Education in Alberta

For many years the provincial government has provided the greater part of the cost of providing K–12 education. Prior to 1994 public and separate school authorities in Alberta had the legislative authority to levy a local tax on property, as supplementary support for local education. In 1994 the government of the province eliminated this right for public school authorities, but not for separate school authorities. Since 1994 there has continued to be a tax on property in support of K–12 education; the difference is that the mill rate is now set by the provincial government, the money is collected by the local municipal authority and remitted to the provincial government. The relevant legislation requires that all the money raised by this property tax must go to the support of K–12 education provided by school authorities. The provincial government pools the property tax funds from across the province and distributes them, according to a formula, to public and separate school jurisdictions and Francophone authorities.

In addition to the property tax collected, the provincial government allocates money each year from the General Revenue Fund, for the support of K–12 public and separate school education. In the case of the money drawn from the General Revenue Fund, it is also used to provide full financial support for charter schools, a type of privately-operated but publicly-funded school that does not charge tuition (and receives the same funding per student that a public district school would receive). Private schools and homeschooling receive some funding, but parents will pay a substantial portion of the cost.

Since 1994 all school authorities with a civil electorate (public, separate, Francophone) are funded almost entirely by the provincial government. School authorities may, and many do, allow the school administration to levy fees for art supplies, textbook rentals, and transportation. There is, however, an appeals process which families can undertake who cannot afford the fees.[18]

The school authorities are governed by trustees who are elected by the electorate of the authority. The school authorities may then appoint a superintendent who will then manage day-to-day operations of the authority while the board focuses on the organization of the system.[19] In some cases where private schools are their essentially their own school authority they do not appoint a superintendent. Schools then operate under the management of the school authority.

Students in Alberta have their courses mandated but normally after each section of schooling they are given more freedom in what they can choose to take. Then starting in high school most courses begin to be labeled with a dash, for example "Math 20-1", where "-1" is the highest level followed by "-2", etc. Courses are also labeled with a 10, 20, 30, or in some cases 31. 10, the lowest, is generally taken in grade 10 followed by 20 taken in grade 11 and so on. However, there is no rule stating that one cannot take, for example, math 20-1 in grade 10, assuming one has the prerequisites.[20] All of the available courses can be accessed here.

Under the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, the government adopted a discovery/inquiry based curriculum for the 2008-2009 school year, which has been heavily criticized since then by people citing declining PISA scores.[21]

On June 15, 2016, the NDP government announced that "Alberta Education would begin to develop new curriculum... unlike any seen in Alberta" from K–12 within six years.[22]

In 1993 Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories ministers for education signed the Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education (WCP). In February 2000, Nunavut also joined NWCP. Its main goal is to create frameworks with learning outcomes in mathematics, language arts and international languages.[23] In 2014 the agreement was placed in abeyance. Therefore, the WNCP is no longer developing curriculum frameworks.[24]

The City of Lloydminster straddles the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, and both the public and separate school systems in that city are counted in the above numbers: both of them operate according to Saskatchewan law.

Current issues for K–12 education in Alberta include, but are not limited to:

1. grade inflation;[25]
2. the balance of power between school boards and the education ministry;
3. public school funding;
4. private school funding;[26]
5. the manner in which the curriculum is taught, such as discovery learning, personalized learning and reform mathematics;[27][28]
6. LGBT sex education;
7. class sizes;

The Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) was an Alberta government initiative which sought to "improve student learning and performance by fostering initiatives that reflect the unique needs and circumstances of each school authority."[29]

Funding for AISI was suspended as part of the 2013 Alberta Budget.[30]

This was enacted in 2009 by the then Minister of Education of Alberta, Canada, David Hancock and Alberta Education to encourage discussion relating to building a long-term education framework focusing on values, goals, and processes.

Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) are exams taken in grades 6 and 9 by almost all students of the province in the subject areas of mathematics, sciences, language arts, and social studies. The exams are administered in both French and English.[31]

Diploma examinations, or "diplomas" in colloquial use, are exams taken in 30-level courses (Grade 12 courses), these include: English Language Arts 30-1 and 30-2 Mathematics 30-1 and 30-2, Biology 30, Chemistry 30, Physics 30, Science 30, Social Studies 30-1 and 30-2.[32] They are administered in both French and English.[33] The diploma examinations are worth 30% of a student's final grade as of 2015, before which the exams were weighted as 50% of a student's grade.[34] Alberta is unique among the provinces in that it requires these exams.

Alberta works, like many Canadian provinces, with national, international, and interprovincial organizations.

The Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA's, is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading. Canada takes part in the studies and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada releases reports stating the individual provinces scores. Reports can be found here. While Alberta used to have some of the highest scores in the world its scores have since been steadily decreasing.[35] Critics like the Alberta Teachers' Association says that the tests are unfair as they do not highlight other strengths and that other countries teach to the test while Albertan teachers are required to teach the curriculum.[36]