Thank you, Chair, and honourable members.
I am pleased to speak on behalf of Edmonton Public Schools regarding this committee's study of official languages immersion schools.
During this time, I will share information about the context of French immersion within our school district, the key issues and challenges faced, and some of the recommendations and suggestions we have.
We are very proud that Edmonton Public Schools has a strong national and international reputation of very successful second language programs and innovative supports for these programs. Our school district has approximately 85,000 students. We offer the most diverse language programming in a school authority in Canada, with partial immersion programs in seven languages, a large and comprehensive French immersion program, and second language courses in 12 languages.
We offer a number of supports to our students who study a second language, and to our second language teachers, including: international credentialling opportunities; the establishment of the Institute for Innovation in Second Language Education, called IISLE; partnerships with local, national, and international governments and organizations; and comprehensive policies and regulations to support quality language programming. We are very proud and we feel very lucky, as these are just a few examples of the strong context within which our French immersion programs are thriving.
The Commissioner of Official Languages, Mr. Graham Fraser, has stated, “Edmonton has developed, bar none, the best immersion system in the country”. However, we are a district of continuous improvement. In 2001 our district conducted a comprehensive program review of our French programs and based on those results, initiated a French language renewal project and set many goals. Just over a decade later, we have attained many of those goals, doubling the number of students studying French, and increasing enrollment by over 69%.
The funding we have received in the last two cycles has facilitated many key initiatives to support French language program implementation and expansion, including: the establishment of a late French immersion program; new elementary school French immersion programs; two sites in which French immersion students receive extra supports in specialized classrooms; the establishment of an exemplary French resource centre; and a French international examination centre with over 3,500 students receiving international credentialling for their French proficiency, many with very high proficiency levels. We are particularly proud to report that we now have close to 41% of our students studying French.
One of the challenges we have faced related to French immersion programming directly relates to our vision that all children should have the opportunity to become bilingual, or perhaps plurilingual. Having this vision means many things. First, we must consciously welcome all students into our programs and support their success. Second, we must have programs widely available. Third, parents, communities, and educators must understand and value the French immersion program.
Historically, there was a general belief that only students who are academically strong should be in French immersion. However, research and experience have demonstrated that students with various special learning needs can be successful and sometimes flourish in the program, achieving many benefits from second language learning.
We also know that students, parents, administrators, and especially teachers need more support to feel able to effectively meet the range of learning needs in a French immersion classroom. In our district, we are working feverishly to develop and provide a range of support, including early literacy interventions in French, improved French immersion literacy training for teachers, and access to inclusive teaching strategies.
Our second challenge involves accessibility and availability of programs. Edmonton has a large urban sprawl, a growing population, and numerous program choices for parents. Providing all families with easy and local access to French immersion schools is challenging. Transportation costs and transportation time also pose significant problems.
Our third challenge is ensuring that parents and the community at large value learning the French language. French immersion programs require extensive time, energy, and cost. We continue to make progress, and the expansion of our enrollment is evidence of this.
We launched just last month a new video to promote French immersion programming and to provide parents with key information on its benefits.
Support on a larger scale, though, is needed. Targeted work is needed in this area, and the protocol provides a possible venue to carry this message.
I have just described three of our key challenges. Additional challenges include smooth articulation and transition of our students into post-secondary education, and availability of a healthy supply of qualified teachers and supply teachers.
You have also invited us today to provide recommendations on how the federal government could enhance its contribution to the teaching of the other official language. In general, the protocol and its content remains strong. However, in the spirit of continuous improvement, I wish to share some thoughts with you.
The development of longer-term protocols enables provinces and school authorities to maximize their focus and impact to enable school districts to plan and to strongly focus on implementation. The longer-term focus and stability of funding over time has had a strong impact on quality and results. Having said that, the delays or lag time between the end of one set of protocols and the beginning of implementation of a new set of protocols, especially during times of fiscal restraint, can have a devastating effect on the maintenance and/or implementation of initiatives. Any reductions in this lag time would be a significant improvement that would make a great deal of difference to school authorities.
In terms of specific content in the protocol, I would like to draw your attention to the outcome domain for “second language, primary and secondary, 3.2.2.1 student participation”. It identifies the outcome, recruitment, and retention of students in second language education programs up to secondary school graduation. As stated earlier, we believe all Canadian children should have the right of access to French immersion programming and should receive quality supports in those programs to support their success.
To that end, we recommend the statement be changed to read “recruitment and retention of a wide range of students with diverse learning skills, abilities, and needs, and second language education programs up to secondary school graduation.” Or we recommend adding a new outcome that expresses the need to expand access and supports for a wider range of students with a range of learning needs to learn the other official language. From our perspective this alteration would more strongly communicate the goal that all students be enabled to become bilingual.
Second, I would like to again draw your attention to the importance of placing an emphasis on the promotion of French language learning and French immersion programming. This must include communicating the wide range of benefits that second language learning provides. Parents today have many choices, and a concerted effort at the local and national levels is essential to reinforce these benefits. The outcome domains could be strengthened to focus actions in this area.
We wish to also express our encouragement for the continuation of such programs as Explore, Exchanges Canada, SEVEC, summer work student exchange, etc. We feel these programs play critical roles in providing our students with opportunities for meaningful out-of-classroom learning.
We do have suggestions for new programs that could be the responsibility of the federal government. We believe the federal government should take leadership in encouraging and supporting the implementation of a common framework of reference for languages from kindergarten to post-secondary levels and beyond. We have worked with many languages for many years in the implementation of several frameworks, and by far the common European framework of reference, CEFR, has been the strongest for kindergarten to post-secondary education.
We have used the CEFR extensively in classrooms and with other languages with great success. We also believe it has played a key role in improving our teachers' second language teaching, our students' learning, and fundamentally has helped us to improve our student language proficiency levels.
National implementation of this framework would strengthen French programming across Canada in many ways including by increasing coherence and transparency around language proficiency expectations, by fostering understanding among school authorities, elected officials, parents, post-secondary institutions, and employers regarding what to expect from graduates of these programs at various levels, and by facilitating a smoother transition of students into post-secondary second language courses.
A further need that could be addressed by the federal program is through the establishment of separate funds to support emerging needs and innovative responses to these needs. We envision this to be a special initiative fund that would overtly encourage and prioritize interprovincial or pan-Canadian initiatives and/or initiatives that are innovative and responsive in nature.
We envision these initiatives would be managed directly through the federal government, and would not have to be restrained by the provincial requirements and protocols.
I understand there is latitude in the protocols that enables these kinds of initiatives. The references to this possibility in the present agreement appear to be heavily bureaucratic, and as a result, organizations with innovative or emerging projects may not engage in the process, as they anticipate being constrained through the required levels of agreement. There does not appear to be a process in place for the field, such as school jurisdictions, to identify and propose these types of emergent initiatives and needs.
In conclusion, I wish to reiterate that Edmonton Public Schools is passionate about languages and French immersion and about constantly trying to improve. We very much appreciate this opportunity to share our passion, our successes, our challenges, and our ideas.
Thank you.