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Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Performance Measures

The Ministry of Education, together with its partners, has three main goals:

  • improved student achievement;
  • a high quality education system; and
  • improved literacy for all British Columbians.

Well educated citizens are better able to meet the demands of a modern economy, and are more likely to become productive, participating members of society. The Government’s great goal — to make British Columbia the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent — is based on the belief that to strive for excellence is a worthy ambition.

Goal 1: Improved Student Achievement

Continuous improvement in student achievement refers to both academic achievement (including reading, writing, and numeracy) and non-academic achievement, such as learning to make responsible choices related to health and safety, and demonstrating the qualities of good citizenship.

Objective 1.1: Improved Academic Achievement for All Students12

Strategies

  • To assess, monitor, and report student achievement levels for the overall student population, Aboriginal students and students with special needs.
  • To improve Aboriginal student achievement by supporting school districts as they complete and implement Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements.
  • To share information and best practices among school districts and other jurisdictions.
12  Student achievement levels are available for a number of student sub populations, including Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal, ESL, French immersion, and by gender on the Ministry website at www.bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/grad/grad-rpt.php/.

Performance Measure 1: Completion Rate

Performance Measure 2006/07
Actual		 2007/08
Forecast		 2008/09
Target		 2009/10
Target		 2010/11
Target
Completion Rate — Overall. 80%1 81% 82% 83% 84%
Completion Rate — Aboriginal. 48% 53% 58% 60% 63%
Data Source: Data completion rates are based on the Ministry of Education’s 1701 form, student transcripts and provincial exams.
1  The Ministry has worked with School Districts to address a discrepancy in data collection that resulted in under-reporting the actual percentage of students that graduated with a Dogwood Diploma within 6 years of entering Grade 8. The 2006/07 percentage is based on the adjusted data.

The school completion rate is determined by calculating the percentage of students who graduate with a Dogwood Diploma within six years of starting Grade 8 for the first time in a B.C. public or independent school.13

The completion rate was chosen as a key performance measure because it is tangible evidence that students have succeeded in the K-12 education system, and because it allows students to make a successful transition to the next stage of their life — either post-secondary education or the workplace. Young adults have a far better chance of making a successful transition if they complete the graduation requirements and receive a secondary school graduation diploma.
13  Calculation of the Completion Rate requires an estimate for out migration from B.C. This estimate cannot be generated at the school level, therefore the Completion Rate is available only at District and Provincial level.

Objective 1.2: Improved Non-Academic Achievement for all Students

The Ministry of Education is committed to the ActNow BC initiative and is supporting the Government of British Columbia’s Great Goal, to “lead the way in North America in healthy living and physical fitness,” by ensuring that B.C. students will learn to make responsible choices related to health and safety.

Strategies

  • To focus on Healthy Schools14 by:
    • developing a new Daily Physical Activity (K-12) strategy;15
    • continuing to implement B.C.’s Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in B.C. Schools;
    • expanding the BC School Fruit and Vegetable Snack program; and
    • expanding a provincial network of Healthy Schools.
  • To ensure that boards of education establish codes of conduct within their school districts that comply with the Provincial Standards for Codes of Conduct, and follow the guidelines outlined in Safe, Caring and Orderly Schools — A Guide.16
14  To learn more about how the Ministry promotes Healthy Schools, please visit: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/health/.
15  For more information about the Daily Physical Activity Strategy, please visit: www.actnowbc.ca/EN/actnow_bc_for_students/the_need_for_daily_physical_activity/.
16  To obtain a copy of the Safe, Caring and Orderly Schools Guide, please visit: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/sco/.

Objective 1.3: B.C. Students Focus on Career Development

Number of students participating in industry training programs: 2003/04 – 2006/07

2003/04
1,097
2004/05
2,549
2005/06
3,740
2006/07
4,680

Strategies

  • To ensure that all students are exposed to the concepts of career development and career exploration.
  • To provide, as part of the Graduation Program, opportunities for students to practice skills that can be used for employment.
  • To provide occupation specific training opportunities for students who plan to enter the workforce directly after Grade 12.

Performance Measure 2: Student satisfaction with preparation for career or post-secondary education

Performance Measure 2006/07
Baseline		 2007/08
Target		 2008/09
Target		 2009/10
Target		 2010/11
Target
Percentage of students satisfied with career or post-secondary preparation in school. 49% 50% 51% 52% 53%
Data Source: Annual Satisfaction Survey, Ministry of Education, found at:
www.bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/surveys/sat-bas.php.

The Ministry annually collects opinions from students, parents and school staff on achievement, human and social development and safety. On the Annual Satisfaction Survey, Grade 10 and 12 students are asked the following questions: “Are you satisfied that school is preparing you for a job in the future?” and “Are you satisfied that school is preparing you for post-secondary education?”17
17  Students are considered to have reported that they are satisfied with preparation with career or post-secondary education if they provided a response of “all the time” or “many times” on the Annual Satisfaction Survey.

Goal 2: A High Quality Education System

The Ministry believes a high quality education system with increased choice, flexibility and access, improved service for clients, and a continued emphasis on accountability, will result in high levels of student achievement.

Objective 2.1: Meeting the Specific Educational Needs of Students and Parents
Through Choice and Flexibility

Strategies

  • Rural Education Strategy — to ensure that students, parents, and educators have equitable access to the educational programs and services they need, regardless of where they live in the province.
  • Distributed Learning Strategy — to provide high quality choices through distributed learning which includes online instruction, paper-based correspondence, and hybrid models which combine classroom and distributed learning instruction.18
  • To support recent agreements which recognize First Nations’ jurisdiction over on-reserve K-12 education, ease transitions between the public and band school systems; and facilitate resource and information sharing between the public and band school systems.
18  LearnNow BC provides a single point of entry to information about distributed learning in British Columbia. To learn more about LearnNow BC, go to www.mybcschool.gov.bc.ca/default.aspx. This website contains both distributed learning course details and information about student services available online.

Performance Measure 3: Percentage of public school students and parents satisfied with educational choices available to them

Performance Measure 2004/05
Actual		 2007/08
Forecast		 2008/09
Target		 2009/10
Target		 2010/11
Target
Percentage of public school students and parents satisfied with educational choices available to them. Parents 70% 71% 73% 76% 79%
Students 48% 50% 51% 54% 57%
Data Source: Annual Satisfaction Survey, Ministry of Education, found at: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/surveys/sat-bas.php.

The Ministry annually collects opinions from students, parents and school staff on achievement, human and social development and safety. The level of satisfaction of parents and students serves as a measure for assessing the overall performance of the education system.

This measure was chosen because it reflects the Ministry’s commitment to service, and because it assesses the degree to which the education system is accessible, flexible and meets the needs of all students. The concern with using Satisfaction Survey data is that its accuracy may be impacted if participation rates are low. To encourage participation, the Ministry has made available online versions of the survey.

Objective 2.2: Improve Service Delivery to Students and Parents
Through Service Integration

Strategies

  • To continue to improve collaboration and cooperation with other ministries, agencies and organizations.
  • To focus on enhancing connections between communities and schools in order to build community capacity and integrate services.

* See Performance Measure 3.

Objective 2.3: A K-12 Education System That is Accountable

Strategies

  • To monitor student achievement levels in school districts through the Office of the Superintendent of Achievement, and report trends to the Minister of Education.
  • To require all schools to prepare annual School Plans, and all boards of education to prepare annual Achievement Contracts, with respect to improving student achievement.
  • To undertake District Reviews on a cyclical basis, and provide an external review of districts’ efforts in support of student achievement.
  • To support parental involvement in School Planning Councils with online training modules, webcasts, and regional workshops.
  • To provide administrative direction to boards of education, as required, in order to improve student achievement levels in a school district.

Performance Measure 4: Percentage of school districts that report improvement in all common performance areas in Achievement Contracts

Performance Measure 2008/09
Target		 2009/10
Target		 2010/11
Target
The percentage of school districts that report improvement in all common performance areas1 in Achievement Contracts. 87% 95% 95%
Data Source: District Review of Achievement Contracts, Ministry of Education.
1  Common performance areas are Dogwood completion, Aboriginal student achievement and literacy.

British Columbia’s boards of education are required, by legislation, to prepare and submit to the Minister an annual Achievement Contract. The purposes of Achievement Contracts are:

  • to focus school district attention and resources on improving student achievement;
  • to detail the specific goals that boards of education have set as they work to enhance student achievement and to describe the steps they are taking to achieve those goals; and
  • to communicate these efforts to a variety of audiences.

Each school district, in completing its Achievement Contract, identifies areas for improvement, based on the needs of students in the district. Goals, objectives and targets are developed for areas that need improvement. Each year, school districts are expected to report their progress in achieving their targets. In cases where a district did not meet its targets, the district is expected to outline how it will adjust its strategies in order to meet its targets in the following year. Demonstrating improvement in Achievement Contracts reflects the district’s level of accountability to the public and its commitment to improving achievement for all students.19
19  Beginning in July 2008, boards of education will be required to submit Achievement Contracts. Prior to this time, boards of education were required to submit Accountability Contracts. The 2007/08 year is considered a transition year between Achievement and Accountability Contracts. For more information about the transition between Achievement Contracts and Accountability Contracts, please visit: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/schools/sdinfo/acc_contracts/Transition-Guidelines.pdf.

Foundation Skills Assessment

The Foundation Skills Assessment is used to measure the percentage of public and independent school students in Grades 4 and 7 who meet or exceed grade level expectations in three key areas of student learning — Reading Writing and Numeracy.

The Foundation Skills Assessment can indicate trends in achievement on a broad scale, such as when there is an overall improvement or decline in reading skills.

For more information, please visit: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/assessment/fsa/.

Goal 3: Improved Literacy for
All British Columbians

In order to address areas of the Ministry’s mandate that expand beyond the framework of the K-12 education system, the Ministry’s third goal involves literacy, public libraries, and early learning.

Meeting the objectives of this goal will be instrumental in supporting the Government’s first great goal, which is to make British Columbia the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent.

The Ministry of Education is the lead Ministry on ReadNow BC,20 the Provincial Literacy Framework, which is designed to increase awareness of B.C.’s literacy challenge and provide a co-ordinated approach to the resources and programs that will ensure all British Columbians have opportunities to improve their
literacy skills.
20  For more information about ReadNow BC, please visit:
www.readnowbc.ca/.

Objective 3.1: Improved Reading Levels at All Ages Through Greater Access to Literacy Programs, Services and Information Within Communities

Strategies

  • To provide leadership and co-ordination through ReadNow BC, which involves working with other ministries, boards of education, community organizations, literacy stakeholders, libraries, post-secondary institutions, Aboriginal groups, businesses, and community members to improve literacy in British Columbia.
  • To ensure the development and implementation of District Literacy Plans21 by supporting boards of education in their collaboration with communities to assess community needs and act on opportunities to improve literacy.
  • To make effective use of provincial public library resources by providing equitable access to information for all British Columbians.
21  www.bced.gov.bc.ca/transitional_DLP_2007.pdf.

Performance Measure 5: International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey — percentage of adults who read successfully

Performance Measure 2005/06
Actual		 2007/08
Forecast3		 2008/09
Target		 2009/10
Target		 2010/11
Target
Percentage of adult1 B.C. residents who read successfully.2 60% 65%4 66% 67%5 69%
Data Source: International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey.
1  Adult is defined as being aged 16 to 65.
2  The Ministry of Education has defined reading “successfully” to mean possessing reading skills that correspond to Level 3 on the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey Assessment Scale. Level 3 has been designated as the desired threshold for coping with the increasing skill demands of a knowledge society.
3  The B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education will be conducting a study of adult literacy based on the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey structure and content. The results of this study will be compared with the results from the full international comparative study conducted in 2003. Results will be reported in Fall 2008.
4  The description for this performance measure indicates that in the 2008/09 – 2010/11 Service Plan, this performance measure is seeking specifically to determine the percentage of B.C. resident adults who read successfully in order to control for non English-speaking adults who immigrate to B.C. This will allow for a more precise assessment of literacy programs.
5  Next full IALSS administered in 2009. Results will be made available late in 2010 or early 2011.

The International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey is an international comparative study conducted to provide participating countries with information about the literacy skills of their adult populations. In 2003, the survey tested more than 23,000 Canadians on their proficiency in numeracy and literacy. The International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey measures the literacy and numeracy skills of a nationally representative sample of participants aged from 16 years to 65 years, from six participating countries, and provides a useful benchmarking tool to help measure success in promoting adult literacy.

This measure was chosen because it indicates how British Columbia performs in comparison to other jurisdictions, and allows the Ministry to assess its progress in meeting the Government’s Great Goal of becoming the most literate jurisdiction on the continent.

The challenge in using the survey as a performance measure is that it is conducted sporadically. It was conducted in 1994 and in 2003, with the next survey scheduled for 2009.

Objective 3.2: Improved School Readiness

“School readiness” describes the collection of cognitive and social skills, the knowledge, dispositions, and personal experiences children bring with them when entering kindergarten. Being ready at school entry gives children the opportunity to benefit academically and socially.

Strategies

  • To continue to support and implement StrongStart BC22 early learning centres to help pre-kindergarten children become developmentally ready to learn.
  • To implement the BC Early Learning Framework.
22  For more information about StrongStart BC, go to: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/literacy/early_learning/strongstart_bc.htm.

StrongStart BC Centre Openings.

Performance Measure 6: School Readiness (Early Development Instrument) — percentage of children who enter Kindergarten “developmentally ready” to learn

Performance Measure 2004/05
Actual		 2007/08
Actual		 2008/09
Target		 2009/10
Target		 2010/11
Target
School Readiness (Early Development Instrument) — percentage of children who enter Kindergarten “developmentally ready” to learn. 72.1%1 70.4% N/A 73% 75%
Data Source: The Human Early Learning Partnership (University of British Columbia — funded by the Ministry of Children and Family Development, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health).
1  In the 2007/08 – 2009/10 Service Plan, the Ministry of Education reported this figure as 75%. Refinements made to the data by the Human Early Learning Partnership indicated that 72.1% of children entered Kindergarten “developmentally ready” to learn.

The tool chosen to gauge children’s readiness for school is the Early Development Instrument. Kindergarten teachers in B.C. began to collect data for the Early Development Instrument in 1999/2000, and as of March 2004, all 60 school districts had collected the data.

The Ministry has developed a performance measure — the percentage of children who enter Kindergarten “developmentally ready” — based on the Early Development Instrument. This measure reflects the importance of literacy skills in a child’s intellectual and social development.

For the Early Development Instrument, data are collected on the following five key areas of children’s development. The data are then considered cumulatively to suggest the developmental status of populations of children:

  • physical health and well-being;
  • social competence;
  • emotional maturity;
  • language and cognitive development; and
  • communication skills and general knowledge.

In the 2007/08 – 2009/10 Service Plan, this performance measure reported on the percentage of children “ready to learn”. This measure is reporting on the same issue, the wording change is a change in terminology.

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