On literacy, learning and the economy - Part 1

I attended the Premier's State of the Province address today with our Executive Director, Lucinda Low.  The event was hosted by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, and President Valerie Payn opened the event with her remarks.  I was really impressed with her passion and willingness to issue a call for action from government, especially on education and the link to the economy.  We'll blog in the next few days on the Premier's message on education and the new jobsHere strategy for growing in the economy.  For now, we'd like to share a portion of Valerie's remarks.  (Thanks to Valerie and Janet at the Halifax Chamber of Commerce for sharing!)

Rhonda

Valerie Payn
President, Halifax Chamber of Commerce
November 24, 2010

• One of the key drivers of a successful economy is the need for a highly educated workforce to maximize the opportunity provided by the knowledge economy and to use creativity, innovation, and higher productivity to create greater wealth.
• Those in this room would no doubt smile broadly and knowingly at this with the insight that Nova Scotia loves to boast of it highly educated workforce - and it is true -more than 75% of the labour force had at least a high school diploma and almost 50% had at least some post secondary.
• Good stuff, but what it means is that, and here is the elephant, cow or gorilla in the room, 25%, almost a quarter of a million people in Nova Scotia, have not finished high school, and about 38% of working age Nova Scotians don’t have the minimum literacy skills to work in today’s economy and 50% - half - don’t have the numeracy skills!
• This is an enormous number of people who are not able to participate in our envisioned future, which creates an enormous burden on those who can.
• We fully support investing in making educated people smarter but a management rule of thumb is that a dollar spent on training the most untrained worker has a much higher rate of return then a dollar spent on those at the top of the scale. 
• We need to start taking a closer look at Nova Scotia’s literacy and numeracy and work to have our province at one of the highest levels of literacy and numeracy in Canada.

For those of you who are interested, the Chamber does have a blog of its own.  Check it out: http://halifaxchamber.squarespace.com/

Thoughts on Tuition Support

As a provincially-designated school for students with learning disabilities, our students are given the opportunity to apply for Tuition Support funding from the province of Nova Scotia.  If they meet the criteria as it's laid out by the Department of Education, they will receive a base amount of $7100 toward the cost of their tuition.  Families in need may receive supplementary funding up to 90% of the cost of tuition. 

Earlier this year, the Minister of Education announced changes to the program.  That has the Equal Education Association of Nova Scotia concerned.  Below you'll find an open letter on the issue from Wade Brummet, Chair of EEANS.

Rhonda

It seems every day we hear about how government services are under threat of cutbacks, so it all the more frustrating that this government would cave in to the Department of Education's misguided belief that inclusion is more important that education.


Tuition support transfers the basic funding unit allotted to every child in NS to a designated special needs school specializing in educating children with learning disabilities. Previous ministers and the HRSB have acknowledged that there is no way the current resources in the public system can provide a level of support near what these kids are able to get at the designated schools. What's more, every student attending these schools saves at least $7500.00/yr in special needs funding as they are not using the resources of the local community school. That means the students with less severe challenges benefit too.

So how could anyone possibly justify capping this program at an arbitrary time limit without consideration of the child's need? After the NDP spent years campaigning the previous government to abolish the time limit, they immediately flip over when coming to power. If it’s the right thing to do for the child's education and has the bonus of saving money, it makes you wonder who actually runs our province; Mr Dexter or the bureaucrats who apparently aren't interested in providing the best education for the dollar.

Wade Brummet, Chair

Equal Education Association of Nova Scotia
http://www.eeans.ca/

You're not going to believe this one...

A link to this story was shared with me earlier this week, and I'm still shaking my head.  If you've ever dealt with children with learning disabilities, you know that sometimes a child can have trouble keeping their emotions and frustrations in check.  But with a little compassion and understanding, those situations can be handled.  Below is an example of a school NOT handling it.  Let's hope these situations are few and far in between.

Rhonda


Mother sues Gresham-Barlow School District, police


Alleges officer used ‘excessive force’ to subdue 8-year-old son

By Rob Cullivan

The Gresham Outlook, Nov 17, 2010

The mother of a child with a learning disability who attended Highland Elementary School in the Gresham-Barlow School District in 2009 is suing three school officials as well as a Gresham police officer over how they handled her son when he became unruly in class.

The suit, filed by Leslie Vincent on Friday, Nov. 12, in U.S. District Court, claims the officer — with the help of two teachers — held the boy down and handcuffed him. The child, who was 8 at the time, “sustained physical injuries as a result of the excessive force,” the lawsuit says, including “scuff marks on his upper arm where (the officer) had forcefully grabbed him and scuff marks on his wrists from the forceful and prolonged application of the handcuffs.”

The suit also claims the school district discriminated against the boy because of his disability, “had an unofficial policy” of “locking students with learning or behavioral disabilities … out of their classrooms, leaving them to roam the hallways without guidance and supervision” and calling the police to “respond and intervene in routine student disciplinary matters.”


Read the rest of this incredible story here:
http://www.theoutlookonline.com/news/story.php?story_id=129001488999139900

Our very own Woman of Excellence

Our Founder and Executive Director will be honoured on Thursday of this week with a Progress Women of Excellence Award for her contributions to Education.  We're very proud of her and everything she's done for hundreds of our students over the last 27 years.  You'll find out a little more about her in the bio below.  Feel free to leave your congratulatory messages in the Comments section below!

Rhonda

Lucinda Low

Founder and Executive Director
Bridgeway Academy

Lucinda Low believes in children. She believes any child with a learning disability can learn, and she refuses to give up on that belief, even when that child may have given up on herself.

It’s that belief that led a woman with only a grade nine education to demand that her son receive the services he needed from the province of Nova Scotia. When the right program could not be found, it’s the same belief that led her to started Bridgeway Academy, a school for children with learning disabilities.

Over the last 27 years, Bridgeway has helped hundreds of students do more than learn. They leave the school believing in themselves, with an understanding of their learning disabilities and an ability to advocate for the services they need to succeed.

Lucinda’s advocacy work extends over 30 years. She was the Founder and President of Children’s Opportunities Mean Everything, a support group for parents with children with learning disabilities in the Halifax area. She held executive positions with the Atlantic Conference on Learning Disabilities and the Learning Disabilities Association of Nova Scotia (LDANS). She also served on the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on Learning Disabilities.

Lucinda has received many accolades over the years. In 1982, she received the Mary Hornby Award from the Atlantic Conference on Learning Disabilities for her contributions to the goal of achieving respect and understanding for youth with special learning needs. In 1992, she was presented with the President’s Award by the Association of Psychologists of Nova Scotia for her contributions to the mental health community. And in 2001, Bridgeway Academy received the National Excellence of Education Award from the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada for outstanding contribution to the field of learning disabilities and education.

Lucinda is married and has three children, three grandchildren, and in her spare time, creates and sells jewellery with her sister in a business they call “Sisters Too.”

Here's a shot of Cindy with our Board of Directors at the Progress Women of Excellence Award Dinner on Thursday, November 18.  Way to go Cindy!

Literacy - A Call to Action

The Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training have launched a literacy campaign in this region.  They've produced several television spots promoting literacy and it's links to the economy, employment and quality of life.  If you haven't seen them yet, you can watch them here:

http://camet-camef.ca/default.asp?mn=1.81.245

Our Founder and Executive Director, Lucinda Low, saw those ads recently.  She shares her thoughts below.

Rhonda

I’ve been thinking a lot about literacy lately, thanks to the awareness ads on television promoting the, “Literacy: It means more than you think” campaign. Launched by the Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training, the campaign is meant to reinforce the link between literacy and quality of life, health, the economy and employment.


While I agree that literacy is critical to the success of every member of society, we need our governments to truly support the learning process to make the message more than good PR.

Take Nova Scotia for example. Recently, the Department of Education asked all school boards to start planning for a 22% budget cut, to be phased in over three years. As many School Board members have said, a cut of this magnitude would be devastating to our education system, resulting in fewer teachers, fewer programs, and fewer support staff in our schools.

In my view, budget cuts to our schools will result in a whole new generation of Nova Scotians who can’t read. Literacy can only be addressed if we start supporting our children from the earliest stages of learning. We need teachers who are not overworked or burdened with large classes, who can identify a struggling reader in the first years of school. We need a full team of resource and support staff with the training to address reading disabilities, offering appropriate, individualized teaching strategies so that our children don’t fall behind. We need continued support and monitoring of those children as they move through the junior high school and high school grades so that they continue to succeed and remain engaged in the learning experience.

Already, the supports for learning disabilities in our schools are limited at best. What happens if the few resource teachers we do have are cut and professional development funding dries up? What happens if class sizes are increased and teachers are asked to do more with less? Children will start falling through the cracks. Children with reading disabilities will disengage, disrupt, and eventually give up on school. Imagine the impact on that child’s quality of life, health and employment prospects. Imagine the impact on our economy if a whole generation of children can’t read.

So my call to action for the Ministers is this. Stop telling us that literacy is important and start showing us how you’re going to help. Make a commitment to creating a strong foundation for literacy in our schools, and support those schools in the way that will make a difference. Don’t pinch pennies now, or our society will pay in the future.

Lucinda Low
Founder and Executive Director
Bridgeway Academy

Inclusion and The Current

We were rivited to our internet-radio this morning, listening to a segment on inclusion in public schools on The Current on CBC Radio.  They shared perspectives from a parent, a teacher, an advocate for inclusion from Newfoundland, and Winnipeg human rights lawyer who was against inclusion. 

I would encourage everyone to listen to the interview.  You'll find it on The Current's website at http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/

If you have an opinion to share about inclusion, please leave your comments here.

Below you'll find the response letter sent to The Current by our Founder and Executive Director Lucinda Low.


Dear Anna Maria,


I listened with great interest to the many perspectives offered this morning in your segment on inclusion in public schools. I am the Founder and Executive Director of Bridgeway Academy, a provincially-designated special education school for students with learning disabilities in the province of Nova Scotia. Each one of our students is a reinforcement of my belief that inclusion in the public school system does not work.

I started this school 27 years ago when my school board was unable to provide the support and programming my son needed. Today, we provide individualized education to close to 100 students with learning disabilities. All of our students have come to us after trying, and failing, to succeed in the public school or private school system.

The stories I hear from parents are heartbreaking. Parents share with me the emotional toll that trying to support their child has taken on their entire family. It is not uncommon for parents to break down in tears as they share their stories with me, recounting the ways their children have not only struggled to learn, but also with self-esteem, anxiety, and social exclusion.

I do believe that there are teachers in every school, every school board and every province who try very hard to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities. Unfortunately, the system is not set up in a way which allows them to succeed. As the teacher who was interviewed on your program pointed out, meeting several different needs in one classroom can be extremely difficult. And as needs go unmet, behaviours begin, making the situation even more untenable.

At our school, remedial classes operate on a 6:1 ratio, with students of the same skill level working together, regardless of grade. Our teachers understand the needs of each individual student and teach to them in the way they learn best. Our students are further supported with social skill instruction, and learn to establish and build relationships, self-manage, and communicate. We handle behaviours by looking at the individual and determining if they need to develop the skills to handle specific situations.

How do we know we’re succeeding where inclusion hasn’t? When a student tells us he feels “normal” again. When a parent tells us that her child is able to do her homework on her own. When a child tells us he likes this school because he’s not being yelled at every day.

Our students are not on individual program plans – they are learning the Nova Scotia curriculum, but in a way they understand. Once our students are remediated back up to their grade level, we’ll help them transition back into the public school system. If they are graduating from our school, we’ll help them transition into post-secondary education or into the working world. Our students have gone on to get their college diplomas and university degrees. Our students have gone on to become business professionals, teachers and hairdressers. No matter how long they stay with us, all leave our school understanding their learning disabilities, their learning styles, and will be empowered to advocate for themselves.

I would invite you to visit us at any time to talk to our students, our teachers and our parents. I think you would find the experience both enlightening and emotional.

Lucinda Low
Founder and Executive Director
Bridgeway Academy