We are on Resolution 16.2. School Programs (d) Program Development (1) Salaries and Employee Benefits.
Hon. Linda McIntosh (Minister of Education and Training): Two things, Mr. Chairman, before I provide the answer that was asked just before we broke. Introducing to you, Erika Kreis, Pat MacDonald. I think both have been at the table and introduced before, but they are back now to continue on. We have Ron and Mr. Greg Baylis at the opposition's request to do some jumping back to another line on Systemhouse early this morning. So we have with us now this afternoon Ms. MacDonald and Ms. Kreis, as well as Carol Loeppky and John Carlyle.
I am just seeking clarification for the benefit of staff, so that I can give them some indication of their time lines today as to, do we know yet the hour of completion today?
Mr. Chairperson: The committee will rise at five o'clock today.
Mrs. McIntosh: Five o'clock. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before we broke this morning, I had been asked a question about professional development and the types of things the department does to assist. I should indicate that we are providing a fairly wide range of different opportunities for professional development related to new curricula. We provide regional orientation sessions related to all new curriculum documents, and we know, and I think I said earlier, that implementation of curricula is a shared responsibility with school divisions.
We also provide implementation opportunities that align with divisional priorities and the ways in which they want their own PD provided. For example, in one region the superintendents have worked with the department to develop a train-the-trainer model which has been used successfully in that region and which is that region's preference, but there may be different methodologies preferred in others. Program implementation, I think I indicated we will be hiring another math expert and that person will be working with the field. That was a priority that the Winnipeg region identified to us, also the North had indicated that to us, as well, but since the establishment of a Regional Teams Unit in the School Programs Division, yearly consultations with school division administrators have taken place to establish regional initiatives.
A portion of each regional budget is assigned to support regional initiatives that are identified. They address identified needs within the region. They are identified priority areas of Manitoba Education and Training. They are partnerships between the regional divisions and Manitoba Education and Training. They are sustainable ongoing plans.
* (1450)
The following areas have been targeted for regional initiatives: the Parkland-Westman, southeast Interlake regions will be targeted for literacy and English language arts; leadership in the Parkland-Westman, Winnipeg, southeast Interlake, North and South Central; curriculum implementation in math in the Parkland-Westman, North, southeast Interlake, Winnipeg; curriculum implementation for English language arts in the North and Winnipeg; curriculum implementation general for the Parkland-Westman, Winnipeg, southeast Interlake regions; and aboriginal education in the Parkland-Westman, Winnipeg, southeast Interlake--pardon me, that is curriculum implementation; aboriginal education in Parkland-Westman and Winnipeg; technology in the Parkland-Westman, North, South East and the Interlake; differentiated instruction in South Central and Winnipeg. These regional teams unit dollars will be used to support regional initiatives that are of mutual importance to school divisions, and Manitoba Education and Training has met with an extremely positive response.
Following meetings with school division staff, each region will be identifying initiatives for the 1998-99 school year with priority being given to Phase II, implementation of curriculum and continuation of some projects currently underway. In terms of curriculum implementation, education renewal initiatives, including new curricula, require from our perspective some support of implementation in the field by the School Programs Division; hence, Manitoba Education and Training has produced and disseminated a support document called A Vision to Action: Supporting Curriculum Change. That Vision to Action document will provide superintendents, school administrators, teachers and parents with the framework of practical background information, ideas and process tools to support the implementation of new curricula and other educational initiatives.
The Program Implementation Branch accessed operating dollars through an initiative called New Directions: Implementation Partnership to support school divisions and districts and regions in implementing projects that relate to the priority areas outlined in New Directions. Current status for that, Mr. Chairman, is that the School Programs Division supports province-wide implementation of curricula through regional in-services, summer institutes and training of local teacher trainers through planned collaboration with school divisions.
In collaborating with school divisions, the regional teams and provincial specialists units develop regional initiatives and set regional priorities that support the implementation of curricula and other educational initiatives, including leadership training to enhance effective school planning, English language arts and mathematics implementation by means of teacher training and integration of technology into the curriculum. Implementation support includes what we call A Year at a Glance. A Year at a Glance contains New Directions time-line charts--I am going to pause for a moment, Mr. Chairman. The New Directions time-line charts, we call them AYear at a Glance, had been sent to all divisions in June 1997. I still have my voice--it is going, but it is still here.
This listing was created to assist the local decision-making process for the implementation of new curriculum, and Manitoba Education and Training supports professional development through the Professional Development and Support, and that is $437 per instructional unit through the school funding model; provision of up to 10 days for professional development and administration for teachers through The Public Schools Act; provision of resources for special programs through grants such as English Language Enrichment for Native Students grant, Students at Risk formula grant, early identification and education program grant and technology, professional development grant. Targeting of operational dollars and staff allocations to program priority areas identified by regional teams in consultation with regional superintendents groups. Provisions of opportunities for educational partners to partner with each other and the department on a number of implementation initiatives directly related to New Directions.
The Program Development Branch on Assessment and Evaluation unit also dedicate resources to staff development through the development process, the field validation process and the curriculum assessment orientation process. As well, for classroom-based assessment, the Westman-Parkland and Winnipeg regions have identified classroom-based assessment as priority for their regions. Background in classroom assessment has been a factor in selection of these particular regional consultant positions. Ten divisions in the Westman-Parkland region are participating in a needs survey on which to base training sessions for classroom-based assessment. Workshops for administrators and teachers on classroom-based assessment is ongoing in the Winnipeg region.
Differentiated instruction is another topic. A focus for professional development activities in the province continues to be in the area of differentiated instruction. Four two-day summer institutes on differentiating instruction were offered in August in 1997 in Dauphin, in Carman and in Winnipeg. There were approximately 250 participants there. More emphasis has been placed on integrating differentiating instruction with curriculum outcomes and assessment strategies. Co-facilitators from schools and school divisions are encouraged to participate in the workshops. Several school divisions and regions are developing long-term plans for implementing differentiating instruction.
We have authentic assessment, we have a document on authentic assessment being developed to assist schools in the valid use of classroom assessment practices and the anticipated release date of that document is next summer.
A six credit-hour summer course called Celebrating Creative Teaching: The Bridge from Curriculum Outcomes to Differentiating Instruction and Reflective Assessment has been planned jointly with the University of Manitoba Faculty of Education, and Manitoba Education and Training and it will be offered in the summer of 1998.
Manitoba Education and Training is committed to collaborating with school divisions to provide innovative and creative professional development opportunities for the implementation of curricula. I have provided just now a few of those to give the member a sense of what we have been doing, the types of things we are doing to assist school divisions, not all, of course, but I mean, I could go on at some length and I think, from my indications, that probably is not what the member would like to have me do. But we also--just one last little bit of information and then I will conclude for the moment here--our home page also provides information about all of the orientation workshops that we have organized or that are being organized and it provides that up to a year in advance to support schools.
* (1500)
On-line registration will be available for the first time for the 1998-99 sessions, and that is new electronic assistance which we believe will augment again some of these things that I am talking about plus the others that we are doing.
I want to just take a minute to thank Hansard. I know that members thanked them the other day for how swift they are in getting the documents, and I really do appreciate that. I also appreciate them bearing with me through my laryngitis, trying to decipher words when my voice keeps disappearing on me. I appreciate their efforts in doing that, and then getting it out as quickly as they do is really quite to their credit.
Ms. Jean Friesen (Wolseley): Mr. Chairman, at the end of the last session, meaning just before lunch, the minister had said that some divisions had gotten out of the habit of professional development, and I wondered which divisions the minister meant.
Mrs. McIntosh: Mr. Chairman, I do not recall having said that, because I do not think any division that I know has gotten out of the habit of doing professional development. I will have to check Hansard to see what I said, but if that is what I said, it certainly was not what I intended because we were talking about assessment. I am not sure. Oh, maybe have gotten out of the habit of doing their own professional development in certain areas. I do not recall the comment. I will check Hansard, but I do not know of any division that has gotten out of the habit of doing professional development.
This may be what the member is referring to. Staff has just passed me a note saying that they think I made a comment about some divisions being out of the habit of teaching the curriculum. I think I did make comments to that nature, that in some courses in some school divisions the teachers who are teaching good material, interesting material, to students but not necessarily the curriculum. By marking tests and seeing the outcomes that are sought, they had a better understanding of why those outcomes were requested in the curriculum and are going back into the school and getting into the habit of following the curriculum because they could see the worth of it. An intent to that effect was something I said, maybe not those words but that intent.
If I said that school divisions were not in the habit of professional development, then I said something that was wrong because all the divisions that I know do professional development, value it, and want more from any source that they can get it.
Ms. Friesen: Mr. Chairman, I have one request and one question. This is another section of the department which has a fair amount, in this case, this year $890,000, for professional fees. I would like the minister to table, at some point during the Estimates, the list of contracts that were let in the past year in this section of the department and their completion dates and the amount that they were for.
My second part is a question. I am interested in professional development in areas of technology. The minister mentioned them in her lists, and I wonder if she could give me a more detailed sense of what the department does, for whom it does it, how many teachers or administrators have been reached through the department's professional development and technology areas, and what kind of professional development is emphasized.
* (1510)
Mrs. McIntosh: Yes, we will be able to table at the next sitting a listing of the $890,000 of professional fees. These are fees for document writers, curricula, distance delivery courses, support documents, policy documents, and all of those offer therefore both print and electronic media.
In terms of the other information that the member asked in terms of technology PD, we have had nine information sessions throughout the province in September in '97 to provide an opportunity for educators to view the software. We provided it with details with regard to the licensing and to answer any questions, and we had a total of about 190, to be specific we had 193 educators attending those CHEL information sessions.
We had 21 two-day CGL training sessions held across all regions of the province during that same fall '97. A total of 360 teachers attended these training sessions. Over 200 schools were represented from 51 school divisions, and the purpose of the training sessions was twofold, one to allow teachers an opportunity to become familiar with the Learning Equation Mathematics 9 software and print resources and to spend time discussing implementation issues.
At the CGL training session teachers received one copy of the TLE student refresher print resource, and each participating school received one copy of the TLE teachers manual. At the completion of the training, each school received the number of sets of TLE CD-ROMs that they required to implement TLE in their schools. Right now, currently, third day follow-up sessions are being scheduled where teachers who participated in the training sessions will observe teachers using TLE with a class of Senior I mathematics students, and the remainder of the day will be a discussion on what was observed, as well as participating teachers sharing their own experiences with TLE.
Regarding the Curriculum Multimedia Integration Project, we just call it CMI, all of this work has been done using a professional development approach with our pilot teachers. I should also indicate that we worked in partnership with the Manitoba School Superintendents Association as one of the major conference topics was technology. But in terms of Curriculum Multimedia Integration, or CMI, this project was initiated to integrate technology as one of the four foundation skills into Manitoba curriculum. Integration of multimedia with curriculum provides Manitoba teachers with curriculum that illustrates in a four-column format how prescribed outcomes can be achieved through the application of multimedia learning resources to instruction and assessment.
The goals for the integration of multimedia in Manitoba curricula are to provide linkages with curriculum that will enable multimedia to form a meaningful part of resource-based learning in Manitoba schools, to illustrate how multimedia can facilitate a variety of instructional strategies and to illustrate how multimedia can facilitate forms of authentic assessment.
To date, we have results that include the following: Senior 2 Science at 20S, Senior 3 Physics 30S, Senior 3 Chemistry 30S and Senior 3 Biology 30S foundation for implementation. Pilot documents have been integrated with multimedia. This integration involves the identification and field testing of multimedia resources and Internet links which are then included in the suggested learning resources. Suggestions for instruction and assessment describe how these learning resources can be used.
In 1988 and 1989, the incremental resources approved will be used to initiate curriculum multimedia integration in kindergarten to Grade 8 mathematics and English language arts. Resources approved are five full-time equivalents and operating funds of $367,400. In the future, in terms of multimedia and curriculum integration, we will see the completion of the multimedia integrated biology 40S, chemistry 40S and physics 40S pilot documents by June of this year, the end of next month. Multimedia integration of the senior year science foundation for implementation documents will continue as the senior year science curricula are redesigned to be consistent with the Pan Canadian Science Framework of Learning Outcomes K-12.
In 1998-99, the incremental resources approved will be used to initiate curriculum/multimedia integration in kindergarten to Grade 8 mathematics and English language arts. Other revised K-Senior 4 core curricula in English language arts, mathematics, for example, applied mathematics 20S, 30S, 40S, and social studies will require multimedia integration to address technology as a foundation skill. The implementation of these courses will require similar technology-related supports.
I just want to indicate that two regions, North and Southeast Interlake, identified technology as a priority, and one consultant in each region is providing professional development support to schools. Also, the department's commitment to support schools includes an increase of six staff people in this area this coming year. We have the interdisciplinary middle years multimedia project as another project going in terms of technology, and that one, in terms of background, it is a IV phase curriculum-based research and development project which is arising out of Renewing Education: New Directions as a result of technology being identified as a foundation skill area for all curriculum.
The purpose of this project is to develop an effective instructional model that is interdisciplinary, supports the integration of multimedia technology throughout provincial curricula, facilitates implementation of the interdisciplinary units as required, and through the project of multimedia computer hardware-software seed is provided in representative middle years pilot schools throughout the province through the distribution of grants; that is 70 percent government funded.
* (1520)
Grants do not exceed $14,000 per school. A minimum of 20 pilot schools will be selected in each of the four phases. Phase 1, Grade 5, took place over the '95-97 school years; phase 2, Grade 6, took place over the '96-98 school years; and in phases 1 and 2, each of the pilot sites received $14,000 to implement a preselected $20,000 hardware-software model. That phase 1 in '95-96 and '96-97, we had received 88 applications for phase 1, Grade 5, by the deadline which was December of '95, and of those 88 applications, 20 pilot schools were selected by the project team according to the approved criteria. These pilot sites were subsequently approved by cabinet and a development of an interdisciplinary thematic multimedia-based Grade 5 teaching unit, which we called a prairie tour, for a pilot implementation.
Subsequently, there is the training of 24 pilot teachers, data collection for the purposes of evaluation. A formative evaluation report was produced and released in January '97. A total of 56 applications were received for phase 2, Grade 6, by the October '96 deadline. The project team developed an evaluation rubric based on the selection criteria, had a point scoring system developed based upon information provided on the application form.
The total points determined for each applicant were converted into percentage scores, and the top 20 schools then were selected based on those percentage scores with three exceptions: those being Mel Johnson School, Killarney Collegiate and Ecole Sainte-Agathe. Those schools were chosen in order to have representation from the northern region, Parkland-Westman region and the DSFM respectively. The other regions were represented within the top 20 schools.
It is an extremely fair selection process, as the member can see.
The selection criteria related to English, French, aboriginal, multicultural student representation and gender equity were satisfied within the top 20 selections as well. The 20 sites were approved. Two additional sites, West Lynn Heights School and Virden Junior High School, were added, and all 22 sites developed an interdisciplinary thematic multimedia-based Grade 6 teaching unit innovations called Inventions, Innovations and Discoveries for pilot implementation, which, of course, included training of 32 pilot teachers--so again another initiative. I do not know if the member wants me to go on.
In conclusion, I guess I could say that I could go on and on and on and on some more and never make the member happy when I do that. But I would indicate briefly that the department provides leadership and support to the following committees: Council on Learning Technologies, Computer Education Co-ordinators of Manitoba, School Net Advisory Board, Computers for Schools and Libraries. We are also providing direct support to schools in the preparation of information technology in their own preparation of the information technology component of their school improvement plans.
As well, in partnership with nine school divisions, the department is currently piloting a professional development model which focuses on the defusion of information technology innovations within schools. The department is continuing to respond on a divisional basis to requests for professional development related to the integration of technology into curriculum, and we will be having additional regional workshops in the fall of '98 on the subjects--and this is the title of one, Technology is a Foundation Skill Area: A Journey Toward Information Technology Literacy. That is a document and that has been released already. We are going to be having workshops on it.
We will also be providing ongoing support for the integration of technology as a foundation skill area. We have a kindergarten to Senior 4 website which has been presented to various audiences including the SPD home page contacts, program development branch office leadership team, Manitoba Association of Principals, Interorganizational Curriculum Advisory Committee and various science teacher groups. As I say, I could go on and on and on.
One quick last thought, and this really is going to be the last one for this round. We had a wonderful display of the technology opportunities in the classrooms at the rural forum last week. It was outstanding, incredible. It had people open-mouthed with amazement, and I had the privilege of being there a week ago today to see the displays, to see what students were doing and to hear the comments from the many thousands of people who attended the rural forum, and it was a really gratifying experience. A lot of people deserve a lot of credit for what was displayed there, and very exciting.
MERLIN has also put on workshops regarding the Internet for school divisions and for individual schools and has provided information regarding acceptable use policies. MERLIN has provided information at consortium meetings and provided assistance on the pros and cons of various products, such as Novell's Border Manager and Microsoft Proxy Server, Whiteguard Fireall Smarts Builder, et cetera. Dan Kerr and the MERLIN group is really beginning to make a difference in Manitoba with their skills.
Ms. Friesen: The minister mentioned the support that is given to the Council on Learning Technologies. I wonder if the minister would be prepared to table the minutes of the Council on Learning Technologies of the past year.
* (1530)
Mrs. McIntosh: The council does have an annual report, which I would be pleased to table for the member. I am not sure--I will check on the minutes of their meetings. We get into this problem, which I am sure the member appreciates because--well, I am certain she appreciates--and that is that advice to the minister--and we get into this in several areas of government where there are groups who provide advice to the minister. That advice, under the Freedom of Information legislation that the NDP drafted, is considered advice and therefore is often held as confidential for a variety of reasons. I will check out the minutes of this one. I do not know whether it falls under this category or not, but I would like to reserve the ability to decide on it.
You get technical experts on a committee such as this, or you get industry experts on other committees, or you get whatever the expertise is you are looking for on a particular committee. You ask these people if they would be willing to give up their time--they are laypeople--to sit on a committee to develop advice and ideas and thoughts for the minister or the government. They come together and they speak frankly and fully on the understanding that they are providing quiet, confidential advice to the minister. They are not generally in the public eye, and many of them do not wish to be in the public eye.
There are also issues of third-party information under Freedom of Information. For example, a committee member may say something at a meeting, not expecting it to be shared publicly, and are quite taken aback when they find that something they shared, they thought in a quiet advisory committee meeting, is suddenly public information. Then they are not as inclined to be as open because they feel they are in a fishbowl, and they begin to become intimidated or inhibited, which is the opposite of what we are seeking. We wish them to be frank and open and fearless in putting forth views and positions.
For that reason, normally, advice to ministers is not something that Freedom of Information allows to go out. Advice to ministers is considered to be third-party opinion that is kept confidential. I know the member understands because it was her party who drafted that legislation and drafted those rules which we proclaimed and put into action because we agree with some of the thrusts in it.
So I can certainly provide the report, which, in essence, really, is what I think the member would like to have, because it tells exactly what their final and formal conclusions were. But there are ongoing meetings where they brainstorm and do those types of things, and they may not wish to have made public. It may well be third-party information under FOI, and it may be considered advice to the minister and therefore not releasable.
So I will check it out, and if I can, I will submit them. If I feel it is better not to, I will let the member know. I am very conscious of ensuring that our committees, that our advisory to minister, filled with laypeople who have given of their time, are not stifled or inhibited in any way that public release might cause them to feel, but I will certainly bring in the report which has all the pertinent information the member would like.
* (1540)
Ms. Friesen: Could the minister just tell me who the members of that committee are and what their positions are; that is, what their affiliations are? Council, sorry.
Mrs. McIntosh: Mr. Chairman, we are just trying to remember all of the people on it. It came under Finance and Administration and we are off that line now, but I know I made reference to it, and the member has asked this very legitimate question. We do not have the documentation here, but we think, from memory, we have got them all now.
The chairman is Bill Schaffer who is superintendent of Swan Valley, and we have from the department or government-type people, we have the two deputy ministers, John Carlyle and Tom Carson. We have Beth Cruikshank. Dr. Cruikshank is secretary to the committee, and, of course, Dan Kerr also sits on it. He is the chief operating officer of MERLIN.
Then we have the following people. Now, John Janzen who is superintendent of Garden Valley sits on this but not in his capacity as superintendent of Garden Valley. He sits as the representative of a consortium which includes a number of school divisions and industry and the public and officials out in the world, and I do not have the name of the consortium, but by occupation he is superintendent of Garden Valley School Division.
Similarly, Gilbert Unger who is the superintendent of Hanover School Division sits as the representative of a consortium of people and organizations from his region. Griffith Hodge is a northern computer consultant from Mystery Lake, and Gerry Dougall is the superintendent of Whiteshell. Charles Tinman is the director of curriculum for St. Boniface School Division. Ali Askyu represents The Pas. He is superintendent of that area. Larry Bazinski is the assistant superintendent in Dauphin. Bob Bell is the superintendent in Antler River. Curtis Nordman represents the University of Winnipeg. Ken Webb represents Red River Community College. Sam Steindel is from the department, and we have someone from the University of Manitoba, as well, but I just cannot recall who that rep is at the moment, but I think that about covers it. I may have left one or two off, but that is the basic membership.
The regional consortia appoint their own representatives. The colleges and universities will select one to represent universities and one to represent colleges. So the college rep that is on there, although he is Ken Webb from Red River, represents more than just Red River. He represents also Assiniboine and Keewatin colleges. Similarly, the University of Manitoba person represents--is it the University of Winnipeg--Curtis Nordman. We do have a person in the University of Manitoba also. [interjection] We did. That person is gone. We now have Curtis replacing him. So Curtis then represents the universities. He is Dr. Curtis Nordman, University of Winnipeg.
Those are the people. I hope I have not left anybody off. I do not have the official list, and I am sorry I cannot remember the names of the consortiums. But we will, if the member wishes, table the information, so she gets it. We can get it fairly quickly, I think. That will give her a sense of it in the meantime.
Ms. Friesen: I wanted to ask about school safety, which is listed under Program Development, and particularly to ask about the issue that has arisen in the last two years of the roller towels in schools, and to ask the minister what the department's response has been, what recommendations, if any, they have sent to school divisions and what the results have been.
Mrs. McIntosh: Yes, as the member recalls that was the subject of--I am not sure if it was an inquest or someone did look into this in the official capacity. We, in the meantime, as soon as the accident occurred, asked all school divisions to either replace--just take down their cloth rollers until they heard back from us. Then after some time we had gathered enough data and had some preliminary inquiries made by Peter Markesteyn, I believe it was. Was it? At any rate, we indicated to divisions that any that had not taken down their rollers, because we had left it as a request, not a demand, to ensure that they had the safety shield, et cetera. We had done that in the first instance actually, but then we reinforced it a few months later, because we had not yet heard back from the investigation.
Ultimately, however, we did hear back from the investigators. Their recommendation to the field was to do what we had already done, and that was to caution schools with the cloth towel dispensers to ensure that it had the safety shield, and that the amount of cloth hanging down was wound in such a way that you could not fit through it, and it would be placed low enough for children that the feet would not leave the floor if entanglement did somehow manage to occur.
So we sent out those recommendations to the field to confirm that they were, in fact, the final recommendations presented to us and that we encouraged them to follow those recommendations if they were using cloth dispensers as opposed to air or paper towels.
That date, I am not certain when it was, but it does not seem to me that it was all that long ago. The details of the request and our response, probably best discussed under 16.4.(b) in the Education Administration Services, because that is the area of the department which administers regulations in the acts and assists in analyzing or interpreting legal or judicial matters. But that is the circumstance there as I recall it that we did get recommendations which the field has been instructed to follow.
* (1550)
Ms. Friesen: Mr. Chairman, I am interested in also whether the department has a policy, policy guidelines for schools, similar kinds of instructions to schools on violence in schools; a safe-schools policy, it is sometimes referred to. Some provinces do this at a provincial level. The minister's response in the case of the washroom towels issue is an indication that the department does take the initiative at specific times and does respond on specific issues. I am wondering where the department is and what letters, guidelines, recommendations have been made to school divisions on the overall safe-school policies.
I am going from this--I recognize the minister said there is a section of the department which deals with administration, but this particular section of the department, 16.2.(d) does say: ensure school facilities are safe, comfortable and appropriate learning environments for delivery of current curricula.
So that is the context in which I am asking, and what is the difference between what the minister did in the case of the towels and the inquest, and the overall provisions for a broader safe-schools policy?
Mrs. McIntosh: We all know that researchers and practitioners agree on the changing nature of school safety, school violence. In school violence, in particular, it seems that either bullying and intimidation are more commonplace or the reporting of it is more commonplace. It seems that more young women, more younger children appear to be involved in violent activities. We are more conscious of racial ethnic conflicts. Whether they are more prevalent or we are more sensitive to them is hard to know, but we certainly are spending more time being aware of them and dealing with them. The intensity of violent acts and the use of weapons is of increasing concern.
A safe school attempts to counter these trends by building the foundation of a set of clear behavioural expectations and a process that deals with misbehaviour in a way that is fair, is equitable, is consistently enforced. The safe school also includes preventative strategies such as teaching prosocial and decision-making skills. As well, a safe school utilizes proactive programs such as peer mediation and self-esteem, and we see those in place, the peer mediation programs, in particular, with some degrees of success in many schools. A safe school clearly indicates what is not acceptable and nonnegotiable in the educational setting and communicates this to their students and to the parent community.
The tolerance of acts of violence, assaults, and use of weapons has no place in a safe-school environment. It is important to note that, more and more, racist and sexist taunting must be considered a part of violent behaviour. Jokes, there were some, I will not refer to them here, made yesterday that were absolutely appalling in terms of sexist comments about women and abuse of children.
No one has drawn specific attention to it, but I think if the members read Hansard, they might be interested in what some of their members have said regarding children and the abuse of children and consider what violence means and references to violence with children. It is not funny. [interjection] I will not reference it here. You can read Hansard. You should, because there are a lot of open mouths hanging.
But at any rate it is important to note that words can be considered part of violent behaviour, and there is extensive documentation that a strong stance against those forms of violence within a comprehensive preventative approach results in a reduction of violent incidents in the school setting. One such document is School Violence and the Zero Tolerance Alternative: Some Principles and Policy Prescriptions. That is written by Thomas Gabor. He is a Ph.D., and a copy of this report is available through the Solicitor General of Canada.
The department staff met with regional teams and key personnel from the school divisions in some areas to talk about violence prevention, and the broad needs and specific requests that were identified were in the areas of training, staff development, support for parent advisory groups and resource acquisitions. The department worked extensively with the regional teams, as well as divisional and school personnel, to deliver workshops and services that met those needs. A summary of the services that were offered is available. It covers all the activities related to violence prevention across the province. It is organized by region and division.
Some examples of the services that were offered to the school divisions and their parent communities were to identify the planning and supports necessary to create safe schools; to develop positive codes of conduct, school rules and discipline processes; to train teachers in the skills to set up peer mediation programs where students are taught the skills to help their fellow students to solve problems peacefully; to work with community parent groups to develop concrete ways of improving the climate and safety of the school and the community.
The focus that emerged from the consultations and meetings was that violence prevention is the shared responsibility of all aspects of the community. To this end, the department was represented on a number of intersectoral committees to address the problems of youth violence, and those committees were really felt to be most helpful. There is a booklet called Science Safety, a K-to-S4 resource manual for teachers and schools and school divisions released about a year ago, which we released. It provides technical and practical support to science teachers and administrators regarding safe laboratory procedures and characteristics. The document also contains guidelines for construction and renovation of science facilities. Regional workshops were conducted in September and October this fall.
We have had, in terms of regional activities, 35 regional activities. We have had school-based sessions on crisis prevention, on combatting racism, on conflict management, on peer mediation, on crisis intervention training. These are school-based sessions. We have had parent sessions on safe schools. We have had preservicing of teachers on street gang awareness, conflict resolution, youth violence, safe schools, classroom management--and not just one. Classroom management, we have had three; safe schools, we have had two; conflict resolution, we have had two; conflict management, we have had three sessions of each, so it is not just--I am giving one title, but there have been certainly more than one session of each of those titles.
For meetings and conferences, we have had workshops, activities in community violence, preventions officers, street gang co-ordinators, week without violence, mediation, program street gang protocol.
For other groups, we have worked with the Downtown BIZ. We have worked with the YMCA. We have worked with the Canadian Legal Education. We have worked with the Red Cross program. We have had divisional sessions for counsellor roles in safe schools, for safe school planning. We have had school-based sessions for effective discipline processes, for codes of conduct; again, for the others, four sessions in peer mediation and classroom management, conflict resolutions, safe school plans, et cetera. We have had parent sessions on decreasing violence in the community, parent sessions on street gang awareness. We have had meetings and consultations with other groups and a whole variety of sessions.
* (1600)
I can go on. I do not know how detailed one wants to get, but we do have other information to show how these were done in particular school divisions; for example, in St. Vital and River East and Seven Oaks and Transcona, in Lord Selkirk, Rhineland, Seine River, Morris-MacDonald, et cetera, the divisions that we went to to do some of these things.
You know, those ones that I have just read, those 35 activities were from the central region alone. The St. Vital School Division, it had eight, and Lord Selkirk had seven. I do not know how far into these you want me to get. In Frontier, for example, they not only had the ones I have mentioned, but they also had workshops based on positive school climate, on bullying, on effective behaviour, on behaviour support, violence prevention and follow-up workshops, effective behaviour management, working with disruptive students and so on and so forth.
I think I will pause. I think you have been given a bit of an idea. I could go on and name some more, you know, students with difficult home backgrounds, positive learning environments, et cetera, et cetera, but all of this is to say, Mr. Chairman, that we are working broadly with schools, teachers and boards and many other groups in society to address the whole matter of school safety and prevention of violence, safety in material things, safety in attitudes, and safety in relationships and systems that are set up within which our children function.
I think that we have worked very hard. We have provided information and consultation on safe schools and codes of conduct, and in addition to all of the things I have named, we have participated on 10 provincial committees. We have worked with more than 160 sessions. We have even done sessions for band-operated schools, although they are not within our jurisdiction. We have done sessions for independent schools.
I will maybe stop there because I do not know how long the member wishes to stay on this section. I think I have given her the gist of the kinds of things we are doing and to give more would be interesting but not add more than I think she needs to hear to get the sense of where we are going.
Ms. Friesen: I wondered if the minister would have anything that could be tabled from that. It is something that I think all MLAs are confronted with from schools and parents in the division who have concerns, not always about their own schools but sometimes about the things that they hear from other schools, and I wondered what was available.
I was at a meeting in the Seine River Division where a member of the minister's staff made a very good presentation along with somebody from the Child and Youth Secretariat whose presentation I did not hear. But I wondered what was available. I thought the materials from that were very good and very helpful, and I wondered what else there would be that MLAs in general could share with their communities. I would not necessarily give the list here, but maybe the minister could look at what would be available and that would help the general public.
I wanted to ask the minister about the transfer payments in this section of the budget or Estimates which go from zero to $280,000, and I wondered what the reason for that was.
Mrs. McIntosh: Mr. Chairman, could I ask for some clarification, please? The member has asked for some information, and we would be most pleased to provide it. I just want to make sure I am getting it right. Does the member wish to have me table the type of information I have just read, or does she wish to get some of the information that might be presented during one of the sessions? For example, I have read a list of the topics of sessions. We can do that, or if it is information from one of the sessions. I am not quite sure, I did not hear quite clearly.
Ms. Friesen: No, I think the list that was read out, you know, and will be covered in Hansard. That can be summarized. No, it was the materials that might have been presented in those sessions. Obviously it was a lot of sessions, so there will be different types of material. Some of it probably overlaps a selection, and I am thinking from the context of a parent who would phone in.
Mrs. McIntosh: We can do that. I just wanted to make sure, because we had not all heard it the same, we were going to bring back what was actually wanted, and we can certainly do that for the member. That may be good information, as she suggested, for all MLAs.
The grants and the transfer that the member has requested, that increase of $280,000 was for the interdisciplinary middle years multimedia project.
Ms. MaryAnn Mihychuk (St. James): I wanted to just delve into two areas: one being back to the Grade 10 math curriculum that is being piloted this year; and No.2, the Reading Recovery program which has been adopted by the province or endorsed and being used at early years, I believe Grade 1. So maybe we could start with the math.
I mentioned a couple of days ago that I am experiencing first-hand the Grade 10 precal curriculum and finding it quite a challenge. I had an opportunity to meet a teacher in that program, another teacher at a school in Winnipeg 1 actually, and she was indicating that in her opinion, given the rigorousness and the clear differentiation of the three courses in math--there is precalculus, the applied, and then is it consumer math--given that they are clearly distinctive courses, in her opinion a student would not be able to transfer from the Grade 10 level into the Grade 11, into another math course.
For instance, you would not be able to go from precalculus, had a student passed, into applied mathematics, and she went on to say why, given that there is, I understand, the reliance or the experience of using a large number of mathematical tools and technology, which I think is very important, and it is understandable that if that basis is given at the Grade 10 level, then a student trying to enter in Grade 11 may have great difficulty picking that up.
So I would like clarification because the minister said that there would be this integration and a student would be able to move between the courses, and yet the people who are testing the courses are saying that it is not possible.
* (1610)
Mrs. McIntosh: I do not have the Hansard from the other day with me, but I think if the member checks it, she will see I was pretty clear in saying that the province has left it such that if a student and the teacher and everybody feels the student can go and take one course, take them out of sequence, so to speak, that they can do that. The province will not say they cannot. The province will allow, but the school division will make the determination.
I believe I said, without being able to check Hansard right now, that it would probably be that most divisions would insist that one be a prerequisite for the other; for example, just as now, technically speaking you can take a 30G and go into a 40S. Most divisions would require one as a prerequisite, but they do not have to, and most students would have very great difficulty taking one course without the other having been taken before, and I believe I said that the other day, as well, that it would be a challenge for a student to do that but that the province would not prevent a student from doing that.
Once they get into high school, it is perceived they would have enough judgment to know whether or not they have the prerequisite skills. In the elementary years or the lower years, we say absolutely that we will determine that you have to have prerequisites, but in the senior years we allow the opportunity for school divisions to make decisions that might allow students to challenge material, given their maturity, that may be out of sync, but that would be up to the school division. We do not have any policy prohibiting student movement from math course to math course across the Senior 2 to Senior 4. The school divisions can establish as policies if they so desire, and some do. I am not sure how many--a portion. I do not know if it is a large portion or a small portion.
Also, if I could just interject, I have a list of the Manitoba Council of Learning Technology's members, and I have left off three names by mistake without meaning to: Benjy Levin from the University of Manitoba, Doug Louvstad from Keewatin Community College, and Ray LaFleche.
At any rate, maybe I could just put this list in. I will table this, Mr. Chairman, and I am sorry I do not have three copies, but these are the proper names and the organizations they represent with the names of the consortiums, and John Janzen, for example, is the representative from the South Central Consortium. Just for the record we have nine consortiums that are represented on the council, and I will also submit that for the member's information.
Mr. Ben Sveinson, Acting Chairperson, in the Chair
Ms. Mihychuk: I understand that the minister is saying there is nothing provincially to define whether a student goes through or not, but I am assuming that students are required to follow provincial curriculum and certain standards and expectations set by the province. So I think in reality it pretty much limits the students by what we expect from them in those courses, so I appreciate the minister's clarification and accept that.
The other area that was raised as a concern was something that was called the Grade 9 funnel, and in particular as it is going to impact students at the Grade 9 level in the subject of math. I think the concern, and probably the minister is aware, that in the curriculum in that area there is only one course, and so there is no differentiation of interest or ability provided at the Grade 9 level, and at Grade 10 there are actually three options.
So for many students the curriculum is challenging, extremely difficult, and we are seeing quite a few students repeating the Grade 9 math. Are there intentions by the province to provide more options in Grade 9? Are there going to be two math courses perhaps available for students so that they can be successful and move on through the curriculum in an area of interest and complete a full high school program and not face what they call the funnel?
* (1620)
Mrs. McIntosh: Historically, curriculum in all subject areas has been offered as what we call a core curriculum from kindergarten through to Senior 1 or Grade 9, and that is in order to establish a solid foundation in all subject areas. Even though Grade 9 classes now are located in with the 10, 11s and 12s, it is in those last three years that the specialization begins to occur. So you will find Grade 9 as the foundation year, so to speak, for high school. The Grade 9 mathematics course is general, generic, in that it covers a broad spectrum of mathematics, just covers it all in a generic way so that students can begin to understand where their interests in math might lie. From that, then, they will begin to siphon off into the various mathematical opportunities in Seniors 2, 3 and 4. It is felt that Grade 9 is still part of that kindergarten to Grade 9 period that comes before you begin to specialize. It is a foundation year. You are in the high school. You are able to see and observe the types of things that are available and from there you can choose.
But we still feel that is too early. We said the last two years of high school, really, are the two years in which you can really begin to specialize. In those last years you can load up on history, or you can load up on math or sciences. So there will be differing levels of ability, of course, in Grade 9. I do not know whether the member is an advocate of streaming or destreaming, but the key to addressing that, of course, lies in the differentiating instruction style of teaching.
It is what is done in elementary school; it is what high school teachers are beginning to do as well. It is the way to go about the task. We just feel that Senior 1 is too early to begin that kind of sophisticated streaming that takes place in high schools. The High School Review that came in when the member's party was in government said the same thing, said exactly what we are saying here about Grade 9. I am sure the member will recall, because I think she may have been on the school board at the time that the Pawley government brought in that recommendation. We are doing just that, because it is not a political thing or a partisan thing. It is true or not true, and politics have nothing to do with it. We think the High School Review in that sense had some good recommendations.
In terms of comparison of past and present Senior 1 math curriculum, about 90 to 95 percent of the '97 curricular outcomes are similar both in intent and in content to the '95 document, Schools and Objectives.
Mr. Chairperson in the Chair
That means the educators have had the new, the so-called new Senior 1 math curriculum since September 1995. This, of course, the '95-96 was voluntary implementation, but teachers have been using the curriculum and should not be having difficulty with it. It is not a year in which we stream students for math, I guess, is the bottom line. We see it as a foundation year.
We, being Manitoba Education and Training, Manitoba Education and Training is silent on the issue of streaming or destreaming. We have policy in this area. Schools can group children in whatever way they see fit based upon divisional philosophy and its values and its beliefs.
Ms. Mihychuk: Is the minister concerned that the provincial exams in Grade 9 may narrow the so-called Grade 9 funnel?
Mr. Chairperson: Are you ready?
Mrs. McIntosh: Pardon?
Mr. Chairperson: Did you answer?
Mrs. McIntosh: If she wants me to go ahead. I did not think she was finished her question though.
Ms. Mihychuk: Oh, yes, I am short.
Mrs. McIntosh: Well, I am going to have to ask her then to repeat it because I thought she was just doing an introduction. I did not hear the question portion of it.
* (1630)
Ms. Mihychuk: My question was quite simple. The question is are you concerned that the provincial exams may narrow or make the funnel even more intense?
Mrs. McIntosh: I am not quite sure I understand the question because the Grade 9 test or the Grade 9 exam, once it is off pilot and on to full implementation, is not designed to stream students or get them ready for placement someplace. It is designed to determine what they know about the Grade 9 curriculum, and so it is not a streaming mechanism.
I am not sure if that is what she is meaning in her question, but I will just say simply, why would it change anything? The Grade 9 curriculum will be there. The students will learn the Grade 9 curriculum, and then at the end of the year they will be assessed on how well they have been able to absorb and apply that knowledge. Then the information on how well they have done will be provided to them in a student profile which their teachers will share with them, which will say you are really good at this and you are really good at that and you need extra help here and you do not know how to do this thing at all.
So they will get all this information. Then whatever math course they register in, the teacher the following year will be given that student profile, and whatever math course they register in, their math teacher will know from reading the student profile where that student's strengths and weaknesses lie and will use differentiated instruction to help fill in any gaps that might be there so the student can absorb the next year's information properly.
So I do not know what difference it makes in terms of a so-called funnel, why it would increase it or decrease it. I do not understand the question, I guess. If I still had a Senior 1 student, I would not want a Senior 1 student entering Senior 2 without knowing whether or not that Senior I student had been able to achieve a certain level of understanding or without knowing that student's real abilities.
Ms. Mihychuk: I would like to ask a few questions on Reading Recovery. This is a program that was first modelled in the U.S.?
Mrs. McIntosh: It was first modelled in New Zealand.
Ms. Mihychuk: This is a program, I understand, that is extremely successful, and several schools, particularly in Winnipeg, have been using Reading Recovery. Is that correct?
Mrs. McIntosh: Yes, Mr. Chairman, that is correct.
Ms. Mihychuk: The early literacy funding announcement is somehow tied, I understand, to Reading Recovery, and Reading Recovery, the program, requires fairly intense professional development on a regular basis in local centres. Is that correct?
Mrs. McIntosh: Well, yes, the member is on the right track. They do not have to be in specialized centres necessarily. We have a train-the-trainer model for Reading Recovery, but it is very intensive. It is one on one. It does require a specialized training from an expert in Reading Recovery techniques. We have the Western Institute for Reading Recovery here in Manitoba now, the second placement for Canada. The first one is in Toronto, and it is very expensive, but it is worth it.
What we have said with our grant is that we will pay for that program, or one like it if divisions can show that they have something equivalent to it. I think there was one we found that was equivalent or close to it--or close to it but not quite. So we are saying that we will fund Reading Recovery. We believe in it, and if there is another program that meets that same level of success, we will fund it too. So it is Reading Recovery or the equivalent, but there are not many equivalents to this program. It is very intensive.
I have been in Toronto and sat through the training sessions or portions, medium-sized portions of the training sessions, and watched the one-on-one. The results are absolutely amazing. They have taken children who were very much at risk and turned them into really good readers in no time flat, over and over and over again. But it is very intense, and it does cost a lot.
Ms. Mihychuk: Can the minister tell us--the professional development component, I understand that it is almost on a weekly basis or biweekly that teachers get together and take that type of intensive training. Is that correct?
Mrs. McIntosh: Mr. Chairman, it is every two weeks that they get together. They are trained in--maybe just back up. This started by a lady named Marie Clay in 1987--was it--or earlier, in New Zealand. She is a Ph.D., and she was on the National Reading Program, a national program in New Zealand, and developed this, and it just shot through the world. It is now fully implemented in six countries, came to Canada in 1988.
We have two school divisions in Manitoba that began using it in 1994, and then we have teacher leaders in four school divisions that went and got the training. It is a train-the-trainer model. The Western Institute of Reading Recovery was established here in '96, and that institute now trains teachers and teacher leaders not just for Manitoba but for the western provinces. It is 18 sessions, two and a half hours each every two weeks.
The goal is to take the lowest achieving students in Grade 1--it is a short-term, early literacy intervention--and turn them into competent, independent readers and writers in approximately 20 weeks. So they use individualized instructional strategies. They are trained to analyze and adjust their instruction to an ever-accelerated learning process for the students.
I just have a few quotes here because they are interesting. One Reading Recovery teacher here in Manitoba, who was a former reading clinician, indicated that, when he was looking back on his training year, he regarded it and he has written this quote: I regarded it as a time of dying and rebirth, a letting go of some cherished beliefs and attitudes concomitant with a discovery or rediscovery of other points of view.
He pointed out five things that he learned as a Reading Recovery teacher, and he said they were these. The first lesson that he said he learned was: make no excuses for the learner or for yourself, like do not give them any excuse. No excuse for the learner, no excuse for the teacher.
Lesson two, expect learning and teach doggedly. Lesson three, watch your language. Lesson four, guard your lesson time as a valuable commodity, not a second of it should ever be wasted. Lesson five, do everything possible to connect reading and writing. He said when he was talking about what he felt was lesson two, which was to expect learning and teach doggedly, like, you have to have very high expectations for your students. You expect that they will perform, and you have to be dogged in your determination.
This is all the same gentleman. He said: a most surprising discovery during the year was the realization that in many respects I had come to learn to not expect learning from my students. There is a severe limitation with the assumption, the failure, to learn results from something in the child. The program, Reading Recovery, emphasizes good teaching, teaching that is determined and conveys to the student an absolutely strong belief that the student will be successful in this great adventure of learning to read.
* (1640)
I now see that in the complex dance of teacher-student interaction, attitudes and beliefs are the heart and the sinew. Teachers must become experts in how a particular child learns and adjust the teaching accordingly. The student should not have to adjust; the teacher must. Because it is simply not possible to predict how successful any one student will be in learning, particularly for an area as complex as reading, we must remain undaunted in our teaching efforts. In essence, we have no choice but to teach as if every single student will become a successful reader. It is only in this way that we will approximate that elusive goal of having each child work up to his potential. I just think that is such a beautiful thing he has written.
We now have 88 Reading Recovery teachers working in 102 schools in 16 divisions in Manitoba, and that is in two years that that has happened. The student outcome data, collected in '96-97, indicates that most of the students successfully completed the program. In '95-96, about 70 percent of the students were successful. In 1996-97, over 75 were successful in completing the program that go through the 20 weeks. We felt that was an amazingly high success rate for short concentrated periods of time, so we really think we have found something good here.
Regarding access to the training, we are in the final stages of working out details with two rural and one northern division to establish some training sites. A couple of schools have learning labs built in them. Oak Bluff School has a Reading Recovery lab. It is a one-way glass. Because the teachers work one on one with the students privately, people wanting to analyze the student's progress can watch on the other side of a one-way mirror, so the student thinks there is a mirror on the wall. The student knows there are people behind the mirror. They never keep that from the student, but the student cannot see or hear them, so they do not seem to bother the student that much. But they are told there are people on the other side of that wall interested-in-your-progress sort of thing, but they are not there bothering them.
Sorry, I really did not mean to get off topic here, but it is a wonderful program. I would be delighted if the member is ever interested in coming to a Reading Recovery workshop or something. I would love to have her come along with her past experience in K-12.
Ms. Mihychuk: Yes, I would love to. I would love to take the minister up on it. I have heard marvellous things about the program. I guess my concern is accessibility, particularly in rural and northern areas. I am glad the minister mentioned that some efforts were being made. Divisions were particularly concerned about the cost for bringing teachers in to provide the training, and I am sure she is aware that some of Manitoba's most intense literacy challenges are in rural and northern Manitoba.
This is a program I hope will be available to those extremely high-need areas and urge the minister to look to provide that to those children. I think that it is a very progressive thing and pleased to see teachers being so adaptable, looking at the student's needs in terms of learning style and modifying their own teaching to their needs I think is the way of the future and will make a student's performance much more successful which I think is what we want. So that type of flexibility needs to be there by the teacher and I think by the system, and we need to respond to those needs.
One of the areas that does concern me is the number of students who have missed this opportunity, that may be in Grade 3 or in Grade 4, and the minister knows that once a student is in Grade 3, and if they are having difficulty reading, it is almost a licence to fail. It is very, very tough. I would say to any parent, do whatever you can to have them good competent readers by the time they are in Grade 3, for sure by the time they enter Grade 4. But we unfortunately do have children that are there, that are in that horrible situation where they cannot read and they are in Grade 4. Divisions struggle because there are intense resources needed to provide those children with that opportunity, and many divisions just cannot find the resources to provide it. Has any provision or consideration been given by the province to look at the needs of those students who are now in crisis and at that point where we are going to determine whether they are going to be successful in the future or perhaps have a very negative educational experience?
Mrs. McIntosh: The member raises some excellent points and, in terms of reading recovery, I really hope that we can be able to expand this into all areas where we have high incidences of children at risk. One of the things we have been able to do more and more is to have better and earlier identification. Our goal is to really try to get into some good strong early interventions. I would love to see this expanding into those high-risk areas, and we will certainly be doing what we can within the confines of the money we are provided to do that.
She has identified a really good goal for which we should aim, and the other part of that is that we have been working through the Children and Youth Secretariat. I know it seems to be taking a long time, but we will soon start to see the results of trying to do things at the preschool level. We talked a year or two before about nursery schools being costly enhancements, which they are. They are definitely enhancements. They really assist in making a more successful reader out of a student. They are much more ready for school if they have had that, and if they are at risk, it is a godsend. But it has a cost; from where should the money come? Through the Children and Youth Secretariat we are starting to identify where we think the money should come from without taking away from the money we need for other things in school.
But, having said that, if they do get to school and they have not had the benefit of some good preschool intervention, then Reading Recovery is essential, and we need to do more and spread it more and we are going to be trying to do that. If they miss that, the member's next question is a very legitimate, good question. What do you do with children who hit that eight-, nine-, 10-year-old age group and have not yet picked up their literacy or their computation? Because it is devastating, it really is, for the child. I am going to answer that, but I just say it is one of the reasons I really feel--I know there is a feeling, particularly with the Teachers' Society, that you should not be doing a serious examination at Grade 3. It is only diagnostic; it is not counted for marks. But I think that you have to do one at that level to make sure that, if somehow they have slipped through to that age and stage without somebody picking up, you do not send them on to the next level with no grounding because then they are really screwed, you know. [interjection] Well, they are really put at a severe disadvantage. Pardon the vernacular.
* (1650)
So we are trying to do a number of things. Our new English language arts curriculum is designed to tackle the literacy needs of students, whatever their grade. So, even if they are in Grade 2, the curriculum, we hope, will pick up the flaws they might--if they have not picked up something in Grade 1. One key is to ensure that our teachers have the kinds of knowledge and skills and strategies to deal with the literacy requirements of students at each stage. So, if I am teaching Grades 3 or 4, I should be able to note that a skill that is normally picked up in Grade 2 or 3 is missing, and we can do that through--well, some teachers just do that; some just know how to do it and they do it really well, and everybody lines up to get their kids in those teachers' classes, those wonderful teachers so that people say: I hope my child gets Mrs. Jones or whatever. Others could do it quite easily if they just had some professional development or if they had some stronger indication of that in the Faculty of Education.
So the approach we have is to assist teachers of older children with better and more strategic language arts curricula and assisting with resource documents, at the same time bring on board the early prevention to stop and reduce the number of students with poor LA skills moving on to the next grades. But there are transferable skills and strategies emanating from early intervention, Reading Recovery, et cetera. Those types of techniques can also be used from beyond just Grade 1.
The staff has handed me such an intervention or such a strategy from Brandon School Division, and I would like to give Brandon some praise for this because, while much has been said about Brandon's math problems, not as much, unfortunately, has been said about the good job they are doing in LA. I have said it, but the reporters do not seem to want to pick it up. This school division, Brandon, as a result of introducing Reading Recovery--Reading Recovery has impacted their entire system. They have introduced assessment methods, and they have kept running records. The teachers have been taking a running record of a child's reading and analyzing it and using it to plan the child's program. They have got an observation survey. They have been training teachers to use a battery of tests to observe the child's reading and writing behaviours and that is used to plan the program.
They have teaching for reading strategies. The awareness of the strategy is used to process and comprehend text and the teaching methods to promote use of the strategies. They have guided reading. This is a small-group classroom instruction method that emphasizes development of reading strategies and a gradual increase in reading levels for all students. They have a couple of people, Dale Severyn and Donna Forsyth, who have both led sessions on guided reading, as have several of the Reading Recovery teachers. They have Reading Recovery in Brandon, as is pretty obvious.
This is a major focus of the early years committee, and several professional development sessions are being held again this year. This program meets the need of all the classroom children to have instruction with material that is slightly above their independent level, therefore advancing their skill in reading new and more difficult material. Many classroom teachers have identified that this is an issue in terms of the child who gains basic reading skills but does not continue to be challenged to move to harder material.
They have early literacy teams there, and in the early years, and in some cases middle years, staff have developed study groups and made literacy development their professional focus, and the Reading Recovery teachers have been an integral part of those teams. The discussion and focus on literacy and shared professional development have contributed to the strength of the teams. A common language has developed through shared use of assessments such as the reading record and analyzing of strategies used by the child. In many cases, the Reading Recovery teacher may provide some of the information to the study groups initially, and then from that point the in-depth discussion and sharing among the teachers becomes the strength of the team. It is something that has happened for many, many years, and that is that when classroom teachers share with each other effective literacy strategies, there is powerful potential.
I will just list the other topics. They have brought in parents as partners. They have a middle years tutorial study group, literacy resources and book levelling and consultation. I would just like to give them credit for what they are doing and say that when school divisions can transfer the skills the way Brandon has from Reading Recovery strategies into their regular classroom strategies, things really go well, and, certainly, their record of bringing students up to good levels of literacy is known and respected by the parents and by the department.
This little thing, Reading Recovery in the Brandon School Division No. 40, from which I have just quoted, was submitted by the Westman Reading Recovery teachers, but it shows the spillover into those other grades that the member for St. James (Ms. Mihychuk) was asking about--what happens if they get through Grade 1 without Reading Recovery and they slip into Grade 2 or Grade 3 without picking up essential skills? They can still be done through a variety of things such as I have named, but if Reading Recovery is in the school, I am absolutely convinced it does have that ripple effect through the system.
There is nothing magical about Reading Recovery. It is just a teaching technique, but it is one that seems to work, and along with the differentiated instruction, it seems to work, and I think I did table this. [interjection] Did the Clerk get this thing that I was tabling?
I am tabling it, Mr. Chairman, with apologies. I just have the one copy and I give back to the staff the Reading Recovery of the Brandon School Division.
Ms. Mihychuk: I just want to quickly wrap up this subject and ask the minister what division and what program has been funded that was similar to Reading Recovery?
Mrs. McIntosh: I am just getting that information for the member, but just in response to one of her questions, it is not nearly enough, but in terms of the North, in terms of band-operated schools, we have got Reading Recovery in Peguis Central School and Sioux Valley School. Although they are band operated, that program is there.
I have a list of the school divisions where we have it and it is not in the North the way I would like to see it. We have got Brandon, Turtle Mountain, the band schools, St. James-Assiniboia, Winnipeg, Interlake, Morris-MacDonald, Pembina Valley, Mountain, Seine River, Assiniboine South.
Mr. Chairperson: Order, please. The hour now being five o'clock, committee rise. Call in the Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Marcel Laurendeau): The hour now being five o'clock, as previously agreed, this House is now adjourned and stands adjourned until Monday, 1:30 p.m. Thank you, and have a good weekend.