Alexa Macdonald

@R2RInitiative @bcedplan @bctf @BCPVPA @POPEYBC @CBCVancouver @cbcnewsbc @GlobalBC @CTVVancouver @CTVNews The Min of Ed in BC has decided to download responsibility to individual districts, claiming they have the autonomy to choose what they want. But districts are saying they go by what the Min/curriculum say. Catch 22.

Hmm... how many million$ is @bcedplan spending each year on ineffective programs for our most vulnerable students? Why are we setting so many students up to fail??? @bctf @BCPVPA @POPEYBC @CBCVancouver @cbcnewsbc @GlobalBC @CTVVancouver @CTVNews PS other provinces are too

@Lawl_Assoc @MrDanielBuck "One section of class ix was taken as the experimental group and other one section as the control group, selected randomly." So... not really the highest quality scientific evidence.

The research: INQUIRY BASED LEARNING DOESN’T WORK. IT LEAVES STUDENTS CONFUSED AND FRUSTRATED. California: Let’s base our entire math curriculum on letting 2nd graders “discover” their way into long division Stupid, idiotic, and cruel.

@Miss_Snuffy If your child has genuine reading difficulties not accounted for by poor instruction, 'read to them' is not sufficient advice. They need specific instruction that parents are not equipped with the knowledge to give. That's on the teachers. That's the purpose of school.

Things aren’t as bad in the UK. But… While I will fight to the death to improve schools, the fact is that PARENTS must not source their child’s development out to the state. If your child isn’t reading at chronological level, that’s on YOU. No phones. Read to your kids.

@KJWinEducation I heard something recently that makes major sense to me. When people begin to say “I think/I feel” the next question should be, “But what does the data/evidence show?” I can get with that response moving forward.

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… Low ability students typically report liking more permissive instructional methods... so that their failures are not as visible. However...low ability students require less permissive methods which lower the information processing load on them. #bced

@rhardin29556971 Agree but with the caveat that a small proportion of students do struggle with oral language and end up with (Developmental) Language Disorder diagnoses, something that is hugely underrecognised in Canada but that affects the lang parts of the reading and writing ropes and SEL!

@grapemanca The minister's response to me was, "teachers and districts are free to create and use their own resources" under the guise of professional autonomy. I don't think they know how burned out teachers are and how unhelpful and even harmful this is.

@KJWinEducation @RachnaSinghNDP You think BC is already doing this but a) most schools are not using universal screeners, and b) even if they are, they don't measure the right skills. There's only a 50% chance of IDing a student correctly with F&P. Don't download this onto schools! #bced

California is gonna screen kids, k-2, for reading risk... including dyslexia. To God be the glory. decodingdyslexiaca.org/its-official-g…

6 more signatures to 500. The sky's the limit for our children with this petition and with #structuredliteracy. Because science. Please sign!

@LizzieBTrask @RichardsonYVR You know this is not helping students and has been show to be harmful in grade 4. What do we need to do to do better in the name of equity? How can we get #structuredliteracy to our students? @soozay @victoriajungvan

Despite being costly and ineffective, Fountas & Pinnell products remain hugely popular in BC. Many school districts collect BAS data as evidence of reading ability and intervene with LLI. Check out this video to see why this is a problem. #BCEd

@SCDSBLiteracy I'm excited for your students too, but confused why your bio says "Comprehensive Literacy" when Ontario education, the Right to Read report, and 50 years of reesarch are saying that it's 'structured' that is the most evidence based.

We are excited to see the release of the new Ontario Language Curriculum 👏 dcp.edu.gov.on.ca/en/curriculum/…

@BenisonMrs That's why SLPs (should) consider difficulties with multisyllabic word production a red flag for possible reading/decoding issues. All about the phonological processing/sequencing...

@kate_stockings @Lenosloan @Cambridge_Uni Hope someone in #bced is listening.

Good to see learning styles explicitly rejected in the recent @Cambridge_Uni magazine 👏🏻 The broader the audience this is continually shared with the better. It very much lives on… only this week someone mentioned it during our SCITT induction…

@BCnumeracy @laurengue2 @RobertaLSutton @rastokke Working in education, I do understand what they are, but I also think it's important someone stay on top of the research and align the curriculum accordingly where needed rather than going with teacher intuition, just as should be happening with literacy.

@AlexaM52069 @laurengue2 @RobertaLSutton @rastokke Thanks for your suggestions. The learning standards are what is required for teaching, assessing and reporting in BC so we align our supports with those but do draw upon a range of research available.

The BC Numeracy Network educators are meeting in Victoria next week. What additions to our website would support K-12 educators in our province? #bcedchat

@missypurcell1 @LucyCalkins @FountasPinnell I've been watching @FountasPinnell and their silence. They must be mortified the end of their careers went downhill so badly but so good to see science prevail! #structuredliteracy

Some days I feel a tad bad that @LucyCalkins has taken so much of the heat for the way we got the teaching of reading wrong….we can’t forget she learned how to build her reading workshop from @FountasPinnell who’ve been hiding since #SOS dropped. We need to keep the pressure on!

@BCnumeracy @laurengue2 @RobertaLSutton @rastokke Pls discuss what that might look like according to the science of learning math, rather than assuming that the BC standards align with actual science. Math should be evidence based and data driven, not relying on teacher intuition of how they think students learn

@laurengue2 @RobertaLSutton @rastokke Thanks for your suggestion. We will discuss what that might look like using BC’s curricular content and competency learning standards.

@JaniceNeden @elenoresturko I will also add that Alberta did indeed participate (and scored slightly higher than BC), as did Newfoundland. All of them still below the USA and England, and all in a pandemic. See how useful scientific data can be?

@JaniceNeden @elenoresturko I'm not looking at 'Canadian' data. This is specifically comparing BC to the US and England. They were also going through a pandemic at that time. So it is a fair comparison.

As BC schools end letter grades for K-Grade 9, the NDP must listen to growing concerns from parents. With literacy & numeracy outcomes declining, the NDP should focus on ensuring #BCed system works in the best interest of student outcomes. #bcpoli globalnews.ca/news/9792360/p…