Education Advisory

While I ran for school board trustee in the last election, Nov 15/08, I kept my fingers crossed that I would NOT be elected. I dreaded having to go to interminable meetings for three years of my life.  I did run to bring to public and institutional awareness the need to seriously examine the very relevancy of school boards in this day and age.  I did learn a lot during the campaign and from my research and thus I have some insights to offer.

TRUSTEE AWARENESS #1

My HOMEWORK on school board issues during my recent trustee candidacy yields a lot of interesting information. I did not get elected, however did garner over 1/10 of votes. My website continues: http://abolish-school-boards.org

As well, I will publish on other sites as news comes in. With that in mind, I share the following:

1. Getting more money for schools. Most candidates I heard or read about said they would dedicate themselves to this effort.

In Quebec the opposition (ADQ) says they would abolish school boards to save $125 million annually. To compute for BC that would mean a saving of about $70 million annually. Instead of the savings going back into provincial coffers perhaps that money should be spread out to BC schools or for special needs. Would BC trustees consider that sacrifice worthwhile?

2. Few trustee candidates mentioned any kind of system-wide reform. Most just wanted to hunker down and improve their own district.

Meanwhile, our sister province to the east, Alberta, seems to have province-wide reviews every few years. Right now they are in the midst of a review of education for special-needs. In 2003 a Commission on Learning produced 95 recommendations with the Ministry of Education acting on 88. The Minister told school trustees Nov 19 that another review is imminent, that “he wants to get people talking about education…that could lead to changes in the legislation that governs how schools are run.” When asked if that meant abolishing school boards, he answered, “…governance is part of that discussion and if we’re not doing governance the right way, then we should be open to the concept of how we should do it.” See "Education System Could Face Changes".

These reviews, if genuine, definitely lead to greater responsiveness to what citizens express and want. For example, Alberta has had enabling legislation since 1994 to provide for greater choice through charter schools where parents, teachers and principals run individual schools. This autonomy allows flexibility in meeting accountability standards as well as providing for creative programs to emerge. This is something that BC should consider for its citizens as well.

A worldview approach has significant educational and decisional implications. BC also needs these focused conversations outside the periodic provincial elections. A commission of inquiry soon???

3. School closures due to falling enrollment seem to be a BC political no-no.

Meanwhile, trustees in Boston, even in the midst of closing six schools, are expanding in other areas to improve school quality. They expect to add more “pilot” schools which have more “autonomy than other schools over budget, staffing, governance, classroom teaching standards, and testing programs.”

4. Trustee candidates see themselves as volunteer public servants called to do good things for their community. They don’t see that they’ll be paid to do a lot of busy work and a lot of frustrating political wrangling and manipulation.

A little flavor of the jockeying and fighting that goes on and the ideological agendas at play was evidenced during the recent board elections in Langley. However, rarely do we see anything comprehensive like “Confessions and Frustrations of a Long Time School Trustee”.

Well, there is such a book, not with that title though. The 1998 book by Russell J. Edwards is called “How Boards of Education Are Failing Your Children” and available from $.33 to $1.00 plus shipping (about $5-6) from AbeBooks or Amazon. It’s a long rambling, stream of consciousness, full of insider gossip, political and personal, dirty tricks, etc. Written by a well-intentioned “Master School Board Member” who wants to tell “what is wrong with the educational process and why it is so hard to make progress and solve problems.” Highly recommended, especially for trustees who think it’s a “nice” job and think they’ll get anywhere during any 3yr term.

5. Fads come and go, yet they continue to be embraced for the WRONG reasons. What they really do is buy time for the system to carry on business-as-usual — not for any real reform.

Canada (except for Alberta) it seems is wedded to the pro forma model of consultation as noted in the OECD report of 1976 meaning — going through the motions, affecting concern that is not genuine, perfunctory…

Here is a recent gross example of such a fad from the US. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation poured millions, NO, over 2 billion dollars into converting large high schools into smaller ones. 8 years later, Nov 11/08, the Foundation called a meeting “to admit candidly that the new small high schools had not fulfilled their promise.” Please see "Bill Gates and his Silver Bullet"

Critics of this program show the harm done to students, 8 years of their lives lost, whole schools turned upside down…millions of taxpayer dollars wasted, good teachers quitting rather than being forced to support a plan they knew would be detrimental for their students…

I’ve been reading the 12 page promo for the Iowa Lighthouse Project that BC trustees will be considering in their upcoming training in Dec and I’m really hoping it is not being sold as another “silver bullet”. By trying to make trustees more “effective” this still consigns parents to a secondary, auxiliary role. Parents having choice and voice can move “stuck” schools and scores far better than expensive trustees and school boards.

WV parents scoff at ‘farcical’ reading test –  Questions ‘Mickey Mouse’

North Shore News, Feb. 01, 1981 By Susan Cardinal

Angry parents and teachers attended a meeting of the West Vancouver School Board Monday to protest a provincially administered reading test they call “ridiculous and silly.”

Although West Vancouver students in Grades 4, 8 and 12 scored well in the provincial test, one woman charged that the tests themselves were “farcical” and “Mickey Mouse.”

“It’s a phony test. It makes them (the students) look good,” said Tunya Audain, a parent on the panel assigned to review the results of the Grade 8 test.

“I’d really like to underline my feelings of dismay that the test itself is ‘inadequate’ and ‘flawed’,

“It makes me question the quality of education itself, if that’s the means by which it’s tested,” she said.

The provincial assessment was conducted under the Ministry of Education in 1980 to test the reading skills and comprehension of students.

The review process by the three parent and teacher panels began in late October. The panels were supposed to examine only the results but members studied the vehicle of testing as well.

Audain called on the school board to take a stronger approach with the ministry to publicize the inadequate assessment.

Sylvia Rayer, chairperson of the Grade 8 panel, charged that the wording of the test was ‘ambiguous’ and that several of the questions solicited such simple answers that the test didn’t measure the comprehension of the students. Other questions, said Rayer, were also so ambiguous that a bright student would become confused.

Ron Fenwick, district director for the board, said the problem with the tests is not a new one.

But he said “we’re slightly skeptical about the usefulness of taking these complaints to the Ministry of Education.”

The same recommendations to change the wording and make the test tougher were taken to the ministry in 1977, explained Fenwick, but three years later the same questions were asked despite protests by the board in 1977.

It’s extremely frustrating to deal with the province, said Fenwick, and to see the same items come up again is “particularly frustrating” he said.

Two representatives of the school board are scheduled to meet with the ministry officials, February 6, to discuss the assessment.

Board Chairman Lilian Theirsch said the board would also bring up the test deficiencies at the March meeting of the B. C. School Trustees Association.
 

Continuing to add to my online archives about school reform efforts over the last 40 years I found the following letter to the Editor from 1986.

Letter of the Day, North Shore News, North Vancouver, BC, Canada, October 19/86

Parents have despaired for years about the lack of quality control in the public schools and the latest setback adds to this frustration.

The dismissal of a teacher held to be unsatisfactory by the West Vancouver School Board has now been reversed and is on appeal to the B.C. Supreme Court. 

Not only is the decision making around quality questions frustrating, but there are enormous costs entailed. The estimate was $70,000 for this case so far. As well, there is the veiled threat that the teaching fraternity could bankrupt school systems who try to pursue quality efforts. I’m sure the message of Pat Clarke, former leader of the B. C. Teachers’ Federation got through to parents and school boards alike when he said,

If school boards are looking for a way to spend some money, then they can try doing what West Vancouver has done. We’ll take them to court and appeal every one of these cases.” (Vancouver SUN, Feb 26, 1986)

In 1978 I recall another teacher dismissal case in West Vancouver. The hearings took 21 days and the costs were conservatively estimated at $90,000 (about $150,000 in today’s dollars.)

It must  be clear to everyone, especially in light of the added current concern about sexual abuse of students, that there must be better ways to ensure quality control in our schools.

I have maintained over the last twenty years that excluding parents from the governance of their schools would have a damaging effect on education, children and society. While I have been gratified to see more parents taking control of their children’s education via home education, nevertheless, I feel we must find ways in which the natural advocates of children – parents – can have an instrumental role in each of their own schools. This will only be done by a structural change through each school having its own board of trustees as in private schools, or providing parent with vouchers to use on the school of their choice.

Tunya Audain