While there are again three report cards during the school year, representatives of private schools in Quebec are asking the Minister of Education to return to two report cards, as was the case during the pandemic.
“I think Mr. Drainville would make a lot of people in the industry happy,” he said in an interview with To have to Nancy Brousseau, Executive Director of the Federation of Private Education Establishments (FEEP).
The FEEP, which brings together 138 secondary schools, 110 preschool-primary schools and 12 schools specializing in special education, met with Bernard Drainville last week to discuss what “could be improved in the network”. A sign that the debate is not closed, the number of bulletins has been addressed, in addition to the shortage of manpower and the question of students in difficulty.
The federation took the pulse of its members during a general meeting this fall, and the result was “unanimous”: “everyone was going in the same direction, to return to two stages,” she said. People found it very interesting as a formula.
During the pandemic, the November newsletter in primary and secondary schools had temporarily disappeared. The former Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, announced in April a return to three bulletins after a consultation. “We heard the need for parents to be informed on a more regular basis about the progress of their children,” he said.
Parents receive four communications per year, argues Nancy Brousseau. “If the intra-step communications are of quality, and in addition the parent has access to the online portal to follow his child, it starts to make enough communications for the student to continue his learning,” she believes.
Directors in favor of two bulletins
This return to three bulletins also disappoints the Association of General Managers and General Managers of Private Education Institutions in Quebec (ADIGESEP).
“When we are constantly under the obligation to give results because we have to put notes in a report card, it comes to tint, underlines the director general of the association, Marc Tremblay. Evaluation should be at the service of learning, it should not be an end in itself”.
He himself worked as a school principal for twenty years before retiring in August. “Evaluation takes up far too much space, and it has impacts at the administrative level, management, pedagogy, teaching and stress among young people,” he describes. With two report cards, schools can “better consolidate” learning, he notes.
The office of the Minister of Education indicates for its part that it hears the concerns, but that “there are no plans for the moment to return to two bulletins” and that “it is very important for us to be sensitive to the parental concerns.
Extension recommended
In an opinion sent on May 27, the Higher Council for Education (CSE) recommends considering the permanent establishment of two report cards and extending this measure for two years.
“It will indeed be necessary to make sure to communicate frequently to the parents clear and useful information on the strengths of their child, on his difficulties and on the needs to be met, writes the CSE. It would be appropriate to consult all the stakeholders and take stock of the temporary measures that were taken in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, in order to identify the strengths and those that need to be improved.
“If a student is in difficulty, it will take longer before the parent knows about it,” thinks André-Sébastien Aubé, professor in the Department of Education and Pedagogy at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). He sees no problem with three ballots. “If the report card was consistent with the curriculum, the report card would be a natural representation of what’s going on in the classroom and it wouldn’t be as much work,” he believes.
This debate can be an opportunity to have a fundamental reflection on the role of evaluation and its toxic effects, thinks Isabelle Nizet, associate professor at the University of Sherbrooke. “There is still a belief in society that the more you assess, the more you foster learning,” she says.