"Shouldn't put too much emphasis on the Foundations Skills Assessment". I have to disagree with this statement from Lyn Hall. From my experience and awareness of people who did not learn the foundational skills in their early years of school, life has been a struggle for them.

Those years from Kindergarten to grade 7 determine their ability to learn for the rest of their lives. If the basics haven't been mastered, it's too late for most of them. Chester

"I am confident we are making progress, despite what the FSA results might indicate."

So, the next question to Mr. Hall would be:

"What indictors do you use to give you the confidence that the FSA is not a good indicator of the progress students are making?"

Depending on the answer, the follow up question might be:

"Why do you feel your indicators give a better assessment of the FSA indicator?"

After that, depending on the answer:

"What other school districts use the indicators you use?"

After that, depending on the answer:

"So why do you say that if so many other school districts use other preferred indicators, the FSA is still used?"

And so on .......

We should have objective and informative answers to such questions, not politically correct, diffuse the issues answers. This is our future we are dealing with and we should know wheter our future is in good hands.

I forgot to add that right now, from what I can observe on the outside, it does not look like it is in good hands.

Owl

I generally agree with most of what you say, and your opinions are well thought out and grounded in fact.

I am curious to know what exactly the observations are that you are referring to in your statement: "I forgot to add that right now, from what I can observe on the outside, it does not look like it is in good hands."

Thank you for those words Smooth.

Here is my reasoning based on the table shown in the newspaper on Friday.

These are the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations

Reading grade 4

for PG
2005-06 - 75%
2006-07 – 69%
change -6%

for BC
2005-06 - 79%
2006-07 – 75%
change -4%

PG dropped 50% more than BC

Writing grade 4

for PG
2005-06 - 84%
2006-07 – 86%
change + 2%

for BC
2005-06 - 89%
2006-07 – 90%
change +1%

PG increased 100% more than BC

Numeracy grade 4

for PG
2005-06 - 81%
2006-07 – 77%
change -4%

for BC
2005-06 - 86%
2006-07 – 85%
change -1%
PG dropped 300% more than BC

In grade 7, PG dropped more than the province in each category (each figure shown is a reduction over the previous year)
Reading -3% versus -1%
Writing -3% versus -2%
Numeracy -6% versus -3%

So, in 5 out of 6 measurements we have gotten what I would say is significantly worse than BC over the past year.

Also, if one were to look at past performance shown on that same table the percentage in PG for this year is the lowest it has ever been over a 5 year period for reading 4th grade; numeracy 4th grade; reading 7th grade; and second lowest for the other three measurements.

But too me, as I implied in my original post, that would not be so bad if the Chair of the Board would either admit that, or indicate to us in an objective fashion why this method of measurement is a false method.

Instead, he chose to deal with the one relative measurement positive and ignored the other 5.

Thus, I have not confidence that what appears to be an issue, and a very important issue in my mind, is not being addressed.

I have often written about competition among communities to attract industry and businesses to them.

The quality of education is an important factor for many parents with a young family. The university has helped a lot in that area. The fact that the college appears to be holding its own in some areas is also beneficial to provide options.

It is time the primary school system follows suit. It will not do so until the school board accepts that it has a problem and needs to address it.

"Most encouraging though were our results in writing which show improvement at both the grade 4 and grade 7 level"

Just read teh table once more to make sure I did not make a glaring error somewhere and noticed that Hall did make such an error when I re-read his quote. On the assumption it was a correct quote and the figures in the paper are correct, the above statement is false.

The table shows the following in writing:

grade 4 expectation rating changed from 84% to 86%

grade 7 changed from 83% to 80%

I am undure how Mr. Hall managed to see the grade 7 results as an improvement.

asdfg

I have to remember .... s is the second letter key in from the left and d is the third .....

;-)

I think the general problem with education today is that we define a very large number of problems, but never come up with solutions. What are the solutions?

I think I will have a drink while I ponder the solution. And it might help if I get my pregnant pal all likkered up too. Then I might figure out a solution. DUH!!

Any new generation would be a good generation to stop this kind of tragedy. Know what I'm sayin', man?

Please disregard above comments. It seems my dyslexia has taken over. My apologies. I must go to school again soon to learn how to read. Boy! DEo I feel silly.

Problems in education – such as??
• Low family literacy
• Weak school/family relationships
• High student mobility
• High student to teacher ratio

Solutions – such as?
• Increasing motivation to succeed primarily through greater engagement in classroom activities.
• Improving reading skills plus higher order thinking skills by increasing the use of contemporary and generation specific issues
• Use different instructional techniques for different learning styles.
• Provide opportunities for feedback

I like the following view of the relationship of schooling to education especially the notion of a shift from content to context. Introduce content in the context of the location and times we find ourselves in.

http://eden.dei.uc.pt/~adf/whitebk.htm