Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Results

Overview

Ministry Goals

The Ministry of Education has three main goals:

1. Improved student achievement — the Ministry and its education partners will continue to focus on improving student achievement.
2. A high quality education system — the Ministry will continue to focus on access and choice for all students, improved service delivery for clients, and a continued emphasis on accountability.
3. Improved literacy for all British Columbians — the Ministry and community partners will work to improve literacy among all age groups across the province.

Linkage to the Five Great Goals

The essential work of the Ministry is primarily aligned with the first three of the Government's Five Great Goals, and is fundamental to the successful attainment of those goals, as outlined below.

1. Make British Columbia the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent.

To support the Province's literacy goal, the Ministry will continue to focus on improving student achievement. As well, the Ministry will continue to work with partners to help prepare children for school. Early learning success can also pave the way for increased levels of literacy later in life. Poor reading skills make it difficult to complete everyday tasks such as online banking, using the internet, or reading the newspaper — full and meaningful participation in a knowledge society is denied to those with inadequate reading skills.

2. Lead the way in North America in healthy living and physical fitness.

To support the Government's health goal, the Ministry will focus on promoting Healthy Schools through key strategies related to the ActNow BC initiative. Specifically, the Ministry will focus on decreasing tobacco use in youth, increasing physical activity levels for K – 12 students, promoting healthy eating habits and implementing new curriculum for Health and Career Planning K–7.

3. Build the best system of support in Canada for persons with disabilities, those with special needs, children at risk, and seniors.

The Ministry is working to ensure that the most vulnerable members of society, including children and youth with special needs or with disabilities, have the support they need to participate and succeed in all aspects of society. The Ministry is committed to the Government's Citizen-Centred Service Delivery initiative and to finding ways to improve services for its clients. Examining ways to streamline services for children with special needs into a single point of contact, for example, is one way to remove barriers that might impede success.

Cross Ministry Initiatives

The Ministry of Education continues to work collaboratively with other ministries, community partners, agencies and government organizations in support of a number of Government's priority initiatives including:

Literacy

The Government of British Columbia has set a goal to make B.C. the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent. To be considered literate, a person has sufficient reading skills to understand and process printed information encountered in everyday activities. The Ministry of Education is leading the development and implementation of the Provincial Literacy Action Plan — ReadNow BC — to help British Columbians improve their reading skills.

The plan, which outlines the steps needed to help British Columbians improve their reading skills, is based on a cross ministry approach to coordinating policy, funding, programs and services. To meet these objectives, the Ministry will work with other ministries, public libraries, and community partners.

The Ministry of Education is responsible for a number of literacy related initiatives. For more details, please visit the Ministry website at http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/literacy/.

ActNow BC

ActNow BC, led by the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, combines cross government and community-based approaches to promote healthy living choices for British Columbians. The programs and initiatives champion healthy eating, physical activity, ending tobacco use, and healthy choices during pregnancy.

The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, and the Ministry of Health work in collaboration with the Minister of State for ActNow to promote physical activity, healthy eating, and a reduction of harmful behaviours (such as smoking and substance abuse).

StrongStart BC

StrongStart BC is a government cross ministry initiative to support the healthy development and early learning of children (birth to six). Priorities for the early years include early diagnosis for hearing, sight and dental problems; booster seat awareness; informing parents of the link between early childhood physical education and skill development; new "StrongStart Centres" for early childhood education; and language and cultural opportunities for Aboriginal children.

The Ministry is working collaboratively with the Ministry of Children and Family Development on programs for early childhood development and early learning. The ministries also work closely with the Ministry of Health on initiatives for children under the age of six, such as Ready, Set, Learn (which helps prepare three-year-olds for school), and early screening for vision, hearing and dental health.

Crystal Meth

Government's Crystal Meth Strategy, led by the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, targets the use and production of Crystal Meth through an integrated framework that strengthens partnerships amongst communities, service providers and law enforcement agencies. The Crystal Meth Secretariat was established in 2005 to support new and continuing initiatives based on prevention, treatment and enforcement.

To support the increased public awareness and education component of the Crystal Meth Framework, an Education Working Group was established with parents, addictions experts, and representatives from three school districts. Crystal Meth educational resources have been developed in consultation with a student advisory committee, teachers, parents and Crystal Meth addiction experts.

Regulatory Reform

British Columbia continues to make regulatory reform a priority across government, making it easier for businesses to operate and succeed in British Columbia, while still preserving regulations that protect public health, safety and the environment. A citizen-centred approach to regulatory reform will reduce the number of steps it takes to comply with government requirements or access government programs and services.

As of June 2004, the Ministry of Education met and exceeded its three-year deregulation target. Following the May 2005 election, the June 2004 baseline count was adjusted to 21,095 to incorporate the regulations related to the added responsibilities for early learning, literacy and libraries. The Ministry is committed to not exceed this baseline count through to 2008/09.

The Ministry is conducting an ongoing review and revision of curriculum contained in Integrated Resource Packages. The primary objective of this review is to ensure that teachers and students have current curriculum while maintaining and improving the high level of provincial student achievement. To date, this curriculum review has resulted in significant reductions to the Ministry's regulatory count, and further reductions are anticipated.

Citizen-Centred Service Delivery

Citizen-centred service delivery is a government-wide initiative to coordinate information, programs and services so that they can be presented to citizens in a way that takes their needs into account from beginning to end. The vision is to make it possible for citizens to access the government information and services they need in a simple and timely manner with a phone call, a mouse click or a visit to a service centre, no matter how many programs or ministries are involved in their request.

The Ministry supports the initiative through a number of measures and programs, including:

• Satisfaction Survey — On a yearly basis, the Ministry asks students, parents, teachers, and school staff about their satisfaction with key aspects of the education system.
• School Community Connections — This program encourages partnerships between schools and local governments to greater utilize school facilities for broader community purposes, promoting sustainable and innovative collaboration between school boards and local governments and taking into account the needs of the community as a whole.
• Students with special needs — The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Children and Family Development are working collaboratively on the development of an integrated approach to planning and service delivery for children and youth with special needs.
• Public Libraries e-government — Through partnerships between the provincial government and public libraries, the general public will have easier and more streamlined access to government information.
• AskAway — In partnership with public and post-secondary libraries, the AskAway virtual reference service allows British Columbians to obtain the information they need from a real librarian in real time using a simple live chat format — no matter where they live in the province.
• BC Enterprise Student Information System — The system provides schools and school districts with an integrated web-based system to manage student information throughout the Province. The system replaces 25 different systems in schools across B.C.

Performance Plan

Performance Plan Summary Table

Continuous improvement in student achievement refers to both academic achievement (including reading, writing, numeracy, and computer skills) and non-academic achievement, such as learning to make responsible choices related to health and safety, and demonstrating the qualities of good citizenship. Improved student achievement will result in students demonstrating progress in academic performance in the K–12 education system, and being knowledgeable about health and safety. 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.

In order to make progress on overall student achievement, there will have to be significant improvement for vulnerable students. Aboriginal students, for example, have much lower completion rates than the overall student population — less than 50 per cent of Aboriginal students complete secondary school. The target for Aboriginal completion rates is to close the gap by 2015/16, and have Aboriginal student achievement on par with the overall student population.

• To assess, monitor, and report student achievement levels¹² on:
• Overall student population; and
• Aboriginal students.
• To improve Aboriginal achievement by supporting school districts as they complete and implement Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements and to share information and best practices among school districts and other jurisdictions.

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.¹⁴ 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. Lack of a secondary school diploma, in turn, gives rise to all the costs that result from failure to complete secondary school, such as higher unemployment costs, higher rates of incarceration, higher rates of welfare dependence, and a higher incidence of chronic health problems. All of the costs associated with failure to graduate put unnecessary pressure on Government resources, and put the Government's economic and social goals at risk.

• Programme for International Student Assessment
• Pan-Canadian Assessment Program¹⁵

At the international level, British Columbia participates in the Programme for International Student Assessment.¹⁶ Initiated by member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, this assessment provides policy-oriented international indicators of the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students.

The Ministry will focus on two of the Programme for International Student Assessment's literacy-related subject areas — Reading and Mathematics. This assessment is a valuable tool, as it assesses students as they near the end of mandatory schooling, to ascertain whether they are able to analyze, reason, and communicate effectively, and whether they can demonstrate the capacity for life-long learning.

As B.C. continues to compete in the global economy, it is important that our education system be able to provide graduates with the skills and knowledge to compete at the highest level, and meet the requirements of the labour market. By comparing the achievement of students in B.C. with that of students in other provinces, the Ministry of Education is able to see how well our education system performs in relation to other Canadian jurisdictions.

The latest 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment results show that 75 per cent of B.C. students (15-year-olds) have the reading abilities they need to thrive in a knowledge-based society, while 74 per cent have the necessary mathematics skills.¹⁷ The 2015/16 target is to be a national leader in academic performance and improve B.C.'s world ranking. Out of 41 countries (including the US) and 10 provinces, B.C. is currently ranked third overall in Reading, fifth in Mathematics and sixth in Science and Problem-solving. Among the provinces, B.C. is ranked second behind Alberta.

A concern with using the Programme for International Student Assessment as a measure is that it does not assess all skill areas annually. Assessments are administered on a longer cycle that may not accommodate a timely policy response. The last assessment was administered in 2006, with the results available in 2007.

• To focus on Healthy Schools by:
• Continuing to expand Action Schools! BC;¹⁸
• Continuing to implement B.C.'s new Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales In B.C. Schools 2005;¹⁹
• Assessing and reporting out on progress made in achieving the Government's goal of eliminating the sale of junk food in B.C. schools;
• Developing a provincial network of Healthy Schools;²⁰
• Working in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands and the Ministry of Health to implement and evaluate the School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program;
• Developing new teacher and student learning resources related to healthy eating and physical activity;
• Implementing new teacher and student resources to combat the use of Crystal Meth;
• Publishing and distributing, for implementation by B.C. schools, the new curriculum on Health and Career Planning K–7; and
• Publishing, distributing and supporting the implementation in B.C. schools of the new Physical Education Curriculum K–7.
• To elevate the profile of school safety by holding school districts accountable to the standards outlined in Safe, Caring and Orderly Schools — A Guide.

Physical activity is one of the key components of the ActNow BC initiative — it helps to prevent obesity related illnesses later in life, as well as helping to improve learning outcomes for students. Students in Grades 3/4, 7, 10 and 12 will be asked about their level of physical activity in the Ministry's Annual Satisfaction Survey.²¹ Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living for Children and Youth²² recommends a minimum of 90 minutes of physical activity every day. This measure assesses the percentage of children who are physically active 30 minutes per day since students on average spend just under one third of their day in the school setting, five days a week. This measure also allows the Ministry, schools, and school districts to assess the effectiveness of strategies to promote physical activity.

This measure was chosen because it supports the Ministry's objective of promoting health in B.C.'s schools, and indicates, in conjunction with other performance measures, how much progress has been made in meeting the Government's great goal of leading the way in North America in healthy living and physical fitness. As well, it supports the healthy eating component of the Government's ActNow initiative, which is designed to make British Columbia the healthiest jurisdiction to ever host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

To monitor and report on progress in eliminating unhealthy foods and beverages sold in schools, the Ministry will continue to collect data on the percentage of healthy foods sold in B.C. schools. A survey (scheduled for Spring 2007) will gauge the impact of the Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales In B.C. Schools 2005, which were introduced in November 2005 to support schools in offering healthier choices. The survey will measure progress against data collected in Spring 2005, which captured the percentage of healthy and less healthy foods sold in the school setting.

One of the risks in using data on food sold in the school setting to measure healthy eating is that students can still bring their own less than healthy snacks, or purchase them off-site. As well, the data only represent those schools which respond to the surveys.

• To ensure that all students are exposed to the concept 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.

This indicator measures the number of students who participate in the Secondary School Apprenticeship program and Accelerated Credit Enrolment in Industry Training program. Skilled trades programs provide valuable and rewarding training to students. The number of students participating in these programs indicates the success of the education system in attracting students to a career in the trades sector.

As there are challenges in recruiting skilled trades workers, attracting students to the trades sector and providing them with the opportunity to learn relevant skills is critical in order for Government to meet the requirements of the labour market.

As one of the key objectives of the education system is to prepare students for full and meaningful participation in society, it is important to measure the rate at which students move from graduation to post-secondary education. Transition rates are an indicator of both overall student achievement and of the success of the Ministry in preparing students for life after graduation.

The Graduate Transition Survey²³ is meant to create a transition picture of British Columbia secondary school graduates going into post-secondary education. Survey results offer information about graduates' main transition activity during the past year and what they predict their main activity will be in the upcoming year. The survey also indicates graduates' level of satisfaction with their secondary school education and how it helped prepare them for either post-secondary studies or employment. Transition rates can be affected by factors such as the cost of tuition and the unemployment rate.

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. To achieve excellence, it is necessary to cultivate a culture of excellence. 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.

• 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 choice and equalization of access to education for all students through online instruction, as well as other delivery methods, such as paper-based correspondence material, or a hybrid model where students link to live virtual classrooms or video technology and also attend some in-school sessions.
• 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.

In order to provide the best service and support possible, the Ministry annually collects opinions from students, parents and school staff on achievement, human and social development and safety. In the annual Satisfaction Survey parents and students are asked about their satisfaction with the educational choices available to them. The level of satisfaction of parents and students serves as a critical measure for assessing the overall performance of the education system. The data for this performance measure are useful for planning and decision-making at the school and district level, as they can be incorporated into school performance plans and school district accountability contracts.

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.

• 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.

• To continue to support parental involvement in School Planning Councils with online training modules, webcasts, and regional workshops.
• To continue to require all schools to prepare annual School Plans, and all school boards to prepare annual Accountability Contracts, with respect to improving student achievement. To continue to undertake District Reviews on a cyclical basis, and to provide an external review of districts' efforts in support of student achievement.
• To assess the progress of schools and school boards in meeting reporting requirements related to class size.
• To propose legislation establishing a Teachers' Employment Registry, administered by the College of Teachers, which publicly reports the names of teachers disciplined for misconduct involving emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.

British Columbia's school boards are required, by legislation, to prepare and submit to the Minister an annual Accountability Contract with respect to improving student achievement. The purposes of Accountability Contracts²⁴ are:

• to focus school district attention and resources on improving student achievement;
• to detail the specific goals that school boards 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 accountability contract, identifies areas for improvement, based on the needs of the 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 the 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 Accountability Contracts reflects the district's level of accountability to the public and its commitment to improving achievement for all students.

A concern with using this measure is that the reliability of district data may impact accuracy.

In order to address areas of the Ministry's mandate²⁵ that expand beyond the framework of the K–12 education system, the Ministry added a third goal that focuses on 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.

• To improve literacy across all segments of society through collaboration and partnerships among public libraries and the education system (schools), post-secondary institutions and all levels of government by:
• Supporting literacy programs in public libraries by providing equity grants for projects such as early childhood reading programs; outreach services to the disadvantaged, the disabled and the elderly; and development of collections for the young, print-disabled and English as a second language readers;
• Implementing the "Every Child a Card" program by providing every K–12 student in B.C. with the opportunity to receive a free public library card, whether or not they reside in a library service area; and
• Implementing e-government to provide all British Columbians free and equitable access to government information via the Internet.
• To improve literacy by facilitating access to information and services by:
• Building a province-wide virtual reference service — the "AskAway" initiative²⁶ combines the expertise of reference librarians from across the Province and makes quality reference service available online to all British Columbians;
• Implementing the B.C. OneCard system for all B.C. public libraries;
• Providing a core suite of licensed electronic information databases — this initiative benefits British Columbians by making available, anywhere in the Province, electronic reference materials covering a broad range of subjects, enabling users to carry out research when and where they choose;
• Fostering greater cooperation and collaboration among public libraries through the creation of library federations; collectively, libraries can offer more resources and services to their patrons;
• Supporting technology initiatives in public libraries by providing technology grants for projects such as increasing public Internet access, replacement of outdated hardware and updating software; and
• Supporting standards-based integrated library systems — this initiative will ensure users can access web-based library materials from a range of different devices (for example, personal computers, wireless handheld devices) and operating systems, thus broadening access. Additionally, standards-based systems make it easier for visually impaired patrons to access resources using various accessibility software applications.

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 the Ministry's 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. At present, however, there is no other tool that adequately measures adult literacy in a timely manner. The Ministry is working in conjunction with the Ministry of Advanced Education on the possibility of a B.C.-specific administration of the survey based on a three-year cycle.

The International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey Assessment Scale

Participants were scored on a proficiency scale from 1 to 5 (lowest to highest). Level 3 was designated as the desired threshold for coping with the increasing skill demands of a knowledge society. Listed below is a summary of the skills required for each level:

Level 1: Indicates persons with very low skills, where the individual may, for example, be unable to determine the correct amount of medicine to give a child from information printed on the package.

Level 2:Respondents can deal only with material that is simple, clearly laid out, and in which the tasks involved are not too complex. It denotes a weak level of skill, but more than at Level 1. It identifies people who can read, but test poorly. They may have developed coping skills to manage everyday literacy demands, but their low level of proficiency makes it difficult for them to face novel demands, such as learning new job skills.

Level 3: Is considered a suitable minimum for coping with the demands of everyday life and work in a complex, advanced society. It denotes roughly the skill level required for successful secondary school completion and college entry. Like higher levels, it requires the ability to integrate several sources of information and solve more complex problems.

Levels 4 and 5: These levels describe respondents who demonstrate a command of higher-level information processing skills.

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 assessment is administered to all students at these grade levels, and focuses on Reading, Writing, and Numeracy because these skills form the foundation for other learning. Foundation Skills Assessment standards, which are set by the Ministry, are based on the recommendations of B.C. teachers.

The Foundation Skills Assessment was chosen as a measure because it can indicate shifts in achievement on a broad scale, such as when there is an overall improvement or decline in reading skills. As well, the data gathered from the assessments provide all levels of the education system (School Planning Councils, for example) with an opportunity to plan more effectively, and to focus on key priorities that will help the Ministry and the Government meet their strategic goals.

Successful completion of a Grade 12 Language Arts course represents a minimum standard of literacy in the Kindergarten to Grade 12 school system. Students must pass one of these courses in order to graduate, ensuring that students embarking on either post-secondary education or a career possess at least the minimum level of literacy skills required to be successful.

English 12: Language is fundamental to thinking, learning, and communicating in all cultures. The skilled use of language is associated with many opportunities in life, including further education, work, and social interaction. As students come to understand and use language more fully, they are able to enjoy the benefits and pleasures of language in all its forms from reading and writing, to literature, theatre, public speaking, film, and other media.

The English 12 curriculum provides students with the opportunity to study literary and informational (including technical) communications and the mass media and thereby experience the power of language. Students are presented with a window into the past, a complex portrayal of the present, and questions about the future. They also come to understand language as a human system of communication — dynamic and evolving, but also systematic and governed by rules.

Note:The French language equivalent of English 12 (Français langue première 12) also meets the Language Arts 12 graduation requirement. Data from this course is rolled up into the English 12 data. After the 2006/07 school year, Technical and Professional Communications 12 will no longer meet the Language Arts 12 graduation requirement, and so is not included in this performance measure.

Communications 12: This course is intended to help students become fully skilled language users, capable of comprehending and responding to the multiple forms and functions of language that surround them. This is a goal Communications 12 shares with the other English curricula at this grade level. The language arts options for Grade 12 reflect the different language skills senior students choose to focus on as part of their career and personal planning.

• To develop Early Learning Standards.
• To establish StrongStart Centre pilots, in partnership with school boards.

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 "ready to learn" — 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.

The most challenging aspect of this performance measure, which is generated by an independent, external research body, is that data for the whole Province are not available on an annual basis. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Children and Family Development link into the three-year data collection cycle at the University of British Columbia.