Support Our Students Alberta Foundation, as a public education advocacy organization, and a citizens action group has several concerns regarding the Ministry of Education Curriculum Panel Review as released January 29, 2020.
General Concerns:
Minister Adriana LaGrange indicated that the Ministry has listened to Alberta parents. 

• SOS Alberta has held an online letter writing campaign since late October. 
  
• More than 6000 emails have been sent to Minster LaGrange
  
•  Virtually no response has been received from the Minister’s office or MLAs by SOS Champions.
  
• The emails outlined concerns about the choice in education survey and the budget cuts.
  

Minister Lagrange evaded almost every pressing question about the details of the report, by deflecting to the statement, “these are simply recommendations.” 

• Considering the time and energy spent on this initiative, Albertans expect some concrete answers to specific questions about the recommendations.  
  
• Alberta’s children have been operating with insufficient funds, and outdated curriculum during this time. 
  

Minister LaGrange stated “Climate change is real, but we want to present it in a balanced way”.

• Unable to provide clarification on what balances out fact?
  
• How will this apply to other widely accepted facts like evolution? Vaccines? Roundness of the earth? 
  
• What do we balance fact with? 
  
• This is a concerning approach to education.
  

While we have concerns with the entire document, here are a few specific concerns: 

Recommendation 9
Provide students with opportunities to learn outside the classroom, including experiences with elements of the workforce and community involvement. There is value in exposing students to experiences outside the classroom that can build awareness and opportunities on the variety of career paths and choices available to them. Learning is strengthened when students learn in the context of real-world experience and work. Curriculum can be delivered in many ways beyond the classroom context, including in workplaces and employment settings. Curriculum should be flexible to deal with alternative skills models outside the classroom. 

9.1 Undertake an examination of curriculum that can be delivered in a dual structure, similar to the Germanic Model, exploring the definition of skilled trades and how students acquire these skills 
9.2 Expose students to practical work and learning outside the classroom, including participating in volunteer activities that engage students and benefit local communities.
SOS Interpretation: 

• This is code for more online learning, moving children into ‘the workforce’.
  
• Different name for academic streaming. 
  
• Also runs completely contrary to Recommendation 3, to eliminate academic streaming.
  

Recommendations 17.2, 17.5
17.2 Implement a systematic approach that uses standardized formative assessment tools in the evaluation of literacy and numeracy, in grades 1 through grade 5. These can identify where students may require additional support and enable the use of appropriate interventions at the earliest possible stages”
17.5 Explore other ways that standardized testing can be used to ensure public confidence.
SOS Interpretation: 

• This is simply code for ongoing standardized testing. 
  
• Starting standardized testing at even even younger age, Grade 1.
  
• Way to circumvent reintroducing grade 3 PAT
  
• Using a testing regime as a tool to measure a system, teachers under guise of accountability.
  

Repeated References:

• “Create opportunities to bring the needs of Alberta’s employers into the curriculum development process”.
  
• “Importance of Alberta’s resource-rich economic base in relation to the impact on the economy” 
  
• “with respect to Alberta’s economic system, entrepreneurship, the world of work, and the roles and jobs of members of the community”
  
• “ With the end student in mind”
  
  SOS Interpretation:  
  
• Hyper focus on the economy, work related skills, and terminology like “End Student”, these are not the goals of public education. 
  
• This language commodifies education and gives impression K-12 is an assembly line and children are the final product. 
  
• Schools are not factories.
  
• This is a concerning approach to have for public education 
  
• This government seems both unwilling and unable to diversify Alberta’s current economy, how can we then have faith in their ability to design a system that is 2033 ready. 
  

SOS Alberta continues to advocate for a universal, accessible and equitable public education system in Alberta. It is our position that this panel review does not move us in that direction. We have many concerns about the effects these recommendations will have for Alberta’s students for years to come if implemented.. 
We urge Minister Lagrange to hold open consultation with Alberta citizens in ways that are more open and transparent than online surveys. As an organization we have already FOIP’d the Choice in Education Survey which is proving a large barrier to public information.

Dear Hon. Adriana Lagrange, Minister of Education,

Recently you have made public comments, including on the Danielle Smith Show (December 17, 2019), that Support Our Students Alberta has not sought a meeting with you like other groups have. Presumably, you hope to undermine the concerns of Albertans by suggesting that their concerns are illegitimate without a closed-door meeting. 

Our answer is simple: we are public education advocates who advocate in public; we have nothing further to present in secret, closed door meetings. Our position is transparent to all Albertans in the “10 Strategies for Equitable Public Education” which is available on our website. We have included it again here for your convenience. 

It is true that we have not requested a meeting with you, nor have we requested a meeting with a sitting Minister of Education for the previous three years. We would like to clarify that Support Our Students Alberta is not a lobby group, we are a citizens action group. Our goal is to inform, organize and equip Albertans so that if and when they decide to meet with you, their MLA, their trustee or their school staff, they are well informed on what universal, equitable and accessible public education means for Albertans.

If you do feel your policy position could be influenced from hearing the voices of concerned Albertans directly, we urge you to listen to the over 5,600 Albertans who have written letters to you through our letter-writing campaign. The vast majority have not heard a response from you or their MLA’s. Many have requested meetings to no avail; those few who have met with MLA’s have been met with indifference. We yield to them, Minister. 

10 Strategies to Achieve Equitable Public Education

• We would like the Alberta Government to redefine and recommit the government’s responsibility to a more equitable public education system for all Alberta students.
• Make high quality early childhood education universal and accessible, levelling the playing field and closing the achievement gap for underprivileged children.
• Build schools as community engagement centres, comprehensive facilities where children and citizens can participate physically, intellectually and civically.
• Eliminate ALL barriers including all school-related fees (including, but not limited to, instructional materials, bussing, lunch supervision) and application procedures.
• All schools should have a full, inclusive, and balanced curriculum including but not limited to arts, music, science, history, language arts, additional languages, mathematics, and physical education.
• Reduce class sizes to bring them in line with the recommendations in the Alberta Learning Commission report of 2003 & provide adequate supports for classroom complexity.
• Integrate charter schools into the public system, eliminating all fees and ability to deny access.
• Provide integrated services for students, including medical and social services that help children keep up with advantaged peers.  One in six Alberta children live in poverty.
• Reduce emphasis on high stakes standardized testing. Provide alternative and more comprehensive criteria for measuring student success.
• Return to specialization for teachers at all grade levels.
• Recognize that public education is a public responsibility not a consumer good.  Its quality and accessibility should be equitable across the province.

If you require further information please do not hesitate to reach out to us. 
In the meantime, we will continue our work equipping Albertans and advocating for public education.

Team SOS Alberta