Systemic Inequity in Alberta Education
How do we talk about systemic inequities within the structures of our education system in Alberta?
For as long as I’ve been a teacher I’ve been interested in the ways in which policies and structures shape what happens in our classrooms and schools.
Inequity within our education system can manifest in a variety of ways from lack of resources, to underfunding schools and programs that serve students in the margins, and large-scale policies in assessment and academic streaming among many others.
I’ve been teaching for social justice since the day I entered the classroom and have always felt that understanding how inequity exists within my own classroom, school and throughout the system is an important step in understanding how we advocate for a more equitable and just education system. Specifically, for those of us who see equity as a core value to a strong public education system, isn’t it our job to identify inequitable policies and practices and then work together to drive out inequity at the root?
Unfortunately, in my experience, having these conversations within our profession is difficult at best. Inequity can present itself in many ways and is often tied to forms of oppression such as racism, classism, homophobia and transphobia among many others. However, I’d like to focus on two structures within our system that perpetuate inequity; academic streaming and standardized testing.
According to the research, academic streaming is only beneficial to those students who are “streamed up” towards higher academic courses and programs. Students who are “streamed down” do not perform higher academically from being put in a class with students who have similar “abilities”. Research study after research study supports this claim and yet the practice of academic streaming is widely (at least anecdotally) supported across Alberta in high schools. Many folks would argue that streaming takes place even earlier in elementary and junior high in preparing students to be enrolled in the high school stream of dash 1, dash 2, dash 4 or the International Bachelorette or Advanced Placement programs. What is more concerning, is that students who are more often streamed down are students from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds, students of colour, English language learners and lgbtq2s+ students.
Standardized testing in Alberta follows a similar trend. Regardless of our desire to make the test as fair as possible, research has demonstrated that standardized testing is a better measurement of a students postal code rather than their actual academic ability. Time and again and across jurisdictions standardized testing results outline that students from high socioeconomic backgrounds with more access to resources and supports tend to perform better on these tests than students who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, English language learners and other groups of students in the margins.
And for those who would disagree with my points here, I know what you may be thinking as you read this. The large amount of research on these two issues took place outside of Alberta and we can’t use that to make claims about how our system works. I disagree with that notion as Alberta Education doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The inequities that plague other jurisdictions also happen here and we cannot continue to support policies and practices that have even the remote chance of further creating inequitable outcomes for our students.
I would argue that we need to flip the script on how we approach this conversation. If, as a jurisdiction, we are supportive of standardized testing, whether it’s the PAT’s or the Diploma Exams, what research are we using to support this practice? If academic streaming is something we should embrace, what studies are we drawing from to support this? In my research and readings I simply can not find a substantial amount of research, if any at all, that looks at standardized testing and streaming from an equity lens and supports the continued use of these practices.
Isn’t it time that if the research currently in the field of education does not support the practices of standardized testing and academic streaming that we at least take the time to understand the impact these policies have on teachers and students?
The only conclusion I can come to is that these practices are implemented and supported because of an ideology in education that fits our paradigm of how we view students in a deficit model. Instead of seeing the inequitable structures of our system we find individual failing in students as it is easier to blame a student for their failure rather than to hold the entire education system accountable.
We can do better, and I refuse to believe that our profession is incapable of having these big and important conversations about how the systemic issues within our system impact students in a negative way. As a mentor teacher once told me, when you sign up to be a teacher, you sign up to be an advocate of your students. Sometimes that means pointing out flaws in the system in order to be creative and imaginative in how we build a more just and equitable education system for all.
For my complete collection to date of research, commentary and analysis on standardized testing and academic streaming you can check out the google docs here & here.
