“...teachers indicated
that, on occasion, they had to phone in sick in order to complete their report
cards on time and they acknowledged that others did so as well.”[i] In
2010 the Manitoba government announced the development of a provincial report
card that would standardize assessment reporting across the province using both
a parent-friendly format and plain language.[ii] While
provisions were put in place to gain meaningful feedback from teachers,
parents, and administrators before the mandatory implementation in the fall of
2013, an unstandardized execution has left many Manitoba teachers feeling the
pressure.
In a 2014 survey
conducted by the Manitoba Teachers’ Society sixty-five percent, of a total
eight-hundred survey participants, shared that they spent more than ten hours
writing detailed comments for the new Provincial Report Card and forty-two
percent shared that they prepare report cards for more than one-hundred
students.[iii]
Furthermore, “too many job demands” topped the list of sources of stress for
Manitoba teachers; up four percent, to sixteen, since 2004.[iv] I
argue that a mandate like the Provincial Report Card needs to be implemented effectively and efficiently in a manner that allows assessment reporting to shift
towards a more standardized template while providing educators with sufficient
support to allow a continuous transition.
When introducing the Provincial Report Card mandate school divisions
were forced to address the logistics of appropriate training, the technology
utilized to generate their gradebooks, and continued support for staff, among
other matters. Sufficient training, however, appears different depending on
which school division or even which school a teacher works in. According to the
survey mentioned previously, completed by the Manitoba Teacher’s Society, only
thirty-nine percent of teachers received division-wide training from a Manitoba
Education representative and sixteen percent of teachers received no training
at all.[v]
The remaining fifty-five percent received training in various formats including
sessions hosted by their administration and independent-training from Manitoba
Education support documents.[vi]
When addressing technology the issue is not any more standardized as school
divisions across the province are using software such as Edline, Power School,
and Maplewood, or developing their own personalized systems to develop their
gradebooks. As each platform offers its own unique formatting options and
features, divisions have been forced to work independently to support the
various glitches that can occur with any technology system. With the shear
amount of time the reporting process can take, teachers have felt pressured to
do multiple-copies of their documents to work around some of the programming
problems, “I have had the program freeze mid-reporting. Crash and delete all my
records and then have to re-write all my reports (I’ve since been writing them
in Word and saving the file – just in case).”[vii]
With one year of mandatory implementation under their belts, teachers and
divisions are still seeking continued support as the November report card
period is on the horizon.
As a new teacher, who entered into the profession in the same year as
the introduction of the Provincial Report Cards, I have felt the frustrations
of insufficient training and unreliable technology. Is Maplewood transferring
my records onto the report card correctly? Should I spend the extra time
writing and saving my records in a word document incase the program crashes? Is
this comment appropriate and free of any superlatives? What about my next
eighty comments? While the template of the Provincial Report Card is
standardized the uniformity has stopped there and, unfortunately, this leaves
teachers and divisions to address how to meet the unique needs of their
situation.
[i] Dr.
David Dibbon. (2004). “It’s About Time – A Report on the Impact of Workload on
Teachers and Students”. Page 18. Available online at: https://www.mun.ca/educ/people/faculty/ddibbon/pdf/teacher%20workload%20final%20version.pdf
[ii] Manitoba
Education. (2010). “News Release: Premier Unveils Innovative Changes To Report
Cards, In-Service Days”. Available online at: http://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?archive=2010-9-01&item=9642
[iii] Judy
Edmund- Manitoba Teachers’ Society. (2013). “Wild Cards: Many Teachers Feel
Lost In The Shuffle”. The Manitoba
Teacher. Canada. Volume 92. Number 7. Pages 13-14. Available online at: http://www.mbteach.org/library/Archives/MBTeacher/June14_MBT.pdf
[iv] Judy
Edmund- Manitoba Teachers’ Society. (2013). “Stress Tops Class Size Concern”. The Manitoba Teacher. Canada. Volume 92.
Number 4. Page 7. Available online at: http://www.mbteach.org/library/Archives/MBTeacher/Jan-Feb14_MBT.pdf
[v] Judy
Edmund- Manitoba Teachers’ Society. (2013). “Wild Cards: Many Teachers Feel
Lost In The Shuffle”. The Manitoba
Teacher. Canada. Volume 92. Number 7. Page 12. Available online at: http://www.mbteach.org/library/Archives/MBTeacher/June14_MBT.pdf
[vi] lbid.
[vii] Judy
Edmund- Manitoba Teachers’ Society. (2013). “Wild Cards: Many Teachers Feel
Lost In The Shuffle”. The Manitoba
Teacher. Canada. Volume 92. Number 7. Page 13. Available online at: http://www.mbteach.org/library/Archives/MBTeacher/June14_MBT.pdf