Thirty Vision Network educators traveled to Edmonton (Alberta), Canada in mid-November to learn about a public school district that is widely considered one of the best in the world. Edmonton’s school system was a primary model for the Vision 2015 plan and is comparable in size to Delaware (in the number of schools and students).
In fact, Edmonton's per student spending is about the same or less than ours in Delaware, yet its students are among the top five in the world when it comes to academic performance (the United States is not in the top ten on any of these international measures).
So, what are they doing that we can learn from?
During the three-day visit to Edmonton, Delaware educators studied the best practices that have made Edmonton a world leader, including weighted student funding, decentralization, school choice, and accountability:
• Funding: In Edmonton, funds are allocated to schools through weighted student funding—a foundation or base amount for each child, with additional weights for varying levels of special education, English as a Second Language (ESL) support, and other student needs that require additional resources. Vision 2015 recommends a weighted funding system for Delaware, and the LEAD Committee will release a report this week that recommends implementing such a system.
• Autonomy/Decentralization: Principals in Edmonton are given broad management responsibility and accountability: they control 92 percent of their schools' budgets, make hiring and firing decisions, run their buildings’ operations, and control their schools' payrolls. Vision 2015 recommends empowering principals and is helping to instill in Vision Network schools and districts the knowledge, authority, and flexibility to get results.
• School Choice: Edmonton provides a range of learning options so that each student can select the one that best meets his or her specific learning needs. Students can choose from school programs that are bilingual, religious, cultural, subject-specific, pedagogical, or single-gender. While Vision 2015 does not address religious schools, it recommends creating more innovative options and more flexible schools to meet the diverse set of student needs.
• Accountability: Increased local autonomy is coupled with a clear commitment to results. Data on student performance is readily available at all schools and serves as the foundation of their budget processes. At the student level, students must pass a 12th grade exit exam in all core subjects in order to earn a diploma. And, at the school level, if a school's performance is strong, it is given more flexibility; if it is not, district oversight becomes more prescriptive.
Edmonton Public Schools worked with the education consulting firm Focus on Results for more than six years to implement a professional development plan for educators; reorient central office support; and use coaching to support the development of principals as instructional leaders. Today, Focus on Results (FOR) is doing similar work in Delaware. FOR, in concert with the University of Delaware, supports the Vision Network by providing professional development training and coaching to school and district leadership teams.
