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Posts Tagged ‘CBC’

Connecting Some of the Recent Dots

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 19, 2015| 2 Comments »

dotsIf education in British Columbia made news over the last few years, it was almost exclusively around the ongoing labour issues.  With new contracts in place now for teachers and support staff, there is more of an opportunity for other education stories to hit the mainstream news – whether that is television, radio or newspapers.  There have been quite a few recent stories, that might at first glance appear to be unrelated, but are all very much connected and part of a larger story – one of quite a shift happening in education, both in BC and around the world.  For regular readers of this and other educator’s blogs, this might almost seem passé, the shifts happening have been well covered inside the profession, but now, in between stories of hospital wait-times and transit plans, there is some space for some important education issues to be part of a larger public dialogue.

My broad sweeping generalization about the current changes in education around curriculum, reporting, innovation, and related topics is that students and families who are engaged and part of the change are excited, and as one moves out from them to the broader community, there is increased concern, skepticism and distrust.  While families in a class that has moved away from using letter grades in elementary school to more descriptive feedback may appreciate the way the reporting support improved learning, those at a distance may see this a edu mumble-jumble and a lowering of standards in the system.

I want to take three recent stories – read in isolation they are interesting – but collectively tell a larger story, and open up a large, rich and important conversation.

From January 29th, Tamsyn Burgmann of The Globe and Mail, wrote a story on a forum hosted by the BC Ministry of Education  and included all key educational partners and a number of International experts, including internationally known scholar, author, and speaker Yong Zhao, who is extensively referenced in the quote below:

The province should revolutionize the system by shifting the teaching emphasis to nurture every child’s individual passion and talents. The concept is called personalized learning, and gives both students and teachers more space to explore their diverse abilities.

“To be creative, to be entrepreneurial, you cannot skip the basics,” Dr. Zhou told the room. “But the basics should come after we have a passion. Sometimes we do the basics and we have killed people’s interest.”

His call for innovation comes at the same time B.C. teachers are administering the standardized Foundation Skills Assessment tests to children in Grades 4 and 7, and as the province’s education minister announced a new education strategy.

Minister Peter Fassbender told the forum the government is partnering with educators to identify several schools throughout the province to pilot programs that swap the focus to individualized learning. 

Work around personalized learning is well underway in West Vancouver, with teachers and schools focusing in inquiry, student passion projects, unique community partnerships and other initiatives give students real world learning experiences.

A week later, Tracy Sherlock of the Vancouver Sun wrote about reporting in the age of social media:

Report cards are entering the social media age as new software called FreshGrade allows real-time sharing and reporting on student progress.

Tracy Cramer, a kindergarten teacher at Richard Bullpit Elementary School in Langley, has been using FreshGrade  since the beginning of this school year and says she loves it because it makes communicating with parents so easy and it makes doing her students’ report cards relatively painless.

“Teachers get anxious around this time because of report cards. But I have all my evidence there … so I just have to go in and add a few comments and my report cards are done,” Cramer said.

She says the program gives the kids — even in kindergarten — ownership of their work.

“They will do something that they’re so proud of and they will say to me, ‘Can you put this on my portfolio so mommy and daddy can see it?’” Cramer said. “I can do it instantaneously — I push ‘share’ and the parents get it right away. The communication with the parents is amazing — they understand because they can see it.”

And at the same time, a number of local news outlets picked up on a petition started by a parent in North Saanich to take a look at the state of math instruction – calling for a back-to-basics approach.  The CBC was one of those outlets to pick up the story:

A North Saanich parent has started a petition against new math learning methods currently being adopted as part of the province’s revamped curricula for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12.

Tara Houle launched the petition, which calls for the return of traditional learning like rote memorization of multiplication tables. So far the petition has gathered more than 500 signatures.

“What I find is the biggest challenge is at the elementary level where we have a lot of math concepts being introduced to kids at a very young age,” said Houle. “It completely overwhelms their minds.”

Houle wants kids to develop a strong foundation of math skills before trying to learn “higher-order concepts.”

She believes new learning methods don’t stand up to research that supports explicit, direct instruction and memorization, adding that the U.K. and Australia had abandoned the new methods since adopting them.

Three different stories yet all linked. Part of the challenge with change in education is that one cannot change one part, without changing other parts as well.  If you alter the curriculum, you need to change assessment.  And if you modify assessment in K-12, you need to be sure it aligns with post-secondary admissions.  And if you are moving individual parts, you need to develop new models to lead the way on what the future of learning can look like.  And while you are doing all of this, you have to continue to ensure you have some social licence – some acceptance and approval from stakeholders and the broader community.

And on these three  items – what do I think?  I think encouraging innovation is a good thing and networking teachers and schools together is the right way to do it – so much better than a top-down approach.  I think assessment is changing and has been changing for many years.  My crystal ball says that we will be less reliant on letter grades in five years and that is a good thing.  And I think the math conversation is not a black / white dialouge.  There are fundamentals that all students absolutely need and they must be able to apply these concepts.  A return to the math teaching of a generation ago is not the answer – just ask how many parents had a good experience with math growing up but math teaching is a healthy discussion as it helps parents better understand what they can do to support their children at home.

But, as I said, the shifts are not just about these three issues – they are broader and it is heartening to see the media bringing these issues forward so we can have the rich discussions about teaching and learning for now and into the future.

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On the Coast on Education

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 15, 2012| 5 Comments »

This past week I had the opportunity to join Radio One’s On The Coast host, Stephen Quinn, and fellow panelists Ann Whiteaker, past president of the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils; Jerry Li, Grade 11 student from Surrey, and Peter Cowley, Senior Vice-President of Operations and Director of School Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute, in looking at the state of public education in BC. The forum, which was hosted at Vancouver Technical Secondary School in Vancouver, used the tagline “Is BC’s Public Education System Broken?”  Unfortunate, because while I do appreciate the question makes good media sense, it is not a productive starting place for a conversation about what we need to do to improve upon one of the world’s top public education systems.

I would have liked more of a chance to explore the system we want, to have engaged on how to keep it moving forward, and to discuss what a greater focus on the pedagogy and practice that will be required for schooling in our future world would look like. However, the forum did highlight the passion of those who work and participate in the public education system in British Columbia.  Hopefully, there will be more public input and conversations soon (and more listening to the voices of young people!) focussing on the learning our kids need and the education system this will require.

The forum podcast is available here (the forum was held in hours two and three,  though there is a good interview with the Ministry of Education’s Superintendent of Achievement, Rod Allen, in hour one). There were also active, and good conversations on Twitter, which one can still find by searching #otcforum. Several thoughtful reflections on the event have also been received, including this one from Jenny Arntzen.

Finally, on this topic, in advance of the session, each of the four panelists was tasked with the homework of putting together two minutes of material describing the greatest strengths and weaknesses of British Columbia’s public education system.  The notes I prepared for the conversation are below:

The greatest strength in BC is our consistent, high levels of achievement; we do really well for most kids – from graduation rates to international assessments – we are one of the top performing jurisdictions in the world. Educators from around the globe flock to BC to learn our secrets, and international students, for example, see our schools as highly desirable.

We have an incredibly diverse clientele, far more diverse now than even 10 years ago; we have been challenged by funding, yet our achievement levels have continued to improve.

And at its core, this is all about outstanding teachers and administrators – highly-skilled, dedicated, passionate teachers investigating new ways – embracing technology, and giving so much to the life of the school from athletics to the arts.  There is nothing more important than the connection teachers make to students and we get that right.  There is a total commitment to doing the right thing for every student – it is very impressive.

The system is not broken.

Ironically, this strength is also a weakness.  It is hard to transform a system that is highly successful – why change when we are doing well?  We have to come to grips with the understanding that while it may be reassuring for our kids’ schooling to look a lot like our schooling looked like, this will not prepare our kids for the world that we are in and they are entering.

We need to transform the system to a new place – more of just the same is not going to make us better; we need to connect and network the brilliant pockets of innovations blossoming around the province.

We need to address the increasing relevance and engagement gap for kids – particularly as students move to high school – kids tell us their engagement is waning.

We need to ensure the system is reflective of the world we live in with an increased focus on skills and competencies, real world learning and less content focussed.

We need to better figure out how to meet the needs of students that don’t see university as their first option after Grade 12.

To be very clear, we are in this transformation from a position of huge strength – becoming a better version of us.

Hopefully, this is the first of many opportunities this year to move conversations about public education in BC to the mainstream.

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Time to Push Back – Public Education

Posted in Change, SD45, tagged , , , , , , , on September 9, 2012| 16 Comments »

I have a different take on private school K-12 education than some in the public system.  I like it.  I think private schools are good for the public education system; the competition for enrolment from private schools forces us to stay at the top of our game.  While some debate the funding they receive from government, their existence, and the choice they offer for parents in the community ensures public education is not just a default option.  This choice is especially true in a community like West Vancouver, with many families who can afford a private school education and excellent private schools in the community. While we rattle off a lot of statistics over graduation rates, and post-secondary transition, one statistic I am most proud of is the decade-long trend we have seen in West Vancouver, with families increasingly selecting public school for their children.  We have outstanding teachers, and our schools continue to refine their programs to meet the needs of the community.

In public education, we generally go quietly about our business, the work we do in our schools, in all public schools, the important work of improving life chances for the next generation. And I usually let the most outlandish critiques of our system roll off.  But not this time.

When reading the most recent Business in Vancouver, and seeing an article: “What are the real costs of private school?” on page 14 of the September 4-10, 2012 edition under Member News, (unfortunately I have not been able to locate an online link,) I didn’t expect to find this quote:

Given that private schools have proven to give students a leg up when it comes to attending university, networking, and surpassing academic standards, a private school graduate is very likely to land a high-pay job. Tuition can be considered a down payment for a child’s future salary.

With all due respect to author Carly Maga, ENOUGH. I just can’t let you get away with saying something like this.  I am the first to admit we often do ourselves a disservice in the public system; the decades long labour tension takes it toll on everyone, and yes, we have a system that can improve, but I will put our public schools side-by-side private schools any day.  And it is more than a “gut feel”, just last week the Globe and Mail brought attention to a recent UBC study of over 4,500 students that indicated public school graduates outperformed private school graduates in first year sciences.   As I said to our staff at our Opening Professional Development Day for the year:

We are in a profession that is regularly challenged and often undervalued and underappreciated by those who look from the outside.  Our world is changing so quickly – it is an exciting time to be a teacher; and teaching is still the greatest job in the world.

I struggle to properly compliment the excellence I see and hear about in our classrooms – too often comments like “we have great teachers”, or “fabulous things are happening in our classrooms” appear trite.  We have a great system, great schools and great teachers.

And, as a parent, I understand it is not just what my kids get from school, it is also what they give.  A K-12 education is not like buying a dishwasher, it is a relationship.  My three older children are right now getting “a leg up” by attending the public school in our neighbourhood.  My kids and our family have a lot to offer the school.  And while I want my children to receive an excellent education, I also want all students to receive an excellent education. I am less concerned about “winning” school, and far more interested in the rich learning experiences that arise when a complex and diverse student population pushes boundaries to create an organic jolt of innovation in a classroom.  Siphoning off some students, particularly those of affluence, to exclusive private schools is a “real cost” both to these children who have so much to gain and contribute, as well as their public school peers.

Of course, public schools need to be more than just a default, and strong private schools help public schools get better.  We also need to be exceptionally clear about the state of public education – the world is changing rapidly, and schools need to change as well, but there is no system with the diversity that we see in British Columbia, and in Canada, meeting the levels of academic excellence we have here. You do not need to go to a private school to “get a leg up” – my experiences as a public school graduate, as an educator in three districts, and as a parent of three children in the public system, say you need to go to your local public school to gain an advantage. And, if you have an extra $20,000 you want to spend on your children, put it toward opportunities for life-long learning and take an extra family vacation (or two) each year.

On a related note, I will be participating in a forum for CBC Radio this Wednesday, (September 12) entitled “Is Our Education System Broken?”  The forum is hosted by Stephen Quinn and begins at 4:00 p.m., and I encourage you to come and participate live at Vancouver Technical Secondary School (2600 E. Broadway) in Vancouver. Of course you can also follow along on the radio, online and engage on Twitter with the hashtag  #otcforum.

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