Unique approach to learning sees solid results

Educating Indigenous students using an Indigenous whole child mindset has seen incredible results in provincial achievement tests for Grades 3, 6 and 9 at Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School.

“Rather than teach to the test, the students are taught skills to be successful,” said principal Erin Danforth.

The specific technique used is the Picture Word Inductive Model, developed by Emily Calhoun. Beginning with Grades 1 and 2, the innovative strategy was used intensively for two years. The school began to see a significant turnaround in Grade 3. Results from the 2011-2012 achievement tests showed a 48 per cent increase in achieving an acceptable standard in English Language Arts 3 and a 54 per cent increase in Mathematics 3 from 2011.

School staff researched on how to teach students the skills they needed to be successful, focusing on literacy and numeracy, an instructional strategy used across the board from K-9. These included practice tests, visualizing the classroom and most importantly telling the students they could be successful. This was a paradigm shift, said Danforth, as there is a pervasive attitude that First Nations children are not as able as their counterparts.

Teachers learned the unique approach through professional development that focused on how the information is delivered. Understanding where the students come from and what’s important to them is critical.

“The approach originates with the children and their needs,” said Danforth.

Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School has been operating since 2003. Recognizing that certain groups didn’t do well because the achievement tests were biased to a type of learner, the kindergarten to grade 9 school was granted a charter to teach from the Indigenous perspective. Still, the provincially-funded school had to find a way for its students to achieve in the provincial tests.

“We were mindful that we were being measured,” said Danforth.
 Initially classes were held outdoors and in tipis when parents on and off reserves in the Wabamum area realized their kids were falling through the cracks. They did not thrive in the public system and the reserves were not a good place either, said Danforth. Wanting their kids to be successful, parents began homeschooling and soon realized that kids did great things when studying at their own pace.

“When people taught children at home, everybody learned, working at their own ability level,” said Danforth.

Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School is a middle of the ground school, not tied to a reserve school and not a public school either, said Danforth.

In a rigorous process, charter schools apply to Alberta Learning to allow certain special interest groups to serve a unique population. Open to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children, the school incorporates cultural learnings, language specialists and teachings of the Elders.

As Canada’s only Indigenous charter school, the school is a potential model for other schools.

“It hasn’t been and won’t be easy to duplicate the success but the motivation is there, the expectation is there,” said superintendent Ed Wittchen. “We think we can be a model for schools in other locations.”