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By Chris Brown

Local schools won't pilot it

ATA survey finds most teachers unhappy with K-6 draft curriculum

Apr 8, 2021 | 1:54 PM

An Alberta Teachers’ Association survey has found that 91 per cent of teachers are unhappy with the government’s K-6 draft curriculum.

The ATA says the survey shows three in four teachers are very unhappy, 90 per cent of elementary school teachers are uncomfortable teaching the new curriculum and 95 per cent of principals are uncomfortable supporting the curriculum in their school and community.

Locally, Medicine Hat Public School Division and Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education have both come out against the draft. Neither will be piloting the project this fall. Prairie Rose School Division says it is reviewing the curriculum this week.

“We wanted to give teachers time to review the documents and provide their feedback to us since the government failed to engage teachers in the curriculum process. But the preliminary data is overwhelming: this draft curriculum is fatally flawed, says ATA president Jason Schilling in a statement. “Teachers are the experts. Teachers know what will work in a classroom and what will not, and they are overwhelmingly telling us that this curriculum won’t work for Alberta’s elementary students.”

READ MORE: Chalk opinions on draft curriculum left outside MLA’s office.

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Feedback also shows teachers “strongly believe the new curriculum is both age- and developmentally inappropriate and has not been logically sequenced.”

Schilling says that teachers’ analysis included assessing the curriculum in terms of the government’s own preset measures for success.

He says it is clear teachers were not sufficiently engaged in its development and their concerns were not addressed.

“The feedback shows that the government has failed its own mission. If the government is serious about producing a strong curriculum, it needs to listen to what teachers are telling them.”

READ MORE: Parents encouraged to send feedback on new K-6 curriculum

Learn more about the survey here.

More than 3,500 teachers and education leaders completed the survey between March 29 and April 7, 2021. The ATA says respondents make up a highly representative sample of the Alberta elementary school teaching population.