Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Results

Government Strategic Goals		Ministry Mission The purpose of the British Columbia school system is to enable learners to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy society and a prosperous and sustainable economy.
		Ministry Goals		Ministry Objectives		Performance Measures/Indicators
A strong and vibrant provincial economy.   A supportive social fabric.   Safe, healthy communities and a sustainable environment.		1. Improved student achievement.		1. Improved student achievement in areas of intellectual development with a specific focus on literacy.		School completion rates.
						Provincial Test — Part I: Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) results. Part II: Graduation Program Exam results.
						Enrolment of students in secondary apprenticeship programs.
				2. Improved student human and social development (i.e., health and well-being).		Part I: Percentage of public school parents who report that their child feels safe at school. Part II: Percentage of public school students who report feeling safe at school.
						Part I: Percentage of parents who report their child is learning how to stay healthy. Part II: Percentage of students who report learning how to stay healthy.
		2. A high quality performance-oriented education system.		1. An environment of choice and flexibility exists in the K-12 education system.		Percentage of public school parents and students reporting satisfaction with program choices available to them.

Improved student achievement should result in students being able to demonstrate progress in academic performance in the K-12 education system, and in students being knowledgeable about health and safety. Continued progress toward the province's social and economic goals depends upon well-educated citizens. The ministry's measure of success for this goal is year-over-year improvement in all areas of student achievement.

The Ministry of Education, in partnership with school boards, is responsible for improving student achievement. While the ministry is responsible for setting standards, monitoring results, and providing funding for the K-12 education system, it is not directly responsible for delivering education programs to students. The School Act and School Act Regulations define the management functions, including the roles and responsibilities of the Ministry of Education, school boards, and school officials. The School Act and School Act Regulations delegate authority to school boards to hire senior level staff to administer school operations and to advise boards in formulating policy. Currently, school boards have a primary responsibility for students' intellectual development and a shared responsibility with families and the community for students' human, social and career development.

Each school board, in accordance with an "Accountability Framework," is accountable to the province and the public for the performance of students in its district. Under the terms of an "Accountability Contract," each school board has the autonomy to govern the schools in its district to achieve the results targeted in its "Accountability Contract." This allows school boards the flexibility to meet the unique needs of the communities they serve.

Early intervention offers children the best chance to acquire the strong literacy skills needed for academic and career success. Over the next three years, the ministry will focus on key strategies that include providing support for early literacy, encouraging early intervention to improve success in reading, and monitoring and reporting student performance. A fourth strategy to improve student achievement in intellectual development will be to recognize all achievements by acknowledging learning outside the classroom. If the education system is to meet the requirements of a strong economy for skilled trades workers, more students must be given the opportunities and skills to gain experience in the trades.

A well-rounded education system focuses on the whole child, and encourages social and human development, as well as intellectual development. Intellectual development, one of the key elements in improving student achievement, is addressed under this objective; the other key elements, social and human development, will be addressed under Goal 2.

Performance Measures:

Note: The five performance measures chosen to measure the main goals — improved student achievement and a high quality and performance-oriented education system — are not the only indicators of success used by the Ministry of Education. Rather, these measures have been chosen to highlight the most crucial aspects of the ministry's performance. It should also be noted that the performance measures used by the Ministry of Education are not static — they are subject to change as the ministry continues to refine and improve its performance indicators, and when or if the ministry decides to change its strategic direction. All of the performance measures in this Service Plan meet the standards of good performance planning, and are complete, accurate, statistically reliable, independently verifiable, and based on data that is reliable and timely.

The ministry has reduced the number of performance measures under this objective in order to focus on the three that are the most meaningful to the public and which best reflect the public interest. By measuring completion rates and the results from provincial testing (Foundation Skills Assessment and Graduation Program Exams), the ministry and the public will be able to obtain a clear picture of student achievement and to measure the degree of improvement. As well, by measuring the enrolment of students in secondary apprenticeship programs, the ministry will be able to determine how successful it has been in encouraging students to consider a career in the trades sector.

School completion rates: Completion rates are a key measure of the success of our education system, and the ministry continues to strive for systemic improvement in this area. The school completion rate calculates the proportion of students who graduate with a Dogwood Diploma within six years of starting Grade 8 for the first time in a BC public or independent school.

The Dogwood certificate was chosen as a performance measure because it is tangible evidence that a student has succeeded in the K-12 education system, and because it acts as a passport to either post-secondary education or the job market. In our society, young adults have a far better chance for a successful life with a secondary school graduation certificate. In British Columbia, unlike in most other provinces, the Ministry of Education annually tracks and collects each individual child's data through the use of a Personal Education Number (PEN). The use of a PEN allows the ministry to track an individual student's progress through the system. The results are collected and reported in late fall of each school year.

Provincial Test Part I — Foundation Skills Assessment results: The Foundation Skills Assessment performance measure is important because it serves as a warning that can alert educators to a cohort's challenges at an early stage, and allows for a proactive response. The data gathered from the Foundation Skills Assessment also provides all levels of the education system with an opportunity to plan more effectively and to focus on key priorities, in order to meet the goal of year-over-year improvement in student achievement.

The FSA specifically targets reading, writing and numeracy skills, but does not cover the entire spectrum of the BC curriculum. Student participation in FSA is generally around 90%. The Foundation Skills Assessment provides a look at issues on a broad scale, such as an overall improvement or decline in reading skills, and allows a focused response at the individual school level, the district level or the provincial level. FSA is a standardized measure, designed by BC teachers to reflect the BC education system's curriculum. The tests are administered annually to students in Grades 4 and 7, and the results are reported each year in the fall. Grade 10 students now take Graduation Program Exams.

Provincial Test Part II — Graduation Program Examinations: In addition to Foundation Skills Assessment, the Graduation Program Exams are a key measure of how successful the K-12 system is in achieving its goal. Secondary students are required to write five exams under the new 2004 Graduation Program — Language Arts 10 and 12, Mathematics 10, Science 10 and Social Studies 11/12. Graduation Program Exams were chosen as an indicator of intellectual achievement because writing the exams is a requirement for graduation, beginning with Grade 10 students in 2004/2005.

Grade 10 was dropped from the FSA in 2004 because the new Grade 10/11 Graduation Program Exams are a more comprehensive measure of performance at Grade 10. Results from the Graduation Program Exams for Grades 10/11 can be used as a system-wide measure, as well as a measure of individual achievement. These exams are administered five times a year, and an annual report of school, district and provincial results will be made available each fall. Baseline data will be established for the 2004/05 school year, as this is the first year for the 2004 Graduation Program.

Enrolment of students in secondary apprenticeship programs: Tracking the enrolment of students in secondary apprenticeship programs is a useful measure because it indicates the level of student interest in pursuing a career in the trades sector. Baseline data was collected for this measure last year. By providing skilled workers for the trades sector, the ministry is working to meet the province's goal of a strong and vibrant economy.

For children to learn effectively, they need to be healthy and have a safe learning environment. In order to ensure that children are taught in an environment that is conducive to learning, and that they have the capacity to learn, the ministry has chosen to focus on two important strategies over the next three years. The first strategy revolves around supporting the efforts of schools, school boards and school communities as they continue to strive for the vision of safe streets and schools outlined in the ministry's Safe, Caring and Orderly Schools initiative.

The second strategy revolves around supporting healthy living for K-12 students. The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health Services, has launched an action plan for student health. The action plan consists of a multi-faceted approach, and includes a policy framework for schools to promote learning about health. In order to increase awareness of the importance of health issues, a revision of expected learning outcomes related to the health curriculum has also been included in the action plan. A third component of the plan is Action Schools! BC, which is an initiative designed to encourage physical activity in school-aged children. Together, the strategies to support the efforts of school boards to emphasize safety and encourage healthy habits will lead to improved student achievement.

Performance Measures:

Part I: Percentage of public school parents who report that their child feels safe at school;

Part II: Percentage of public school students who report feeling safe at school: An effective learning environment is a critical component of the ministry's goal to improve student achievement. Children need to feel secure at school — they cannot learn effectively in an environment where they are fearful or anxious. Not only do children learn more effectively when they feel safe, they are more likely to stay in school. This measure is important because it accurately reflects parents' and children's perceptions related to school safety. The safety-related questions are asked as part of the Ministry of Education's Satisfaction Survey, which is administered annually to students at the school level in Grades 4, 7, 10, and 12, and to parents and staff.

Part I: Percentage of parents who report their child is learning how to stay healthy;

Part II: Percentage of students who report learning how to stay healthy: These health-related questions are also drawn from the Ministry of Education's annual Satisfaction Survey, and are a key measure of the attitudes of students and parents toward health education in the schools. Children who are physically active and who eat a nutritious, well-balanced diet have an advantage when it comes to learning and achieving academic excellence. For students, learning how to incorporate physical activity and healthy eating into their lives while they are in school will pay huge dividends throughout their adult lives, and will reduce future chronic disease. One of the benefits of lower rates of chronic disease will be to reduce additional pressure on government programs.

In a high quality performance-oriented education system, the focus of the entire system is on a data driven, results-based, and flexible approach to improving student achievement. The best way to ensure student success — during the K-12 school years and in preparation for post-secondary endeavors — is to offer students choices that fit their needs and interests. Such a system will result in access to quality education for all students, learning choices for parents and students, and will be measured by the level of satisfaction reported by students and parents.

In order to support school boards' efforts to offer choice in the schools, the ministry has removed barriers that might have hampered the achievement of this goal. Specifically, there is now legislation in place that grants to parents the legal right to volunteer in their child's school,³ as well as legislation that provides more choice and flexibility in school calendars and class size.⁴

The ministry will work with school boards to examine ways to make schools the centers of their communities; this work will include conducting a review of under-utilized school facilities that could be used as daycare centers, seniors' centers or parent centers. The choice to integrate services, supports, and partnerships will lead to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities.

Over the next three years, the ministry's strategy will be to provide student achievement and satisfaction data results to parents and students, in order to give parents and students the information necessary to make informed choices. The Ministry of Education will continue to encourage school boards to offer programs of choice so that students can choose programs to fit their unique talents and needs.

Performance Measure:

Percentage of public school parents and students reporting satisfaction with program choices available to them: Assessment of the satisfaction of parents and students is key to determining the performance of the education system. The Ministry of Education depends on the support of both parents and taxpayers as a whole to achieve its goals. Since the data for this performance measure is gathered at the school level from the annual Satisfaction Survey, it can be incorporated into school performance plans.