West vs East!

Introduction:

Alberta has a significant responsibility to produce quality high school graduates – the province holds a lot of the country’s economic currency and has a huge responsibilty to maintain its standing as a “have” province. Ontario is the traditional leader in terms of population and intellectual exports. But the two provinces have differing treatments of English curriculum and testing. How this affects graduates and their standing in university, college or the workplace remains to be seen.

“High School” is defined differently in the two provinces. In Ontario, Secondary Education is what happens after Grade 8. In Alberta, Secondary Education is “Senior High School” which is Grades 10, 11 and 12.

Time on Task:

The two provinces have similar time expectations. Alberta considers a full course to be 125 hours while Ontario requires 110 hours. In Ontario, four English courses are required to graduate. In Alberta, only two Secondary English courses are required; however, an extra course had to have been earned during the last year of Junior High School. The overall requirements are, in the end, the same between the two provinces.

Streaming English:

In both provinces three streams of instruction are available. In Alberta, “1”, “2” and “4” level courses designate what Ontarians recognize as “D/U”, “P/C” and “L/E” suffixes.

“1” level courses are academically inclined and emphasize higher-order thinking skills with a literary back drop. ELA 30-1 Expectations “2” level courses use similar skills but de-emphasize literature. These courses use more non-literary materials, but emphaisize similar skills. ELA 30-2 Expectations “4” level courses are workplace and literacy focused ELA 10-4, 20-4 and 30-4 expectations. Taking these courses do not earn a standard diploma, they earn a General Achievement Diploma.

In theory, these very generalized expectations match the streams in Ontario. However, a careful look at the expectations for the advanced exit course in both provinces shows that they are very different.

Standards in Grade 12 Advanced English:

Clear differences exist between what is expected in the two provinces for their advanced level exit course: ELA 30-1 and ENG 4U.

The expectations for the Alberta curriculum are vaguely worded and oddly, none of the large expectations use the word, “write”. This is troubling. Three of the five expectations are worded: “explore thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences” and “manage ideas and information” and “respect, support and collaborate with others”. These seem more like sub-headings – they don’t address the major skills required for post-secondary education.

The expectations in Ontario are clearer, succinct and focus on traditional needed skills for post-secondary education. Ontario has fewer specific expectations – this allows for much easier programming: “study literature in terms of style, genre and form”, “writing in various forms to an audience”, “use language to read, write and speak in formal and informal settings” and “create, analyse and assess various media forms”. These expectations address the key skills required to succeed in university or college.

Testing:

In Ontario, testing of English skills and knowledge is left primarily up to the teacher. In Grade 10, the OSSLT is administered by the Province and it is required that each student pass to earn a OSSGD. In Alberta, Diploma Exams, are adminsitered. These tests are worth 50% of the final marks. Those taking 30-1 and 30-2 level courses are required to take these exams in all core subject, not just English. The pressure to achieve a certain level of competency with uncertain curriculum expectations is counter-productive in this case.

Conclusion:

I prefer the Ontario system. Although our curriculum is perhaps denser, the expectations are clearer and better suited for success in post-secondary education. I am in favour of exit exams and I feel our students would do well if they were adopted. However, giving the exams a mark value of half the entire course undervalues teachers’ evaluation. Many students might feel that whatever the teacher does or says doesn’t really matter as it all comes down to a test that someone else has created and that someone else will mark.

One of my colleagues [an English teacher] who grew up in Alberta felt similarly about his preparation for university. He felt that he didn’t actually learn how to write an essay properly until 2nd year university. The expectations in the Alberta curriculum do not clearly recognize this as an essential skill that must be taught.