School Plus approach gets go-ahead from province

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The provincial government has thrown its support behind a plan to create a school system that provides all students with the supports they need in order to learn.

The School Plus model, which came out of the Role of the School Task Force Report released last spring, received provincial endorsement in late February.

Through implementation of the model, Saskatchewan schools will move toward integrating support services within schools, which will help service providers meet the needs of each student, while allowing teachers to concentrate on teaching.

"For ten years now we - and by we I mean the education system in Saskatchewan - have understood that many of the issues that children are experiencing, and the barriers to their learning, are caused by forces outside the control of schools. So things like child poverty, instability in family or community, etc., have a huge impact on what children need in school, and their ability to do well," explained Jacquie McLean, executive director of the communications branch with Saskatchewan Education.

"And we've understood that significant numbers of students coming in to our schools have barriers, as we call them, to their learning, that must be met if they're going to learn. So for example, if a child is hungry, they've got to be fed before they can learn. If a child needs developmental supports, justice supports, whatever, those needs have to be met holistically if the child is going to succeed in school.

And so we've been working on what we've called integrated schooling services for about 10 years in Saskatchewan. How can we link social health services to schools? And there's been a voluntary process for about the last 10 years. The role of the school in the School Plus model really affirms that work, and now we have everyone saying, including the other human service sectors, yes, schools have two functions - learning, and providing those supports to learning."

One of the main goals of the School Plus model, McLean explained, is building a "harmonious and shared future with Aboriginal peoples.

"High quality educational programs and social supports are key to creating a society that is dynamic and productive, offering opportunity and fairness to all children and young people, and building a harmonious and shared future for Saskatchewan," she said. "And a parallel activity, a complementary activity to School Plus, is partnership work that we're doing with bands and tribal councils. And one of our over-arching goals in the whole School Plus thrust is to of course ensure that Aboriginal students in our school system have their needs met. And that includes culturally affirming learning programs, Aboriginal content is respected in the curriculum, but also increased involvement in education decision making for Aboriginal parents and leaders," she said.

One of the strengths of the School Plus model is that, with support services integrated into each school, the responsibility for coordinating those services for each student will no longer fall to the teachers.

"A student needs counselling services, social service supports. A students needs, perhaps, some help around justice issues. Right now, our teachers spend a lot of time tracking down those supports for children and families. If we can link to, or deliver those services out of school, then the teachers can focus on providing - obviously they're going to partner with family members and these other human service providers - but they are freed up to provide the quality learning program that all children need," McLean said.

"The government has come out, and basically the response provides three things. It sets in place some structures to oversee the change in process. So structures, one of which will be a children and family services council. Aboriginal peoples will be well represented on that council. It puts in place some processes that we're going to use, including one called strengthening educational capacity, whih is a process to transform the educational system. And thirdly, it identifies some priorities, priorities for action. So processes, structures, and then the priorities . . . Aboriginal education is one of the priorities. Pre-kindergarten, early intervention, etc. are priorities."

While the School Plus model has only recently received government support, work toward implementing the integrated services model has already begun in some locations across the province, through creation of community schools. A total of 42 existing schools were redesignated as community schools last year, bringing the total number of community schools in the province up to 83.

A number of the features of the School Plus model are also shared with the community school model, including providing a culturally affirming environment, and integrating support services into the schools.

"In all of these community schools, School Plus in a sense is under way, started. In long standing community schools, it's well established. So it's an uneven front as we move toward the change we want," McLean said." A lot of steps have already been taken. But of course, at the end of the day, what we're looking at is outcomes for children. Aboriginal children form an increasing percentage of our student population, and so successful outcomes for those children are our key priority. And that will be a real measure as we proceed, comparing just things like student achievement, student retention, etc. from the past and in the future after we get this program in place."

Despite the support in place for the School Plus model, implementing the model across the province won't be without its challenges, McLean said.

"I think that the biggest challenge for us is to implement fully, or actualize, what we know works. The challenge isn't so much one of direction. We know what works for kids. We know that integrated schooling services work. We know we need to have culturally affirming curriculum and environment for Aboiginal kids. The education world is founded in research on what effective educational practice looks like. What kinds of instructional strategies are needed to engage students? And we also know for example, that parent and community partnerships and authentic involvement make a huge difference in terms of learning outcomes for at risk kids. So we know what works. We've got the vision. We've got the direction. The challenge is to ensure that we're using effective educational practices. The challenge is to ensure that we're using them at a consistently high level province wide, for every child in this province. Every child in the province. So some of the very practical kinds of outcomes we hope to achieve, one is all children and youth will be welcome and supported in schools. And by that we mean all. So schools will be student-ready, rather than requiring students to be school ready. Schools will be responsive to the needs of children.

"Another change is that all schools will be open centres of community, open and inclusive. And this has been a challenge historically. And particularly as we move into secondary schools and high schools, truly engaging parents and community members in authentic partnerships in aid of student well-being, that's going to be a challenge.

Resources, of course, is the third. Resources are always a challenge. But there is a strong commitment to making resources available when resources allow. This is a priority."