Give students equal access
Few New Brunswickers have put as much time and intelligence into investigating the effects of public education as Douglas Willms.
Mr. Willms, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Human Development at UNB, has just released an analysis of proposed changes to French immersion. It focuses on the central issue: how can New Brunswick ensure better outcomes for all students?
The changes to French immersion are not about language. They are about education - and in particular, the deforming effects of programs that result in student streaming.
Most public discussion of the streaming issue has focused on the degree to which students with special needs have been streamed out of early French immersion. Many parents believe the solution is not to eliminate early immersion, but to supply French-speaking methods and resource teachers and teachers' aides. Mr. Willms' data suggests this is an over-simplifed view of the problem. It is not just special needs students who are being excluded.
Boys are under-represented in French immersion programs - a fact that may reflect the different ages at which girls' and boys' aptitude develops. The skills gap is more pronounced in the early grades.
Early French immersion also includes a disproportionate number of students from the highest social class - students whose families are better educated and better off financially. Just 12 per cent of students from the lowest social class are enrolled in early French immersion.
Students with behaviourial difficulties tend to be under-represented, along with students of lesser academic ability. The program is designed like a one-way door - students can be streamed out of early French immersion, but cannot be admitted into it in later grades on the basis of ability.
This streaming cannot be resolved by adding resources to early French immersion. It is created by the very existence of the program, which inevitably privileges some students over others.
Studies worldwide have demonstrated that streaming lowers educational performance. So why would New Brunswick maintain a publicly funded program that isolates the majority of kids and reduces their chance of learning?
If the program immersed students in math, New Brunswickers would not be engaged in such an emotional debate. Parents would ask why public schools were not striving to equip every student with equally effective skills.
That's what Education Minister Kelly Lamrock's reforms are intended to do - and while Mr. Willms believes the plan could be improved by lowering the age at which French instruction begins, he has no qualms about the government's move toward more universal French education. Nor do we.
There is a place for streaming in education - after students have developed the core skills they will require to live happy and productive lives. Each student deserves equal access to the highest quality of education the public system can provide. If students wish to choose intensive academic or vocational streams later, they should have the option - but not in Grade 1.
The government must hold its course on French immersion, and raise the quality of education for all students.
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Comments (21)
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The Minister does not have much to say on the question of resources, perhaps because this is, largely, a money-saving move. So now ALL students can enjoy an education that the Minister, and this newspaper, characterize as second rate.
There is one simple reason that N.B. scores are comparatively low: because N.B. investment in education, per capita, is practically the lowest in the country.
Today's article is a wonderful demonstration of the public debate and expert consultation that should have taken place BEFORE the decision was made. Bernard Richard, our Ombudsman, suggested a one year moratorium on these changes, allowing for such. What do we have to lose from listening to other experts, such as Drs. Joe Dicks, Joan Netten, and Fred Genessee. The Premier should call a time-out.
The data does show that certain sectors of our society have children enrolled in EFI more than other sectors, but in other provinces such an observation would be the beginning of research, not the end of the discussion. Until we understand the nature of the *causual relation* between socio-economic status and EFI enrollment, for example, opponents of the eradication of EFI will continue to fear that Lamrock's plan will remove an effective source of bilingual anglophones, put us out of step with all other provinces, and provide, in exchange, no real change in quality of learning.
But what is even more laughable on the front page is that Willms himself is distancing himself from Lamrock's plan.
If this fiasco gets anymore pathetic....well, I guess I wouldn't be surprised at all.
What a way to start an editorial! Who says New Brunswickers are not putting in time and are not intelligent! An apology is in order!
A post above ask why be in such a hurry to implement these changes without full discussion with the stakeholders and the public. I agree. Why not delay the changes for one year and have public hearings before making such drastic changes,