The Southeast Cornerstone Public School Division will be able to place additional English-as-a-Language (EAL) supports into their schools, after receiving an allocation of funding from the Ministry of Education.
Cornerstone’s portion of the reallocation was $140,000, and decided to use the funds to support a growing EAL population within the division.
“We feel this funding will have the greatest impact because it is relevant in many of our schools,” said Lynn Little, director of education for Cornerstone.
Board trustees were told about the additional funding during their monthly board meeting, held on Thursday afternoon.
There has been a significant growth of EAL students in the last three years, almost doubling in population. In the east areas, the EAL population increased from 30 to 113; in the west area the EAL population increased from 94 to 115; and in the south area the EAL population increased from 98 to 174.
Little noted that out of the 39 schools in the division, that there are only six schools that do not have an EAL population.
“We are in the process of putting in new supports,” said Little, noting that they looking to hire an additional EAL consultant. “We have one consultant right now, who provides service to the whole division, and that is a large area to cover.”
The EAL students also come from various backgrounds, with a variety of different languages, and different degrees in their own EAL backgrounds. It is important to have that additional support, since that EAL programs in the schools have to incorporate conversation skills while still covering the curriculum.
“There is a difference in the ages of the child, so with the youngest children it doesn’t take too long to pick up the language; but with the older children it is a little more difficult,” said Little.
“When they are in classroom, they are learning content in addition to vocabulary for each of the different subjects.”
Also during the board meeting, Walter Wood, coordinator of analytical services for Cornerstone, provided data from the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP) testing, which was completed by 13-year-old students in the spring of 2013.
PCAP is a program of national standardized tests of reading, math and science skills administered every three years to Grade 8 students. The specified areas of focus for 2013 was science, and tested science literacy defined through three competencies (science inquiry, problem solving, and scientific reasoning) and the four subdomains (nature of science, life science, physical science, and Earth science).
Approximately 32,000 students in Grade 8 from over 1,500 schools across the country were tested. All 10 Canadian provinces, but no territories, participated in the assessment.
Testing was recorded pan-Canadian, with statistics provided for each province. At the pan-Canadian level, 91 per cent of students are achieving at or above their expected level of performance in science. Almost 50 per cent of students are achieving above their expected level.
Saskatchewan had an average science score compared to other provinces, placing seventh. It was noted that most other provinces had scores that were relatively close to Saskatchewan’s score. The middle-of-the-pack scoring was also consistent in reading and mathematics.
Harold Laich, who had teleconferenced into the meeting, voiced his concerns about these ratings. “We are nowhere close to being a leader for scoring in any of these subjects. It is disappointing to see that Saskatchewan is just on par, and just middle-of-the-pack.”
According to the PCAP statistics, between 2007 and 2013, there was no difference in reading achievement across Canada, but results did show some improvement between 2010 and 2013. Between 2010 and 2013, there was an increase in mathematics achievement across Canada and in most jurisdictions.
There was no gender gap in science and mathematics in Canada overall; however, consistent with other large-scale studies, girls performed better than boys in reading.
In January, Cornerstone will host several public meetings for “Cornerstone Tomorrow”. This program is a stakeholder engagement initiative with the primary intent to provide information to, and solicit feedback from stakeholders within the school division on a number of key areas. These areas include the current four-year education plan and progress on the plan, decision making, the state of school facilities and vision for future academic program delivery.
The Weyburn public meeting is set for Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. Complete dates and times for all public meetings be detailed in January, after the Christmas break.
