Here’s some food for thought:

Found a most interesting article by Barbara A. Gill on the foundation years programme in N.B. There are some sobering passages:

“New Brunswick has the most advanced education system in North America.”

With these words James Lockyer, Minister of Education for New Brunswick, introduced the new Education Act and a number of educational innovations. Phrases like “on the cutting edge of education in Canada” were used by Department of Education personnel and suggestions made that other provinces would soon follow the forward looking reforms being introduced in New Brunswick. …

The Foundation Years Program was one of a number of innovations implemented by the Department of Education. …

… Almost from the beginning questions were raised about the program. The issues raised included the speed of the implementation process with no proper piloting, data gathering, or evaluation; insufficient teacher inservicing/training; class size and insufficient resources for the varying achievement levels within the classroom. It was also suggested that outcomes had been developed without input from teachers. … While teachers were allegedly under a “gag order” and could not publicly raise questions about the program, parents and others did not have the same restrictions. A group of parents, including three university professors, raised concerns and tried to obtain information and clarification from Department of Education personnel about the program through private meetings with Department of Education officials. They were told everything was just splendid.

Not receiving satisfaction from these meetings more public attempts were made to get the Department of Education to take a second look. Throughout April, May and June of 1997 numerous letters appeared in the local press raising concerns about the Foundation Years Program. …

… The Department admitted that the implementation of the program had some flaws and did not meet every expectation but overall the program was gaining acceptance …

However throughout the Fall of 1997 letters to the editors of local newspapers outlining concerns over the Foundation Years Program continued. …

In February and March of 1998 concerned parents held meetings across the province. These meetings appeared to have little effect on the Department of Education.

Many problems were caused by the method of implementation adopted by the Department of Education. This implementation process took no account of what was involved in educational change. The program was never piloted. The schools which started the program in 1995 were “early starters” not pilot sites so there was no data gathering or evaluation of their experiences. There was no chance to modify the program from the feedback of the teachers and students in these schools. While there was a clear vision in the minds of Department personnel, this vision was not articulated in terms of the practicalities and details of the program. These gaps in communication became more and more evident as teachers and students entered the second and third year of the program. Teachers who were positive about the program in the beginning became disenchanted in subsequent years. …

The centralization of the education system in the province caused those responsible to forget that differences existed among schools and communities and that each site was unique. …

… the Premier of the province, Frank McKenna, told the media in an interview that there was really no need for any hearings at all because as soon as the public realized that the government knew best there would be no further opposition. This statement summed up the attitude of the government of the time. …

Does any of this sound at all familiar?

The article describes a chagrined Dept. of Education and an apologetic government, all promising that such a flawed process will not happen again.

I guess the current Minister didn’t get the memo.