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.
Quality Learning Environments
Research on Quality Learning Environments
B.C. curriculum re-design supports students in learning vital competencies
Desert Sands Community School in Ashcroft, BC is supporting the new basics and developing competencies in their students through student-driven interdisciplinary learning.
It takes a village: Engaging communities to support student success
A pilot program aimed at improving literacy skills in young children found that engaging parents, teachers, and the community helped to improve literacy and change the way that the community thought about reading.
Beyond the 3R’s: Competencies that matter
Students need more than the 3Rs to be successful in school and in life. Health, citizenship, social-emotional, and creativity competencies are the ‘survival skills’ for the 21st century.
Insights for system change
How can our public education system support students' development of competencies in creativity, citizenship, health, and social-emotional learning?
Quality learning environments: Creating conditions for learning
The learning environment has an impact on student success. To ensure that students succeed, we need to pay attention to the different ways they learn and the resources they need.
Annual Ontario school survey
Keeping track of the essential resources and programs in Ontario’s schools, and how they are affected by changes to provincial policy and funding.
Vital staff beyond teachers 2017
This is an excerpt from our annual report on Ontario's publicly funded schools. It looks at the many people who work in our schools to support student learning.
Schools as community hubs 2017
This is an excerpt from our 2017 annual report on Ontario's publicly-funded schools. It looks at community use of schools and Ontario's strategy for community hubs.
Measuring What Matters: Phase 3 progress report
This report provides an update on People for Education’s Measuring What Matters (MWM) initiative, including some of the early findings coming out of the school field trials.
Measuring What Matters: Competencies in the classroom
This report includes preliminary findings from the Measuring What Matters field trials taking place in 26 schools across 7 Ontario school boards.
Quality Learning Environments in the news.
Why Don’t We Care More About the Humans Who Work in Schools?
More than a quarter of Ontario’s schools experience teacher shortages every day, and nearly half experience daily shortages for educational assistants.
How to Drive Change in Canadian Public Education
What is a long-term, sustainable solution to the many crises facing Canada and the world today? In a new op-ed, Annie Kidder, says the answer lies in a rejuvenation of our public education system.
BC is moving to a system without letter or number grades
BC is moving to a new reporting system for kindergarten to grade 9 students which will focus on core competencies instead of letter or number grades.