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With Our Best Future in Mind

With Our Best Future in Mind. A FEW LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE NORTH: ONTARIO’S QUEST FOR A TRUE SYSTEM OF LIFELONG LEARNING. EIGHT YEAR CONTEXT. . GOVERNMENT INHERITED A LOW MORALE, FISCALLY DECIMATED SYSTEM; . FIRST FOUR YEARS DEDICATED TO BUILDING

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With Our Best Future in Mind

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  1. With Our Best Future in Mind A FEW LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE NORTH: ONTARIO’S QUEST FOR A TRUE SYSTEM OF LIFELONG LEARNING

  2. EIGHT YEAR CONTEXT . GOVERNMENT INHERITED A LOW MORALE, FISCALLY DECIMATED SYSTEM; . FIRST FOUR YEARS DEDICATED TO BUILDING SUPPORT AND IMPLEMENTING QUALITY INTIATIVES, REDUCING CLASS SIZES AND SUPPORTING SCHOOL- BASED CHANGE STRATEGIES;

  3. RESULTS TO DATE? . LITERACY,NUMERACY, HIGHER ORDER CAPACITY IS UP OVER 15% ACROSS 4,000 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS . GAP FOR DISADVANTAGED KIDS GETTING SMALLER . OVERALL, 80,000 MORE STUDENTS ACHIEVING HIGH LEVELS OF PROFICIENCY . IN OUR 900 HIGH SCHOOLS? GRADUATION RATES HAVE GONE FROM 68% TO 81% (72,000 MORE STUDENTS GRADUATING) .

  4. NOT GOOD ENOUGH… WITH 28% OF KIDS SHOWING UP IN FIRST GRADE VULNERABLE AND SIGNIFICANTLY BEHIND THEIR PEERS….. …SECOND FOUR YEAR TERM DEDICATED TO INTRODUCING UNIVERSAL FULL DAY LEARNING FOR FOUR AND FIVE YEAR OLDS…. …AND DEVELOPING CHILD AND FAMILY CENTRES AS A VEHICLE FOR ACHIEVING TOTALLY INTEGRATED CHILDREN’S SERVICES NEXT FOUR YEARS? IF ELECTED, SPECIAL PSE INITIATIVES

  5. Starting Point: Service fragmentation & chaos Education Health/Health Promotion Children & Youth Four School Boards Public health CMSMs DSSABS Community services Parks & recreation Early intervention Family Supports Healthy Babies Recreation Parenting centres Preschools Schools After school Children’s mental health centres Child care 5

  6. 4 5 Pre-natal – 12 years: a unique period in human development Emergent learning Emotional & social foundation Nutrition/Attachment/ rapid brain growth More formal learning/problem solving/higher order cognitive -9 Mths Birth 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 6 6 6

  7. Ontario’s Plan: An Enemy of the Status Quo For 28% of children showing up in 1st grade significantly behind their peers; For families yearning balance while trying to navigate a fragmented non-system in search of supports for a special needs child; For the single mother of three wanting access to recreation, music/art/cultural opportunities; For front-line service workers working with the confusion of fragmented policy making; For the taxpayer for whom investment in early learning is the economic stimulus that keeps on giving!

  8. Ontario’s EL program: North America’s 1st all-day, extended day/extended year for 4& 5 year olds

  9. Child and Family Centres (CFCs) -Moving from fragmented services for children and families to a children and family service system; - Prenatal to 3.8 years+

  10. Continuum of Change Better outcomes Integration Coordination & Collaboration Communication Co-existence Adapted from Toronto First Duty Indicators of Change, 2005 11 11 11

  11. Co-Existence 12 12 12

  12. Communication 13 13 13

  13. Coordination and Collaboration 14 14 14

  14. Integration • Do fewer things better instead of more things less well…… • Serve and/or broker 15 15 15

  15. Vision for Child & Family Centres • Every neighbourhood shall have access to a Centre that offers a virtual “NO WRONG DOOR” service system & supports for children and families. • Services will be comprehensive, developmentally enriched, of high quality and reflect the unique needs of individual families and neighbourhoods and local and regional characteristics 16

  16. Embracing Diversity (anti-oppression training, adapting to individual differences) Early Childhood Development Knowledge and Skills Reflective Practice Engaging Parents (parent/provider reciprocity) Use of Evidence (documenting progress) 17

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  18. Evidence-based decisions • A comprehensive research and evaluation program must be embedded in provincial framework. An outcomes approach is key • How is my child doing? • How is the family doing? • How is the program doing? • How is the system doing working? • How is the community doing? • What’s the societal impact? 19

  19. A Few Lessons About Positive Change - Catch people and organizations doing things right….then shine a light on them! - Do fewer things better rather than all things less well! - Overcome hardening of the categories! - -- P

  20. Lessons continued: -Overcome short-termism -Improvement is the enemy of real change -Critical importance of evidence-based story-telling -Embrace visionary “incrementalism” -Carefully define partnerships -

  21. Lessons continued: • The power of the demo • The loveliness of the “draft” • Feedback is the breakfast of champions • Lead through relationships • The process is the product • Follow the lead of those who can handle • risk

  22. LESSONS…. -Quality trumps speed…but don’t take too long -Avoid the tyranny of packaged programs -Don’t leave your biases in the cloak room -Avoid distractions, eschew the unimportant -What is right is more important than who is right

  23. The wonderful dance of research, practice & policy Research Communications Policy Practice

  24. Keep the conversation going….. CHARLES E. PASCAL EARLY LEARNING ADVISOR TO THE PREMIER OF ONTARIO Charles.Pascal@utoronto.cA 25 25 25

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