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Special School Projects in Secondary Education: Diversifying Equitably


File number :
POEE-ISC-09e

Bibliographic reference :
Conseil supérieur de l’éducation (2007). Special School Projects in Secondary Education: Diversifying Equitably. Brief to the Minister of education, recreation and sports, 90 pages.

Abstract :

The purpose of this brief prepared by the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation (Quebec, Canada) was to provide more insight into the diversification of education in high schools.

With the massification of high schools during the 1960s came an educational diversity and heterogeneity to which today’s special school projects have to be tailored. The purpose of these projects is to enable each student to progress according to his or her expectations (challenges, motivations, etc.), for instance by offering international studies, sports-study and arts-study programmes.

Positive Outcomes
Nowadays, high school education is highly diversified, and its positive effects are for the most part related to the development of special school projects. These effects include an improved basic general education, recognition and promotion of individual skills in various learning areas, a greater number of involved and motivated students, the creation of engaged and collaborative school teams, greater parent interest and satisfaction, and more dynamic school boards and secondary schools.

Risks of Disparity
In spite of positive outcomes, risks are to be foreseen in order to prevent special school projects from leading to exclusion.

(1) There is a risk of fragmenting a common education – The provincial consensus aiming at offering a common education until Secondary III is more or less followed, given that special school projects start as early as Secondary I.

(2) Some youths might be excluded through a selection and labelling process. Some programmes require excellent academic results and entail high material costs. As a result, students with a higher socio-economic status who perform better in school are selected. In addition, schools in rural areas very often are limited in offering special school projects, given the insufficient student population.

(3) Skimming of regular classrooms – Classes are increasingly less heterogeneous since top-performing students are placed in special school projects. Research has shown that the presence of top-performing students in the classroom has a positive influence on other students, yet has little effect on their own performance.

(4) The onus of integrating students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties increasingly rests on regular classroom teachers, who hardly have any top-performing students. Therefore, integration is more difficult and tedious.

(5) The unfair distribution of teachers’ workloads – Some teachers find themselves with a very demanding workload (students with difficulties, insufficient resources, etc.), while other teachers have students in their classes who perform well and are motivated.

(6) Competition among public schools – Special school projects might arouse competition among public schools, since schools offering special school projects attract a greater number of students. In fact, the funding of schools is contingent on student enrolment numbers.

Directions for Consideration
The Conseil supérieur de l’éducation formulated four srategies to be considered to avoid educational inequalities:
(1) Striving for a diversified and accessible offer of education to all students;
(2) Acknowledging the role schools play in managing and regulating the offer of special school projects;
(3) Encouraging Quebec educational players to express their support in favour
of school and classroom heterogeneity;
(4) Encouraging cooperation between the public and private education sectors.

This brief concludes with sixteen recommendations, such as ensuring follow-up, defining guidelines for offering special school projects and making special school projects accessible to a larger number of students.



Links :
http://www.cse.gouv.qc.ca/

Key Words :
Special School Projects, Diversification of Education, Educational Heterogeneity, Students with Handicaps, Students with Difficulties, Regular Class Integration, Inequity, Competition, Labelling, Selection, Teaching Workload, Newsletter7

Monitored Countries :
Quebec (Canada)