When the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care completed its evaluation of SelfDesign® Learning Community’s programs and processes this winter, the school received five commendations for how we approach education and support our learners, educators and community.
“With this confirmation that we meet all requirements, SelfDesign continues operating as a recognized, provincially partially funded Group 1 Independent School in British Columbia,” says SelfDesign Learning Community Principal Catherine Dinim. Like all B.C. independent schools, SelfDesign must meet rigorous requirements under British Columbia legislation, and engage in external evaluation, in order to continue operating.
Learning approach and resources, educator support, and the Brightspace transition recognized
The evaluation team was made up of administrators and educators from other schools who are oriented to the Ministry of Education External Evaluation by Committee procedures. They commended SelfDesign on how we plan and assess how our learners’ learn, support them as they connect their ideas and experience to their goals and actions, while ensuring we provide diverse learning opportunities to include all learners.
They also praised our educator-onboarding, mentoring, and support processes, which ensure all of our educators have the support they need to best carry out their work to serve learners.
Our Learning Experiences Library and our organizational structure also received positive mentions, as did our recent transition to the Brightspace learning platform.
“I’m really proud of this,” Catherine says. “Thanks to all our hard work last year and all the people who came together to support the transition and test the configuration and training materials, the platform is serving us really well. We’ll be doing very minor, mostly cosmetic tweaks for next year.”
Praise for grade 10 Math offering and approach
The evaluators also commended SelfDesign for offering Workplace Math 10 as an entry course into high school–level Mathematics.
“This course provides a solid foundation for students going into the provincial Numeracy assessment and alleviates any student anxiety around secondary math courses,” the inspectors wrote in their summary report. “The school’s semester system allows for seamless transition into other math courses once Workplace Math 10 is complete.”
All learners enrolled in grade 10 with SelfDesign take this course in their first semester, learning about budgeting, interest rates, and other basic life math concepts and skills. When learners write the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care Grade 10 Numeracy Assessment in January or April of that learning year, what they learned is still relatively fresh.
“Workplace Math 10 covers the lifelong math skills that all learners need, and that the assessment looks at,” Catherine says. The Grade 10 assessment is one of three provincial assessments that learners across B.C. must take if they wish to finish grade 12 with a BC Dogwood Certificate.
Catherine says the course sets learners up for success in other ways, too.
“The learners who want to do the more abstract math option — Foundations of Math and Pre-calculus 10 — can take that in the spring,” Catherine says. “This way, learners who are keen on math have a full year of Maths, without a big gap. The first-semester requirement for Workplace Math also allows us to do some assessment of their skills and gives learners a more informed sense of ‘Yes, I like the format; yes, I like the math; yes, I’m going to take Foundations Math.’”
As a result, the school’s success rate in Foundations Math has skyrocketed.
“Since we started requiring Workplace Math in the fall of grade 10, we have far fewer kids withdrawing from Foundations of Math and Pre-Calculus because they feel they’re over their heads,” Catherine says.
“Workplace Math 10 and how we offer it is unique, “ she says. “We think it’s a great offering, but it’s super cool that the inspectors, who are educators and school leaders, got really excited about it, too.”
Next year
In September, SelfDesign begins operating as an independent Provincial Online Learning School (POLS). Under the new approach to online learning in B.C., all POLS — not just those that are independent — will see annual evaluations, reviews and assessments.
Catherine says SelfDesign’s Principals Team doesn’t foresee major changes for SelfDeign under the Province’s new Accountability and Quality Assurance Framework for the newly designated schools.
“Inspections will still be part of the framework we will be working under,” she says, “but there may be some additional requirements, specifically around continuous improvement. SelfDesign already has a strong commitment to using data and feedback to improve our offerings.”
Read about some of our other Math offerings
Learn more about our Learning Experiences Library
Read about our successful transition to the Brightspace learning management platform
