By Lucy Carroll
A team of expert teachers led by star mathematician Eddie Woo will be cut back next year under a radical restructure within the NSW Education Department that has blindsided public school teachers and principals.
Last week the Herald revealed the department’s proposal to axe 245 non-school based teaching roles, while also scrapping the Best in Class program, in which top teachers are deployed to schools to help lift student results.
The NSW Education Department’s Maths Growth Team has trained 1376 classroom teachers in 263 schools since 2020.Credit: Janie Barrett
The Maths Growth Team, highly skilled teachers who mentor others in how to teach the subject well, will be reduced from 14 trainers to 11.
The changes mean the specialist team will have half the number of trainers next year than was planned when the program was established under the former state government.
“We need more investment in maths teaching, and the approach of the Maths Growth Team has been shown to work,” said Miriam Lees, a consultant for the Mathematical Association of NSW.
“Placing targeted support and specialist teachers in schools across the state, especially in regions, is critical because many schools can’t afford to release teachers for professional development.”
The specialist team was set up four years ago amid a slide in the state’s mathematics performance and an acute shortage of maths teachers. Since 2020, the group has provided maths training to 1376 classroom teachers in 263 schools.
The department lists it as a core initiative under the NSW mathematics strategy, saying teaching quality and student learning outcomes in maths will improve as a result of the program.
The team, led by Woo, a YouTube maths star and Cherrybrook High teacher, is part of the Best In Class program which helps support teachers’ use of evidence-based practice.
“Given cuts have also been made to professional development, it is even more important to have effective maths teacher training,” Lees said.
Eddie Woo says all children are capable at exceeding at maths and a child’s approach to maths is heavily influenced by their parents’ attitude.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Nationally, about 32 per cent of maths teachers have not received specific training in the subject, according to new data released by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.
This year’s NAPLAN results show about one in three students is not proficient in maths, and by year 9 only about one in 10 is marked as “exceeding” in the subject.
However, Lees said cuts to other teams in the department’s teaching and learning division, including the highly rated HSC Strategy unit, were more substantial than the reduction in roles in the maths team.
The department briefed staff on changes to its non-school based teaching workforce last week. The restructure is expected to affect teams that provide professional learning for teachers in the state’s 2200 public schools.
Under the proposal, the HSC Strategy program – a teacher training initiative that aims to lift student results and close vast equity gaps between schools – will be dissolved in its current form.
A spokesperson for the department said the proposal to streamline the teaching and learning division would mean the “majority of functions will not cease” but will move to other parts of the division.
At a budget estimates hearing last week, department secretary Murat Dizdar said the teaching and learning directorate was being “realigned”.
“HSC students will get more support, not less, as a result of the reorganisation,” the department spokesperson said.
Woo said out-of-field teaching could be particularly challenging in maths. “If you don’t have subject specialisation in the area you’re teaching, it is difficult to have a full understanding of how all the knowledge fits together.
“Maths is hierarchical. Every single concept connected which makes it challenging to step into the subject and teach without the expertise in the area,” he said.
One public school teacher, speaking anonymously because they are ordered not to speak to media, said the Best in Class teachers acted as a conduit between corporate office and classroom.
“They bring experience and concerns from the chalk face to the perceived ivory tower,” they said. “It helps show how it’s not only possible but necessary to raise the outcomes for students no matter their postcode.”
NSW Teachers Federation president Henry Rajendra said staff were shocked by the announcement to reduce the division.
“At the federation state council over the weekend, teachers who were directly impacted were devastated and so were the teachers in schools that had benefited from their support.
“Those positions in the department have been slated to be ‘deleted’ at a time when we are trying to rebuild the public eduction system. It’s counter-intuitive,” he said.
Department documents show schools where the Maths Growth Team trainers have taught have recorded increases in enrolments in calculus-based HSC courses.
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