Scrapping alternative schools is the wrong thing to do

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The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is being told to reduce the choice and diversity of programs — at a time when choice and diversity in programs at the elementary level is more vital than ever. To thrive, democratic communities need well-rounded, effective and diversified schooling systems capable of meeting students’ needs.

In April, the OCDSB will vote on a proposal developed by leadership beholden to the government of Ontario that includes the elimination of alternative schooling at the elementary level. If taken, such a decision would undermine the board’s capacity to provide inclusive, high-quality and accessible programs for children throughout the city.

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Ontario’s mainstream schooling system operates under an education philosophy oriented to ranking, competition and individualism. Testing, attendance and completion rates are primary indicators of success. Thin measures that presume all learners can — and should — develop in lockstep with one another. Something that we all know is not true.

While many students thrive (or survive) in the mainstream system, alternative learning models foster a different approach centred on the child themselves.

Launched as an innovative experiment more than 30 years ago, five schools hosted by the OCDSB are currently dedicated to the tenants of alternative education: cooperation and teamwork; student-and-teacher directed learning; multi-aged curriculum; integrated curriculum; and family and community-centred school environment.

The Toronto District School Board hosts 18 alternative schools in central and suburban locations. Outside of Ontario, the Edmonton District School Board has a long history of advancing school choice throughout the city and the alternative school in Regina just celebrated 50 years of operation. These schools can also be found in public boards of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island.

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Alternative schools offer a choice to parents and children, where ranking and competition are not the means and measures of success. Instead, they feature less emphasis on grades, a flexible classroom environment more accommodating to a diversity of learners, a commitment to multi-age groupings, and greater attention to the needs of individual children. Teachers and principals working in alternative schools are committed to wholistic learning, an uncommon approach in the wider Ontario schooling system.

OCDSB director of education Pino Buffone asserts that performance on standardized tests, attendance and high school completion rates indicate that alternative Schools are failing to produce desired results and “not adding value.” However, his own data shows that alternative schools are performing on par with results achieved in the mainstream English system. In other words, alternative schools, which welcome many neurodiverse students and children with diversified needs and backgrounds that mainstream schools fail to accommodate, are in fact securing remarkable results — due to the dedication to wholistic and child-centred learning.

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Research shows that alternative approaches are necessary to address the diverse needs of students. Every child has the right to learn, and parents have a right to choose. To find such a choice, which is extended to Francophone parents in the city, parents in Ottawa should not be forced into a different publicly funded system or have to pay the exorbitant costs of private schooling.

The OCDSB has a fiduciary duty to provide programs for a diversity of learners. An imposition of a singular pedagogical model for all children and families in the city undermines democratic principles of equity and inclusion while ignoring the importance of choice in education.

The elected representatives of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board have the chance to provide a voice for our local community and preserve dedicated alternative schools in the public system. These schools offer a beacon for diversity and inclusion in an ocean of standardized learning.

Jenn Wallner is the Jean-Luc Pépin Research Chair in Canadian Politics and an asssociate professor in public administration at the School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa.

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