Staff
Early success and room for growth was the message when the Rainy River District School Board was given an update at their Sept. 1 meeting on the Critical Learning Instructional Pathways (CLIP) process that was introduced to all elementary schools in as a teaching method the past school year.
“We know that education today is really changing and we have to develop students who are really critical thinkers, and to do that we have to dig a little bit deeper,” said Sylvia Parker, the RRDSB’s Effective Schools Leader who spoke to trustees.
“It’s not just the curriculum that we’re trying to cover it’s trying to develop the ability to think critically and really make a connection with not just what they’re doing in school but what they’re doing in the outside world,” she added.
“A ‘Critical Pathway’ identifies students areas of greatest needs,” Parker explained, describing it as “precision teaching” done in a small block of time. “It takes about six weeks to complete, is supported by professional learning communities, generally it’s connected to a big idea, so we usually have an umbrella theme that we connect our big idea to.”
“Themes” in earlier teaching days would be such things as bears, mice or dinosaurs, Parker recalled.
“Now the themes that we’re looking at, we’re really encouraging, are those that really connect to the world and have an impact, so the students are learning about those things,” she said, giving “poverty” as an example theme with the texts the teacher would use reflecting on this theme, or a math class on percentages looking at poverty statistics in the Third World.
Sturgeon Creek Alternative program (SCAP)’s implementation of CLIPs was the big example given on the success the program has seen so far.
“Last year they were identified as an OFIP [Ontario Focused Intervention Partnership] school, which is a school that is struggling,” Parker explained, noting that despite students and teachers working really hard over the past few years the Grade 3 EQAO provincial testing in reading, writing and math had been declining, and the Grade 6 results had been inconsistent.
Last year, the school “embraced” the pathway process, she explained, to achieve certain goals they set out.
“Their very first one was the one for primary students in reading comprehension,” Parker explained, noting that after the first week period within the CLIP the number of students who were at a level three or four—the levels where the province expects students to be at—had risen from 18 percent to 51 percent.
“That’s pretty positive and very encouraging for them,” Parker said, adding that the second pathway for number sense and numeration saw similar improvements—traditionally five to 20 percent of students in the classroom were at a level three or four in this area, and junior and intermediate teachers saw this rise to 43 to 64 percent following the CLIP.
With all the elementary schools introducing CLIPs this past year, Parker presented the board with feedback from teachers on the program.
“One of the things that they said which was loud and clear was it really confirmed for them that all students can learn,” she said. “That even those kids that really struggle from time to time, they were able to set goals, put strategies in place and see growth through those
students.”
Amongst the given feedback, teachers reported that “strategies and curriculum expectations cross over grade levels and subjects,” she said, such as curriculum expectations in Language Arts coming up again and strengthened in social studies, geography and science.
“We also found that the CLIP process was very instructional focused, was very specific and very strategic,” Parker said, “[and] professional learning communities, job embedded preferential learning teams and school improvement plans provide opportunities for teachers to reflect on practices and student work in order to plan for future instruction.”
Teachers reported that the CLIPS program saw them moving away from working on their own, towards working as a collective and in collaboration, with coaching and co-teaching.
As the CLIPS program continues, Parker noted, one place, there is a continued need to focus on and grow with is data analysis, and they are also looking to see how the CLIP process can be brought into the high school.
Also at the RRDSB’s meeting, trustees:
•presented a “Recognition of Excellence” award towards Sturgeon Creek School for their “Playground Activity Leaders in Schools” (PALS) program which has been run in partnership with the Northwestern Health Unit;
•presented the results of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT)—provincial testing;
•awarded a tender for the installation of a new portable at J.W. Walker School. This portable is a temporary structure as enrollment at the school has increased, but the board still expects enrollment to decline in the future;
•received an update on provincial funding for renewable energy projects, with administration applying for funding solar energy projects at Fort Frances High School, Atikokan High School, Rainy River High School, and J.W. Walker;
•approved tenders for janitorial services for the Nestor Falls School; office supplies/paper, photocopier paper and supplies;
•approved updated policies the policy committee had reviewed, as well as approved the review of policy 2.60 Records Management and 8.09 Purchasing for stakeholder consultation and review;
•received an update on the Student Success Summer Programming for 2009 which aims to help at-risk students acquire credits. This year, the board’s “Credit Rescue” program saw 18 Grade 9 and 10 students receive a total of 43 credits. The “Credit Recovery” program which operated during the first weeks of July saw 14 Grade 9 and 10 students receive 15 total credits. The summer “paid co-op” program saw a total of 22 students participating, and 15 credits awarded, a number expected to increase as more students submit the required paperwork as school returns;
•were given a presentation on the Board’s Annual Operational Plan for 2009 to 2010 (soon to be available online at the board’s website www.rrdsb.com); and
•received an update on the various summertime facility repairs and including projects such as the installation of new flooring and repainting rooms at various schools, installation of 22 Smart Boards in classrooms.
