Prairie Rose opts out of curriculum pilot
By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on May 12, 2021.
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi After teachers within the division took a long look at the Alberta government’s proposed K-6 curriculum, Prairie Rose Public Schools is joining a long list of Alberta schools opting out of piloting the draft curriculum. The Medicine Hat Public School Division and Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education opted out of piloting at the beginning of April, but PRPS wanted to take more time before coming to a decision. “We wanted to take a very informed and objective view and let our professional teachers, experts in the field so to speak who teach those grade levels, to take a good look at what this new curriculum would mean for our K-6 kids,” said Roger Clarke, PRPS’s superintendent. “We had 18 teachers who volunteered … they did find some things that they liked, but they also found from an age-appropriate perspective, as well as the content itself being so content heavy, there was just so much wrong to it and it would be detrimental for kids.” Clarke says the volunteer committee also pointed out there may be learning gaps in the school system once the proposed curriculum was implemented. “The way it implements, you’re not starting it in kindergarten, then adding Grade 1 and then adding Grade 2, they’re talking about full blown implementation within a year,” said Clarke. “Which means if you have a changed curriculum, changed themes and outcomes and you moved them around … if I’m in Grade 4 for example, then I might have missed things that would have been done in Grades 1, 2 and 3 in the new curriculum.” The timing also played a factor in the board’s decision, says Clarke. He adds there is so much new material that it may be better to implement math and language arts first and once the school system has adjusted to those subjects, they could then move onto social studies and science. COVID-19 also played a role in the decision, as Clarke says it may be more important to focus on getting schools back up and running more normally before implementing a major curriculum change. The PRPS board of trustees voted against piloting the new curriculum at a board meeting on Tuesday afternoon. The board passed a motion to send a letter to the minister of education about their concerns of the curriculum along with some suggestions on how to improve it. Clarke says he wants to be a team player and will continue to communicate with Alberta Education, but the new curriculum needs to be more ready before they can agree to move forward with it. 12-11
