Classroom complexity has been a major talking point in Alberta’s schools and some work has been done by the provincial government to try and address that.
Local school divisions will be getting their own classroom complexity teams, which Mike McMann of the Fort Vermilion School Division says is a good first step.
“It has been used in the province of Saskatchewan and they’ve used it now for over a year. It really allows a teacher and interventionist or educational assistant to hone in on whether it’s social and emotional or whether it’s reading or whether it’s math where you can group kids to remediate quickly what they’re struggling with and get them back into their regular classroom.”
The provincial government is spending $143 million to establish over 400 of these teams, consisting of one teacher and two educational assistants.
McMann says every rural school division getting these teams is “significant”.
“We’ll be able to gauge that over time with results to then push forward to get more resources, especially any strategy that is designed and then measured through research that works. It’s easy to lobby government for more money to say “hey here’s a simple solution, here’s what’s actually working” and we know from our neighbours in Saskatchewan that it does work.”
McMann says he’s hopeful that this move by the province can lead to more longer-term solutions in addressing classroom challenges.
You can listen to the full interview below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
