Organization: Sea to Sky School District 48
Country: Canada
Education level: Early Childhood, Primary, Lower Secondary, and Upper Secondary
Organization type: Government
Family engagement type: Promoting Participation and Decision-Making
Note: For more strategies from Sea to Sky School District 48, see related strategies.
Overview
Sea to Sky School District 48 is a small but richly diverse school district located about 45 minutes from Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. The district is home to 5,000 students and serves six Indigenous communities, the Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh), Statlium (St’at’y’emc), Lil’wat, Metis, Inuit, and Off-Reserve Nations. Indigenous students make up approximately 12% of the total school district enrollment in Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton (Sea to Sky School District 48, n.d.).
In 2010, the district began reckoning with the multigenerational marginalization of Indigenous students in the community, due to harmful historical policies such as residential schools. The legacy of these policies was evident in the district’s graduation and enrollment rates, which showed that only 35% of Indigenous students in 2006 graduated high school within six years of beginning eighth grade, compared to 86% of non-Indigenous students (P. Lorette, personal communication, April 21, 2021). District leaders knew that to provide equitable education for all students, it was crucial to gain the Indigenous community’s insights about education to help shape the new education plan. Thus began the Sea to Sky School District’s educational codesign strategy, a collaborative education plan to improve enrollment and graduation rates among historically marginalized students through a partnership with the local Indigenous community.
How does it work?
The strategy began with an extended effort to engage the public in a comprehensive strategic plan process. This process brought together parents, teachers, trustees, students and members of the local Indigenous communities. Surveys were used to gather overall community input regarding a futuristic vision of student learning. The new strategic plan “Pathways to Learning” was completed over a five-day process.
Beyond the strategic plan, the school district continued to work closely and regularly convene with working groups that contain diverse community members to build its educational plans. Its first community working group consisted of roughly 50 individuals, including principals, Indigenous Elders, and parents, who hosted various roundtables to identify the community’s core educational purpose beliefs. The p “Indigenous Education Enhancement Agreement” between the Sea to Sky School District and the Squamish Nation guides collaboration with Indigenous communities. The agreement mandates that teachers and First Nations collaborate to support the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development of Indigenous youths. This relationship-building also included reaching out to families who typically did not engage with their child’s schools through family surveys around educational needs and values.
Following the initial redesign, community members continue to have a role in district strategy development. The district conducts parent surveys every three years, fosters parent action groups, and provides regular updates on district thinking through community newsletters and videos. In fact, these ongoing co-creative efforts were enshrined in the Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement for 2014-19, which formally structured collaborative leadership between the local and Indigenous communities and the school district to enhance Indigenous education programming (Sea to Sky School District 48, 2014).
What makes it work?
Long-standing systemic inequities brought on by historically racist policies and attitudes are an incredibly high barrier to overcome. The district found challenges in simply speaking about these inequities; racism is not an easy topic to discuss. Progress could be made only through partnership with Indigenous Elders and community members to understand their mindsets and desires related to their children’s education. Partnerships were created through working groups, surveys, and sustained high-level communication via newsletters and informational videos. For example, the working groups showed that the Indigenous community valued 21st-century skills and competencies such as critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork over traditional knowledge-based assessments. Based on this feedback, the district made 21st-century skills a central goal of the new education plan. Design strategies then flowed from this goal, such as cultivating partnerships with business and civil society organizations to identify discrete 21st-century skill needs for the world of work. Leaders not only worked with community groups but also sought to learn from each community member as an individual. The district’s small size facilitated this direct and individualized outreach. District staff members remembered the names of individual parents, and families could have one-on-one meetings with the superintendent.
Parents questioned many of the aspects of the new education plan. Controversial features included having multigrade classrooms and not using letter grades on assessments. District leaders realized that they needed to deeply discuss why they were making the changes. They began using presentations and newsletters to give parents tangible research behind the methods in order to avoid resistance to these unfamiliar pedagogical approaches. They shared, for example, data on how multiage classrooms support individualized learning and lead to student achievement gains.
Familiar elements of Indigenous culture were also included within the structure of the education plan to increase buy-in among community members by showing respect for the community’s traditions. One such example was incorporating a traditional Indigenous medicine wheel structure to outline the education plan, with the approval of the community. Some Indigenous communities use a medicine wheel as a metaphor for various spiritual concepts. The wheel contains a center “stone” and four spokes of supporting elements, representing the cardinal directions. The Sea to Sky medicine wheel places the goal of “Learn” in the middle of the wheel, with the principles “Create and Innovate,” “Contribute,” “Collaborate,” and “Think Critically” representing the cardinal directions (Sea to Sky School District 48, 2019).
The community knows that the district’s education plan is iterative, continually evolving based on feedback. Sea to Sky School District regularly demonstrates that families have a voice in educational design through surveys, superintendent office hours, and policy refreshes. Parents’ perception of the district’s responsiveness in planning mitigates resistance, as families trust the district will take time to consider their input. In 2019, for example, the plan was refreshed after bringing together a representative group to assess areas that were not working. The working group determined that the district should better recognize diversity and begin designing with brain-based learning approaches, strategies, and curricula based on scientific research on how the brain works. The Sea to Sky School District hopes to address these existing issues through further inclusive planning processes and the shared desire of Indigenous individuals, education leaders, and all other community members to equip children with the skills and competencies they need to succeed.
What is the impact?
This ongoing strategy has reached over 5,000 students in early childhood, primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary school since 2010. In the 2019-20 school year, according to government monitoring statistics, the graduation rate of Indigenous students increased to 92 percent, while the graduation rate for non-Indigenous students also rose to 96 percent (Graduation Rates, 2019). According to district leaders, the culture of education has shifted alongside the improvements in graduation rates. Competencies such as critical thinking, collaborating, creating, and innovating are now a household language; schools are more transparent with parent organizations, and there has been a transition from traditional rote learning to student-focused classrooms (P. Lorette, personal communication, April 21, 2021).
Roles
Staff:
- District leaders distribute a detailed initial survey asking for insights around education to Indigenous family members and Elders via Thought Stream.
- District leaders distribute surveys to district parents every three years covering a range of topics from ongoing education development to logistical matters such as school breaks.
- District leaders assemble a group of 40-50 individuals comprising principals, Indigenous Elders, and parents to develop the new education plan.
- District leaders present the education plan to parent organizations at all participating schools prior to implementation.
- District leaders establish a detailed communication plan for regular high-level information sharing to parents through videos and newsletters.
- Schools conduct professional learning workshops with teachers at participating schools to train them on aspects of the new education plan.
- District leaders and schools establish and expand upon relationships with civil society members to determine what skills are desirable for future employees.
Families:
- Parents respond to surveys the district regularly sends to share their insights about the education plan to help shape their child’s education.
- Parents join working groups about the cocreation of the district education strategy.
- Parents engage in parent action committees along with principals and Indigenous Elders.
- Parents attend district-led presentations outlining the education plan at their child’s school.
- Parents consume media such as newsletters and informational videos.
- Parents take part in various school-related activities, such as welcome videos featuring members of the Indigenous community, intended to demonstrate hospitality toward incoming Indigenous students.
Resources required
People:
- Partnerships with business and civil society leaders to identify skills students need to be successful in finding gainful employment
- A roughly 50-person committee comprising principals, Indigenous Elders, and parents
- Staffing from eight district advisory groups: Indigenous Education Council, Indigenous Education Committee, Canadian Union of Public Employees 779, Sea to Sky Teachers’ Association, District Parent Advisory Council, District Student Leadership Council, Communities That Care, and Sea to Sky Principals and Vice Principals Association
Space:
- 15 schools in the district
- Workshops and working group meetings taking place on existing school sites
Technology:
- Surveys require the Thought Stream platform and internet accessibility.
References
Graduation rates hit record highs for Sea to Sky Indigenous students. (2019, November 2). CBC News.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/graduation-rates-hit-record-highs-for-sea-to-sky-indigenous-students-1.5345406
Sea to Sky School District 48. (n.d.). District overview. https://www.sd48seatosky.org/apps/pages/districtoverview
Sea to Sky School District 48. (2014). Aboriginal education enhancement agreement: January 2014 to June 2019. https://22.files.edl.io/09b5/04/10/20/200643-688e0a45-2094-446f-9f97-c20363f162ec.pdf
Sea to Sky School District 48. (2019). School District No. 48 education plan: Pathways to learning. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dzt4Olerig7NMuK-i0R-BEFwcAtNmjdO/view?usp=sharing
For more strategies from Sea to Sky School District 48, see: