Trafford Publishing: Twelve Steps to Reform Canadian Public Education

Here is the full reference card for this book...

If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Twelve Steps to Reform Canadian Public Education

by Bill McKerlich

255 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0579; ISBN 1-55369-766-9; US$22.50, C$25.95, EUR18.50, £13.00

This book outlines both a comprehensive assessment and a thoughtful plan for the necessary reform of Canadian public schools. The plan is based on the experience of the author as a teacher, principal, director, district superintendent, the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Education, two BC universities and more recently at Harvard University.

Read more!

about the book about the author sample excerpts or Table of Contents catalogue info

About the Book

Are the learning needs of children and youth being met by the Canadian school system?

Is it possible for all students to learn what is essential to function in our society?

What must be done to reform schools?

Canadian parents, business leaders, citizens, community and political leaders are asking these, and similar questions. They know that education is essential for their children, and they realize that our country's future depends on a population of educated citizens.

This book is Bill McKerlich's response to these questions.

Twelve Steps to Reform Canadian Public Education outlines both a comprehensive assessment and a thoughtful plan for the necessary reform of our schools written by an experienced educator.

Focus: "To adjust the focal length of the eye to give a clear image."

Our school system may have been adequate for the past, but is now out of focus with the present learning needs of our students. The system requires immediate adjustment so that it has a clear image of purpose, and how to achieve this purpose. As part of this process, it will be necessary to improve the early childhood development of an important minority of our children.

Using our democratic processes, these adjustments will be discussed and changes decided. The results will be immediately planned and implemented. If this does not happen, effective public schooling for all children and youth will be lost, and a significant minority of Canadian children will not reach their potential to be happy and productive citizens. The resulting long-term negative social and economic consequences will cripple our society.

Book Purpose:

The purpose of this book is to assist this important public discussion by outlining a plan of school reform in twelve steps. The plan describes how the early childhood development of some deprived children can improve, and how the school system can be refocused so that all children will learn to the maximum of their ability.

Book Organisation:

The steps are stated at the beginning of the chapters in which they are described. The first five chapters centre on children, learning, teaching, and schools. The later four chapters describe the organisation, governance, leadership, and management processes required for schools to have all children learn.

The twelve steps form a planned approach to improving schools with the steps often interdependent on each other. This approach is in contrast to the unsatisfactory ad hoc tinkering that public education has experienced over the years. The plan has direct relevance to the Canadian provinces, but may have some application to the education jurisdictions of other countries.
Visit the author's website at http://www.reform-education.com

About the Author

Bill McKerlich grew up in Vancouver and is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon. While at University he competed successfully in two Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games in the sport of rowing. Over the years he continued to volunteer in the sport, both nationally and internationally. He has had a long and varied career in public education and community service

Bill and his wife Gail live south of Vancouver. They have four adult sons and daughters, all of whom were educated in public schools.

Excerpts and Table of Contents

BOOK INTRODUCTION

I have just turned 21 and I am in the Canadian eight-oared rowing shell at the start of the first heat of the Melbourne Olympics. Leading rowing countries such as the United States and Australia are in this heat. It is not going to be an easy introduction to world competition.

I am completely out of focus and wonder how I got here. If I had a choice, at this moment I would be somewhere else, anywhere else. Over the next 6 minutes, I must row 220 perfect rowing strokes in time with the 220 perfect strokes of the other seven athletes in the shell. Each crew member must judge his physical and mental capacities so that he does not make one of two errors; he could push too hard and pass out before the finish, or he could fail to use all of his physical and mental capacity within the race. If one of us does either, we will lose the race for our crewmates, our country, and ourselves.

We are a young, fit, but inexperienced University of British Columbia team of rowers who has trained twice a day for two years on Vancouver Harbour. We have come out of nowhere and we know it. Most of us are from small British Columbia towns and until becoming rowers had never been out of the country, or flown in a plane.

The starter raises his flag, he shouts - "êtes vous prêt... partez". As we were taught, we start on the "pa" of "partez." With the first stroke, a miracle happens - all indecision is gone. I am totally focused and completely in tune with my team and our mission. We are doing what we were taught to do. Education, training and determination have taken over. Eight of us row as one person - the shell skims over the water. We win the heat.

I learned from my rowing experience that success comes from having the ability, mostly learned, and the determination to focus on a task as part of a team. Success for our children in schools will happen in the same way. All teachers and principals will have the necessary ability, mostly learned, and the determination to work as a team to have all students learn a focused curriculum.

After returning from participating in a second Olympic Games in Rome, I began teaching in Vancouver. I proceeded to work in the British Columbia school system in different roles for the next 35 years. I also remained active as a volunteer both nationally and internationally in sport. Over this period, I was able to compare human sports development with the improvement of student learning in schools.

Our time in the finals in Rome in 1960 with good weather conditions over the 2000-meter course was 6.01 minutes. We were a few seconds behind the winner, Germany. Today this time would be only average for a university crew, and a world championship time under similar weather conditions would be around 5 minutes 30 seconds. This is a huge difference. Because of a focused approach which included improved physical and mental preparation of the athletes, more effective coaching (teaching), and superior equipment (technology), standards have dramatically improved at most levels of sport over the past 40 years.

It is true that over the same period student learning has improved in schools, but in comparison, human performance in sport has improved at most levels to a higher standard. Yet, over that span of time sport has remained what it is, the enjoyable games people play, while over that same 40 years education was confirmed as a basic human necessity. Because education has become so crucial both to individual citizens and to our national well being, it is now necessary for all schools to have all students learn. If we refocus our schools by taking the 12 steps I outline in the book, this will be achieved.

Before taking the first step, let me tell an anonymous, but true story to illustrate some present school realities.

The Story:

It was a beautiful spring day and as school superintendent of a British Columbia school district, I was beginning the morning by reviewing the file of a suspended ten-year-old student. The day became less attractive as I read the contents of the file. After attending a succession of schools in many communities, Robert had been enrolled in our school district for four months. His family background was a story of drugs, alcohol, and parental conflict. Robert was assessed as having Attention Deficit Disorder or possibly Fetal Alcohol syndrome, and his behaviour was disrupting his entire school. I was to meet with the mother, principal, and counsellor to find solutions to this problem. The single mother was angry and reluctant to come to the meeting. Her comment was that people wearing suits and ties had been pushing her around for years and she saw no point of another meeting to receive more of the same treatment.

This matter had been finally referred to me because in a series of meetings the mother refused to accept the recommendation of the zone director, principal, counsellor, and teacher. The recommendation was that the boy attend an alternative district class that stressed anger control, individual student guidance, and individualised instruction. A special teacher and two support workers were currently working with six students in this class.

Expressed in the same profane language used by her son, the mother's view was that the school was not doing its job of controlling Robert's behaviour of shouting, swearing, and fighting. There should be more "discipline," and the use of the strap to keep students in line.

The principal's response was that the school had tried "everything," but the boy's bullying of other students and abuse of his teacher was getting worse. He said it was now at a level where he could no longer permit this student to continually disrupt the learning of others. The principal went on to say that the school had a reputation for successfully integrating special-needs children, but in this case, integration was not the issue. The issue was that Robert's behaviour was out of control and we must "do something about Robert." The school could not cope with his violent outbursts. What the principal did not say at the meeting was that both the union representative and the parent association chairperson were after him to remove Robert from the school.

After the meeting, I was mulling over Robert's problem when the phone rang. Bill Carson was on the line. He was the parent of two daughters who excelled in their elementary school, as well in sports and music. I knew Bill and his wife Barbara because of the youth sports activities they led in the community, and the voluntary support they gave their school.

For the first time in my memory, model father and community leader Bill Carson was upset with the school system. His concern was that that he had read in the local paper that an elementary school had received permission from the school board to apply for a student breakfast program. The Ministry of Education would fund the program and the school would have one part-time employee to feed those students who came to school without breakfast. The principal and the teachers would help. As the concerned teachers stated on their grant application to the Ministry of Education for this food service, "it is difficult to teach hungry children." Bill said that it was not the job of the school system to feed children, this was the parent's responsibility and the parents should be held accountable for providing this basic need. Bill said he earned a modest salary, Barbara had chosen to stay at home with their daughters since birth, he worked hard to provide for his family and other parents should do the same. If parents were down on their luck and could not feed their children they were supported in other ways and should not be supported with education dollars. Education funding should be used to educate his daughters, and the other students in the school. A good use of these funds, Bill went on to suggest, would be for the school library. Like many strong students, his daughters were avid readers. Barbara volunteered in the library and was aware that the annual purchase of new books had been reduced in each of the past three years.

Bill finished by saying that he wanted his daughters to get the university education he never had. He had a limited income and university would only be possible if his daughters mastered the fundamentals in elementary school, excelled academically in secondary school, and won scholarships. His expectations of the school were clear. He and Barbara were doing their part. The school should get on with its job and not be diverted by other non-educational tasks.

To finish the story and get to the point, Robert made modest progress in the alternative class, the breakfast program continues to feed children every school day morning, and the Carsons still feel that their school is not focused on its purpose. If they could afford the cost, they would seek a more focused independent school.

The story illustrates a number of fundamental questions in education which are answered in this book. In the first two chapters, I describe how schools have come to assume many responsibilities outside their tradit ional role. Thus in the story, we have the school by default providing such a fundamental human need as food. We also have a seriously disturbed child, whose parent expects the school to treat his psychological problems, and make him a successful student. The story points out that schools are trying to provide for an increasingly wide range of students' needs. It illustrates that while schools make an admirable effort to serve these diverse needs, we are coming to the realisation that we cannot successfully fulfil all of them. We are beginning to understand that the role of the school is now so widely dissipated that it cannot succeed in its primary task, which is to have all students learn what is essential. Our schools are now out of focus. Yet in the example of school providing breakfasts, the teachers make a valid point - it is difficult to teach students to read, or do arithmetic when they are hungry. To continue with other examples from my experience, it is also difficult to teach students who are too tired to learn, or afraid to return home. The result is that the school is left to perform many tasks for which it is not suited, or able to perform satisfactorily. Thus, in our story the school cannot solve Robert's many problems, nor can it give adequate attention to those students such as the Carson children who require a strong academic preparation for a successful future.

As you will discover in Chapter 3, my answer to this dilemma is that we must provide alternatives to the present patchwork system of child rearing for the minority of children who are neglected. We must recognise that while schools can support the parents with their crucial role of child rearing, even if they had the resources and the time, schools are not capable of raising children. In Chapter 3, we also discuss the importance of early childhood development and the fundamental influence of the home on student learning. As illustrated in my story, we see the consistent and positive influence of the parents since birth on the Carson children, and the results of the absence of this family guidance on Robert.

In Chapter 4, we confirm the fact that the difference between the act of teaching and the process of student learning has been finally recognised. Now not only is the teacher to teach, but every student, even difficult students such as Robert, are expected to learn to an increasingly high minimum standard. As the story illustrates, the traditional acceptance of the normal or bell curve to learn is gone. All students now must learn what is essential. It is unacceptable to give up and fail students as was done in the past. Even if some students do not learn as quickly as others, or have serious social or emotional problems such as Robert, there is a place for them in our schools, and an expectation that they will learn.

Schools and the society they serve are indeed confused by their current often impossible role and the resulting unfocused patchwork school curriculum. How did we get to this unfortunate state? What are the solutions? My answers to these two questions are in the following chapters.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: THE ESSENTIAL CURRICULUM

CHAPTER 2: HOW DID WE GET HERE?

CHAPTER 3: EARLY CHIDLHOOD LEARNING AND SCHOOLS

CHAPTER 4: TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SCHOOLS

CHAPTER 5: TECHNOLOGY AND SCHOOLING

CHAPTER 6: THE POWER STRUGGLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

CHAPTER 7: THE ORGANISATION AND GOVERNANCE OF EDUCATION

CHAPTER 8: SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

CHAPTER 9: SCHOOL FINANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

SUMMARY: THE TWELVE STEPS TO REFORM CANADIAN PUBLIC EDUCATION

CONCLUSION

In the introduction I described the first heat we rowed in the Melbourne Olympics, now let me conclude by telling you the outcome of the final race. As I described earlier, we won our first heat over the top contenders, the United States and Australia. Both of these crews came back through the semi-finals to meet us in the final race. The crews in the final were Canada, United States, Australia, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and Italy. The result was that the United States passed Canada at the finish to win the gold by two seconds. Canada won silver, and Australia, bronze.

The question of why Canada passed the US crew in the heat and then lost in the final has been pondered for many years. My answer is that we rowed a good race in the final, but in the last 500 meters we started our final sprint a fraction too late, and lost the gold.

In the same way that the Canadian rowing crew waited too long to start their sprint in the Olympics, we are in danger of waiting too long to reform public education. The Canadian crew was a good crew yet lost, Canadian public education is pretty good, but it too could lose. The parents and the public are quickly reaching the end of their patience waiting for public policy to focus on what is essential and have all students learn this essential knowledge. They are tired of all the rhetoric, strikes and work-to-rule of public education labour-relations. The "tipping point" has been reached. The often unfair public perception of public schools as inferior will become a reality. For those who can afford it, a focused independent school alternative will be more attractive than a public school. If this race is lost and this trend continues, a chain of events will lead to declining support for public schools, and increased support for independent schools. As is already the case in Ontario and BC, funding will follow the students to the independent schools. In time, a two-tier system of elite private schools and poorer public schools will be the result. The crippling consequences for the students remaining in public schools, and for our future society, will be devastating.

The current ad hoc tinkering with the provincial school systems will not reverse the trend. We must immediately implement the following twelve steps as an organised plan to refocus our public schools.

Catalogue Information