Intermediate Review or Specialist Elimination

Director,

This has been a busy year for ASAC and the Alternative Program in general and we look back with pride on some of the accomplishments and innovations that have been undertaken. Against this backdrop, however, is a concern that one of the cornerstones of the Alternative Program, parental involvement and consultation, continues to be eroded.

The Alternative Program in Ottawa, as it is in other cities across Ontario, Canada and, indeed, North America, is based on a foundation on innovation, parental involvement and bottom-up programming. Over the years we have introduced many new concepts to the OCDSB, including multi-grade classrooms, anecdotal reporting, parental involvement, integrated curriculum and co-operative team-based learning. We pride ourselves in looking at new teaching methods, trying them out in small scale circumstances and then rolling them out across the program in a consultative bottom-up approach.

Our one Alternative Intermediate School, Summit, exemplifies this approach. For years the school has modeled a "pod" approach which successfully blends specialty teaching with a small and consistent group of core teachers that the students all get to know well. This allows for the reduction or student-teacher contact points and an increase in literacy block length through an integrated curriculum while still maintaining specialty teachers, single-gender gym and rich extra-curriculars.

It was with some surprise, then, for ASAC to learn that the board was imposing a new curriculum delivery model, top-down, that attempts to accomplish some of the same goals without getting the Alternative community involved, building off of a working model or maintaining the value of specialty teaching or extra-curriculars. This change does not fit within the board's stated goal of community involvement and breaks the contract set up with the Alternative Schools starting back in 1982.

ASAC recognizes that the board is starting a new Alternative Program Review. As part of this review, ASAC would like the board to address:

• the issue of how parents are to be engaged
• what consultation and communication means
• how the board can leverage internal experiences to address curriculum delivery goals instead of imposing a top-down directive.

Until these issues can be addressed, ASAC, as an advisory committee to the board, advises the board to put the Intermediate Review changes on hold within the Alternative Program.

Robin West
Co chair ASAC

Richard Deadman
Past Chair ASAC