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Inspire

Strategy 1: Work with school boards to set achievement targets

The Secretariat:

• Negotiates targets which reflect high expectations for student learning, with current results serving as the baseline, in order to realize significant improvements within the next years
• Works with 72 districts and authorities to co-determine strategies that will have maximum yield
• Reviews and provides feedback on board and school improvement plans
• Assists boards with strategies for public communication and reporting of progress regarding targets
• Identifies boards and schools that have made significant progress and facilitates inter-board sharing of best practices
• Identifies boards and schools that are not achieving success and assists them in implementing proven strategies
• Reviews disaggregated data to identify and provides appropriate interventions for the groups that are not achieving success

Strategy 2: Assemble and support teams at all levels to drive continuous improvement in literacy and numeracy

The Secretariat:

• Works with regional offices of the Ministry of Education to establish regional improvement teams to support the boards in achieving literacy and numeracy targets
• Ensures that boards have in place literacy and numeracy improvement teams to support schools in achieving literacy and numeracy targets
• Ensures that boards have in place school teams to focus on improvement in literacy and numeracy instruction
• Works with district leaders to build the capacity of teams to facilitate system and school improvements

Strategy 3: Reduce class sizes in the primary grades to a maximum of 20 students per class by 2007-08

The Secretariat:

• Utilizes smaller class sizes in primary grades to increase instructional effectiveness by:
• Providing training on differentiated instruction for primary teachers
• Targeting specific strategies on shared reading, guided reading and comprehension skills
• Promoting increased use of strategies in assessment of and for learning, data driven decision-making and differentiating assessment

Strategy 4: Build capacity to support student learning and achievement

The Secretariat:

• Works with school boards to provide needs-based professional development for teachers and coordinates and integrates initiatives within and across school districts
• Works with boards and professional agencies to:
• design district-wide and school-based interactive programs for teachers and school leadership teams
• provide leadership development programs for principals on (a) literacy and numeracy development and (b) organizational improvement initiatives
• Identifies "sites of excellence" to serve as models of successful strategies for improving student achievement and to provide professional development for other schools, boards and districts
• Works with school districts to apply and replicates the lessons learned from the Turnaround Teams experience

Strategy 5: Allocate resources to support target setting and improvement plans

The Secretariat:

• Has established a new relationship with boards to target available resources to needs identification and improvement plans
• Has put in place an interactive process with school board leaders to identify resources and strategies that will be even more focussed on improving literacy and numeracy
• Encourages boards to constantly reflect upon and rethink how they use their available resources to determine the most effective ways to improve student achievement
• Works with school districts to amass, integrate and leverage resources at the local and central levels towards high-yield strategies
• Takes into account local conditions and contexts in customizing strategies according to district and regional needs, avoiding the "one size fits all" solution
• Serves as "Critical Friend" to school districts to ensure that resources and strategies result in improvement in student outcomes

Strategy 6: Mobilize the system to provide equity in student outcome

The Secretariat:

• Builds awareness among educators and stakeholders on the achievement issues related to the disaggregated data
• Ensures that school board plans specifically address the strategies they will use to bring about equity of outcome for designated groups
• Commissions professional organizations and faculties of education to provide targeted professional development to support improvement of selected groups that continue to struggle, such as Aboriginal students, students in ESL and special education programs and boys

Strategy 7: Embark on a process of community outreach and engagement to build support for the literacy and numeracy initiative

The Secretariat:

• Meets with student leaders to engage their support for peer tutoring, cooperative education programs and other student-led initiatives geared towards improving student achievement, K-6
• Solicits the assistance and support of trustees to reaffirm their role in the improvement of public education in general and student learning in literacy and numeracy in particular
• Encourages parents to engage in educational initiatives to further support student achievement
• Encourages school councils to refocus their role on strategies to further improve student achievement
• Takes into account local conditions and contexts in customizing strategies according to district and regional needs, avoiding the "one size fits all" solution
• Works collaboratively with professional organizations, departments, government ministries (such as Ministry of Children and Youth Services, "Best Start" program initiative) and faculties of education to support student learning
• Initiates a systematic public communication process to build awareness and support for the work of the literacy and numeracy initiative
• Engages the public in a renewed commitment to volunteerism in schools
• Seeks out opportunities to solicit input on initiatives of The Secretariat

Strategy 8: Demonstrate a commitment to research and evidence-based inquiry and decision making

The Secretariat:

• Conducts research on the practices that are most effective in improving student achievement in Ontario schools
• Ensures that we utilize in our work with school boards, national and international research findings in areas such as:
  
  1. student achievement
  2. large-scale change
  3. instructional effectiveness in literacy and numeracy
  4. parental and community involvement
• Utilizes a variety of methods to disseminate best practices to school boards
• Engages in a process of on-going evaluation of the effectiveness of the practices and processes being utilized by The Secretariat

Strategy 9: Establish a growing presence on the national and international scene in learning from and contributing to the knowledge base about how to improve literacy and numeracy achievement

The Secretariat:

• Invites selected external experts to share knowledge, and to provide feedback on literacy and numeracy strategies
• Documents our own strategies and their impact relative to what we are learning
• Contributes nationally and internationally through research papers, videos and conferences to the policy and strategy debate on literacy and numeracy improvement
• Works with partners to sponsor/convene both national and international conferences on literacy and numeracy development

In summary

The Secretariat is establishing a visible and transparent presence in the education sector that conveys a sense of urgency, optimism and commitment to improve public education in the province. Ontario students deserve no less.