Developing a new resource allocation model. • Building leadership capacity through improved principal selection, mentoring and coaching programs, and leadership development programs for new and experienced school leaders. • Creating and supporting a performance and development culture. • Supporting teachers through focused professional leave and induction and mentoring programs. • School improvement through differential school reviews, and enhanced school performance data. • Enhancing school networks. The Effective Schools Framework for Victorian government schools was introduced as part of the raft of sweeping changes introduced by the Victorian Education Department in November 2003. It is underpinned by substantive research that includes among others the works of Sammons, Hills and Mortimer (1995) and Reynolds et al (1996). In recent years there have been similar reform efforts in the Victorian Catholic sector. Catholic schools in Victoria are operated under the authority of individual parishes and have had a history of relative independence within a system of diocesan schools. With growing government and community accountability, the demand for a revised review process had been recognized. In 2006 the Catholic Education Office Melbourne introduced The School Improvement Framework for use by Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. This framework has been informed substantially by the Effective Schools framework of the DEECD (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development), and also by Australian Council of Research (2005), Earl (2004), Hill (2001),Grace (1998), the Catholic Education Commission Victoria and the Code of Canon Law (Liberia Editrice Vaticana). Across both sectors (Government and Catholic) in Victoria a differentiated school self-review and external verification process is used to supervise and improve school performance. Schools are required to have a School Strategic Plan (a four-year planning document in which schools describe their own educational plans and priorities within government guidelines) and to report on school progress annually in the Annual Implementation Plan and the Annual Report to the Community. In the annual reports, schools are required to collect, analyse and report three types of data: data that determines the current standard of student achievement (both teacher assessed and externally assessed); data on factors that impact directly on student achievement (e.g. student attendance, staff opinion, time allocation to curriculum areas); and, data that measures aspects that may be considered preconditions to student learning (e.g. staff absences, enrolment, parent opinion). Every four years schools are required to prepare a school self-evaluation that is a summary of the school performance over the past three years and reflection upon future directions (www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/standards/account/eval.htm). Depending on school performance (as assessed through annual reports and the school self-evaluation), an appropriate review process for each school is identified.

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Victoria. Catholic Education Office Melbourne.

This paper will conclude that the Victorian Education system both State and Catholic, through transformation of its framework and the implementation of an extensive array of student achievement and community opinion surveys, has enabled schools to shift the focus of teaching and learning to a highly personalized and systemized level that will ultimately result in improved individual student outcomes through the vehicle of capacity building of leaders and teachers.