RE: Make School Day Work Smarter, Not Longer — December 17, 2012

99.5% of the time I agree with the Frontier's views but on this one I have to provide a different  viewpoint. The existing school system at the elementary level is modeled on the same system that existed in the 60's, 50's, 40's, etc. Children are present in school from 9:00am to 3:30pm. Let's take the average family of the 21st century whereby both Mom and Dad are both present in the workforce (unlike the 60's, 50's, etc. where Mom's were "stay at home"). The standard workday is 8:00 to 4:00 or 9:00 to 5:00. Either parent is now forced to either rearrange their work schedule in order to pick up their child(ren) or find suitable after school daycare (for children under the age of 12).

Now take this situation one step further and apply it to a single parent family that is living at or below a middle income level. The parent gets two weeks vacation per year. The average number of Professional Development days teachers receive are a minimum of 1 per month not including early dismissals. The single parent must arrange and pay for an after school sitter or daycare when their child is released from school at 3:30pm. The cost of this to the parent is significant in terms of percentage of their annualized income. Factor in that the parent must arrange for a sitter 10 days a year not including the two weeks at Xmas and the summer and one can see the system is fine if we were living in 1952 but doesn not work for 2012.

I would argue that the average school day should not only coincide with the average work day but should be 8:30 to 5:30 to allow parents to fullfill their career/job obligations and help contribute to our economy by allowing for more work time and more disposable income directed to things the family needs vs going to after school daycare.

Email - Winnipeg, Mb

RE: Redford’s Proposed Energy Strategy is Wrong for Alberta — February 21, 2012

Who are Alberta's friends? America - they don't want your dirty oil and President Barack Obama is going to get a second term. B.C. - I lived there for eight years, and even if those greenies let you build a pipeline, they're going to charge you a lot of green for it. Quebec, not! Ontario? With the release of the Drummond report, the man on the street here knows the petro-dollar is one major reason manufacturing Ontario is bankrupt.

Our hatred of you has evolved from competitive to outright survival. Ontario Conservative MPs have sold us out - supporting Stephen Harper was a one-term mistake.

Even though we are more culturally tied to Alberta, we are more economically tied to Quebec. With the right leader, I can see an Orange Crush overflowing into Ontario where the NDP are no lovers of Big Oil. Manitoba is NDP, Saskatchewan may be but is known to support the NDP and its leader has national ambitions.

As an Ontarian with deep Alberta roots, meddling is the thing I would advise you to worry about the least. Premier Alison Red-ford is ahead of the pack.

She realizes that if this dirty oil is to survive, she is going to have to work on a national level. Landlocked Alberta is surrounded by political and personal enemies. Albertans would be wise to negotiate because there are far more of us than there are of the Marco Navarro-Genies in the oilpatch. By the time we're done with you, it will make the theft by Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Program look like a joke.

Ontario is desperate and we are out of time and patience! - Letter from Arthur, Peterborough, Ont.

RE: Tuition Fees and University Participation for Youth from Low-Income Families — September 15, 2011

I'd like to thank you for your clear piece on university tuition which recently appeared in the Calgary Herald - not least because of welcome traces of Mill's Methods. I don't know whether this was intended, but while the Herald's headline spoke of university 'access', your text consistently mentioned 'participation'. There's a big difference in meaning, though behind it all there must be some who argue that coming from a lower income family actually discourages if not prevents some from trying out for post-secondary education from the start.
Continue reading HERE.

RE: Bring Back Standardized Testing — April 23, 2009
As usual, Prof. Rodney Clifton has it right on with his comments concerning standardized testing in the schools. Those who criticize Prof. Clifton should ask themselves: Why are organizations like Sylvan Learning Centres doing such a huge business? Could it be because the public school system is no longer doing its job? More -- Letter to the Editor

RE: Let’s Dance the Dutch Minuet on Schools — March 31, 2003
The Frontier Centre's highlight on the Dutch Education System demonstrates that our current education model and governance structure can be changed to achieve better performance, accountability, and value for both students and taxpayers. Only those with vested interests, fear of change, and/or disbelief in the room for improvement would be afraid of learning from the success of others. - E-mail from S. Mark Francis, Winnipeg, March 31, 2003

RE: SaskEd Measures Up — October 9, 2007
Sask Ed might be measuring achievement but at what cost? We in SK no longer use the reliable CTBS because it would show how our student's achievement has declined over time. Manitoba with its socialist government might have problems in education but ours is absolutely terrible itself with huge sums spent on the new huge school divisions with administrators falling over themselves to waste resources. E-mail from Saskatchewan

RE: More comment . . . — January 15, 2005
Mainstreamed classrooms are guaranteed to go hand-in-glove with diluted course content as teachers must set the bar lower to accommodate a wider range of students, some of whom are totally out of their element without special help.

RE: Yes to Merit Pay — January 13, 2005

Salary increases should come with superior classroom performance and a good attendance at "Professional" courses which keep teachers up to date. Read more.

Email from retired Winnipeg teacher, January 13, 2005

RE: Let's Dance the Dutch Minuet on Schools — March 31, 2003
The Frontier Centre's highlight on the Dutch Education System demonstrates that our current education model and governance structure can be changed to achieve better performance, accountability, and value for both students and taxpayers. Only those with vested interests, fear of change, and/or disbelief in the room for improvement would be afraid of learning from the success of others. - E-mail from S. Mark Francis, Winnipeg

SOARing Beyond the FRAME Report

A new reporting format modelled on FRAME should be implemented. It would require school divisions to utilize the same format for reporting student achievement.

The new report would be called the Student Overall Achievement Report (SOAR

).

Categories would include standards tests results, teacher assessment of students, graduation rates, attrition and attendance.

More Education Courses Are Not the Solution
After months or even years of indoctrination in failed teaching strategies and outmoded ideologies, prospective teachers can actually emerge as less effective and discerning teachers than they were prior to their enrolment in the program.

How Not To Do Education Testing
The proper role for politicians and bureaucrats in this process is that of "supercop." Test every child every year, and report the results. Don't impose more burdens on teachers, but separate the program from the providers it is partly designed to measure. Use the results to recognize superior pedagogy and point failing schools in the right direction. Tests need not be the enemy of teachers; they can be their best friend.

Standardized Testing is a Good Thing
Standardized testing is the most accurate and objective means by which student academic achievement can be reported to the public. Such testing makes it possible to compare schools with each other, and it provides a way to identify the most successful schools.

Reading, Writing, Word Processing
Like any new toy, computers had a sheen that could be blinding when they came into broad use in schools. The growing consensus that they are not magic fixes for education is a good thing: it may cause some educators to rethink how they are using them.

Mandate Letters Will Increase Universities’ Troubles
Ultimately, undermining university autonomy achieves the opposite of what Lukaszuk claims to be after. And by reducing meaningful choice and work against the liberty to decide what to study, it will likely reduce creativity and muffle innovation. It will yield followers instead of forming leaders. The minister’s plan, however well-intended, is half-baked and dangerous to universities.

Class Size Not Important To Student Performance
Students from Singapore and Korea, who outperformed most other countries, experience average class sizes of 41 or more, compared to the 24-student norm in the five participating Canadian provinces. Although teachers regularly identify large classes as a barrier to effective teaching, the UBC professor who co-ordinated the math and science project demurs. He was unable to find "a very strong correlation between class size and achievement."

More Choice a Good Thing For School Boards
School boards need to embrace choice as an integral part of their overall philosophy and not simply another fad to implement on a trial basis in a few isolated pockets. While it is positive that Toronto plans to allow the creation of several specialty schools, the school board needs to go much further than this. There’s no reason to limit choice to only a few groups of parents. All parents should be able to send their children to the school that best meets the needs of their children.

School Vouchers in Sweden
The Swedes started to use vouchers in elementary and middle schools in 1992, with the passage of national legislation called Freedom of Choice and Independent Schools, and expanded the program two years later to include high schools. Rapidly growing private, for-profit companies like Kunskapsskolan have introduced unique curricula to attract vouchered students.