DM’s Report on Education

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Here is the last issue of the school year. Read and enjoy . . . Download file

  • It’s all about leadership in the June 22nd issue. You can read the DM’s newsletter here. On the subject of leadership I often wonder why the fetishization of the principal as leader. No matter how much it becomes glossed as being student centered etc, the principal is not so much a ‘leader’ as a manager of labour and a public relations officer rolled into one tidy body -or so it has seemed from my vantage point.
  • The June 15th issue of the DM’s Newsletter concerns itself with the Youth and Child Advocate’s devastating evaluation of the lack of education of children in government care. Download file
  • June 8th’s newsletter is about testing and assessment. Download file
  • The June 1st edition features rural school issues. Download file
  • The amazing work being down by Prince Rupert teachers gets a mention in this weeks newsletter from the Deputy Minister: May 25, 2007 issue.
  • Assessment continues to be a theme of the Deputy Minister’s newsletters with yet another piece promoting the assessment agenda. May 18, 2007 edition.
  • More than assessment is a theme in the May 11 newsletter.
  • The Deputy Ministry concedes that the “FSA doesn’t tell me much about [a particular school].” The Deputy Minister also states that he shares wide spread public concern with the Fraser Institute use of FSA data. What is his solution? “Tell your own story.” Download the May 4th, 2007 issue.
  • The DepMin targets teachers and the BCTF in this week’s newsletter. It also contains a veiled threat to parents if they opt to keep their children home on FSA test day. Read the April 27th issue here.
  • April 20th edition. It’s all about leadership.Download file
  • Friday the 13th is greeted by the DM with a snide attack on the BCTF and a bracing defense of the FSA. We also have a page long lesson on achievement measures for the individual learner. The Friday the 13th of April edition.
  • Prince Rupert high school story in the April 5th edition of the Deputy Minister’s newsletter. Read the April 5th, 2007 issue.
  • The Thursday Edition of the DM’s newsletter: Download the March 29th edition. A wrap up edition is promised.
  • Here is today’s latest DM’s report. It’s about ‘good news stories.’ Download the March 28th issue.
  • It doesn’t rain, but it pours. . . . This week is setting a record for number of DM’s Newsletters. Read todays on, you got it –Bill 21– on disciplining teachers in public, online. Download the March 27th issue. You can read what was said in the legislature today here.
  • Newly released to coincide with the introduction in the legislature of Bill 20 (changes yet again to the school act; read article in today’s Times Colonist) is the DM’s newsletter explaining all the reasons why. Download the special Monday, March 26th issue. Proceedings in the legislature can be read from Hansard
  • The March 23rd issue announces Education Week with several ‘good news’ stories. Download March 23rd issue.
  • The March 16th issue of the newsletter kicked off spring break with ‘good news’ stories as well. Download March 16th issue
  • Last week’s newsletter is all about epiphanies. It would seem that the DM has seen the light on his own personal road to Damascus and is refocusing onto capacity building concerns; but will accountability measures really be left in the dust? You decide- read the newsletter here.
  • The march 2nd edition of the DM’s newsletter is all about the innovation interaction, a conference that linked in people from across the province last week to hear some highly paid speakers say their bit on reforming education. Read the document here.
  • This week’s newsletter is a one page promo for Strong Start Centres. Meeting the needs of early development and effective utilization of the spaces created by declining enrollments are all part of this week’s missive. Download file
  • The Deputy Minister has released his newsletter a little early this week. In it he discusses the key education points of the throne speech -apparently, it’s all about choice. Download file
  • It’s all about class size this week. The numbers reported indicate the positive impact of Bill 33. Read the DM’s newsletter here. For the problems with funding the implementation take a look at the BCTF info here.
  • The DM writes on the demise of the grade twelve portfolio in the February 2, 2007 issue of his newsletter.
  • More on leadership in this week’s edition with a full three pages profiling the Leadership Seminar Series and the Pacific Leadership Agenda. It would seem that Leadership is the key to everything (with everything being understood in very explicit economic terms). And within the the leadership agenda the education sector can play a leading -whoops- major role. The focus on education as a ‘sector’ as opposed to a practice or a process is, I think telling. This is even more apparent when the role of the education sector is explained in terms of “providing our province with skilled and knowledgeable citizens able to participate in and contribute to our economy” (page 1). A target date of 2010 is provided without an explicit link to the Olympics. Take a look at the full newsletter here.
  • Apparently “key concepts” in education are new and there time has come in BC’s Education System -that’s this week’s message from the DM. Read the details of the January 19th, 2007 newsletter here.
  • “Leadership for Learning” causes “auspicious things to happen.” So says the latest DM’s report. Read the details in the January 12th, 2007 edition here.
  • New Year’s greetings and a reinvigorated commitment to standardized testing feature in the Deputy Minister’s January 5th, 2007 newsletter.
  • The December 22 missive includes seasonal greetings. Download file
  • The December 15th issues includes a quick and easy cut in for principal newsletters instructing parents on how to provide healthy food during the festive season. The majority of the newsletter this week focuses on issues of achievement and innovation. Apparently, there is “a concern with an apparent plateau in student achievement.” The Dm notes that we “have a high performing system” but goes on to say we can still do better. What is the underlying dynamic of a system that is continually focussed on exceeding itself? Especially when the underlying message appears to be that what is lacking in surpassing these objectives is not adequate monetary and material resources but instead the spirit and belief that we cn really just do it, if we only believed. So, with this in mind, enjoy the DM’s timely celebrations of spirit and belief. Perhaps next weeks message will be about the Ministry’s s new clothes? Download the December 15th issue.
  • The December 8 issue can be downloaded here.
  • The Deputy Minister hits hard on the subject of School planning Councils (SPCs) in this week’s newsletter. And, if readers don’t get the point of how important SPCs are to the DM and the Minister he reminds principals and superintendents that it is the law. Also included is a bonus plug for FSA’s. Parents should be on the look out for a principal add in to elementary school newsletters on FSA’s courtesy of the DM. Read the December 1st issue here.
  • Community literacy, the recent parent congress, and staffing updates at the ministry make the news in this week’s DM’s Report. Read the stories made it to print in the Nov. 24th Report.
  • Success in learning tops this week’s report from the deputy minister. Read the Dm’s November 17th report here.
  • Ministry reorganization and paying out for new assistant deputy ministers is the primary subject of the November 10th newsletter. Download the November 10th issue.
  • Port Alberni turns up as the cause célèbre in the November 3rd missive from the deputy minister. Here we learn that celebrating success leads to improved achievement. While I would agree that it is important to validate the work of students and teachers in learning I am not convinced that the simple act of celebration goes very far in meeting the gaps caused by an inadequately funded education system. Read the report yourselves and reflect on whether celebration is an effective pedagogical strategy to overcome the inequities of our society and the lack of funding for public education. Read the November 3rd edition here.
  • Rural education and online learning are the topics of the October 27th DM’s newsletter. Read in full here.
    In the October 20th edition the Deputy Minister tackles school planning councils. Download Oct. 20th issue here.

  • On Friday the 13th of October the DM reported on issues of what counts as ‘authentic’ assessment. Read the full report here: Download Friday the 13th issue.
  • October 6th’s Dm’s Report on Education is tech focussed. Read it here.
  • September 29th’s s DM’s Report on Education targets aboriginal education. Read it here.

Past DM’s reports.

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