Teacher bargaining

[JLives]

It is good for adjusting kids into how to function at school in the day to day stuff. It is also great for teaching through play, building things, doing things, problem solving and for facilitating independence. There was not a lot of room for that in Grade 1 for my daughter who did half day K. A bit of reading to the class, a bit of play, a bit of outside time or gym, lunch and home. She was comfortable making the adjustment into full days but there were certainly challenges for some of the other students.

[KGT]

Did I post this yet?


http://www.macleans.ca/general/why-full ... -children/


Full-day kindergarten is failing our children

A closer look at Ontario’s $1.5-billion-a-year full-day kindergarten experiment

by Charlie Gillis

Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

When German educator Friedrich Fröebel opened the world’s first kindergartens in the mid-1800s, he frequently found himself at odds with suspicious government officials. Prussia, for example, banned his schools in 1851, characterizing them as hotbeds of socialist subversion and radicalism.

How things have changed. Today, most governments want more kindergarten, not less. Even the traditional half-day programs aren’t enough. Five-year-olds in British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island all attend full-day kindergarten. Ontario is currently in the fourth year of a five-year rollout for full-day junior and senior kindergarten, meaning kids as young as three attend school all day, five days a week. In those provinces without full-day programs, demands are heard regularly.

Yet despite the popularity of full-day kindergarten, particularly among working parents and teachers’ unions, the actual benefit it provides to the children themselves is still hotly debated.


This September, on the first day of the school year, the Ontario government claimed conclusive evidence of full-day kindergarten’s advantages was finally at hand, thanks to a pair of academic studies it commissioned. “In every area, students improved their readiness for Grade 1 and accelerated their development,” a provincial news release declared. Education Minister Liz Sandals called the results, which tracked students in both half- and full-day kindergarten over two years, “nothing short of incredible.”

This news was immediately hailed by supporters of the concept. Charles Pascal, the driving force behind Ontario’s full-day program, said “it shows the program is truly a life-changer.” In a front-page story, the Globe and Mail dubbed it a “landmark study.”

And yet there was no study to read, landmark or otherwise. The hype and excitement came from a few bullet points selectively released by the province. The actual reports were nowhere to be seen. The reason for this reticence is now apparent.

With the complete reports finally available online, it appears that Ontario’s $1.5-billion-a-year full-day kindergarten experiment is a grave disappointment, from both pedagogical and financial perspectives.

The provincial studies did find that children attending schools marked by low income and/or poor test scores showed improvement in some categories after participating in full-day kindergarten. This corresponds with previous research, particularly by Nobel laureate economist James Heckman, which suggested that early intervention can improve school readiness for disadvantaged children. For everyone else, however, the Ontario results ranged from negligible to abysmal.

Not only did most children not receive a distinct advantage from spending all week at school, the results for many were lower than if they’d stayed in the old half-day system.

“To be clear, some children appear to have done worse with [full-day early learning kindergarten],” the report states. The biggest failings were in the categories of emotional maturity, communication skills and general knowledge. This aligns with complaints that full-day programs impede the social and emotional development of some children by removing them from familial care too early.

Special-needs kids did particularly poorly. “The children with special educational needs showed superior outcomes on the measures of social competence and emotional maturity in non-[full-day early learning kindergarten] programs,” the researchers found, calling for more investigation into this troubling result. It’s a far cry from declaring the whole thing “life-changing” or “nothing short of incredible.”

It is worth noting that even those gains identified for some kids are likely to be temporary, a phenomenon that’s been identified in numerous other studies. McMaster University economist Philip DeCicca told Maclean’s earlier this year that any positive academic effects arising from full-day kindergarten are largely gone by the end of Grade 1. (See “The munchkin invasion,” National, May 27.) Similarly, a study published last year on California’s school system found that, after three years, “there were no significant differences in students who attended the all-day kindergarten program and students who attended a traditional kindergarten program.”

Full-day kindergarten does nothing to permanently improve academic performance. It may stunt the emotional and social development of many kids. And it does no favours to those with special needs. While children from poor or disadvantaged families may derive short-term benefits from extra attention in kindergarten, it defies common sense and financial reality to provide this to all families on a universal basis. The tax system or local authorities are much better suited to targeting children at risk, and at far less cost.

All the above suggests taxpayers in provinces that have so far managed to avoid the full-day-kindergarten craze ought to consider themselves quite lucky. Earlier this year, for example, Alberta announced it was putting its plans for province-wide full-day kindergarten on hold due to budgetary constraints. Wise move.



POSTED ON:
Thursday, October 31, 2013

[Urbane]

^^ Very interesting and not surprising. This jumps out:

The provincial studies did find that children attending schools marked by low income and/or poor test scores showed improvement in some categories after participating in full-day kindergarten. This corresponds with previous research, particularly by Nobel laureate economist James Heckman, which suggested that early intervention can improve school readiness for disadvantaged children. For everyone else, however, the Ontario results ranged from negligible to abysmal.

[JLives]

This fails to address whether it's the time attending or program or other that is the main issue. Many kids have experience in full time daycare and pre-school programs before attending full day Kindergarten.

[Urbane]

They actually can't afford it, but even if they did, no matter how much, I already know the BCTF would be crying about "chronic under-funding". The real issue here is that you guys have cried wolf so much, no one believes you anymore.

Yes, it's hard for most people to take the "chronic under-funding" cries too seriously when we've been hearing that same rhetoric for decades. That's the problem with crying wolf. While we may now actually be at the point where more funding is needed I'd like to see existing programs and positions scrutinized to see if they're needed and/or affordable before spending more money that we don't have. The Ministry does tend to add to the system without subtracting and that certainly adds to the financial pressures.

I was just looking at suggestions for dealing with budgets from teachers and administrators. Here are a few:

1. Too much district level administration. Make cuts to positions that aren't essential.

2. Teachers (some teachers) abuse sick days and that costs money (that suggestion was from an administrator).

3. Don't buy into a new reading program one year and then change the program a few years later.

I'm sure that most of us could add to the above list.

[Hassel99]

The strike starts on Wednesday

In a statement, the BCTF outlined the first phase of job action, stating teachers would not:
■Undertake any mandated supervision of students outside of regularly scheduled classes, except as set out by an essential services order.
■ Attend any meetings with management other than meetings of the worksite Joint Health and Safety Committee.
■ Provide principals or administrators with any routine printed, written, or electronic communication.
■ Receive any printed, written, or electronic communication from an administrator.
■ Be at a worksite prior to one hour before commencement of instructional time and one hour after the end of instructional time, other than for pre-arranged voluntary activities.

[Urbane]

^^ And who are the teachers striking against? They're striking against the principals and vice-principals who have no control over the contract negotiations. Sad.

[Hassel99]

If I was the employer I would work into the contract that I would not hire any teachers unless they had a min of 2 years work experience not connected to teaching. How can you prep my kids for the real (work) world when you have not lived in it?

[KGT]

^^ And who are the teachers striking against? They're striking against the principals and vice-principals who have no control over the contract negotiations. Sad.

And what is your suggestion? A full walkout?

You complain that a strike hurts kids so we try to limit the impact on families as much as we can. We still write report cards, still do extra curricular. There is very little we can do to put pressure on this govt to bargain in good faith. I think we've been more than patient.

[KGT]

If I was the employer I would work into the contract that I would not hire any teachers unless they had a min of 2 years work experience not connected to teaching. How can you prep my kids for the real (work) world when you have not lived in it?

I don't think I've ever met a teacher who didn't have at least that and more.

[sooperphreek]

http://globalnews.ca/news/1277918/b-c-teachers-issue-72-hour-strike-notice/

i guess if 9 out of 10 politicians want to make decisions without direct democracy. and 9 out of 10 bankers want to have less regulation and more profits. and 9 out of 10 ceo's want to manipulate our political system and what affects voters. then its ok that the 9 out of 10 liberal teachers over rule the 1 right winger that didnt want to for the sake of the liberals eh? the horror that those 10 percenters have to pay dues and have elected leadership!

[parent123]

A couple of thoughts:

I've always wondered what causes the change in perfectly normal, working people that turn entitled, bitter and angry. I think we've seen the entire transformation on this forum. There is a poster here that was happy with her job, thrilled with recent hefty (yes the last increase was very significant...remember?) wage increase, and just wanted the craziness of the strike talk to be over. Fast forward many months... still posting, the tone has changed significantly. I think the triggeriing element must be the constant barage of negativity that they receive from their union. Very sad.

Really teachers - you have it quite good. Exceptionally great if you can step back, look at the situation from an unemotional, logical standpoint. Enjoy what you have. Tune out the negative commentary from your self-serving union. Understand that you have an employer and you may not always like what they do, however, that is the real world.

It appears that one of my children stands have their entire school life marred by strikes, threat of strikes or other job action. Funny thing is, there have always been large classes. The only hardship or disruption that we have experienced is what the teachers are bringing on the children.

[KGT]

A couple of thoughts:

I've always wondered what causes the change in perfectly normal, working people that turn entitled, bitter and angry. I think we've seen the entire transformation on this forum. There is a poster here that was happy with her job, thrilled with recent hefty (yes the last increase was very significant...remember?) wage increase, and just wanted the craziness of the strike talk to be over. Fast forward many months... still posting, the tone has changed significantly. I think the triggeriing element must be the constant barage of negativity that they receive from their union. Very sad.

Really teachers - you have it quite good. Exceptionally great if you can step back, look at the situation from an unemotional, logical standpoint. Enjoy what you have. Tune out the negative commentary from your self-serving union. Understand that you have an employer and you may not always like what they do, however, that is the real world.

It appears that one of my children stands have their entire school life marred by strikes, threat of strikes or other job action. Funny thing is, there have always been large classes. The only hardship or disruption that we have experienced is what the teachers are bringing on the children.

All we want is the class size and composition language back, as the Supreme Court ruled, and a cost of living increase. That is not too much to ask.

And what does the govt offer? 0, .5, or 1% per year, and a long list of serious concessions over a ten year term. That is too unreasonable.

FWIW, I still love my job, and it still hate job action. I like my admin and I hate that we have to do this to them. I hate that I have to try to get all my work done in the hour before and after school and that I can't go in during the evening or the weekend. I don't even like missing staff meetings because so much of what is discussed is valuable to us as teachers.

However, I have seen this govt in action. Even if we dropped our wage request and took zeros AGAIN, they are still pushing for a ten year contract of strips. Why would we EVER accept that? Have you read the Griffin ruling? Have you seen what they did to us in the last round?

We have no choice but to start job action, before they legislate another horrendous contract on us.

Christy Clark makes me bitter and angry.

[alfred2]

i can not believe that the teachers would be handled like puppets by the union reps. teachers who say they do not wish this are liars all they think of is their greedy ways and not the children

[KGT]

i can not believe that the teachers would be handled like puppets by the union reps. teachers who say they do not wish this are liars all they think of is their greedy ways and not the children

No one is being "handled by union reps". We have a voice. We can secretly vote any way we want.