DL Quality Review
DL Quality Review
1919 to 2014- Ninety + years of
growth!
Policy, Legislation
FundingDelivery - Quality services
to students
Coordination of Technology and
Support Structures
MinistrySchool Boards
School District No 73 Business Company
The Partnership
DL will mean quality education
Any student can access DL
Any student can enrol anytime throughout the year
Choice to take courses from anywhere: even more than one school/board/authority
2013-14: Agreements with 46 Boards of Education.
56 Public and 17 Independent DL schools
Characteristics
Public DL Enrolments: FTEs
0.00
2,000.00
4,000.00
6,000.00
8,000.00
10,000.00
12,000.00
14,000.00
16,000.00
2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013
Sept FTE Count
Feb FTE Count
May FTE Count
TOTAL FTE
Public DL Enrolments: Headcount
0.00
20,000.00
40,000.00
60,000.00
80,000.00
100,000.00
120,000.00
140,000.00
160,000.00
2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013
Sept Headcount
Feb Headcount
May Headcount
TOTAL
PUBLIC and Independent FTE Enrolments: All Counts
0.00
2,000.00
4,000.00
6,000.00
8,000.00
10,000.00
12,000.00
14,000.00
16,000.00
2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013
Public
Independent
PUBLIC and Independent FTE Enrolments: September Count only
0.00
1,000.00
2,000.00
3,000.00
4,000.00
5,000.00
6,000.00
7,000.00
8,000.00
2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014
FTE - Sept Counts Public
FTE - Sept Counts Independent
FTE - All counts, 2013/14
by District
-200.00
0.00
200.00
400.00
600.00
800.00
1,000.00
1,200.00
-20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Headcounts - All counts, 2013/14
by District
-1,000
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
-20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Enrolments – Public DL Schools
1
10
100
1000
10000
VancouverChilliwackSaanich
SurreyNechako Lakes
Comox Valley
Coquitlam
Richmond
Central Okanagan
Sooke
Kamloops/Thompson
Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Burnaby
North Vancouver
Abbotsford
Nicola-Similkameen
Peace River North
Greater Victoria
Coast Mountains
Langley
QualicumDelta
Peace River SouthAlberniKootenay LakeNew WestminsterVernon
Okanagan Skaha
Southeast Kootenay
Sea to Sky
Mission
Prince George
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows
Rocky Mountain
Okanagan Similkameen
Bulkley Valley
Conseil scolaire francophone
Powell River
North Okanagan-Shuswap
Campbell River
Cariboo-Chilcotin
Gold Trail
Cowichan Valley
Vancouver Island NorthSunshine Coast
QuesnelArrow Lakes
2012/2013
2012/2013
DL Quality Review
Separate process from audits
Focus on student performance and related data
Ongoing dialogue throughout the year
Emphasis on Quality and Standards
Achievement
Engagement
Professional Development
Support
Garrison, Anderson, & Archer’s “Community of Inquiry”, and Leithwood’s Transformational Leadership theory
Learner Presence
New work has postulated that good online learners are strategic, active and reflective, and these behaviours are inherent to the learner, not the teacher. This Learner Presence includes activities such as student-student collaborations and self-regulatory learning behaviours such as
Planning and time management Organizing and transforming course materials Establishing a positive learning environment Self-monitoring and record keeping Help-seeking Reflection on performance, effort and goal setting
It is important to note that these are characteristics and behaviours of the learner, but school staff may be in a position to help students gain these skills.
Garrison, Anderson, & Archer’s “Community of Inquiry”, and Leithwood’s Transformational Leadership theory
Leadership
• Creating a shared vision,
• Setting goals,
• Providing intellectual stimulation,
• Supplying individual support,
• Modeling effective practice,
• Meeting high expectations, and
• Developing a positive culture, and creating structures that support active involvement in decision making
Internal Review – guiding questions
As a distributed learning teacher, what do you do to create a teaching presence in your classes?
Communicate course topics, goals, timelines, and expectations regarding assignments?
Provide instruction to students about participation in activities, productive dialogue, and task expectations, as well as providing instruction to help students master content and achieve learning outcomes?
Guide students to help identify areas of agreement/disagreement on course topics, help clarify student’s thinking about course topics, focus discussion on relevant issues, and help students explore new concepts in the course?
Foster the development of a sense of community among course participants, and provide relevant and timely feedback to students?
Select appropriate resources and/or develop learning materials and content for your students that meet the highest standards for quality and student usability
Internal Review – guiding questions
As a distributed learning teacher, what do you do to create a social presence in your classes
Create a sense of belonging and community for students?
Support student expression in online discussion, building a sense of collaboration?
Foster the use of a variety of communication strategies, including online strategies, for social interaction among students and teacher?
Internal Review – guiding questions
As a distributed learning teacher, what do you do to create a cognitive presence in your classes?
Foster student interest in course issues and content, while supporting the development of new perspectives through student reflection?
Encourage students to use a variety of information sources, techniques, and approaches to solutions when exploring problems posed in the course?
Support the testing and application of new knowledge for students?
Internal Review – guiding questions
As a distributed learning leader, what do you do to plan, support, and communicate?
Create a shared vision for DL?
Foster the creation and implementation of group goals; set direction, monitor, and plan school growth and activity?
Set high performance expectations for staff and students?
Ensure all teachers are qualified and trained, and provide instructional support for staff?
Assist staff in the creation of processes and content that fosters student engagement?
Create structures in a DL environment that foster collaboration?
Build productive relations with parents and the community?
Recognize and celebrate teacher and student accomplishments?
External Review Team
Contracted team lead
Practicing DL/Alt/CE administrators
Ministry of Education program area reps
2 to 3 days in the school
Semi-structured interviews of students, parents, teachers, support staff, administrators
Data
Public: Completion Rates: 16 Courses
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
90.0%
100.0%
PLANNING 10
PHYSICAL
EDUCATION 10
SOCIAL STUDIES 11
SOCIAL STUDIES 10
ENGLISH 10
PRINCIPLES OF
MATHEMATICS 12
ENGLISH 11
SCIENCE 10
CHEMISTRY 12
COMMUNICATIONS 11
BIOLOGY 11
ENGLISH 12
CHEMISTRY 11
PHYSICS 11
PRINCIPLES OF
MATHEMATICS 11
BIOLOGY 12
2009/2010
2011/2012
Completion Rates: DL and Non-DL
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
BIOLOGY 11
BIOLOGY 12
CHEMISTRY 11
CHEMISTRY 12
COMMUNICATIONS 12
ENGLISH 10
ENGLISH 11
ENGLISH 12
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
10
PHYSICS 11
PLANNING 10
PRINCIPLES OF
MATHEMATICS 11
PRINCIPLES OF
MATHEMATICS 12
SCIENCE 10
SOCIAL STUDIES 10
SOCIAL STUDIES 11
2011/2012 - Non DL
2011/2012 - DL
Quality Reviews
2013-14: 4 schools reviewed. Focus on Alt/CE and DL schools: SD 23 – Kelowna
SD 33 – Chilliwack
SD 63 - Saanich
SD 70 – Port Alberni
Wide range of high quality blended and on-line configurations
More cooperation between neighbourhood and DL schools
Ongoing, relevant and timely upgrading of teachers’ skills and content is a challenge for some
Two sample findings
• Planning 10/Applied Digital Communications 11
• An 8 credit course co-taught to a cohort of students in a brick and mortar school by a DL teacher connecting via video conferencing suite and a F2F teacher in the school. (SD23)
• Planning 10, PE 10, and others taught to individual Grade 9 students in middle school
• Students supported within timetable in a supervised setting. (SD33)
1. As a member of a QR team in 2013
2. Having a QR at FVDES in 2014
Special Education
Math/Science Teacher
School Counsellor
Secondary School VP
District Administrator
Alternate/CE Administrator
DL Principal
• Chilliwack school district• One of the original 9 regional DE schools• About 950 FTE • K to 12• 12 month school for 10 to 12 and 10 months for K to 9• About 70 % online and 30 % paper• Movement from rural setting to downtown shared space• Work with federal institutions and independent schools• Staffing: 32 teachers, 3 Admin, 15 clerical, 2.5 Techs, 2 Educational assistants, 1
youth care worker
1. Internal Review
2. External Review
• Surveys – staff, parents, students• Achievement data – SADE, monthly reports• DL Standards – Teachers and Support Staff
We bring our school to you
Distributed Learning Standards
Strengths Concerns
Goals
Action Plan
Progress Reports
DEPARTMENT GOALS AND ACTION PLAN
How did we come up with our goals?
How did we come up with our goals?
We meet each month as a department and we have reviewed:
• the DL Standards and as a group discussed our strengths and areas for growth in relation to those standards as well as how they apply to our department
• the DL Standards for Content and set some goals
What are we good at?
• Our management of learning is good (DL Standards 1)
• We aim to engage students with stimulating cognitive processes (DL Standards 3)
• Planning for learning is another area of strength (DL Standards 4)
• Supporting Instruction and Learning is well done (DL Standards 5)
• We work hard to make our content engaging, current and accessible with clear learning objectives and a variety of assessment tools to meet or exceed the Technical, Layout, Instructional Design and Pedagogy, and Assessment Standards (DL Content Standards)
Where can we improve?
• We all agreed that our biggest challenge is Fostering Social Learning (DL Standards 2)
• For this reason, we decided to tackle this aspect of the DL Standards first
What Are We Doing to Improve Social Learning?
• We are building a humanities resource center that all students will have access to
• We are currently building the glossary part of the resource center
• This resource center will be used to keep students informed of upcoming events (field trips, provincial exams, etc.)
• It will house information on plagiarism, content support, provincial exam preparation, etc.
What Are We Doing to Improve Social Learning?
• It will have a glossary to support student learning with humanities concepts
• We would like it to include a humanities social area for students to connect with each other as well as a writing support center for students to get one-one teacher or peer help with their writing and editing
Initial meeting with QR team
- Review process
- Meet the QR team
Staff meeting to explain our internal review
- School and district context
- Review our internal review findings
Individual interviews:
- All staff
- Students
- Parents
- Admin team
- Senior management
- Partnerships
Trips to see some special activities:
- Blended learning
- Independent school partnerships
- Special programs: Robotics, Tutoring
Verbal report from QR team:
- All staff meeting
- Themes from the external review
Final report from QR team:
- About 2 months
- Questions from the team
- Final report to school and district
Value from working with ministry folks
- Normal people
- Connected to the history of DL
- Connect to the provincial DL picture
Value of working with an experienced DL administrator:
- Connect to the experience of others
- Discuss leadership
Value from building relationships with another DL school’s staff:
- Exchange ideas
- School visits for staff
Questions & Comments