Alberta’s Task Force for Teaching Excellence released 25 recommendations last Monday, and the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) is up in arms about some of the recommendations.
The recommendations include recertification for teachers every five years, allowing people in fields like the trades and fine arts to teach without an education degree, and giving the Education Ministry the power to review complaints about teachers.
Aspen View ATA president Stephanie Cumbleton spoke out on behalf of the ATA.
“The general emotions with the ATA is that a lot of the recommendations are a direct attack against the profession,” she said. “There are a number of recommendations that look like they are set in place to undermine a teacher’s professionalism or putting a teacher’s professionalism into question.”
Minister of Education and Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater MLA Jeff Johnson said the report was positive and that a key point to remember is that the report was released to the public before it enters the chains of government.
“Typically what we would do is have a report conducted like this, and we would keep it secret. We would bring it inside government, and we would consider it, and then we would put our responses together,” Johnson said. “Then we would release that. However, that is not what we are doing here. We are releasing their report to the public so that the public and teachers and parents and students can help us build the response to the report.”
Johnson said nothing is finalized, and the government is looking for public input.
“The ATA has said that they believe that the Minister of Education has some kind of personal vendetta, or some personal agenda, and he is using this task force to get what he wants,” Cumbleton said. “What I have been telling people in the local area (is that) they are just recommendations. Everything will need to be looked at further.”
Cumbleton said some recommendations are more concerning than others.
“There are a number of recommendations that look horrendous, but then again, the task force does have some recommendations that are worthy of further study,” she said. “One of the biggest concerns with the ATA is the recertification every five years.”
Cumbleton wants to know what this recertification will look like.
“Another one that is very unnerving is the removing our administration from the union. How are we supposed to work in a collaborative process when the government wants to turn it into an us-vs.-them mentality within the school?” she asked. “My own feeling is that I don’t understand why the minister is attacking a profession that has become world renowned.”
Cumbleton said the Alberta education system ranks high in Canada and the world.
“Obviously we are doing something right,” she said. “Why would he attack that? Why would he say that we have all of these issues and problems when on the world stage, we are a shining example that people come to?”
Johnson said he has no hidden agenda.
“I’m not sure what you can say my personal agenda would be in this,” he said. “First of all, government has not accepted any recommendations, and we went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the task force was independent, but that it also included lots of teachers.
“The only agenda I have is to make sure the student is our primary concern,” Johnson continued. “Don’t forget the report is just as critical of government and education faculties as it is of the ATA.”
Johnson said the ATA is sensitive around the report because it is protective of its role.
“I want to see us focus on what’s good for kids, not just protecting an organization,” Johnson said.
As for the backlash the report has received, Johnson said it was expected.
“Right now, they are taking exception to a couple of the recommendations,” he said. “Those have to do more with the perceived conflict that exists within the ATA because they are the union, and they are also responsible for fielding complaints on teachers and conducting investigations and hearings on teachers, but they also defend them.”
Johnson said he wants open discussion.
“I think if we are going to put students at the centre of this and do what is in the best interest of students, not just an organization, then we cannot be afraid to have these discussions,” he said. “I can’t predict what is going to come out of it, but I think there is some really great things identified, some really good ideas, and overall I think it is going to give us a lot to talk about and will make the system better.”
The task force consists of 16 people who are not stakeholders, he said.
“They had the mandate to go out and look at anything they wanted to look at that was going to contribute to teaching excellence,” Johnson said. “We know that the teacher is the single most important factor in the success of our students.”
In the search to improve education in Alberta, the task force looked worldwide.
“We also know that teachers have concerns because of the increased workload, diversity in the classroom — they want more time to prepare, and we know that parents have concerns about accountability,” he said. “We have a lot of changes happening in the classroom, and we want to make sure that the proper professional development and support is there to keep skills up, especially with technology alone.”
Teaching quality was at the heart of what the task force observed.
“One of the main findings of the study was that across the globe, the jurisdictions that are spending their efforts and focusing their time on teaching quality are the ones that are improving,” he said.
Johnson said the recommendations of the report include how post-secondary students are admitted to education faculties.
“They give advice on how education faculty should change what they are doing, especially with the practicum,” he explained. “One of the concerns is with the number of rookie teachers that are dropping out of the profession. That is one of the things that we wanted them to look at. They have given suggestions on how we can better support and mentor first-year teachers.”
Johnson said the report also lists the need for extra resources for teachers.
“They go into the assurance piece: how we make sure that teachers keep their skills up, how we make sure that we are weeding out weak teachers, and how we discipline teachers that have misconduct issues,” Johnson said.
Johnson invites the public to view the report at https://inspiring.education.alberta.ca/initiative/task-force-for-teaching-excellence/ and voice any concerns they may have by June 5.
“It is one of those things that it is so early to call how it is going to be interpreted and how the population in Alberta is going to receive the information,” Cumbleton said.
- Look beyond grades when deciding on candidates for teaching programs
- Give prospective teachers practicum experience in the classroom earlier on, or even before they enter a teacher training program.
- Introduce a mandatory, paid, one-year internship for new teachers that involves a lesser workload.
- Develop a mentorship program for new teachers.
- Develop a mandatory leadership preparation program for school leaders and a mentorship framework for them. Evaluate them every five years.
- Develop a system to evaluate and supervise school and district leaders.
- On issues of teacher competency, introduce teacher evaluations every five years, at which teachers must present a dossier of evidence of their effectiveness as a teacher.
- On issues of teacher conduct, make changes to assure greater openness, transparency, timeliness, fairness and efficiency.
- Consider removing principals from the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
