Although Wildrose has that 'breath of fresh air' sort of naivety to it, one soon realizes that the party is of the extreme right variety.
Nonetheless, they do have some interesting platforms and leader Danielle Smith brings mojo not seen for quite a while in Alberta provincial politics. Wildrose currently has four sitting members in the Alberta Legislature and threatens to increase that number significantly in a future election.
Of special interest to this blog would be some of Wildrose's education policies, especially its special needs policy.
Following are some of the party's talking points:
Parents and teachers have a limited say in how special needs funding is best used, and there is a movement under to force special needs children into regular classrooms whether the supports are there for them or not.
It's not clear whether the motivation is cutting costs, or a misguided ideology - either way it needs to stop...
...We would then mandate that adequate funding follow each special needs student wherever their parents want to send them.
Below I've copied the full text of the Alberta Wildrose Alliance education policies, as they appear on the party's website on today's date.
One very interesting aspect of this policy is that, unlike Quebec's ~further right~ party, the Action Democratique, Wildrose advocates a return to virtually full local control of schools at the local school board and school level. You may remember that the Action Democrtique under Mario Dumont had floated a concept where they would remove local school boards entirely and run everything from Quebec City. What a nightmare that would have been (and still could be...).
- Empower individual public, Catholic and public charter schools by implementing a funding model that sends per-student operational and maintenance funding directly to the school each student attends. Individual schools will then be able to determine how to allocate those resources most appropriately (i.e. more teachers, new equipment, etc).
- Transfer decision-making authority concerning the building of new schools away from the provincial government and place it squarely in the hands of locally elected school boards. This would be done by implementing a publicly disclosed and objective funding formula that grants capital funds directly to local school boards based on student enrollment, school utilization rates, student growth projections and other relevant factors.
- Establish multiple pilot projects across the province where open-enrollment and tuition-free public, Catholic and public charter schools are permitted to opt into a competency-based learning and assessment education model. Students in these schools will have the opportunity to learn at a pace and in a way that is tailored to their individual needs and will not move on to more advanced material until they have demonstrated strong understanding of previously taught subject matter. Students who learn at an accelerated pace under this system will also be able to obtain college and university level course credit while still in high school.
- Grant public, Catholic and public charter schools more flexibility to offer a specialized curriculum track in the trades, arts, music, physical education and business.
- Protect a parent’s right to choose what school their child attends (public, Catholic, public charter, private or homeschooling) and continue the current Alberta Education practice of permitting a fixed percentage of regular per pupil funding to directly follow a student to a private school of the parent’s choice if desired.
- Mandate the public reporting of each school’s graduation rate and overall subject-by-subject assessment results so parents have the information they need to make informed decisions regarding their child’s education.
- Work with teachers and other educational professionals to replace the outdated and inadequate Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT) with a new standardized assessment model that evaluates a student’s actual improvement and comprehension of subject matter and more effectively identifies where further learning is required. It is also important to ensure teachers are provided with the professional development training necessary to implement such a model.
- Ensure students are properly assessed and any special learning needs identified as early as possible in a child’s development. Mandate that adequate funding follow each special needs student to the institution of that child’s parent’s choice to be used in a way that the parent and the school’s learning support team feels will best meet the individual needs of the child.
- Give special needs students the opportunity to attend the same classrooms as regular students where appropriate. In such cases, it is critical that adequate supervision and support be provided to the special needs student in order to ensure the classroom remains a healthy learning environment for all students.
The key point in the policy is recognition that children proceed at different speeds - rather than the current assumption that all kids of the same age will learn at the same speed.
ReplyDeleteA decade ago, I had battles with the system because my son is gifted and was proceeding through the system faster than was deemed desirable by somebody in authority. In the end, it was a mix of in-school classes, distance education and home schooling that enabled him to graduate high school with honors at age 16 and take up a scholarship at Cornell University. How many other talented kids were denied the opportunity to move at their own pace because a parent did not have either the knowledge, time, patience or persistence required to take on the system?
Alberta (indeed, all Provinces) operate an education system designed for the industrial age at a time when we are living digital lifestyles. We have the capacity to educate each child to his/her own level of talents, skills and interests at his/her own pace. But to do this will take power away from school boards and unions (not teachers) who will resist in any ways they can.
Dr. Tim Burton
Thank-you for commenting.
ReplyDeleteSupporting gifted kids is an important aspect of special needs in that sense. This is something that is acknowledged and has been addressed in many jurisdictions at least since the '80s.
But insisting that funding dollars follow kids into private and religious schools of parents' choosing is one way to ensure that fewer resources are available for dealing with special needs of all types in the regular public school system.
Compound this with the tragedy of having children as gifted as your son, who are being raised by single or underprivileged parents, whose needs are barely even recognized because teachers are busy greasing squeakier wheels...
So probably it is very important to have the needed support in the classroom for the kids with intellectual disabilities, so that teachers actually have the chance to recognize the hidden talents and abilities in kids who haven't had the most nurturing upbringing.
...Not even going to get into the discussion of what happens when you have six grade 7 classes in a school and 90% of the most talented are in one class, if they're not already in private schools...
Even though our two kids are both in segregated classes (a special school in our son's case) at opposite ends of the learning curve, my opinion is that, in the ideal world, greater diversity in the classroom would make for a richer learning experience for all children. But to have this, you need adequate resources in each and every classroom.