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.

A First Nation Attendance Board for Alberta’s Treaty 6, 7, and 8 Schools

First Nation Grand Chiefs and members of First Nation Education Authorities across Alberta should consider the creation of a Treaty-based Attendance Board as a way to help raise Alberta aboriginal student academic and attendance levels. Under this proposal, the Grand Chiefs may wish to ask the federal and provincial government to fund a Treaty-based First Nation Attendance Board to hear appeals brought by each First Nation school authority.

This proposal for a fully funded First Nation Attendance Board would put teeth and resources to the historic  February 23, 2010, Government of Canada, Government of Alberta and the Assembly of Treaty Chiefs in Memorandum of Understanding for First Nations Education in Alberta. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provides a common vision for strengthening learning and educational success for First Nation learners in Alberta. The MOU provides a framework for collaboration to support a range of education-related issues including parental and community engagement, Treaty and cultural awareness, and on-going work on tuition and education service agreements. If the MOU is to bring significant change in local First Nation classrooms, resources and mechanisms must be considered to deal with endemic issues such as student truancy, bullying and youth in trouble with the law. Without concrete strategies that directly impact on classroom and school practices, the tripartite MOU may do little more than provide for leaders at all three levels of government to meet for photo opportunities and grand press releases.

The Attendance Board proposal is meant to empower local classroom students, teachers and education authorities. The lower attendance levels of First Nation students when compared with their provincial peers is a major contributing factor to lower performance and academic acquisition levels and an abnormally high rate of drop out levels among First Nation school students. So many of our Alberta First Nation students are absent from schools that by the time many reach junior high and high school too many students have missed from 180  to over 360 instructional days or the equivalent of one to two years of schooling.

Absenteeism has a particularly negative impact on the acquisition of mathematics and science skills since these disciplines demand sequential mastery of key concepts. In the humanities, English and Social Studies, the impact is the same since absenteeism contributes to the steady decline in student performance levels from as early as Grade 3 onward to Grade 12. Each First Nation School and the Alberta Regional Offices of Northern and Indian Affairs have access to the deplorably low attendance levels. The annual efforts of isolated First Nation school authorities to raise attendance levels could be helped if each Treaty Area had an Attendance Board to hear appeals related to repeated and systematic truancy, absenteeism due to parent lack of involvement or follow-up. Currently, unlike their provincial counterparts, local First Nation school authorities have no recourse for follow-up beyond their local community school level. The various strategies and incentives have short term impacts but do little to deal with the annual truancy and long-term efforts to combat absenteeism. Further, due to the extended family systems, limited local school resources and lack of inter-school authority jurisdictional coordination, the more severe cases of absenteeism are not being dealt with in other than an ad hoc manner.

Researchers have repeatedly shown that truancy is often the first visible sign of other problems a student may be experiencing.  In most cases, truancy problems are resolved at the local school level where students, parents and school board employees can work together before there is a need to involve an application to a provincial Attendance Board. Where a truancy problem cannot be resolved locally, this proposal argues that a First Nation school authority should have a mechanism for referring the matter to a Treaty-based Attendance Board for assistance and a ruling.

Who Is On The Attendance Board?

The First Nation Attendance Board and panels of specialists drawn from it should be made up of aboriginal elders and professionals recommended by the Grand Chiefs and approved and funded under the current Memorandum of Understanding signed by the three Alberta Grand Chiefs, federal and provincial governments.  First Nation Members (elders and professionals) may come from many walks of life; they may be First Nation parents, lawyers, school board employees, school directors of education or superintendents, members of the general public with experiences in dealing with First Nation youth, retired aboriginal educators, business people and other professionals. Attendance Board panels of two to five members should be convened to hear an attendance case referred by a First Nation school authority and dealing with youth between the ages of 6 to 16 years.

When a student who is under 16 years of age fails to attend school as required by law, the local First Nation school authority may ask for a panel of the First Nation Attendance Board to deal with the matter. This is currently available to public and separate school boards and should be extended to all students attending First Nation administered schools at each Treaty area.

The Authority of This FN Attendance Board could be a Modified Model of the Alberta System

The Treaty-based Attendance Board and the panels drawn from it should have teeth and authority. By this, I mean the same power as the Court of Queen's Bench to summon witnesses and obtain information and records as is provided by its provincial counterpart.  The panel may direct the student to attend school or to take an education program or course funded by the federal government beyond the current nominal roll provision and September 30^th deadline.  

Under the proposal, this impartial Treaty-based First Nation panel may direct the parents to send the student to school. And, the panel may even impose a graduated schedule of fines on parents not exceeding $100/day up to a maximum of $1000. The panel may give any direction to the student, parent, or school that it considers appropriate and enforce that ruling by registering its order in the Court of Queen's Bench. The order then becomes an order of the Court. Failure to obey the order may result in contempt of court charges being brought against the student or others. By creating an impartial and graduated system of consequences it is hoped that parents and students would dramatically decrease repeated incidents of truancy between the ages of 6 and 16. Also, pressure will be put on school officials to demonstrate that they have documented and followed-up on incidents of truancy, individualized student academic rescue plans, bullying and major repeated misbehaviors. By dealing with student and family support issues early, it is hoped that all stakeholders can lower the unacceptably high rates of truancy and student misbehaviors that impact on the delivery of quality learning and teaching opportunities.

What Does A First Nation Attendance Board Panel Do?

A Treaty-based First Nation Panel, acting in a quasi-judicial capacity, will subpoena the truant student, parents, social worker, school administrator, counselor, teachers and anyone whom the panel feels can shed light on why the student is not attending school. The panel may also subpoena documents such as the student’s school record, psychological or medical reports, etc.  On a date set for the hearing, the panel will question the parties and witnesses and study the documents. After obtaining all the details of a particular case, the panel will explore options and strategies, decide what the best course of action will be, draft an Order and order the student, parents and other local authorities to obey this decision.

What Rulings Are Issued by a FN Attendance Board or Panel?

The First Nation Panel may decide that the student will return to the same school as originally attended. Or the panel may direct the student to attend a different school or, with the agreement of the parents, a home education program. The panel may order through a referral under the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act that a local Children’s Services branch intervene in some way, or that other agencies become involved:  for example, a First Nation Tribal or provincial AADAC agency. The Attendance Board panel will decide, on the basis of all the facts before it, on an education program or direction which is in the best interests of the student.

If First Nation leaders and education authorities want further details related to this proposal please contact me. The First Nation Attendance Board proposal is a way to assist local First Nation school authorities with a formal back-up appeal and remedial system that is adequately funded. It is a new tool for having First Nation role models in Alberta work collaboratively with federal and provincial governments as provided in the Memorandum of Understanding.

As we approach our fourth decade of Indian Control of Indian Education, there are many First Nation role models, professionals, experienced elders and retired FN teachers and administrators whose experiences can be brought to bear to lower repeated incidents of truancy, drug or alcohol abuse or school bullying. A proactive approach will contribute to raising First Nation high school completion and graduation levels and may even lower incidents of students in trouble with the law.

Proposal for another Alberta School of Public Choice

Currently, I am wrapping up work on approval of Maple Tree Bilingual Charter School for Somali and families of African descent in Calgary Alberta. This is the second charter school that I have designed for a group of Calgary parents. The first school was for a group of Middle Eastern and Asian parents who were distressed about the high dropout rates among immigrant students in Calgary. Almadina Charter School, with its emphasis on English as a Second Language strategy, was among the first Alberta schools to receive a public school charter from the Minister of Education. Since 1995-1996, Alberta has still been the only Canadian province that has approved the creation of up to 15 charter public schools of parental choice. Provincial governments have not created public charter schools since all other provinces fear the backlash from the teacher associations and entrenched bureaucracies and school board associations. Alberta government has led the country in educational reforms first during the 1930s with its Enterprise experiments and now with it charter public school movement. This bold experiment is kept in check by a vigilant provincial Ministry as well as a charter that must be externally assessed and renewed every five years.  

Alberta’s 13 charter public schools receive the same per pupil funding as their public counterparts but are not supported with any direct capital building grants. They must lease a facility and submit to an annual assessment based on about 16 public Accountability Pillars. These assessments are made up of surveys to stakeholders and Provincial Achievement and Diploma Tests for Grades 3, 6,9,12. The charter schools have exerted enormous pressure on the Alberta Teachers’ Association and Public and Private Schools to be more accountable for learner outcomes and value for money invested in public education.  Each of these charter public schools of parental choice need to articulate and deliver results based on their unique educational vision and mission.

In order for Alberta parents to be granted a charter, public meetings must be held and a proposal submitted to a local Public School Board. If the proposal is rejected after 60 days of review, to the Alberta Minister of Education AND Ministry officials have a mere 30 days to accept or reject the proposal. Each proposal should be accepted or rejected based on educational criteria and innovative approaches to enhance learner success for that niche of students.

Maple Tree Bilingual School proposal has several unique aspects.  Instruction in the student’s heritage language occurs at the same instructional block during the day so that a pan-African student may study the international language of choice: Somali, Sudanese dialect or Arabic. The charter proposes to have a The Parental Bilingual Support Center in order to encourage and enhance parental skills and involvement in supervising a child’s homework, e-learning and cyber citizenship skills or assisting a child to reach his or her full bilingual, as well as learning, potential.  This feature addresses the wide social and acculturation gaps that sociologists have pointed out exists between an African immigrant parent and child and between the family and wider Alberta society.

For more details about the proposed Maple Tree Bilingual Charter School or if you need a speaker or more information about Alberta’s Charter School s movement and implications for Public School Policy Reforms in your province, please comment or e-mail me at pier.depaola@shaw.ca