Tom Mueller: Follow Alberta on school standards

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As a career teacher, I have witnessed firsthand the stark differences in educational outcomes in various Canadian provinces. Alberta consistently achieves the highest academic rankings in Canada with impressive cost efficiency. Their sustained success was catalyzed by former Premier Ralph Klein’s initiatives, which New Brunswick would be wise to emulate.

Alberta’s success stands upon three pillars: first, school competition prevents parents from being constrained to neighbourhood schools; second, site-based management allows money to follow the student into the classroom; third, and most importantly, province-wide standardized testing fairly and transparently measures performance.

Now retired, I enjoy the occasional gig as a supply teacher for both anglophone and francophone school districts. In contrast to Alberta, I can attest that New Brunswick encourages mediocrity.

Accountability is absent, even discouraged. This lax approach seamlessly transitions into a culture of grade inflation, in response to parental pressure.

As dew-eyed young pupils bid farewell to elementary school, they confront our dysfunctional middle schools. Once-vibrant eagerness often dissipates, leaving them grappling not only with ‘what’ needs to be learned but more critically, with ‘how’ to learn.

As these foundational gaps widen, the pupils find themselves increasingly unprepared for the challenges expected of high school, a crucial precursor predicting future post-secondary academic success.

One particular week, I taught the exact same arithmetic lesson, at three different schools, over three consecutive days. Here is the problem: On the first day, I was at an elementary school; the next day, at a middle school; and then finally in a high school.

Fredericton, we have a problem!

Several teachers manage to buck this dismal trend while achieving stellar results. Many work in small rural or urban schools facing difficult educational challenges, often ignoring local curriculum “standards.” Doing so can require considerable political acumen while resisting pushback from above.

Sadly, such is not always the case: Many high school teachers who attempt classroom rigor often find themselves reassigned from higher level Grade 11 and 12 courses – for the simple reason that other teachers achieve (ahem) “better” results with spoon-feeding.

Alberta was once no different. Then came Ralph Klein’s transformation – a site-based model accompanied by accountability. Principals? Well, they had no choice but to turn a blind eye to usual office-politics and defer instead to demonstrated results in the classroom, as assessed by external standardized exams.

Now, if Fredericton is paying attention (and well they should), our apparatchiks might just want to tear a leaf out of Alberta’s playbook. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just borrow the blueprint for success?

Tom Mueller is a former biomedical researcher, retired teacher and columnist for Brunswick News.