School board faces heat over review

Board requests outside consultant as parents criticize French immersion program probe

WATERLOO REGION — Some parents are calling on the public school board to probe how the popular French immersion program imbalances classrooms, divides schools and creates twotier education.

They’re not persuaded the board wants the answers, based on its 22-page request for an outside consultant.

“I think the board missed the point. The probes seem focused on the quality of the French immersion program rather than the performance disparity between the French and the English program,” said Laura Middleton, who must decide where to place her two children when they reach Grade 1.

“They seem to have little to no consultation with the parents, children, and teachers of the English program under the scope of work, which seems a pressing need.”

French immersion is a voluntary program that teaches children in French for half their school day. It draws more than one in four Grade 1 students. More than 8,000 students are currently enrolled.

The program, which loses two-thirds of its students by high school, has drawn criticism and praise from inside and outside its ranks, and is creating staffing and planning challenges for the Waterloo Region District School Board.

The board wants a consultant to engage with families and provide a vision for the program. Issues the consultant is asked to review include registration, entry points, dropouts, transportation, teacher recruitment and “equitable access to (the) program for each and every student.”

The bid document does not explicitly address concerns that the immersion program disadvantages others by segregating high achievers and by overwhelming regular classrooms with needier children.

However, it does ask the consultant to explore “substitutes for the program such as enhancements to core French Language instruction” that is provided in regular classrooms.

The board’s request for a consultant closes Nov. 7. The review is to begin in December and conclude next summer or later, at an estimated cost of up to $150,000.

“We think that being preoccupied with French immersion misses the point insofar as it is core French where students and teachers face the real challenges,” said Jorg Broschek, whose son is enrolled in immersion.

He’s unsettled by divisions created in his son’s school where French immersion classrooms significantly outperform regular classrooms in standardized tests in reading, writing and math.

“If one seeks to close the performance gap between French immersion and core French, then a review should inquire into the conditions that can enable core French teachers and students to catch up, rather than the other way around,” Broschek said.

Heather Henderson wants the board to dive deeper into test results and achievement gaps, to better understand the “differential day-to-day treatment students (and families) are receiving within schools.”

“And while this is a commissioned study on the French immersion program, I would like to see an equal amount of money and thought being put into ways to promote and enhance the English stream,” said Henderson, whose daughter is not in immersion.

Education superintendent Bill Lemon asserts the review will look into test scores, achievement gaps, and impacts on students in regular classrooms, even though the bid document does not explicitly state this.

“We are given more than enough latitude to explore that,” he said, citing trustee wishes and broad language in the bid document. “I am saying emphatically yes.”

Anne Hunsberger, whose children are not in immersion, lists 20 questions she wants answered including concerns around elitism.

The board should revise its consultant bid because the proposal is “woefully inadequate,” she said.