Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced Wednesday that new curricula for fine arts, science and French will not be mandatory in some elementary schools until the fall of 2023, and social studies have been postponed to the fall of 2024. There is still no schedule for the new curriculum that will reach the classes of the Gymnasium or Lyceum. LaGrange reiterated Wednesday that the government will promote new K-3 math and arts curricula this fall. All K-6 teachers will also have to deliver a new physics and wellness curriculum. “These three courses in Alberta’s new K-6 curriculum are crucial starting points that will set students on the best path to success,” LaGrange told a news conference at High Level, 740 km north of Edmonton. Under construction for more than a decade, Alberta’s curriculum has been a political football since Prime Minister Jason Kenne accused the former NDP government of developing a new curriculum that could smuggle socialist ideology into schools. The first drafts of the K-6 curriculum reviewed by advisers hired by the United Conservative government were viewed by parents and educators as age- and developmentally unfit, focused on memorization versus understanding, favoring European and Christian views and are not supported by modern research on how children learn. Critics also pointed to plagiarism and inaccuracies in the drafts. Most school departments refused to try it out on a pilot basis. The government said it took into account comments from the public, teachers and other experts when updating the new math, English and wellness curricula. The basic information provided by the government states that some mathematics and English subjects were promoted to different levels to make the curriculum more developmentally appropriate. He says the range of issues is now in line with government curricula in some high-performing areas, such as Singapore, Massachusetts and Estonia. Richelle Marynowski, an assistant professor of education at the University of Lethbridge and a specialist in preparing teachers to teach mathematics, said the new curriculum included about half of the improvements she wanted to see. The language in the curriculum is more in line with the terminology used by teachers in Alberta, he said.

The curriculum review process was “open and transparent,” says the education minister

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange says the new curriculum will put students on the right track. LaGrange says the government has worked with many stakeholders and heard many comments about the new curriculum and three courses are ready to be taught in the classroom this fall. However, opposition critic Sarah Hoffman said the response from most Alberts was that the curriculum was not ready. 2:37
However, he has persistent questions about how teachers will cover so much material in one school year. Some expectations may still be inappropriate for age, he said. She was also disappointed to see the province choose Jump Math as the primary resource for teaching children. He says the software is very narrowly focused and regulatory for teachers. Marynowski sees elementary school teachers, who cover most or all of the lessons in a class, struggling with the magnitude of the change that comes immediately. “This is going to be a difficult year for teachers,” he said. The Ministry of Education’s business plan states that the government will adopt new 1st and 2nd grade tests in language and math to “help assess progress in the critical first years”. However, government officials had no information on Wednesday whether new standard tests were to be carried out. Alberta schools and school districts will receive nearly $ 38 million this year for professional development to prepare teachers to deliver new material and purchase resources such as textbooks, software and other materials. It will be up to each school or department to determine how to prepare its staff. With most out-of-class teachers for July and August, the mid-April edition leaves schools with little time to prepare their staff, said Alberta Teachers Association president Jason Schilling. “This is a big dramatic change from a concept-based curriculum to a knowledge-based curriculum,” he said. “It’s a completely different style of teaching.” NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman has renewed her promise to scrap UCP drafts completely if her party forms a government in the next general election. “The overwhelming feedback over the last year is that this curriculum is horrible,” he said.