Adjusting the Course

A Status Report from the
Royal Commission Implementation Secretariat


The report of the Williams Royal Commission on Education, entitled Our Children-Our Future, was submitted in May, 1992. In November of that year, Government announced its support for the general thrust of the report, and its intention to implement comprehensive reforms to primary, elementary, and secondary education along the lines recommended by the report. The Royal Commission Implementation Secretariat was established in June, 1993 to carry out the necessary activities leading to a reformed system. That mandate will conclude June 1996 at which point the Secretariat will be in a position to transfer a majority of the implementation initiatives to schools, districts and divisions of the Department of Education and Training as appropriate.

What Actually Has Been Achieved to Date?

The Department was well underway to implementing some of the recommended changes prior to Fall 1992, due to the release of the provincial strategic economic planning document, Change and Challenge. The directions for education recommended by the Commission were in fact, consistent with policy statements contained in that document and served to (1) accelerate certain strategic initiatives such as revisions to the high school graduation requirements, refocusing and strengthening of the curriculum, and establishment of student performance standards, and to (2) highlight the need for system restructuring to improve its ability to deliver relevant, high quality education programs.

Approximately 20% of the Commission's recommendations have already been implemented and work on a majority of the remaining recommendations is well underway. While public attention has tended to focus on the proposed structural changes and resulting denominational issues, significant progress has been made on such substantive educational initiatives as:
  1. Development of interim learning outcomes (particularly in language, mathematics, science and technology) for the end of Grades 3, 6, and 9, and of draft graduation outcomes.
  2. Establishment of a professional development centre for teachers and other educators.
  3. Development of a provincial framework for the operation of school councils.
  4. Restructuring of the teacher certification system.
  5. Expansion of the school improvement initiative of the Department of Education.
  6. Development of a system for the review and accreditation of schools.
  7. Creation of a provincial system of education performance indicators.
  8. Development of provincial criteria to assess school viability.

Specific Project Updates

The broad policy directions outlined in the two Adjusting the Course policy documents, along with other Commission recommendations together form the basis for twelve major implementation projects, and more than 30 specific activities being conducted by the Secretariat. Three quarters of the way through the Secretariat's mandate, some of these projects are nearing completion, others are in process, while the review of special education has only recently been launched. Most of these projects are being carried out through working groups and advisory committees consisting of Department of Eduction officials, school district personnel, teachers, and where appropriate, representatives from other groups and from the public. It is expected that most of these projects will result in further policy statements and working documents to be issued over the next 4-6 months.

Legislation. A small working group of officials from the Secretariat and the Department of Justice, has completed the drafting of a new Schools Act, and amendments to several other Acts. The legislative work has been based primarily on the policies outlined in Adjusting the Course, Parts I and II. In addition, an earlier draft Schools Act, which had been in preparation prior to the Commission report, has been incorporated into the new legislation. The legislation is awaiting introduction in the House of Assembly.

School Councils. The proposed legislation will establish a school council for each school, consisting of parents, teachers, and other members of the community. A student representative will also be elected if the school includes high school grades. A working group has been established and a developmental project initiated, in collaboration with a team based at Memorial University, to address the issue of the effectiveness of school councils and to undertake a number of pilot school council projects. This work will conclude this Summer with the preparation of a framework document, a handbook for council members, and workshops or similar activities on effective school councils.

Curriculum. The reform of curriculum content, and curriculum development and implementation processes is a major part of the work of the Secretariat. Seven different projects have been initiated in this area. Some of the main activities of these groups include:
A number of discussion documents have been produced by these working groups. It is expected that most of the developmental work will be completed this Spring and Summer. Implementation of resulting changes will likely be phased in over the next several years beginning in 1995-96.

Classroom Issues and the Effective Use of Time. The Classroom Issues Committee is focussing on problems associated with classroom management, student discipline and student absenteeism. The Classroom Issues Project is also reviewing the use of instructional time in the school system with a view to ensuring that:
Particular emphasis will be placed on identifying and helping to minimize day to day interruptions that pre-empt teachers and students form making the best use of available instructional time. A final component of the project will be to produce a resource guide to assist teachers in maximizing the use of instructional time and minimizing interruptions in the classroom. This project is scheduled for completion June 1995.

Teacher Certification. A number of principles underlying teacher certification and professional development have been outlined in Adjusting the Course (Part II). Among the most important of these are term certificates, a three-level certification scale incorporating both professional development and performance components, and the establishment of a provincial professional development centre. It is expected that the certification proposals will undergo further refinement, through the existing Teacher Certification Committee, before being incorporated into a planned revision of the Teacher Training Act.

Professional Development. A Provincial Professional Development Centre has been established with offices temporarily located in the Department of Education and Training. The Centre will operate under a decentralized delivery structure with emphasis being placed on delivering programs in areas of greatest need, at times and locations most suitable for participants.

Outcomes and Accountability. A number of major initiatives are designed directly to improve the performance of students and to make the system more accountable to the public. First, within the various curriculum projects, the emphasis is on higher standards of achievement, and on developing the means of ensuring that these standards can be maintained. Second, a project has been initiated within the Department of Education to develop a system of educational indicators, capable of tracking the performance of the system. As well as providing information to policy-makers, administrators, and teachers, these indicators can serve as a primary means of reporting to the public. Finally, a system of school accreditation is being designed. This system is intended to ensure that individual schools are meeting the desired goals, to provide reports to the community on the performance of the school, and to provide the basis for improvement where schools are not meeting expectations.

Special Education Review. This major piece of the overall reform effort is just now getting underway with the appointment of Dr. Patricia Canning as full-time Project Director. A comprehensive review of policies, programs and practices of the department and districts in relation to the provision of student support and special education services (including programs for gifted students) is planned. The review is scheduled to be completed December 1995. A final report with detailed recommendations for policy and program changes should be available early in 1996.

Why Such a Comprehensive Implementation Process?

The Royal Commission, like most such broad reviews, identified areas of weakness and established general directions for education improvement, but was less definitive in its recommendations of actually how to accomplish many of the necessary changes. It therefore fell to the Implementation Secretariat to initiate further consultation and research, and to prepare policy proposals in many of these areas. Most of the time and effort of the Secretariat over the past 24 months has, in fact, been devoted to consultation, policy development, and research in a wide variety of areas intended to ensure that the ultimate goal of improving the quality of teaching and learning is achieved.

As part of this process a wide variety of communications activities have been carried out during the past 12 months. In addition to the two main policy documents and the two newsletters, these have included presentations to professional and public audiences, ministerial statements, news conferences, and the conduct of consultation sessions with school and district administrators in every Board in the province.

While it is the Secretariat's role to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive reform of primary, elementary, and secondary education, all of us ultimately share the responsibility for implementing change. In order for large scale reform to succeed, it is necessary for each of us to look beyond our own immediate agendas, to the welfare of the system as a whole. This is difficult, as many of us hold varying beliefs about what will best serve the interests of students. Unfortunately, the interests of students cannot be served when groups hold contradictory agendas, each pulling the system in a different direction. Compromises are required, and consensus must be arrived at in order to move forward with reform. The history of education is littered with failed attempts at reform. Such failures are often as much due to lack of consensus, commitment, or sustained support as to flaws in the ideas themselves. Reform can only succeed if the major participants are committed to the goals and the means of arriving at these goals. At this stage of our history, there seems to be a fairly clear consensus on the need for reform, and on the general thrust towards higher performance and greater accountability. What is missing is consensus on structure and process, particularly as change can be expected to affect the established interests of many groups.


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