Citizenship education develops students’ capacity to value different perspectives. It builds their sense of agency and supports them to become responsible, active citizens.

Fostering creativity develops resilience, resourcefulness, and confidence, and is positively linked to engagement, achievement, and innovation.

Health education provides students with the self-regulatory skills and competencies they need to make healthy decisions and engage in health promoting behaviours.

Social-emotional learning develops students’ capacity for self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making.

The physical and social environment of the school, its connections to the community, and the range of opportunities provided, are key to the development of the skills and competencies students need for long-term success.

The Measuring What Matters Advisory Committee is made up of individuals representing leading organizations and institutions in fields relevant to the Measuring What Matters project. The committee’s role is to:

• Provide guidance on process design (which combines research, stakeholder engagement and public communication);
• Offer input into the results of each phase of work;
• Generate ideas for stakeholder groups to be included in outreach and engagement about the project; and
• Help communicate the project goals within their own networks.

See the list of Advisory Committee members.

Experts in each of the domain areas have been recruited to articulate the domains and their importance in terms of student success, and to develop a set of competencies, skills and learning conditions for their domain:

Citizenship: Alan Sears

Dr. Alan Sears is a Professor of Social Studies Education in the Faculty of Education at UNB. He has been an educator for almost 40 years working at all levels from primary to graduate school. Alan’s research and writing have been in the fields of social studies, citizenship education, and history education.  He has led several national studies of citizenship education in Canada and has authored or coauthored more than 50 articles and book chapters and as well as authoring and editing both academic books and school textbooks.  Alan is currently editor of the journal Citizenship Teaching and Learning. 

Creativity: Rena Upitis

Dr. Rena Upitis (Ed.D., Harvard) is a Professor of Education at Queen’s University. She also has degrees in Psychology and Law, and advanced diplomas in piano and vocal performance, as well as a diploma in Architectural Technology (2006). Rena is a former Dean of Education at Queen’s University (1995–2000). Many of Rena’s research and curriculum projects have explored teacher, artist, and student transformation through the arts.  In 2012 she was awarded the Prize for Research Excellence from Queen’s University. She has authored or co-authored seven books and has published over 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Health: Bruce Ferguson

Dr. Bruce Ferguson is a Senior Consultant and the founding Director of the Community Health Systems Resource Group at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). He is an advocate for children and youth, particularly those marginalized by race, poverty, gender, region or ethnicity. He was a member of the Minister’s Advisory Group on Mental Health and Addictions Strategy which led to Open Minds, Healthy Minds, the Ontario initiative in child and youth mental health. Dr. Ferguson currently sits on the MCYS Expert Panel on System Transformation, co-chairs the EDU Expert Panel on Accepting Schools and participates in School Mental Health ASSIST.

Social-emotional learning: Dr. Stuart Shanker

Dr. Stuart Shanker is a Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at York University and the CEO of the MEHRIT Centre, Ltd.. One of his many books, “Calm, Alert and Learning: Classroom Strategies for Self-Regulation (2012)”, is a top selling educational publication in Canada. His latest book, Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage With Life, published in June 2016, has garnered enthusiastic reviews and media attention throughout North America and has also been published in the UK, South Korea, The Netherlands and Germany with further translations and foreign editions in the works. Over the past decade, Dr. Shanker has served as an advisor on early child development to government organizations across Canada and the United States, and in countries around the world. He is also assisting schools and school boards across Canada with self-regulation initiatives based on Self-Reg, Dr. Shanker’s five-step model for understanding and managing stress in children, youth and adults.

Quality learning environments: Nina Bascia

Dr. Nina Bascia is Professor and Director of the Collaborative Educational Policy Program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).  She is a leading scholar of educational policy as it intersects with schools as organizations, and particularly with teachers’ work. Her  research emphasizes educational policy analysis and program evaluation; organizational and social context of teaching and administration; and teacher leadership and development, teacher unions and professional associations. She is the author of eight books and numerous articles focusing on how policies and school organizations shape teachers’ work.

Dr. Michelle Boucher, University of Ottawa, examined the connections between initiatives undertaken in the French-language education system in a minority setting in Canada, particularly in Ontario, and the five domains in People for Education’s Measuring What Matters initiative.

Read her paper, Measuring What Matters: Focus on the French-language school.

Dr. Pamela Toulouse,  Laurentian University, explored an Indigenous approach to the Measuring What Matters initiative, drawing out the research, concepts and themes from Measuring What Matters that align with Indigenous determinants of educational success.

Read her paper, What Matters in Indigenous Education: Implementing a Vision Committed to Holism, Diversity and Engagement.

Field testing in classrooms and schools is a key element of the Measuring What Matters initiative.  Through these field trials, the competencies and conditions identified in the project are directly grounded in teacher, student, and school experience.

We are working with teachers and principals, as well as researchers, curriculum and program consultants, and senior school board leadership in the field trials. Over 80 educators in 26 publicly funded schools across seven Ontario school boards are involved in the field trials.

We are partnering with several government and non-government organizations, both in Canada and internationally, that are exploring broader areas of learning and the potential for broadening the goals and measures of public education:

• Ontario’s Ministries of Education and Children and Youth Services
• J.W. McConnell Family Foundation’s WellAhead initiative
• Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
• UNESCO/Brookings Institution International Learning Metrics Task Force
• LEGO Foundation’s Skills for a Changing World