Education
School of Creative Arts has some great things in store for June
Here’s a look at some of the upcoming June Events at RDC’s School of Creative Arts
Red Deer College invites central Albertans to join us as the School of Creative Arts brings creativity to life throughout an exciting season of diverse performances, concerts, screenings and exhibitions. RDC’s talented students, instructors, staff and special guests will present the following events in June:
Film Works
June 1 & 2 | Welikoklad Event Centre | 7:00 p.m. | Admission by donation at the door | Not rated – Violence and Language Warning
Join us as we celebrate the best films of the year by our recent graduating RDC student actors, directors, cinematographers and filmmakers.
Movies Worth Watching Series
Top Gun (1986)
June 14 & 15 | Welikoklad Event Centre Cinema | 7:00 p.m. | $5 | PG, Coarse Language | 110 min
Movies Worth Watching brings a variety of classic films that are best viewed on the BIG screen. Join us to see the best that Hollywood has to offer. Every screening is preceded by a Motion Picture Arts (MPA) student film that we know you will love.
For complete details on RDC’s 2017-18 School of Creative Arts season, please visit: School of Creative Arts Showtime.
About RDC: For 54 years, RDC has been proudly serving our learners and our communities. RDC offers more than 100 different programs (including full degrees, certificates, diplomas and skilled trades programs) to 7,500 full- and part-time credit students and more than 36,000 youth and adult learners in the School of Continuing Education each year. Named by Alberta Venture magazine as one of Alberta’s most innovative organizations for the Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing, RDC is a key location for applied and industry-led research. Our main campus is strategically situated on 290 acres of Alberta’s natural landscape along Queen Elizabeth II Highway. We have also expanded our learning and performing arts space into the heart of downtown Red Deer through our Welikoklad Event Centre and the Donald School of Business.
Education
Higher spending on K-12 education does not result in better student outcomes
From the Fraser Institute
By Derek J. Allison
Higher levels of per-student spending do not achieve higher student scores on standardized tests, either internationally or among the provinces, finds a new report published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“Just spending more on K-12 education does not lead to better student outcomes,” said Derek J. Allison, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of School Spending and Performance in Canada and Other High-Income Countries.
The study compares provincial per-student spending on K-12 education in 2018 (the last year of comparable data) to other high-income countries in the OECD and to performance on the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
It finds that higher per-student spending levels are not associated with stronger academic achievement. In fact, in 2018, 10 countries—or one third—of the high income OECD countries included in the analysis spent more per student than Canada but achieved significantly lower PISA scores.
Similarly, among the provinces, Saskatchewan was the highest per-student spender among the provinces but ranked 8th out of 10 on PISA scores. Manitoba was the second-highest per-student spender and recorded the lowest PISA scores nationwide. Conversely, British Columbia was the lowest spender per student in Canada and achieved the fourth-highest PISA scores.
“The evidence is clear—simply spending more on established K-12 schools without finding new and better ways to help kids learn will not improve student outcomes,” Allison said.
Provincial per-student spending (2018) compared to core PISA score
Province Spending Core PISA score
Saskatchewan Highest spender 8th
Manitoba 2nd Lowest PISA score
Alberta 3rd Highest PISA score
Nova Scotia 4th 5th
Ontario 5th 3rd
New Brunswick 6th 9th
Quebec 7th 2nd
P.E.I. 8th 7th
Newfoundland and Labrador 9th 6th
British Columbia Lowest spender 4th
COVID-19
Learning loss piles up alongside snow while ‘e-learning’ collects dust
From the Fraser Institute
By Alex Whalen and Paige MacPherson
During COVID school closures, students in the province missed at least 125 days of school between March 2020 and February 2022, more than any other province (except Ontario), generating a significant learning loss from which students have not caught up.
In a world increasingly connected by technology, and given the Nova Scotia government recently spent tens of millions of dollars enabling at-home learning, one might think that students would seamlessly shift to online learning during the recent snowstorms to avoid losing crucial instructional time. Unfortunately, that’s not happening.
During COVID school closures, the Nova Scotia and federal governments spent at least $31.5 million dollars on “virtual school” and other technological upgrades so students could, according to the provincial government, “succeed, even in an at-home learning environment.”
Unfortunately, the electronic learning infrastructure—which includes Chromebooks, laptops and iPads for students and teachers, and additional support and new teachers for Nova Scotia Virtual School—is collecting dust in a corner while Nova Scotia kids are falling further behind.
This isn’t some blip in an otherwise strong record of instructional time for Nova Scotia students. During COVID school closures, students in the province missed at least 125 days of school between March 2020 and February 2022, more than any other province (except Ontario), generating a significant learning loss from which students have not caught up.
Indeed, according to the latest results (2022) from the Programme for International Assessment (PISA), the gold standard of testing worldwide, Nova Scotia 15-year-olds trail the Canadian average in reading by 18 points and trail the Canadian average in math by 27 points. For context, PISA characterizes a 20-point drop as one year of lost learning.
Moreover, between 2003 and 2022, Nova Scotia student performance in reading dropped by 24 points—more than one year of learning loss—and dropped by 45 points in math. In other words, in math, 15-year-old Nova Scotia students today are more than two years behind where Nova Scotia 15-year-olds were in 2003.
These troubling trends underscore the need to put the existing e-learning infrastructure to work. During a recent two-week period, students in the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education school district missed seven days of school due to snow. And some students missed an additional five days due to weather and power outages. That’s nearly three weeks. While more instructional time is not a silver bullet for student success—and with power outages, e-learning is not a perfect solution—it could still make a big difference.
According to international research, missed classroom time causes learning loss and impacts children for life, reducing their life-long earnings. Nova Scotia education researcher Paul Bennett found that lost classroom time due to inclement weather compounds absenteeism and sets back student achievement and social progress.
The Houston government should ensure that Nova Scotian students have access to teacher-directed e-learning when schools are closed and, like other jurisdictions in Canada and the United States, abandon the practise of simply cancelling school due to inclement weather. It’s simply common sense. The snow may pile up, but there’s no good reason why learning loss must pile up with it. Parents are right to demand access to the e-learning they’ve already paid for through their tax dollars.
Authors:
-
Taxpayers2 days ago
Police admit Canadian bribery scandal was nixed without talking to Trudeau, reviewing records
-
Alberta1 day ago
Calgary judge rules against father opposing euthanasia of autistic non-terminally ill daughter
-
Business2 days ago
Balanced budget within reach—if Ottawa restrains spending
-
DEI22 hours ago
WEF report suggests digital ‘metaverse identity’ will become central to daily life
-
Banks2 days ago
Canada is preparing to launch ‘open banking.’ Here’s what that means
-
Great Reset1 day ago
World Happiness Report ranks Canada as one of the unhappiest places in the West for young people
-
COVID-191 day ago
WHO urges countries to sign globalist pandemic treaty by May: ‘A new threat will emerge’
-
Energy21 hours ago
444,000 semi-loads of food? Just another day on planet Earth