Interest in the education system in British Columbia and Canada generally seems to be at an all time high. Likely, in part driven by high PISA (International testing) results, edu-tourism is flourishing and the world is very curious about what is going on in Canada. This week I am giving a talk to an audience of largely American Superintendents, which has forced me to try to crystallize exactly what it is in our part of the world that is so interesting.
When we look at structures, our Canadian system has a lot in common with our US counterparts. We have locally elected Boards of Education throughout most of the country, we have local accountability, a mix of involvement of different levels of government, generally high community engagement in education and strong teacher associations. We lack the Federal involvement in education present in the United States and seemingly most places in the world, and generally don’t have the ability to raise any funding locally for the school system. Throughout North America you can find quite a bit in common with how we organize education.
Our system seems to strive for this highly sought after combination of strong equity and high quality. We seem to have dismissed the idea that one needs to either have one or the other and instead we have committed ourselves to both. And we also seem to have this unwavering belief that no matter how “good” our system is, we need to continue to change, grow and get better. There is a sense that we can always improve. Trying to tightly describe the BC or Canadian uniqueness is a challenge, but I see these as some of the areas that stand out:
We Are Doing What We Always Say We Should Do
The entire BC curriculum has been redesigned. The prescriptive nature of the curriculum has been reduced with a greater focus on big ideas and the allowance of flexibility and choice in learning for teachers and students. Interdisciplinary learning has been embraced allowing the teacher a greater opportunity to be creative and innovative in the design of their learning experiences. Core competencies are the foundation of the curriculum with a focus on communication, thinking and personal and social competency. Now these areas that we have always said are important, but often in the background have been pushed to the foreground. And finally, the curriculum has been Indiginized and a focus on the First Peoples Principles of Learning has been emphasized throughout the province.
A former Superintendent colleague of mine, Mike McKay, would often say, “Will What We Know Change What We Do?” – with our system we are trying to make the answer now.
Curriculum
The shift in curriculum is as much about the how as the what. The move to big ideas, has seen a move to more inquiry based learning. The curriculum is seen as relevent and ever-changing. Rather than being static as it has been in the past, it is seen now as nimble, being able to shift as the world shifts.
Assessment
BC does not have high stakes assessment. Students in British Columbia write Foundation Skills Assessments in grades 4 and 7 in reading, writing and numeracy and then a literacy and numeracy assessment in grades 10-12. These results are shared with students and families and inform practice but they do not appear on report cards, nor are they part of any school marks. Teacher judgement is highly valued and they along with schools and districts design a range of assessments (more than just traditional tests) to support students. Increasingly passion projects, portfolios and capstone assignments are a large part of a student’s program
We Have Learned From Others
When I look at our system in BC now, I would describe it as a “mash-up” of what we are seeing around the world. One can see elements of Finland, Singapore and New Zealand in our system. International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement have also clearly been influential. Teachers have looked locally – to schools in their district and our province, to Alberta and Ontario, to High Tech High in San Diego, and many other places and they have all influenced what we do. BC has always prided itself on being a highly networked province and this extends around the globe, and our system reflects this. We have taken good ideas and made them ours for our context
No Franchises
BC has this delicate balance of having a lot common with others but not sameness. Schools and districts share some tenants but are not trying “scale” work to all be the same. It is this idea of networks. We are trying to connect and build networks, focusing on diffusion, not replication.
It is hard to pull the BC or Canadian story together. I don’t think anyone can listen to someone speak about our system or visit our schools and say, we should be like them. Just as we haven’t done that as we looked to evolve our system. We are immensely proud of our school system, and it is wonderful to be somewhere that recognizes the world is rapidly changing, so as proud as we are of our past and present, our future needs to change to ensure we continue to have this pride.
Below are the slides I am using for this presentation this week. It is a work in progress, so any thoughts to help make these ideas more clear are always appreciated (if you are viewing this via email you may need to go to the website to see the slides).
cultureofyes.ca 