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Progress Toward First Nations Education Jurisdiction
In recent years, consultations have taken place with First Nations communities to help define the nature and scope of jurisdiction and to help the FNESC negotiating team articulate the vision of First Nations in tripartite negotiations. First Nations have consistently maintained that jurisdiction is a tool they need to achieve increased education success for First Nations learners and that jurisdiction is the foundation for providing high quality, relevant curriculum that reflects the unique cultures of First Nations peoples. For the most current news on jurisdiction and a wide variety of resources, visit the jurisdiction webpage. First
Nations School Assessment Project
School Measures and Data Collection Responding to requests from First Nations schools, the FNSA has conducted a major data collection and measures project during the past years. The goal of the project has been to create relevant tools for First Nations schools to collect standardized, reliable data and accurately demonstrate the important work being done in First Nations schools. All tools were developed through a series of consultation workshops. It is anticipated that the school measures and data will serve as an important tool for accountability to First Nations communities and to INAC. This project involves linking parts of the databases maintained by INAC and the Ministry of Education, in order to track student progress in a consistent manner. To begin, the study is examining data on several cohorts of students and following them as they move from year to year, all in a process that has very high standards for student and school confidentiality. Standardized Testing in First Nations Schools An increasing number of First Nations schools have been asking the FNSA for information about the use of standardized tests and the FNSA recently examined the subject of standardized testing in First Nations schools. As discussed at the latest AGM, the FNSA hopes to provide professional development workshops for schools that want to learn more about assessments to help them decide whether the instruments are appropriate for their students and how they can be used effectively. FNSA Teacher Standards and Certification Research In 2005/2006, the FNSA sponsored consultation workshops in partnership with the BC College of Teachers (BCCT) to share the draft BCCT Teaching Standards and Competencies with First Nations schools. The workshop participants discussed how those BCCT standards might be adapted to make them relevant for First Nations schools and they also considered how the standards might be reflected in school-level benchmarks for the performance of school staff to provide a foundation for professional development. Work in this area continues. First Nations schools use a wide variety of systems to capture student information depending on their needs, their size, and their administrative and technological capacity. Last year, the FNSA and FNESC began investigating a new way of collecting and sharing information called the BC electronic Student Information System (BCeSIS), a tool that the BC Ministry of Education is already implementing in BC school districts. It is hoped that BCeSIS will eventually be a central storehouse of information that can track student progress and provide principals and educators with better and more complete data to inform their planning. |
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©
2000-2003 Copyright First Nations Schools Association
Suite 113 - 100 Park Royal South West Vancouver, BC V7T 1A2 Phone: (604) 925-6087 Fax number: (604) 925-6097 Email: fnsa@fnesc.ca |
For
decades, First Nations have been working to have their authority
for the education of First Nations learners respected and legally
recognized, and FNESC, with input and support from the FNSA, has
been engaged in formal discussions with the provincial and federal
governments since 2000 to achieve the goal of First Nations education
jurisdiction.
