PPM'ing

The Ministry of Education recently released two program / policy memoranda on the public portion of its website. These get posted quietly and often don't merit any particular news release, although some do. For example, PPM150 was all about healthy foods in schools and that garnered a requisite number of media hits as awareness of it spread across Ontario. Several years ago, the PPM on Quality Daily Physical Activity (QDPA) was released, and years later I sometimes wonder what happened to this particular memo.
Anyway.
Last week, PPM 151 was released, along with PPM 152. The first touches on provincial priorities for professional development days-- the province mandates two of these days throughout the school year be dedicated to provincial priorities. These days, provincial priorities are improving achievement levels on provincial assessments (read: upping EQAO scores) and integrating full-day learning. From the memo:

The criteria that determine the scope of the professional activities for the two PA days required under paragraph 1 of subsection 2(3.1) of Regulation 304 are as follows

• The professional activities are devoted to the professional learning of teachers with respect to improving student achievement and student success
• The professional activities are devoted to the professional learning of teachers with respect to closing the gaps in student achievement.

The following are the possible topics for professional activities relating to improving student achievement and student success:

• early learning
• performing assessments and evaluations for and of learning
• facilitating parental and community engagement
• using data analysis to inform instruction
• developing and implementing board and school improvement plans
• creating an equitable and inclusive classroom climate that is conducive to learning
• developing student and classroom learning profiles
• facilitating transitions for students who are entering school, changing grades or schools, or leaving school
• promoting instructional leadership
• developing skills for teacher inquiry and reflective practice

The following are the possible topics for professional activities relating to closing the gaps in student achievement:

• developing Individual Education Plans (IEPs)
• implementing activities related to assistive technologies, differentiated instruction, Universal Design for Learning, and professional learning technologies
• facilitating parental involvement in Identification, Placement, and Review Committees established under Part II of Ontario Regulation 181/98, "Identification and Placement of Exceptional Pupils", made under the Education Act, and in the development of IEPs
• using differentiated instructional and assessment strategies and resources that are responsive to students' learning needs and that reflect Ontario's diverse student population
• developing and implementing strategies to close the gaps in mathematical literacy
• developing and implementing strategies to close the gaps in literacy
• developing and implementing strategies to improve boys' literacy
• developing and implementing early and ongoing instructional interventions
• using strategies to support English language learners and students in Actualisation linguistique en français and Perfectionnement du français
• integrating the use of manipulative aids and technology to support a range of learning styles

I found this PPM interesting since this is not the first school year these two provincial-priority PD days have been on the calendar. Board were complying with the requirement, getting the info from other means than a publicly posted memo. It leaves part of me wondering why this memo is being posted now.
The other is particularly interesting, as it lays out standards for school boards to meet as they negotiate with an employ principals and vice-principals. Those with longer memories would remember these administrators used to be members of their respective teachers' federations until the Harris-era reforms of the mid-1990s that removed them from these bargaining units (the right decision in this writer's humble opinion). Principal's associations have emerged from the landscape at the board level, and the Ontario Principals' Council has also filled a void. PPM 152 simply codifies how boards are to set the terms of employment with their respective administrator groups. Why it's taken 12 years to do this is also a mystery.

Innovation at the LFPress

Twice in the last week, the London Free Press has held live online chats on education topics. A Feb. 1 chat was held with Thames Valley District School Board executive superintendent of operations services Karen Dalton regarding the city's high schools and how to navigate the choices from the perspective of a Grade 8 student.
A week later, Feb. 8 , the paper hosted TVDSB's Céline Bourbonnais-MacDonald and the London District Catholic School Board's Sharon Wright-Evans for another live chat. Both are the superintendents within each board currently responsible for the implementation of the full-day kindergarten program.
The livechats can be 'replayed' through the links above.
I don't offhand know how many participants were in the Feb. 1 chat, but Wright-Evans told me Monday evening there were over 70 following the Feb. 8 chat. I've sat in on both to see how they were run and examine potential use within either my own newsroom or even here on this blog.
Live chat isn't new, nor is the Free Press the first media to use it. For example, CBC.ca is a frequent user of the same software being used by lfpress.com. What's impressed me (which should be no surprise to those here) is the newspaper chose to do its first two live chats on education subjects -- choosing a high school and full-day kindergarten.
Topics important enough to launch a new way of interacting with readers at southwestern Ontario's largest-circulation daily newspaper.

Busy days in NOTL

I've been getting e-mails about this all weekend. The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake is considering its 101-page brief to Minister of Education Leona Dombrowsky at a Feb. 8 council meeting. The document is subject of this special meeting, called before the weekend. Council is being asked to endorse the brief and permit its presentation to Dombrowsky.
Those with their ears to the ground in the area have been hopping all weekend (hence the e-mails I received) over the 'brief' and the proposal it contains for a 'Centre of excellence' model. Essentially, the document is a pitch for a rebuilt school campus on the Niagara District Secondary School site that would be a K-12 facility encompassing all high school-aged children within the municipality, regardless of whether they currently attend NDSS, Eden or the local Catholic school.
The document is fairly repetitive. The centre model is mentioned about half a dozen times, and a sleep after reading it in full, the following percolate to the top:

• District School Board of Niagara? Bad. Very bad.
• Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake? Good, very good.
• Families who chose to attend school elsewhere? Forced at gunpoint by the choices made by DSBN in its messianic mission to close NDSS.
• Eden? Unholy and very, very bad. Should never have existed. Those kids should be integrated in our Centre of Excellence.
• Our proposal? Awesome. Especially since the chamber did a survey (with really loaded questions) that shows 76% support! We're so good, we didn't leave any time for potential delegates to sign up and tell us what they think because no one hates this proposal, do they?

Pardon my facetiousness. I had some difficulty with this report, beyond the repetitiveness of its content. As a small example, a newspaper opinion piece is cited as factual support for a point the authors make in the brief.
It also provides only the briefest peek at why the DSBN staff members provided some of the advice / direction they did. This report continually smacks the DSBN for not allowing the community to openly promote itself to students attending other schools. While the authors argue the board has been covertly and overtly doing so for about 10 years, a board letter in the appendices provides more insight. It suggests that if the doors were thrown open on NDSS competing for students in other schools, the board would let other high schools overtly do the same to NDSS' population. Who would lose the most students then?
It also selectively quotes the minutes from the rats' nest of motions in June 2008 that led to the 350-student threshold, despite earlier hints this is where the council committee was going to concentrate its opposition. This centre of excellence model should have been presented (was it?) was presented during the ARC, but not supported and not recommended as an option. Its own report indicated a rebuilt NDSS and the consolidation of the elementary schools that the board is trying to proceed with.
I'm sure someone at DSBN is preparing a response to this brief.

Has the alliance lost its momentum?

A couple of quick thoughts on the Community Schools Alliance, formed back in the midst of late spring / early summer. Lately, along with a frequent poster in the comments sections, I too have been wondering what is ailing the alliance.
A Saturday reference in the London Free Press was the first reference I've seen of the alliance in my regular media scanning since the early fall. The LFP article by Pat Maloney touches on the ongoing er, conversation (?) between London city council / board of control and the local public school board. Thames Valley District School Board director of education Bill Tucker and London District Catholic School Board director of education Wilma de Rond will meet with council Monday to discuss city council's participation in accommodation review committees. As posted here last week, the ward councillor has steadfastly stated he wants to play no part in looking at options for the future of four schools in old east-ish London. He'd rather heckle the committee and the board from the sidelines than come to the table with options and potential solutions.
The Maloney article tells us Alliance chairman Doug Reycraft also wants in on that meeting between the directors of education and city council so he can peddle the 'smart' moratorium. A request that's pretty much been discarded by anyone with the ability to actually act upon enforcing it.
This after the very same council (London) pretty much did, oh, absolutely nothing with the Alliance's sample resolution and request for membership. I was in the room when Oxford County (Alliance members: Norwich, South-West Oxford, Zorra townships) voted to invite Reycraft to speak to council about the alliance's request. That was back in the fall and nor he or other alliance people have yet accepted the invite.
In the article Reycraft states, "about 150" municipalities have joined the Alliance and/or supported its cause. Of course, no one knows who they are because a full list has yet to be posted on the alliance website. There are over 440 municipalities in this province and to have only 150 on board says enough in and of itself. I would bet coffee and a donut far more than 150 have been impacted by the first two rounds of school-closure committees that have already happened in the last three years. Sure, the room was packed at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, but how big was the room?
I think it's time for the alliance to either step up, or step out and let those municipalities that are prepared to work with their local school boards to get some work done.

Heritage roadblock?

A very recent article posted by the Niagara Advance, showing yet another opportunity for Niagara-on-the-Lake council and the District School Board of Niagara to play well together. Or not, as it may be.
At issue is a potential heritage designation for Laura Secord Public School, which is to close with the construction of a new building within St. Davids. NOTL council has begun the process of designated the school as a heritage property at the request of those who would like to ensure its relevant heritage features are preserved. This has drawn concern from the school board because heritage designations can impede the potential of a sale given not every developer is willing to maintain the designated features or spending the money to do so.

Jim Armstrong, president of the Queenston Residents Association (QRA), said the property has a rich, important history and jeopardizing the future of the site would mean "running the risk of losing a historical asset that connects us to our past."
Without designation, the property could be transformed into any number of uses, including housing.
"In order for a developer to have success on that site they would have to build on that property, meaning they could come in and do whatever they want," said Armstrong.
"Our group has a vision on what could happen to that property, but it would have to be kept in the public domain."

Here's the biggest thing about designation. It's easy (well, not that easy) with a few strokes of a pen to designate something, but what's it really worth? If council is truly interested in acting on its residents' requests to preserve the building, the only way it can guarantee that outcome is to purchase the building itself. Other options would be some sort of loan program-- some municipalities do this, however its murky ground because councils cannot "bonus" a private-sector business. Designation without any further commitment doesn't actually do much to really preserve a property. There's no real teeth on the property owner to maintain the property after it's been designated, and if they appeal the designation and win, those who wish to preserve built heritage end up losing out completely.
Hopefully the other irritants between the school board and this council don't impede some productive discussions on this issue so the residents are able to preserve the heritage features they value and the board isn't forced to hold onto an unsellable property.

Time for Barrie to step up

This Barrie Examiner article was posted a couple of days ago, highlighting a series of Simcoe County District School Board votes to establish a school-closure review within the city. The vote to establish the review was preceded by an interesting one whose intent will hopefully produce some unique options for the next term of trustees to consider when they vote on the result of the review.

If an ARC is struck, it's pretty difficult to sell a business partnership plan if your side of the partnership is potentially slated for closure," (Janet Kinsey) said, after trustees made their decision.
(Janet's son) Ben was happy Wilson's motion passed.
"They listened to what we said. They're at least trying to attempt partnerships," he said, adding he wasn't surprised the motion to strike the ARC passed, with only Wilson opposing it.
Kinsey and other students aren't giving up, however.
"We are definitely open to doing more and are willing to keep going. We're not going to just go away," he said. "When the ARC comes to pass, we'll definitely be looking into things to do and becoming involved with the process."
The school board's number one priority in its 2008 budget was rebuilding the high school but funding from the Ministry of Education was not forthcoming.
"They let us down," Wilson said. "Last year, it was our vision to seek funding to rebuild Barrie Central. The ministry said, 'You need to look at your problem differently'. They are telling us where it is acceptable to build a new school."
When the first application to rebuild Barrie Central was made, there were partnerships that weren't investigated, she added.
She is fearful the newly struck ARC will not address potential partnerships quickly enough.
"At what stage of the ARC will it start talking about partnerships?" she asked, adding that with the ARC process, it could be eight or nine months before partnerships are explored. "We owe it to the community to open up discussions now."

Kinsey is 100% right.
Start the discussions NOW. Don't wait for the review committee's organizational meeting. School supporters' next stop should be at the next available Barrie city council meeting, where a possible message to council could be that the school needs council's participation and support on the review committee. Not a London-style "we want no part of this" response, or a "please stop the process" request a la Community Schools Alliance and Huron County.
The school's supporters need to have the intestinal fortitude to work on presenting options that don't have a 100% chance of being accepted when the day for a trustee vote comes along. If they can't find that sort of willing support among Barrie's political and business community, then the 'battle,' as it were, is already lost.
I will note, in closing, this was the same board that has postponed a decision on a five-school review in northwest Simcoe County because it felt it wouldn't be fair to burden the next term's trustees with the outcome. Given review time lines, this Barrie review won't conclude before December, but it's another huge decision for the new crop of trustees.

Meeting of the minds at AgendaCamp

I've been particularly lax at writing anything here this week for a combination of reasons. However, I did want to share the experience of TVOntario's AgendaCamp London with you. A continuing stream of thoughts from the day and onwards is available by scanning the tweets posted with the hashtag set aside for the day. As promised, I was able to tweet one session related to education (I was scribing at the other), where the stream-of-consciousness tweets are also searchable.

Above is a Flickr feed of the photos tagged from the day. Beware if you click any of these social-media links after Feb. 28, you'll be getting the AgendaCamp Brockville stuff in there as well.
The session I scribed on education was proposed by Karen Aranha, a Glencoe parent and school council member-- she produced the vacant pupil-place analysis shared with Middlesex County council and the Community Schools Alliance many months ago. The wiki page effectively reflects our discussion from that panel. After another round of sessions, the education theme (also pulled from this session) was merged with a social-services one where we were asked to answer the question: What do the changing needs of London's educational and social services tell us about mid-sized Ontario cities?

The eventual question posed for the hour-long live broadcast was more focused on upper ed, with an examination of how mid-sized Ontario cities like London attract youth to their colleges and universities and what they might do to hold onto them after graduation.
I was exposed to some very interesting perspectives during the day -- from someone who didn't think children should be using computers until after the age of six, to a librarian who told everyone who said they thought libraries created good hubs she loved them.
By the end of the afternoon session, the group had settled on a decentralized hub-and-spoke system of community hubs located in libraries and schools. We figured the schools would be a good fit -- notwithstanding the momentum of Best Start, Pascal and ministry PPMs -- since within urban or settlement areas, there's usually always a school within walking distance. The libraries would extend that approach beyond early childhood and families into older families and other demographics within the population that need the one-stop approach.
Will it happen? A number of folks in the afternoon session were movers and shakers (perhaps) on staff within the city or a school board (Upper Grand, not one of the London-based boards).
It would be neat to see this sort of World Cafe / ChangeCamp model used more often. For example, wouldn't it be neat to see it used in an accommodation review committee? Messy, perhaps, but I'm sure the participants would feel way more engaged than they do now.