Vancouver school trustees want to scrap the new grade 10 exams, which the Liberal government of British Columbia has put in place. This is great news for anyone interested in public schools that are more responsive to student and community needs rather than coporate interests.
The new Grade 10 test, which is part of the province’s graduation program, is yet another example of market-driven (neoliberal) educational policy which has come to dominate public schooling in the US and the UK. Neoliberal education policies impose strict “accountability” systems (high-stakes tests) that strip communities of control over the curriculum, deskill teachers, and de-motivate learning. Test-driven teaching and learning leads to under-serving or mis-serving all students.
In BC, perhaps the most influential test-pushers are found at the Fraser Institute, which has close ties to right-wing foundations in the US, such as the Heritage and Fordham Foundations–prime movers and propaganda machines behind the distructive No Child Left Behind Act.
There is already considerable resistance to the NCLB-like educational policies promoted by BC Liberals.Vancouver school trustees want to scrap grade 10 exams
Trustees want to scrap Grade 10 exams
Board fears added pressure could lead to increase in dropout rates
Krisendra Bisetty
Vancouver Sun
March 28, 2005
VANCOUVER – Vancouver school trustees are calling for the elimination of newly instituted Grade 10 examinations, citing factors such as extra work for teachers and added pressure on students that they say could increase dropout rates.
The request to the provincial Ministry of Education is one of 34 substantive motions that British Columbia’s school trustees will discuss and vote on during their annual general meeting in Vancouver this week.
Another motion calls for the ministry to ensure that school district policies specifically address the safety concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual and “trans-identified” students, as well as those who are harassed due to perceptions of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
Vancouver trustees want the examinations dropped from the graduation program this year, the first year that Grade 10 students in B.C. have been required to write provincial exams, which count for 20 per cent of their final mark.
“We have not seen any research that shows they improve student learning, which is the only reason to put them in place,” Adrienne Montani, chairwoman of the Vancouver school board, said in an interview Sunday.
Montani said there’s concern from high school principals, teachers and many parents about the impact of the exams.
“We are already seeing some of the direct and indirect consequences starting to happen,” she said, explaining that teachers are becoming occupied with test preparation and exercises.
“It takes away from other kinds of interactive, engaging, rich [forms of] learning.”
In their motion to the BCSTA, the trustees say that while assessment of students has its benefits, there is no evidence that standardized final exams in Grade 10 mathematics, science and language arts would improve student learning.
The added pressure of exams on students, especially those with learning differences and difficulties, is another concern, they say. “The exams could increase dropout rates among vulnerable students.”
Taken at the end of the year, the exams cannot at that point actually help students or teachers in the assessments, the motions reads. “There is the danger of teachers ‘teaching’ to the exams. Critical and creative thinking, which are important skills, cannot be measured by multiple-choice standardized tests.”
As well, they say that expecting teachers to mark the exams is a “downloading of extra work at a very busy time of the year.”
B.C. School Trustees Association president Penny Tees is expecting a thorough discussion on the motion, saying in an interview Sunday she isn’t surprised that trustees want to debate the issue because the student graduation program is still new.
Referring to a 2003 report by B.C.’s Safe Schools Task Force, Lower Mainland school trustees said in a motion that despite attention being called to the challenges faced by lesbian, gay and bisexual youth in provincial schools, the B.C. government has yet to initiate concrete action specifically addressing their safety and equity rights.
Many gay and lesbian youth told the task force they dread going to school because of the harassment and intimidation, they say.
Another motion put forward by the metropolitan branch of the BCSTA, which consists of Lower Mainland school boards, says public schools should share in B.C.’s $1-billion budget surplus.
It asks the provincial government to allocate a minimum of 14 per cent — the percentage of current funding for schools in the provincial budget — of the surplus to schools.
Recent funding increases by the government are insufficient, they say, to offset cost increases borne by school districts in the past several years.
Other matters up for vote include a motion by Burnaby trustees for a commitment from government that it won’t privatize and regionalize school support services.
About 300 B.C. school trustees will also vote on motions that:
– School board employees receive pay increases that are not less than the provincial consumer price index.
– The government be urged to apply the same criteria for public accountability to private schools as to public schools.
– The government enact legislation that prohibits retail stores from opening on Christmas Day, which is now about the only statutory holiday on which businesses are closed. Burnaby trustees say school-age part-time employees need at least one day per year when they cannot be asked to work.
For the first time, this year’s BCSTA meeting is being held in conjunction with the Canadian School Board Association congress.
Tees said about 200 CSBA delegates from various provinces will be at the four-day conference, which begins Thursday.
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