Alberta Education’s report and recommendations from the Task Force for Teaching Excellence was released May 5, and the Alberta Teacher’s Association (ATA) is calling the report “an assault on teachers.”
“From the beginning, Johnson’s task force has lacked transparency and legitimacy,” said ATA President Mark Ramsankar in a press release. “The politically driven recommendations have the potential to seriously undermine the culture of education in Alberta, a global leader in education. This seriously undermines teachers’ trust in and relationship with the Progressive Conservative government.”
The Task Force report includes 25 recommendations that were gathered from input from about 3,000 Alberta parents, students, teachers, educational leaders and others over two months through an online survey, discussion boards, written submissions and regional consultations in 14 communities.
However, Ramasankar questions the validity of the public input and said the ATA had received information from “many very well-placed sources” that suggest high members within the government influenced the work of the task force and the recommendations.
He is “calling on Premier Hancock to immediately and clearly outline the position of the government on the task force recommendations.”
The 25 recommendations come under three themes: The Teacher, The Leader and The Education System.
Recommendations under The Teacher include: refined provincial practice standards, extended practicum programs, improved professional growth plans and teacher evaluation processes, enhanced teaching supports including more reliable and accessible technology and access to specialized student services.
The Leader theme includes recommendations for: new provincial practices standards for school leaders, a province-wide mentorship framework to support new school and district leaders, enhanced professional growth plans, mandatory preparation programs for principals, and enhanced practice supervision and performance evaluation processes.
Recommendations for the Education System include: a new provincial designation to recognize excellent teachers, better access to community-based expertise for student learning, enhanced teacher time for planning and collaboration, and improved teacher and school leader practice review processes.
“After parents, teachers are the most important contributor to students’ success. With that in mind, I assigned the group one goal: to ensure that every child, in every class, has an excellent teacher,” said Minister of Education Jeff Johnson.
“The Task Force took this mission to heart and has published a reporter that clearly puts the needs of our children first.”
The Task Force was chaired by Dr. Glenn Feltham, president and CEO of NAIT.
“We focused on recommendations that enable, support and assure teaching excellence,” said Feltham in a press release. “In all our deliberations, the interest of the student was paramount – the child came first.”
However, the ATA suggests some of the recommendations “are offensive to teachers and will undermine the culture of education in Alberta.”
In particular the group is concerned with recommendations that they say strip teachers of fundamental employment protections, force recertification every five years and grant teaching certificates to individuals who don’t have a teaching degree.
Furthermore, the ATA suggests the recommendations fail to recognize fundamental differences between policing conduct and reviewing teacher professional practices, and turns principals from “collaborative school leaders into factory bosses.”
The group claims the recommendations “attempt to extort compliance from the Association by threatening to remove principals from membership and/or break it up.”
Johnson could not be reached for additional comment before press time.
The government is inviting all Albertans to share their feedback on the report, which is available at education.alberta.ca
Key education stakeholder organizations, including the recently established Teacher Development and Practice Advisory Committee, are also invited to review the report and give their feedback to the Minister for consideration.
