Promotion of Excellence at Schools with FNMI Students, Part 2

In the first article, I pointed out the need to teach the full grade level curriculum as well as the importance of localizing it so that it is relevant to the everyday lives of the learner. This can be done at schools with FNMI

Students by ensuring that local elders, professionals and resource peoples in the community are invited into the school. In this article, I am introducing two other essential tools for promoting student excellence. These are ongoing assessments of student abilities in all disciplines and provision for student directed inquiry projects. Assessments that are coordinated and systematic are invaluable tools for teachers to locate student skills, student abilities and interests. Student generated projects give students unique opportunities to construct learning. Student projects allow the learner to develop interests in a discipline as well as demonstrate mastery of a subject area.

Unfortunately, some schools with significant FNMI populations have abandoned the pre-test and post-test of students in all of the major core subjects. By not administering grade level tests in September, new teachers do not have a clear idea as to the student’s baseline of skills in math, science, English writing and reading and social studies. These core tests do not need to be commercial tests but can be teacher generated. Some teachers like to test the major concepts in a course. Most prefer to administer a Unit pre-test so that they get data as to the student’s mastery of key unit concepts. The tests in math and science that are by unit themes can give the teacher a mine of data as to student strengths and weaknesses. At the end of each unit, the teacher needs to administer a post-unit test in order to assess what students have mastered as a result of studying the unit. For maximum student learning opportunities, the pre-post unit tests need to be recycled during the year so as to assess the retention levels of students. Essentially, two to four questions representative of key concepts from a previous unit should be included as bonus questions in the new unit post-test.

In making assessment tests in math and science, the teacher must first assess the basic key concept skills and secondly the teacher needs to create questions that assess the application of key concepts in everyday life. Real mastery in a discipline occurs when concepts are applied to solve everyday challenges and problems faced by the student.

A third consideration for students in provinces that administer provincial achievement tests are opportunities for FNMI students to experience the types of test questions on their provincial exams. For example, in Alberta, students need to master the story or point-of-view from a picture prompt. Also, in Alberta, an emphasis is placed in each discipline on mastery of specific skills. For example, in Grade 6, English students are expected to master writing a newspaper article and in Grade 9 a business letter from information provided. At most FNMI schools, staff have resisted making students test hardy with disastrous academic results. This is particularly evident in both provincial and FNMI operated schools. Rather than test preparation a great deal of energy is spent decrying the short-comings of these provincial tests by the same professionals who spent a great deal of energies meeting the post-secondary test standards set by their own instructors and institutions.

The lack of commitment to make FNMI students competitive with their mainstream peers has contributed to the dismal results of FNMI students. While the Director of Education at the Kainai Board of Education, I hosted the first provincial student assessment conference in the early 1990s in order to persuade professionals of the importance in making our students test hardy as well as the need to teach and assess key concepts in a discipline, especially in math and science. This Edmonton FNMI Assessment Conference, attended by Treaty 7 and Treaty 6 professionals, had little long-term impact on educational practices with tragic results for FNMI students. Too many still refuse to take up the challenge of raising standards in a discipline by giving students the assessment tools. Social, racial and cultural scapegoat arguments still dominate the field. The result has been a great deal of rhetoric and inaction in developing FNMI student test hardiness. In Alberta, the province has injected a great deal more FNMI content in its assessments and tragically our FNMI students are so ill prepared that they do no better than their provincial peers. While administrators’ teachers have made excuses for FNMI students, most English as Second Language teachers, especially at charter and private schools, have taken up the challenge and ensure that these students meet provincial standards to the best of their abilities. Last year, the Alberta Minister of Education has made it provincial policy to have all school jurisdictions report on FNMI assessment results in their jurisdiction and as part of their three year strategic plans, the jurisdiction must outline the steps they are taking to raise student mastery in each of the core disciplines.

In addition to a coherent assessment strategy, excellence for FNMI students may be promoted through the creation of inquiry-based projects in each discipline. Essentially, students are given vague instructions to investigate an area under study, such as pollution in the rural communities or northern Canada. The students are to research the topic and then do a presentation to their peers. These research projects must be in control of the students but at first, each teacher should help facilitate the research and resources acquisition to ensure that learning is taking place and success promoted within the limits of real deadlines. Student projects in a discipline give students opportunities to organize key ideas as well as apply learning to new situations. The presentation of a project to peers and adults are vital in ensuring the student project is legitimized by a community of learners and users. Projects give students unique opportunities to use their ingenuity and to re-structure raw data into coherent and coordinated presentations legitimized by a community of learners and experts.