Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus, The University of British Columbia
[permission to reproduce granted if authorship is acknowledged]
“This guy needs to get a life” was probably the first thing that came to mind when you saw the title of this blog. There may some truth to that. But one can learn some very interesting things from obscure documents. Honestly. Ask Edward Snowden.
The Alberta Funding Manual for
School Authorities for the 2020/21 school year is no Pentagon Papers or a
vast trove of secret documents. You can find it by clicking the link in the
previous sentence. The Manual contains one part of the not-so-secret recipe
that helps to make Alberta one of the best performing school systems in the
world.
The first ingredient in Alberta’s
not-so-secret recipe begins on page 14 in section B under the heading Accountability
and Assurance in Alberta’s K-12 Education System. It is there that Alberta Department
of Education declares in unequivocal terms that “school authorities are
accountable organizations” that receive funding from the provincial government
so that they can carry out the educational responsibilities delegated to them
by the province. This creates an explicit relationship between the Department
of Education and school boards that “requires transparency and the obligation
to answer for, and publicly report on the spending of public funds and results
achieved. . . .” [my emphasis]. Moreover, school boards are obligated to assure
“their local stakeholders and the public that they are fulfilling their
responsibilities and students are successful.” School boards must:
- Establish a system of accountability for results that encompasses their schools.
- Interpret and report results to parents, students, the Department of Education and the public in a manner and at a time the Minister prescribes as part of ensuring transparency.
- Use results to improve the quality and effectiveness of education programs provided to their students and to improve student learning and achievement.
- Students use ongoing assessment feedback to reflect continuously on their progress, identify strengths and areas of need and set new learning goals.
- Students achieve prescribed provincial learning outcomes, demonstrating strengths in literacy and numeracy.
- Students are active, healthy and well.
- Students apply knowledge, understanding and skills in real life contexts and situations.
- Students advance reconciliation by acquiring and applying foundational knowledge of First Nations, Métis and Inuit experiences.
- Students demonstrate understanding and respect for the uniqueness of all learners. (p.18)
The assurance framework, developed
in collaboration with education partners, is guided by a set of ten principles of
which shared responsibility for student growth and achievement is the first. The
framework addresses five domains - student growth and achievement; teaching and
leading; learning supports; governance; and local and societal context. Although
addressed separately in the framework, the five domains intersect with one
another and are interdependent. Public assurance is achieved “when the public
has trust and confidence that students demonstrate citizenship, engage
intellectually and grow continuously as learners.”
Student growth and achievement –
which the document treats as a unitary construct – is expressed in terms of six
expectations or values that the document refers to as key elements:
The assurance framework is embedded
in a continuous improvement cycle that speaks about three processes:
evidence-informed decision-making; collaboration among partners; and learning
and capacity building.
Progress monitoring is a key
process in the public assurance process. School Boards are required to have and
make public their Education Plans and their Annual Education Results Reports
(AERRs). Here, too, Alberta Education set out its expectations using the
language of key elements. The first of the key elements is:
The school
authority [school board] has collected, analyzed and evaluated key performance
data arising from the implementation of its previous Education Plan and the
actions taken to meet its responsibilities in each domain. It has developed
insights, drawn conclusions and determined implications arising from the results.
There is an explicit expectation
that a school board’s analysis and evaluation will be reflected in its
revisions to its Education Plan, considering contextual information and input
from stakeholders. While school boards are accorded considerable flexibility in
the form and content of the Education Plans they develop, Alberta Education
sets out requirements for the timing, structure, analysis of results, strategic
priorities, stakeholder engagement, and dimensions of the Education Plan.
Assessment of results is central to
the development of an Education Plan. School boards are required to compile and
assess results for their local performance measures as well as provincial
performance measures. Alberta has developed provincial performance measures and
requirements in each of the domains. In the student growth and achievement
domain, Alberta administers Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) and Diploma
Examinations. It requires reporting of over all results as well as results for
First Nations, Metis, and Inuit learners and students for whom English is a
second or additional language.
Alberta Education expects concordance
between a board’s education plan and its budget and requires each board to post
their Education Plans, their Annual Educational Results Report, and budgets on
its website. It requires that school boards ensure that each school revises its
plan and results report each year; engages the school council in preparing the
report and plan; and posts them on the school’s or school board’s website.
There are many appealing features
of the Alberta approach. The approach appreciates the link between provincial,
school board, and school goals, plans and results. Expectations are explicit
and clearly stated. School boards are strongly encouraged to make clear the connection
between strategies and intended outcomes. Goals are, for the most part,
accompanied by established metrics and annual monitoring of results. There is
attention to overall results and to the results achieved by Indigenous learners
and learners for whom English is not a first language.
I started this blog with a comment
about one’s life choices. I gave up the time I would normally devote to
watching a movie on Netflix to read a funding manual with a well-developed
blueprint for continuous school improvement. You may be skeptical, but I am
happy with my choice.