According to this CBC report, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s staff is recommending to remove the “Alternative” designation from its programs.
This is a danger we also face in the Toronto District School Board, where there are staff that would rather homogenize programming, under the misguided notion that equity means sameness. Our ASAC rep has reported in the past that some staff presentations suggested that “alternative” should be a program, an aspect of a school, as opposed to the school being a separate entity.
Let’s hope the Ottawa board doesn’t follow through on its staff recommendations. The principles outlined in the article are interesting — in particular, the on-going, multi-faceted assessment process is worth a thought.