Nanaimo Edutopia

Does the Nanaimo school district need help?

2008-05-28T21:18:00.006-07:00

Spend more time on student achievement, less on politics, special advisor tells board-Lake Cowichan Gazette article
Cowichan school trustees should spend less time politicizing and more time focusing on student achievement, says a provincially appointed special adviser.

Student success was the primary recommendation contained in an exhaustive 42-page report filed with the education ministry by Dr. Lee Southern last week.

Parents fight school closures

2008-05-19T22:10:00.002-07:00

Cowichan parents fight school closures
Jeff Bell, Victoria Times Colonist
Monday, May 19, 2008
Parents from the Cowichan Valley intent on keeping their children’s schools from closing and maintaining childcare spaces are scheduled to be back at the legislature Tuesday to state their case.

Parents ask politicians to help save school lands One Island district votes today to prevent sale to developers
Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Parents who oppose the closure and sale of public schools are appealing to municipal politicians to help them in their fight. They are asking governments to use zoning bylaws to ensure school lands that have been declared surplus by boards of education due to declining enrolments remain available for public use and aren't sold to developers.

Cowichan board cancels school closure meeting

2008-05-08T20:30:00.005-07:00

Times Colonist April 8th article stated:
...the meeting, scheduled for tomorrow, was called off at the request of the special adviser appointed by the B.C. government to assist the Cowichan board...The Cowichan Valley board voted 5-3 last month to request Education Minister Shirley Bond take the unusual step of appointing a special adviser. Bond appointed Lee Southern on Saturday.
...
It would be more responsible for these trustees to submit a "needs" budget and deliver a message to Bond that education isn't sustainable on this government's funding formula, Routley said.

But Simmons said the board made a "proactive move."

"The [role] of the special adviser is to provide advice. By having a special adviser, the board is not abrogating any of it decision-making responsibilities,'' Simmons said. "We are not giving up any of the local autonomy. Elected officials will be making the decisions, not the special adviser."

Simmons said the board is asking the special adviser for input on school closures and the projected $2-million shortfall it anticipates in 2008-09 as well as other areas.
Bond said it isn't common for her to appoint such an adviser.

"It is done in somewhat unique circumstances," she said.

Terrace Standard April 23rd article stated:
...Commenting on the scenario last week, Bond said it will still be up to the Cowichan board to make the budget decisions.

“The board is ultimately responsible. Even in the (Cowichan) case, the board will ultimately be required to make the decisions,” Bond said. “But in the meantime, because of the concerns that have been expressed, we do have a superintendent of achievement working very closely and directly with the school district.”

Austin then asked the minister if the step of assigning a special advisor to a district would only be done in such a circumstance as a board’s request.

“If enough parents were to become active on a file like this and request it with, say, support from some school board trustees but not a formal declaration from the entire board. Is that something the minister would consider?” said Austin, who continued to stress in the legislature Victoria needs to adjust how it divies up education money for rural areas.

Comox Parents Start Legal Action

2008-04-24T17:35:00.003-07:00

In the Vancouver Sun: Report Card--An in depth look at the B.C. education system Blog, there is an article on Comox parents starting legal action over school closures and reconfigurations with comments on the topic.

They also have a category dedicated to school closure articles.

The Sadest Day in the History of K-12 education in Nanaimo

2008-04-23T22:45:00.005-07:00

This evening the school board voted to close the following schools:

Dufferin Crescent elementary
Mount Benson elementary
NDSS and Woodland secondary while deciding to rebuild on the Woodlands site.

The most contentious vote was that of voting on which secondary school site should replace both NDSS and Woodlands.

I could go on about the political posturing that occurred this evening, but in the end, even though Woodbank, Rutherford, & Woodlands were spared, we all lost.

We lost faith in the public education system, we lost faith in the process, and certainly lost the opportunity to work with the district and trustees as partners.

Channel A-Education 11 o'clock News

2008-04-22T23:25:00.004-07:00

Malaspina to become Vancouver Island University? To be annouced tomorrow at 10:30AM

Lawsuit filed against Comox Valley school district: The Comox Valley Citizens for Better Education Society has filed a lawsuit against the School District 71 board of education.

French Immersion Elementary

2008-04-22T20:45:00.005-07:00

This is a what parents at Pauline Haarer, a French Immersion elementary school, said about the detrimental effects that the closure of NDSS, the French Immersion secondary school, will have on access to French Immersion secondary education in 2012.

BC Petition to stop School Closures

2008-04-21T23:37:00.003-07:00

Petition by SD42 parent to stop school closures in BC
http://members.shaw.ca/stopbcschoolclosures/index.html

Mount Benson Elementary: Our School is open

2008-04-21T23:29:00.002-07:00

The information center on Mount Benson Elementary and the District Wide Facilities Renewal Plan, and Mount Benson–Open, Now & Tomorrow

School Closures: not the only option

2008-04-21T23:15:00.004-07:00

National Post Article points out that having school closures as the only option is the "old method" of dealing with reduced enrolments particularly when they are short term decreases in enrolments over a period of only six years.

Letter to the Trustees

2008-04-14T23:34:00.002-07:00

Letter by S. Abraham, April 9, 2008.

In October 2007 I sent a letter to SD 68 Trustees raising concerns about balance and lack of attention to key criteria with respect to the secondary school options in the Business Case for Facilities Renewal. It is disturbing to read the April 9, 2008 Report on the Consultation Process and see that these concerns have not been addressed.

The Business Case defined the options as closing both Woodlands and Nanaimo District (NDSS) secondary schools, and building a new school at one of the two sites. Input gathered during the consultation process has made it clear that both schools have excellent programming, and are equally important to their respective communities. However, once again a document has been produced which ignores the educational and practical value to high school students of the NDSS site, gives disproportionate weight to its commercial value and to interests outside the District’s mandate, and which shows signs of bias against NDSS in its analysis. Here are some examples:

(1) Limitation of analytical criteria: The analysis of the two sites is limited to financial and “social” aspects; the significantly superior practical and educational advantages of the NDSS site (described and not credibly contested in numerous presentations, and summarized in point # 5 below) are not considered. This is an absurd omission given the input received from parents about the importance of these factors, and given the mission of the school district.

(2) Lack of genuine social criteria: The Social/Risk Assessment evaluation relies completely on the Business Case document’s subjective and suspect higher scores for Woodlands in the ill-defined and overlapping categories of “Demonstrates Best Stewardship” and “Best Use of School District Assets”. These higher scores are heavily dependant on the financial criteria, and seem to be doing double duty in the social category. Indeed, it is hard to find any genuinely social criteria mentioned at all.

(3) Issues outside the SD 68 mandate: While ignoring the educational value of the NDSS property to SD 68 high school students, the report states “In addition to the higher sales value of the NDSS property, the potential of a sale to Malaspina University-College could provide significant social benefits not only to the entire education system in the district but also to the City of Nanaimo and surrounding areas.” Somehow the requirements of the Board’s policy No. 4005 “to provide the best possible learning environment” for its own students has been consumed by a commitment to interests outside its mandate. Why?

(4) Site size: In discussing site size, the fact that the Woodlands site is about 10% smaller than the Ministry Standard is not acknowledged, although it was repeatedly raised during the consultation process. In fact an effort is made to point out that the current playfield configuration at Woodlands is actually 0.2 hectares larger than at NDSS. This ignores the 3.1 hectares of Rotary Bowl to which NDSS students have immediate and daily access, and the extra space at NDSS in lawns etc that could increase the playing field size in a new school with a different configuration. The current building at NDSS can accommodate 1400 students, while the current Woodlands building has space for only 700; since the new school will have 1100 spaces it is hard to see how this playfield advantage, which even now is more apparent than real, could be maintained with a new, larger school at the Woodlands site. Therefore, its relevance to the analysis is questionable at best. The fact remains that, even if only school footprint, parking, roads, lawns and playfields are considered, the NDSS site at 5.8 hectares exceeds the Ministry Standard of 5.3, and at 4.8 the Woodlands site falls well below.

(5) Site influences: The immense advantages of the NDSS site are completely ignored in the analysis. The discussion of student use of Rotary Bowl is limited to “official” uses such as track meets and special events, and does not include “unofficial” casual and daily uses, which are considerable (e.g. training for NDSS track and other teams, NDSS PE classes and individual NDSS student use). With respect to future access after potential sale of the site the report observes that the District “would make every effort to ensure that access to these facilities is maintained for the use of our students”. It is hard to reconcile this statement with a genuine commitment to providing high school students with the best possible facilities. No mention is made of high participation, school-time educational use (multiple grades of NDSS PE classes) of the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre and Nanaimo Ice Centre, use that is made possible by the school’s adjacent location. The huge variety of enriched educational experiences made possible by the location of NDSS right next door to Malaspina is not discussed. The superior traffic and transit access to NDSS is not discussed. The potential for flexible use/lease of facilities in this prime neighbourhood is not discussed.

(6) Response to input: In summarizing the input received with respect to the two options, issues relevant to a superior site are listed for NDSS. This seems to be appropriate, given the subject of this consultation process. For Woodlands the points raised relate to the past history of the school, its place in the community and the recommendations made in the Business Case. There has been no suggestion that the Woodlands site could provide a superior educational facility, and there has been a clear indication that the NDSS site would. Yet in spite of the mandate of the District and the financial viability of the NDSS option, the Woodlands option continues to be recommended.

Altogether, this report ignores criteria that are to the advantage of NDSS, and ignores facts that are detrimental to Woodlands. Considerable weight is given to the surplus funds that would be generated by the Woodlands option, yet no need for these funds has been defined. Additional weight has inappropriately been given to factors that are outside the mandate of the District.

In my opinion, this report reflects a lack of attention to information received during the consultation process, and reinforces the perception of bias that was evident in the Business Case document. SD 68 Procedure No. 3605P requires the Board to consider “educational program/course implications” of school closures, and to “give fair consideration to all public input”. Its guiding policy (No. 3605) requires that “Consultation will be meaningful, and fair consideration will be given to all public input.” If this document is accepted without modification I do not believe that standard will have been met.

Reasons not to dispose of schools

2008-04-10T19:54:00.004-07:00

New website on "Let's Agree Not to Dispose of Schools!"

http://bclands.weebly.com/background.html

A poem: My First Day at School

2008-03-29T12:40:00.004-07:00

My First Day at School a touching poem by by Roger McGough beautifully adapted by Andrew into a video animation and posted on YouTube.

School Wars: Battleship—A new numbers games coming to a school near you

2008-03-26T07:01:00.009-07:00

This year school district 68 and the Ministry of Education have chosen to come up with a facilities renewal plan that pits one secondary school against another. Parent advisory committees have been pitted against one another from both Woodlands and NDSS fighting for their schools and their school neighborhood communities. In the end, the only winners are the accountants as the only things left afloat are alleged numbers of hoped for even enrolment (1100-1200) and more operating dollars. And even then, the numbers game fails, when you have secondary schools with enrolments of 500 (Cedar) and 1400 (Dover), and when additional taxpayer dollars are required to make the necessary road and public transportation changes to the proposed secondary school site, the receiving schools expansion costs, and interim construction transition costs (unaccounted for) and still fall short of what we currently have. Are we robbing Peter to pay Paul?

Student learning environment—sunk
Student access to physical fitness amenities—sunk
School neighborhoods—sunk
Congenial collaboration between schools—sunk
Capital upgrade promises—sunk
School transportation access—sunk
School program integration—sunk
French immersion access—sunk
Gabriola Island and Protection Island school access—sunk
2007-08 year focusing district staff and parent resources fighting over numbers—sunk
Public Education—sunk

Education and creativity

2007-12-01T20:02:00.001-08:00

The following video talk Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? is about what has been forgotten in our educational system (and society).

New Nanaimo Save NDSS blog!

2007-12-01T19:46:00.001-08:00

A new Nanaimo blog has been created to provide information regarding School District 68's Facilities Renewal Plan. In particular, it provides information as this relates to the Nanaimo District Secondary School facilities plans.

Please visit the Save ND blog at http://www.savend.blogspot.com/. Also, there is an online petition that relates to all district facilities planning available at http://www.petitiononline.com/NDSS2007/petition.html.

Portfolio BCTF FAQ

2006-09-22T15:23:00.001-07:00

The BC Teacher's Federation has updated their Graduation Portfolio FAQ added to their regular graduation requirements information page. There is some useful information that clarifies how to deal with portfolio issues in uncertain times.

I have highlighted a few excerpts:

Is it possible that the portfolio requirement will be scrapped altogether?
Yes, but that option may not be canvassed at the regional review forums.At the superintendents’ conference in August, the deputy minister apparently made it clear that the portfolio requirement could be revised or eliminated as a result of the review. However, ministry staff say that “during the review, educators, students and parents will revisit the original goals of the portfolio and consider how best to achieve these goals”. It is clear that ministry staff support a simplified, but still mandatory, grad portfolio.

Do teachers still have to start the portfolio in Planning 10?
Yes, teachers are still obligated to teach all the Planning 10 learning outcomes including those related to portfolio. However, teachers might want to postpone instruction on learning outcomes related to the portfolio to the end of the course in case there is a decision to eliminate the portfolio by December or January.

What about the staffing our school/district put in place to support the grad portfolio?
Staffing that is freed up as a result of the portfolio not being mandatory for this year’s graduates should be applied to the implementation of Bill 33.

The minister’s announcement came after schools and districts had finalized staffing. The announcement does not impact the amount of staffing needed to teaching Planning 10 as that is still a compulsory course. However, it will impact the amount of staffing necessary to support portfolio development by Grade 11s and 12s.

Schools that offer a portfolio class in the timetable should ask students whether they want to continue with this class or choose another elective. Schools will have to reschedule Grade 12 students who opt not to complete the portfolio, and Grade 11 students who do not want to work on their portfolios until the review is complete and the ministry has announced a decision.

Can schools or districts make the grad portfolio a requirement?
No, graduation requirements are a matter of provincial policy, not district or school policy. Students are awarded a British Columbia Certificate of Graduation (“Dogwood Diploma”) for successfully meeting the requirements established by the ministry in either the Graduation Requirements (1995 Grad Program) or Graduation Program (2004 Grad Program) Orders. Schools or districts may require students to take certain courses or programs over-and-above those established by the ministry for graduation, but students who satisfy the ministry’s graduation requirements receive a Dogwood Diploma.

Some schools and districts are trying to keep the portfolio mandatory for their Grade 12s this year. Others are strongly “encouraging” students to complete their grad portfolios. It is difficult for students to distinguish between what is encouraged and what is mandatory. It is important that districts, schools, and teachers communicate to this year’s Grade 12 students, in an honest and straightforward manner, that they have the option of not completing the portfolio, taking Standing Granted, and getting four credits.

The BCTF has also announced the regional portfolio review forum dates that will be occurring in BC. In Nanaimo, this takes place at the Dorchester Hotel on October 13th.

This BCTF FAQ is helpful at a time when some district portfolio school administrators are trying to "encourage" parents to sign up their grade 12 kids through such scare tactics as telling parents that it will be detrimental to their kids’ future to choose to have SG (Standing Granted) on their transcripts as this looks suspect.

The other misinformation being circulated is that the grade 12 students that are opting not to complete the portfolio are getting four credits through Standing Granted "for not doing anything". This is not true at the school where this information is being circulated as students in grade 12 this year were required to attend a compulsory a half semester non-credit grade 11 portfolio course last year; The total hours of which amounted to a two credit course. Furthermore, many students in some schools were also forced..oops! I mean "encouraged"...into taking a PE 11 course.

The Face of Encouragement!

The Delusion of Choice

2006-09-07T11:58:00.001-07:00

A recent district news release on September 5th, 2006 indicates that the district has chosen to attach completion of the portfolio by grade 12 students to the Passport to Education. Dr. John Phipps, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Programs has indicated, in the context of announced Ministry changes to the 2006-07 grade 12 student portfolio requirements, that: “These students now have the option of making their portfolio presentations and receiving a mark for their work. Under the Ministry of Education guidelines, the portfolio mark will make up 75 percent of the calculation for eligibility for the Passport to Education. This is a real opportunity for students who might not otherwise be eligible to earn the $500 Grade 12 Passport to Education scholarship credit.”

However, the Ministry of Education portfolio website states otherwise:

Schools "may" use the Portfolio mark to calculate Grade 12 Passport award stamps.
Schools should apply the Grade 10 and 11 Passport award stamp criteria to students who have elected to use SG.

(Full text for this policy is the 2006/2007 Handbook of Procedures on page 113)

In other words, it is the schools' choice to tie the Grade 12 Passport to education to the completion of the portfolio. However, the district is attempting to make it appear that it is the Ministry guidelines that are requiring this when the reality is that the Ministry is providing district schools with that choice.

Students and their parents are once again being subjected to conflicting district and provincial educational political messages in, what I can only guess, is an effort to deflect blame in the same way district students were treated with the CTC situation; a most unprofessional conduct by the district and ministry leadership. It remains to be seen what version of the truth will be disseminated by school administrators.

The district and ministry leadership have put these kids and their parents through enough bullshit to award all of them with a 100% mark and $500 in compensation for surviving a seriously flawed implementation of a BC educational policy.

Reprieve for Grade 12 Graduation Portfolio Guinea Pigs

2006-07-27T17:12:00.001-07:00

After a Ministry sponsored and facilitated graduation portfolio forum, held on May 1st 2006, teachers, administrators, and parents made some joint recommendations on a variety of portfolio topics.

At no time was there any indication that the first wave of 2006/2007 grade 12 students would be given a reprieve, despite concerns expressed about the ability of some grade 12 students to complete the portfolio, and consequently to graduate.

Shortly thereafter, on May 12th, the Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Emery Dosdall, issued a Report on Education on the Portfolio that consisted largely of a BC Graduation Portfolio PR plug. Since then, the Ministry of Education staff have added significant resources to its ministry portfolio resource website, a website with student sample portfolios, and two days ago, the Minister of Education, the Honourable Shirley Bond, announced a reprieve for the grade 12 students. This was reported on the CBC, and Ministry staff have been scrambling to explain what this announcement means.

Why the sudden change of heart and why was this announced in the middle of summer when teachers, school staff, students, and parents are not in communication with one another and are unable to clarify what the local school ramifications that such a reprieve will entail? While the reprieve is appreciated by many grade 12 students who have not had a fair chance at completing the requirements or getting school support, it is not clear what led to this being an 11th hour decision, and whether this information was new or was already known on May 1st. It is also not clear what the full scope of the complexities this annoucement will have on the grade 12 students as they come to grips with decisions that they have to make in the fall. How will their graduation course requirements change? What required course will have to be taken to graduate should students opt out of the portfolio process? And, what about the grade 11 portfolio course that many of them were forced to take?

What were some of the potential issues with the Portfolio? Here is a list of ten things that I hate about the graduation portfolio. Well, perhaps hate is a strong word but this roller coaster ride is definitely starting to make me gag.

1) The schools and the Ministry have not demonstrated the relevance of the portfolio to students by providing real examples where portfolios are used and where they are not used. If any employer in Nanaimo uses the portfolio, I challenge you to post it on this blog along with your specific portfolio format requirements!

2) Some schools are turning this process into a spoon feeding exercise where the teachers choose the choice aspects for the students rather than providing the students with choice. This, I’m sure, makes it easier for teachers and administrators to revert to the teaching model that they are most comfortable with. In the classic analogy, if all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail - for many teachers this means classroom lectures is the only means of learning - thus, completely losing sight of the Ministry statement: “Rather than a course, the Portfolio is a three year process where students work in a self-directed fashion.” Spoon feeding students takes away the best thing about the portfolio which is to allow students to take ownership of the portfolio process.

3) The objective of the graduation portfolio is to promote the graduation portfolio as stated in two of the presentation evaluation criteria:
- Demonstrates meaningful reflection on the portfolio process and learning.
- Demonstrates meaningful reflection on the Graduation Portfolio experience and how it might affect future life choices.
Students have been told that this means they have to say something positive about the graduation portfolio. In other words, the students are there to “sell” the portfolio to the community members and make sure the school looks good regardless of how their experience with this process was. Furthermore, the focus of these criteria is on promoting the portfolio process not the reflections on the students’ achievements.

4) The portfolio process has no specific objective that students can target their portfolio content towards. For example, the portfolio is not being presented to an employer for a specific job or as an application for a scholarship. As it stands, it is a disparate collection of checked items that need not have a concerted objective other than to promote the BC graduation portfolio program (This has been built into the presentation evaluation criteria, see #3), and to artificially fabricate, in each student, the averaged profile of a successful student.

5) I would like to see it as a requirement that every teacher, administrator, and Ministry staff have a publicly available electronic portfolio on the e-portfolio system that is being forced on students. Then maybe the teachers and schools who are mandating the use of the e-portfolio can rethink mandating a single electronic medium on students. Besides, if the software was of good quality, user friendly, and offered the students what they wanted, they would be flocking to use it for their portfolio.

6) There is generally a lack of school coordination on record keeping policies and procedures for the graduation portfolio, and insufficient staff training on what these are. This means that there is a high likelihood that records and assessments over the three years will be lost; this has already happened in our district.

7) The May 12th deputy minister’s report on Education states:
“We heard concerns about the limitations of provincial exam marks and the need to assess student performance in relation to other important skills needed for success in life”.
The Ministry heard the concerns about the limitations of provincial exams marks and subsequently created more marks rather than a process. They don’t seem to get it: you cannot reduce the sum total of an individual’s accomplishments to a number and not introduce a significant limitation in assessment. The argument will be made that they are now assessing, using marks, “other” skills besides those measured by conventional provincial exams.

8) Another statement in the same report states: “Change is never easy, and the quality of implementation for any new educational program improves dramatically in the first several years after start-up.” The grade 11 and grade 12 kids have been written off as the first pancakes that you always throw out; despite the reprieve this has been a terrible experience.

9) His further statement: “this innovative assessment and learning tool adds to our worldwide credibility as a public education system.” has taken what was an innovative idea and transformed it into just another course with a grade. It would have been truly innovative if it were a complete/incomplete process. Think about it, when post-secondary institutions are determining grade cut-off points do you really think that they are “not” going to be using the portfolio grade? It is far more costly from the perspective of time and effort to actually review a portfolio and even more costly to set up a time to have students present their portfolio.

10) Why was the portfolio not phased in earlier as optional, thereby building and learning from the successes of students and teachers who were motivated to undertake the portfolio process? This would have reduced the tremendous amount of stress the current grade 12 students, their parents, and school staff have been going through in the last two years in the mad scramble to get an unfunded, complex, and rather unfamiliar initiative off the ground. As it stands, the stress levels of school staff will be even higher in September as they try to explain to students that the portfolio is going ahead, but not quite, or even worse some schools likely will push to make it mandatory despite the announcement, with some schools tying the portfolio to the passport to education and others not. Where is the equity in this?

I could list more items...but ten is a nice round number.

Previous post on the Graduation Portfolio

Local Social Activities for High School Students

2006-07-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

New to Nanaimo, the Port Theatre has partnered with the EyeGo program to allow high school students to attend quality performances for $5.00 a show.

In Nanaimo, EyeGo is currently sponsoring 19 Port Theatre shows in the 2006-2007 season. There may be more, so check frequently.

This program increases the local social activities that are available and affordable to high school students. It also makes quality art performances accessible to students who may not be enrolled in and see school-sponsored shows through their school music or theatre programs.

Look for the EyeGo logo to determine which shows are sponsored by this program. The EyeGo logo looks like this:

There is a limit on the EyeGo sponsored tickets per show (be sure to check with the Port Theatre). At these prices the allocated tickets may sell out. Make sure you bring your student ID when you buy your tickets and when you attend.

The EyeGo program currently also sponsors performances in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island North. Check the EyeGo region contact page.

So you wanna get-together with a group of friends or take your date out? The tickets are less expensive than a movie theatre ticket! How can you go wrong?

"Jacking-in" to Distributed Learning in BC

2006-07-11T22:10:00.003-07:00

Without much media fanfare, the BC Ministry of Education announced that, as of September 2006, any grade 10, 11, & 12 student in BC will be able to take Ministry funded distributed/online courses from any BC online provider. They also announced summer learning at no charge.

Motivation for increasing access to distributed learning (sometimes mistakenly referred to as online) appears to be to provide increased choices and access to:
1) Home schoolers
2) Geographically remote or otherwise geographically mobile learners
3) Students in districts with decreased high school enrolment trends
4) Alternative learners (adult, accelerated/course over-load, year-round, self-paced)
5) Conventional classroom learners with limited course selections.

From the district’s perspective this translates into a potential reduction in classroom facilities needed for conventional students and additional dollars from the students who take more than eight courses a year.

From parents' perspectives this also provides choices for conventional school students who encounter conflicts with course scheduling or with teachers.

What is distributed learning? It is the alternative learning delivery modes to classroom learning that are independent of time and place.

Permission is not required from a counselor or principal to take a distributed learning course; however, common sense dictates that students would notify their school when they are dropping a conventional school course to take its equivalent through distributed learning.

Any student can take any course that is offered by any of the BC public distributed learning providers at no charge. Our own school district 68 learn at home program is one such provider. This program is now housed at Nanaimo district secondary school. Some providers (including school district 68 learn at home program) will also offer courses from the Course Information for Graduation grade 10, 11, and 12 course handbook upon request and in consultation with district distributed learning staff.

While distributed learning is on the rise and a valuable life-long learning experience, is this for you? In addition to Ministry information, there are additional internet resources and self test questionnaires that will help you explore this question.

Further information to consider when making your decision:

Research on course completion rates:

Distance Education: Does Access Override Success? - P. Beatty-Guenter (69.5% compared to 84.6%)
Course Completion Rates among Distance Learners - Robert D. Nash

Je me souviens...

2006-06-02T18:20:00.001-07:00

The goal of the French Immersion program in BC is to provide the kids of non-francophone parents with the opportunity to become bilingual in English and French. This BC educational choice program is funded by the provincial ministry and is eligible for a federal funding supplement as defined by the French Federal Funding Guide. Also eligible for supplementary funding is the Core French program (French as a Second Language or FSL) which is offered to what is commonly known as “English stream” students.

The formula for French immersion and Core French is complex with per student or full-time student grants offered separately and in combination to support one or both programs. What is clear though, is that the French Immersion grants are significantly higher that those of the Core French program.

What is the distinction between French immersion and Core French? French Immersion students take considerably more courses in French than Core French students. The Ministry breaks it down in their French Immersion policy as outlined in the table on the left.

At a course level, French Immersion students in Nanaimo are required to take the courses in French in high school with provincially examinable courses marked in red. (listed on the right)

French immersion courses are all required courses whereas Core French courses, in high school, are electives which can be substituted for other second languages such as Japanese, Spanish, etc.... Moreover, the French language learning outcomes for French immersion students are more challenging than those of the Core French language classes.

Because they are required to take so many courses in French, French Immersion students rely significantly on the quality of the French Immersion program, as they, unlike English stream students, are unable to get the primary language of instruction skills (for the majority of their academic subjects) outside of school from their parents or community and are unable to substitute one course requirement with another alternative.

In many respects in Nanaimo, there is less choice in this choice program at the secondary level: less choice in the teachers that they have, less choice in the schools that they can attend, and altogether fewer available electives.

According to the funding guide financial reports for Nanaimo Ladysmith school district 68, district spending on the French Immersion and French Core program was halved in 2004-2005 despite an increase in French Immersion enrolment, and steady French core enrolments. This drop in funding was not explained in the report, was not reviewed by the district board, nor did the Ministry request clarification despite parents raising French immersion concerns to the district board several times last year.

The accounting in the financial reports for the French programs leaves much to be desired. The provincial financial reports only provide very high level information, they contain arithmethic errors & duplicate information from previous years, they are inconsistent with district financial statements, they do not offer district process information used in determining the district budget allocations, and they are not linked with the district budget document. Consequently, stakeholders are unable to gather meaningful information on whether the federal and district/provincial moneys were appropriately spent or not.

Despite the statement on page 10 in the Federal Funding Guide that "ALL FEDERAL FUNDS FOR SECOND LANGUAGE MUST BE SPENT ENTIRELY IN SUPPORT OF FRENCH IMMERSION AND CORE FRENCH PROGRAMS", all French Immersion Nanaimo administrators have publicly stated that the federal moneys have been block funded, in other words, spent on items not necessarily related to French immersion or Core French. How can this be?

It seems that the district staff, the school administrators, the district Board, and the Ministry were not watching over these programs. And, it appears, so far, that the newly formed French Program Advisory Committee (FPAC) district representatives are more concerned about embarrassing the district by delving into these issues than they are about examining what happened and learning from it. Will the FPAC district representatives whitewash this information or will they have enough backbone to request…

1) That there is publicly available information and reports that the district Board (or any stakeholder) can look at and fully understand how allocations and expenditures are taking place?

2) That the district staff and Board are accountable to explain and remedy past actions as they are the governing body regardless of who might have been physically occupying key positions at the time of these actions?

3) That there are publicly available guiding principles for district funding allocations for these two programs and a transparent district budget allocation process that is revisited every year by the FPAC?

These are not painless undertakings but they are important to the credibility of the FPAC and the future of the French Immersion and Core French programs.

Whitewash or no whitewash those who lived through these periods will remember.

Thousands of former post-secondary students speak out—are you listening?

2006-04-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

BC College and Institute Student Outcomes (CISO) April 2006 update printed in its entirety (below) .

For those of you with students in grade 10-12 or students looking to transfer between post-secondary institutions now you can research your program through this online querying tool. To search for information select an institution or a program. Information on the last three years of student survey results are available for the following aspects:

Gender, main reason for enrolling, graduation status, previous education;
Employment status, salary, job status, relationship of job to program, usefulness of program in getting job, and usefulness & skills gained in program in performing job;
Current activity, further studies, detail skills development & College experience;
Student rating of: personal development & education aspects of the program & courses;
Overall satisfaction, satisfaction with education, & program workload; and
Job search experience, jobs obtained by National Occupation Classification (NOC).

There are also many publications available on this web site that are worth a gander through.

Thousands of former students speak out—are you listening?

What do former post-secondary students say about the institutions they attended? How do they feel about their programs of study? Were they satisfied? How many found jobs? How many went back to school? The BC College and Institute Student Outcomes (CISO) Project has designed an online reporting system that will answer these questions and many more!

The reporting system is designed for students, prospective students, parents, and education and career counsellors. It gives users fast and easy access to a wealth of outcomes information collected from BC’s former college, university college, and institute students.

Start your search today at http://outcomes.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/SORS/index.asp.

Graduation Portfolio implementation misses the target

2006-04-01T22:47:00.001-08:00

For those of you who are not familiar with the BC Graduation Portfolio. It is a newly implemented initiative that the current grade 11 students (and below) will be completing (starting next year) as they prepare to graduate. The short definition is that the Ministry of Education intends to credit students for their self directed documentation of curricular and extra curricular accomplishments that should contribute to their success beyond grade 12. My experience, despite my initial thinking that this was basically a good idea, has been very disappointing.

First of all, some schools are imposing a compulsory grade 11 portfolio course, that is not required for graduation, thereby moving away from the spirit of what the portfolio was supposed to be; self-directed.

The second issue I have is that many students were led to believe that, until very recently, they “had to” fulfill their portfolio requirements using e-portfolio; a software package for storing, tracking and grading the various portfolio components. In actuality, the e-portfolio program is not student friendly, and the portfolio can in fact be completed using any medium, including storing material in a shoe box.

The third concern is that, at the provincial level, what I originally thought the portfolio was supposed to represent—evidence of “who” the students are and how to support them in documenting their innate skills in finding a niche in this world—I came to realize was a system of micro managing the development of each student within a complex Ministry-defined blueprint for success.

And finally, grade 10 students were recently led to believe that if they did not sign up for PE 11 they would have a difficult time completing 80 hours of physical activity core requirements on their own. While not all students may be physically inclined and some may need some support to accomplish these tasks, there are several issues that are at play here. To begin with, there is the attempt to manipulate students’ behaviour with the fear of failure rather than, without bias, provide school based alternatives and personal alternatives for the students to consider. Next, there is the perceived or real conflict of interest in the trying to conscript students, without their parents’ knowledge, into school based activities.

In conclusion, a metaphor comes to mind. Have you ever seen a meat grinder?
Imagine students as the meat before going through the graduation portfolio process. After students have been forced through a directed exercise of compliance with portfolio graduation requirements that do not reflect who they are, they will indeed be ground down into someone else’s definition of success.

What started off as a good idea; the evaluation of students on all of their academic and non-academic accomplishments to help the students succeed after grade 12 is not everything that it has cracked up to be.

Perhaps I am making too much out of this, but what I find disturbing is that—with teachers, students, and parents alike currently splitting hairs on what counts, what does not count, how to count what counts, whether to double count or not, and the subtle and the not-so-subtle school politics being played out in the classroom—the original intent of the graduation portfolio as a self directed student process about the student appears to be seriously diminished.

What is certain though, in the end, is that the education system will produce through a flawed implementation of the graduation portfolio nicely packaged individuals with documented homogenized attributes ready to feed the economy.

Bon appétit!

Equity & Fairness of Multiple Provincial Exam Forms

2006-03-08T00:44:00.001-08:00

On March 13th to 21st 2006 the individual student provincial exam results will be released. This year when students in the Nanaimo school district walked out of their provincial exam and compared notes on how they did, some discovered that they wrote several different exam versions for a given subject. In the 2005-2006 hand book of procedures, under the Security section, the following is listed:

Beginning in 2004-2005 with Grade 10 Graduation Program examinations, the Ministry began using enhanced statistical methods to equate tests and improve fairness and equity for students from one examination session to another. In 2005-2006 these statistical methods will be applied to exams in courses that meet the 2004 Graduation Program social studies requirement and to selected Grade 12 examinations. The goal of test equity can only be met if selected test questions, called “anchor items” are re-used.

The reason the Ministry chose to do this are listed:
• ensure equivalency of scores from administration to administration and across years
• permit more frequent administration while limiting development cost
• permit rapid response to emergent situations
• provide a basis for multiple forms of examinations to support electronic-examination delivery.

A mark is generally understood as a measure of knowledge gained. It indicates that if a student receives 60% then they should have an amount of knowledge equivalent to 60% of the learning outcomes. Let’s look at the example of two students with identical capabilities. One student writes version A—a version measuring the appropriate level of knowledge—and the other student writes version B—a version measuring different learning outcomes than expected. The marks for the student who wrote version B are then statistically post processed to compensate for the discrepancy in learning outcomes being measured. For the student writing exam version B, is this an accurate assessment of the knowledge they have acquired? Does statistical exam mark post-processing decrease the importance placed on exam design quality and exam validation? Is it fair to students when they don’t know whether they wrote exam A or exam B, whether their mark will be post-processed or not, how it will be processed, and by how much?

The Ministry of Education has indicated that exams can be equated to one another, within and across exam sessions, through the linking of a relatively small proportion of common questions and through looking at the relative difficulty of those questions, based on students' responses. This does not account for the situation where “the small proportion of common questions” may be completely missed by students who decide to skip or speed right through them if they are writing a difficult version of the exam. In this case, their comparative base score on the common questions will be lower. This can be further aggravated by the psychological impact of watching one’s classmates leave early, wonder why they are having more difficulties, and get flustered.

Also there is the issue of exam content bias. Recently an English exam had a section that used specialized terminology. For example, let’s assume a section was about basketball and that it used basketball specific jargon. In this example, one would expect basketball players and fans to do better than others. There is bias in the exam that favours a group of students. This bias cannot be corrected by statistical methods unless one knows which students are familiar with the basketball jargon.

The mark post-processing and the exam multiple versions are intended to ensure fairness in evaluation and treat students the same over time, but let's imagine that the first round of grade 10 exams or this year's grade 11 socials exams were unfair to some students because some teachers were not prepared to teach the provincial prescribed learning outcomes being evaluated by the provincial exams. Will the Ministry retro-actively correct the marks for an unfair exam implementation? I doubt it; this hardly seems fair or equitable.

On the outside...looking in

2006-03-01T10:06:00.001-08:00

The French Immersion program in the Nanaimo Ladysmith school district 68 has grown by about 24% over the last five years with new French Immersion elementary schools being opened and increased elementary student enrolments. This choice program has been very popular with parents because of its enriched curriculum, the increased value of a second language in the work place, and because, let’s face it, some of us believe in the idea of Canada—all of it—English and French.

Many French immersion parents pursued this ideal with their children successfully over several years, but in the last few years they have encountered some (large) bumps along the way:

- Funding cuts and the removal of class size caps in the last few years have increased class sizes for both English stream and French stream students across the district,

- District staff positions that coordinated the French Immersion program were cut,

-The Ministry of Education added new provincial exams in grade 10 and 11 where French learning resources that matched the provincial exams were not in place,

- The demographics of an ageing population became a reality as experienced teachers started to retire, and

- A nationwide shortage of the supply of French teachers (with specific discipline specializations such as math) started to emerge.

The end results of the increasing bulge in enrolment, teacher shortage and new provincial exams was the prefect storm for the first large group of elementary students that converged into the French immersion high school a few years ago. Long term planning for French Immersion enrolments was not handled well for by the district and resulted in large high school classes of up to 34 students. This affected teacher morale, the quality of student learning, and increased tension between administrators, teachers, and parents. This stress was further magnified by the inability to replace French immersion teachers who had to go on leave this year in several high school grades. French immersion students were taught in English for some of their subjects but then some were expected to write their exam in French.

These events emphasized the need to pro-actively look at long term planning issues for French Immersion. Sadly, parents have been lobbying the district for a couple of years, to pay attention to these issues and have been told that things are being looked after or things are fine. Letters were written, board presentations were made, and many a PAC meeting’s agenda was taken up discussing these issues without being able to move forward. The prevailing environment has been not to include parents as partners in educational planning nor accord them any educational planning credibility.

Farcically, parents are regularly invited to attend Ministry sponsored technically impressive web casts where the honourable Minister of Education speaks about things like how crucial parent involvement is, and “perfect” districts where principals, teachers, and parents are truly engaged in dialogue are showcased. These presentations are usually peppered with PR messages on the wonderful things happening in K-12 education in BC. Although these sessions are supposed to stimulate parent and staff discussions locally, inevitably the Web cast hosts are long on their glowing speeches and short on the scheduled short breaks for local district discussions. The discussion breaks are shortened even further as the hosts go overtime and carry on with their on-camera love-in.

School Planning Councils (SPC) are still largely rubber stamp exercises for parents in this district. Many administrators have been well trained in avoiding meaningful consultation with parents. The debates and decisions occur elsewhere and parents are invited to sign-off without the benefit of being part of the relevant discussions or of having any real input into the decisions. Teachers in this district have not participated in SPC since its inception, and “Parking lot” parent advisory committees (PLACs) are alive and well in Nanaimo as parents discuss what didn’t happen at the PAC. And more recently, the French immersion parent community was once again on the outside looking in as a recent report on creating a French Advisory Committee was written without parents being consulted.

Questionable Commitment to Trades Training

2006-02-28T21:30:00.001-08:00

300 students currently registered in the Central Vancouver Island CTC (Career Technical Centre) program in Nanaimo have had the funding for their program pulled out from right under them. The CTC is a provincially recognized partnership between regional secondary schools and regional college campuses which allows high school students to start college certificate trade and technology programs tuition-free while completing their high school education. They receive both secondary and college credits for the same course (dual credit) and gain accelerated access to further training or entry into the work place with applied skills.

There are six CTC centres operating throughout BC. Most are structured to allow students in grades 11 and 12 to take courses at their local high schools while concurrently taking necessary college courses at a physically adjacent college in order to complete their CTC programs. The Central Vancouver Island model was structured differently in order to allow students from regional high schools across Vancouver Island (i.e. Chemainus, Port Alberni, and Nanaimo) that are not immediately adjacent to a college trades training facilities to take advantage and participate in the program. Students are required to take college pre-requisites, such as Math for trades, in grades 11 and 12, which are followed by a grade 13 component which is completed at a college. The reason this model was adopted in the Central Vancouver Island was that it enabled students in regional high schools not immediately adjacent to college trades training facilities to participate in this program. Because of the regionalization of this program, it has been tremendously successful in attracting many students in the Central Vancouver Island region into careers in applied programs and the trades, and effectively provided equity in access to education through out the Central Vancouver Island region. However, this model has been in dispute between the Ministry of Education and the district for quite some time, and the CTC office has re-tooled the program several times over the years to maximize the benefits for the students in this region.

During the last several years, funding for this program has undergone many changes, from tentative funding from the Ministry of Education, Industry Training Authority, and Ministry of Advanced Education. This past summer, a new Ministry of Education policy was implemented to recognize post-secondary transition programs, such as the CTC, for funding purposes. The rationale for this policy was to facilitate the offering of applied technology and trades courses, or programs which help prepare students for specific occupations at secondary schools. Therefore, through this policy, the Ministry of Education, for the first time, assured the funding of school districts transition programs through collaboration between school districts, post-secondary institutions, and industry associations. According to the policy students up to the age of 19 years (school aged students) within a school year (as of July 1st) can qualify for funding, and can have a grade 13 component which qualifies for funding. According to a Ministry official, the Ministry of Education was not prepared to fund the volume of students that a regional model such as the Central Vancouver Island CTC model; All other CTC programs in BC have far fewer students than the CTC program in the Central Vancouver Island region and most provide the program within grades 11-12. For this reason parents were told the funding of the current CTC program in the Central Vancouver Island was cut.

On January 26th, 2006 many students/parents learned about the funding cuts to the program through a district press release and sketchy article in the local newspaper. Approximately a week later, a letter was sent out to the parents of CTC students. These students/parents had actively planned over several years to enter into the CTC program, and literally had the program pulled right out from under them when it was announced this program had been axed. The timing of the announcement was just days before students wrote their first semester exams (later than normal due to the teacher's strike). It also occurred immediately after all district parents/students were rushed into filling out next year's course selection sheets, which was much earlier and with shorter notice than usual, and also without the benefit of their first semester grades and performance. The reason given to expedite this year’s course selection was the transitioning of the BC School District BCEsis student information system across the province and the need for the district to get course selections entered into the system early to qualify for district staff training on the system. Needless to say, this unfortunate and unrelated sequence of events was more trying for CTC students and parents who are caught part way through their CTC program. These various decisions from different Ministries may have seemed reasonable as separate considerations; however, at the district and student/parent’s level these decisions have added up to less than palatable outcomes.

It is somewhat hypocritical to require students to do post secondary planning (graduation portfolio core item 3.1 - "complete a graduation transition plan") when the program(s) they are planning around can be cut without adequate notice. Now, some students are really unsure of what they will be doing or able to do next fall and others are considering changing fields. Some students will have to work in order to live and others will defer going back to school until sometime in the future—students should not be forced to give up their plans due to last minute funding issues.

At the same time as the Nanaimo Ladysmith School District announced the termination of the Central Vancouver Island CTC program, the Ministry of Advanced Education Industry Training Authority (ITA) announced that $1.4 million dollars would be spent on funding "awareness" to recruit grade 6 to grade 9 students “into considering a career in the trades”. The irony of this announcement was not lost on the CTC parents who are watching their children “already in” trades career training - fully aware of trades and applied programs - lose their funding.

When something like this happens to students’ mid-stream, it is difficult to believe in the credibility of these new ITA programs like ACE-IT. The commitment to Trades training through the ITA “trade awareness” initiative is in question as many of these kids have younger siblings, friends, and neighbors who have heard what has happened with this situation. They are asking the same questions:

- Why is there no coordination or cooperation between Ministries and districts in phasing-out and phasing-in Trades training initiatives? Why are the students who are caught part-way through, not being grandfathered into the completion of their program?

- Why were CTC parents never consulted before and why were they notified in this way? The CTC parents/students are assuming all the responsibilities for decisions that did not involve them. Why were these problems not dealt with before students were in session, instead of during the program, and just prior to writing first semester high school provincial exams?

- What guarantees will be in place for future CTC and ITA students entering any transition program—will they be able to finish their training if funding is cut?

- Why are tax dollars not being spent on trades training instead of advertising for careers in the trades?

- Where are the industry training funding partners? And finally,

- Is our public education system, by defaulting without notice on an education contract with the students, now displaying the level of accountability of private education providers?

Many parents and students enrolled in the CTC program planned ahead before enrolling. Many have forgone other possible career and education avenues in order to commit to this program. Unlike provincial and municipal government policies that have a three year planning framework to make adjustments, students only have one shot at their last three years of high school—their future is now. These mix-ups have caused real harm to students’ motivation and career interests in the trades. The fact that some CTC students stopped attending classes the week after the announcement can attest to the impact it had on their morale. District officials had to round up the students for a pep talk.

So far, only the students who are already in the grade 13 components are being grandfathered through, and there are no clear solutions for the CTC students in grades 11 and grades 12. The School District, Malaspina University-College, and provincial Ministries of Education and Advanced Education, while actively working together on solutions have so far refused to accept full responsibility by grandfathering these students through.

The Nanaimo District PACs encourages concerned parents to voice their individual concerns directly to the Nanaimo District PAC, School District 68, the Ministries involved, the media, and the MLAs. And any parties who can to offer funding or post-secondary seat allocations to students who are caught in the middle of their CTC programs are urged to step forward.

Fact finding, lobbying for solutions, and the writing of this information has been a joint effort by District PACs from the Central Vancouver Island region who contributed their stories and letters.

This post was published to the Nanaimo Edutopia blog in its entirety.

Educational Issues in Nanaimo

2006-02-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

Due to cuts in education over the last several years, a general deterioration of the climate between teachers and their employers, education all over BC and in Nanaimo has suffered. The reason for this blog's existence is that many of these education issues only concern a subset of the population who are directly affected by these education cuts—parents, their kids, teachers and their employers, but these are not always of interest to the general population. The Nanaimo Edutopia blog is about education in Nanaimo.

During the last Municipal election most people were exclusively focussed on the New Nanaimo Convention Centre (NNC) deal. Nanaimo saw a record high number of councillor candidates and largely un-noticed was the record low number of new faces on the school district trustee candidate roster.

The Nanaimo School district 68, the largest employer in Nanaimo, employs approximately 1,400 full-time equivalent employees, enrols 15,608 students, and has an annual operating budget of $111 million—that is $111 million of your provincial taxes.

This blog is for parents, students, educators and those who are passionate about education. It is a blog that is moderated by a parent and an educational professional. Its intent is to provide an online forum for educational debates, fact-finding, problem solving, and advocacy for students’ needs in this region.

To post an issue email it to NanaimoEdutopia@hotmail.com. To comment on a blog post click on the comment link at the bottom of the article you want to comment on and a "Post a comment" screen will open. Then click on the “no blogger account?” link. A new window (1) “Create and Account” will open up. Select a username and password, verify your password, select the display name (that is the name that will show up as the author of the comment—your online persona), and enter your email address, then click on the continue arrow. If you have selected a blog username that no one else has, this will put you in the next screen (2) where you are asked to “name your blog”. This means you now have a username to comment on this blog. If you only want to post a comment exit this screen and go back to the “Post a comment screen”. There you should enter your new username and password, enter your comment in the textbox and click on publish. Once you have a username you only need to log on to post a comment. Also by selecting anonymous post it will be anonymous, and if you email your post your identity and email will not be published unless you want it to be. However, selecting an online name is helpful if you wish to comment in the future under the same name. Also creating a hotmail email account gets around identifying yourself.

Moderators will filter out name calling or otherwise inappropriate content. Think of your objective, try to document your statements, avoid sarcasm (if possible), and have someone, who cares about your reputation, review it before you publish or send it. Moderators cannot edit comments for errors as the Nanaimo Edutopia blog engine only allows us to either accept or reject the comments.