Session Information
23 SES 13 B, Change Four Ways
Symposium
Contribution
This paper explores the relationship between Ontario’s special educational reform strategy and its wider reform agenda (Fullan, 2007; Knighton et al. 2010; OECD, 2010; Pearson Foundation, 2010). Provincial strategies stressing system-wide targets, literacy and numeracy, and capacity-building were widely publicized, though this $70 million, Province-wide special education reform strategy— Essential for Some, Good for All (ESGA)—is less well known. Under ESGA, each board, regardless of size, received $250,000 annually for three years. Boards developed localized improvement plans for special needs students that aligned with the Ministry’s guiding document, Education for All. The philosophy of the initiative was that addressing the essential needs of some students would benefit many others and that the nature of the reform should flexible to meet local needs. In 2009, ten boards volunteered to participate in a study of ESGA. They vary in size, location, and educational circumstances. The review examined how accountability and inclusion played out differently in the boards, with particular focus on the tensions between segregation and integration, narrow targets and diversified assessments, preferential attention to students near provincial proficiency targets compared to other struggling students, and meeting the needs of diverse populations. Comparisons between boards have yielded useful insights on reform strategies.
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