ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM REVIEW
The school board regularly conducts reviews of its’ various programs. As most of you are aware by now, a program review of alternative education will be taking place starting now and a final report produced by end of January.
The draft framework for the review is available on the board’s web site (opens a pdf file).
The Alternative Schools Advisory Committee (ASAC, representing all alternative schools in the board) had a number of concerns with the draft framework, but there were three that were seen to be particularly urgent: the timeline (which is rather short, compared to previous program reviews), the objectives (which focus on program elimination rather than improvement and better access) and the plans for consultation (which were minimal).
At the June 16th meeting of the board’s education committee, some changes were introduced, addressing some of ASAC’s concerns.
TIMELINE:
ASAC was not successful in getting the time-line extended. Draft recommendations will be developed by staff in late December, with reports going forward within the board in January. This is very unfortunate timing, having the report being developed at a busy time of year, not to mention that the length of the review as a whole is very short.
OBJECTIVES:
With support from some trustees, amendments to the objectives of the review were put forward and successfully passed, making them more acceptable to ASAC. Determining whether or not to discontinue the program is still on the table, however.
The revised objectives are:
(i) determine the extent to which alternative schools differ from non-alternative schools in the board;
(ii) determine the extent to which a strengthened alternative program would differ from the board’s future plans for non-alternative schools;
(iii) determine whether or not to close the alternative program;
(iv) if the program is to continue, develop a process to ensure the program’s quality and its ability to contribute best practices to the rest of the board, and
(v) if the program is to be closed down, develop a process to identify any useful lessons learned from the late program.
CONSULTATION:
The plans for consultation were somewhat improved. Superintendent Adams announced that all parents with children in Alternative Schools would receive a survey next fall (not a random sample as was indicated in the draft framework). And Trustee McKenzie asked for an amendment to include in the survey a
sample of high school students who had previously attended an Alternative elementary school.
Unfortunately, there is still no plan to consult current students, school councils or retired staff. And there are no plans to do any interviews or visit any of the schools.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR:
If you care about the continuing availability of alternative public education in Ottawa, write to:
YOUR TRUSTEE: Rob Campbell, rob.campbell@ocdsb.ca
YOUR AREA SUPERINTENDANT: Cathy Nevins, cathy.nevins@ocdsb.ca
THE ORIGINATORS OF THE FRAMEWORK DOCUMENT:
Jennifer Adams, jennifer.adams@ocdsb.ca (Superintendant of Curriculum)
Pino Buffone, pino.buffone@ocdsb.ca (System Principal, Elementary Curriculum)
Joan Oracheski, joan.oracheski@ocdsb.ca (Manager, Quality Assurance)
Please copy your letter to ASAC at programreview@asac-ottawa.org as well.
Thanks!
The document above is also attached to this post as a pdf.