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COVID-19 Updates: Taking steps to return to normal.
The Alberta government continues to move on initiatives to help ensure success for high school students and teachers.
Alberta’s future prosperity rests on our ability to generate a well-educated workforce that is responsive to change. Among the key priorities of the provincial education system is to ensure all of our students are successful — both in school, work, and life.
High School programming in Alberta focuses on three outcomes:
Ensuring a focus on student-centred learning happens when high schools put in place a number of key foundational principles.
All foundational principles are interconnected. To meet the needs of their school communities high schools may need to focus on one or more.
Mastery learning is an instructional strategy that results in a comprehensive grasp of measurable outcomes.
Key understandings include the following:
Rigor and relevance challenges students to apply what they have learned to solving complex real world problems. Students have opportunities to link disciplinary concepts and understandings to authentic situations when this is applied.
Key understandings include the following:
Personalization differentiates instruction to meet the diverse needs and interests of all students.
Key understandings include the following:
Flexible learning environments support the idea that learning occurs in a variety of settings both within and beyond the walls of the classroom.
Key understandings include the following:
Educator roles and professional development provides ongoing support for the role of the teacher as guide, coach, and career mentor.
Key understandings include the following:
Teachers and students develop relationships built on trust and healthy interaction.
Key understandings include the following:
Positive home partnerships build learning opportunity outside the classroom and allow stakeholders to discuss issues and solutions.
Key understandings include the following:
Assessing student learning involves four components including setting clear expectations for all learners, using formative assessments to provide students with timely feedback to move learning forward, using summative assessments to analyze performance in relation to learning outcomes, and reporting assessment of learning.
Key understandings include the following:
Fostering diversity as well as respect supports an inclusive school culture where students feel cared for and connected to the community. It contributes to and sustains a healthy learning environment.
Key understandings include the following:
Schools have implemented strategies and foundational practices aimed at transforming the high school experience for students and teachers through changes to one or more of these areas.
Organization that allows learning to occur under a variety of circumstances and conditions including flexible schedules, year-round calendars, modified timetables and varied instructional settings.
Student voice, student engagement, welcoming, caring and respectful learning environments that respect the shared values and beliefs of all stakeholders.
Includes current and comprehensive planning, instruction and assessment practices that meet the needs of all learners.
Has a key role in leading instructional learning, informing school policies and fostering collaboration and effective relationships with community partners.
To assist Alberta school authorities in successfully increasing their high school completion rates, Alberta Education designed the High School Completion (HSC) Strategic Framework around five areas for action:
Monitoring student, school, and school authority data is at the core of the early identification of trends and factors that may contribute to a student not completing high school.
Students are more engaged when they have opportunities for input into their learning and the life of the school.
Transition planning is multi-faceted and is required for events that result in changes to relationships, routines, and expectations or roles.
Collaborative partnerships are an essential component in supporting successful high school completion.
Must be created and maintained between the school staff, student and their family for students to experience success.
Alberta’s High School Completion Strategic Framework addresses the challenges students face in finishing high school and helps ensure all students are given the opportunity to succeed.
Connect with Alberta Education for more information about high school programming:
Phone: 780-427-6272
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
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