Tories’ education plan open to interpretation

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This article was published 27/04/2016 (3461 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Buried deep within premier-designate Brian Pallister’s platform are two tantalizingly brief promises to give teachers greater say in writing report cards and assigning students failing grades.

But what exactly Pallister means — that’s not yet clear.

“I can read into it what I want,” Manitoba Teachers’ Society president Norm Gould said Tuesday.

Everyone involved in the education system from teachers to trustees to parents was involved for three years in designing a new provincewide report card, Gould said. It did away with jargon in favour of plain language, and ditched the traditional ‘cookie-cutter’ approach to choosing from among prepared comments.

“I don’t know what the Tories’ concerns are, and what they’re trying to fix,” said Gould.

“There’s always been a philosophical struggle” about how and how far teachers should discuss a student’s behaviour on a report card, he said. The Tory policy statement implies “Teachers would like to have authentic comments,” Gould said.

Educators didn’t want to limit what teachers can say on the new report cards, or how much they can say, Gould said — that’s why many school divisions have gone to online report cards.

“Some divisions, the parents can log onto a portal. You can say what you need to say, to communicate with the parents.”

Three NDP education ministers ago, Nancy Allan made it clear a no-fail policy does not exist, Gould said.

“I think there’s a misconception that there’s a no-fail policy, and that you can’t deduct marks” for turning work in late. The situation isn’t at all straightforward, Gould cautioned:

“For every year a student is held back, the chances of not graduating are 50 per cent.”

He cited examples such as a student getting a 65 for turning work in on time, while another student is a week late but gets a 90. “When you’re in the workforce, will that be tolerated?” he asked.

Would the student with the lower mark have done better with an extra week?, he asked. On the other hand, some see docking marks as punishment that reduces a mark below the student’s ability level. By always being late, “They could get a C in the course, but their ability is greater than that.”

Gould said teachers who fail a student based on a full year’s work, or lack of it, face pressure to provide the student with extra work at year’s end to get the grade up to a pass.

The issues need a lot of discussion, Gould said, but Pallister’s raising them as he has “doesn’t tell us a heck of a lot” about where the province will be going with them.

“Brian Pallister has said he wants the input of front-line folks — nothing better than sitting down with MTS,” declared Gould.

The Conservatives did not raise the two issues during the campaign, and could not be immediately reached Tuesday. The new education minister will be named May 3.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca