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Jeff Hopkins steps down to start a Victoria independent school he hopes will spur changes in BC's public system.
Gulf Islands School District Superintendent Jeff Hopkins says his private school will catalyze public school change, but the teachers' union is raising criticism and concerns.
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BC's teachers union stands against push to make business the model for educating children.
The best homegrown example the Ministry of Education has of personalized learning is the Gulf Islands School District.
With only 1,608 students in 11 schools, Gulf Islands supports alternative models to schooling like the Saturna Island Ecological Education Centre, where nature is the classroom, or Windsor House in North Vancouver where different ages learn together and school decisions are decided through democratic means where each student, teacher and parent gets to vote.
During a visit to the Gulf Islands last June, then education minister George Abbott said the district "has championed the kind of collaborative innovation that is so important to BC's Education Plan for learning in the 21st century. The district's community partnerships and student-centred programming strengthen communities and families and provide students with unique opportunities to pursue their interests and achieve success."
But for Superintendent Jeff Hopkins, the move away from what he sees as the "industrial" schooling of segregated grades and courses to the schools of the future is happening at a snail's pace.
Instead of waiting for the slow government bureaucracy to implement education reform, Hopkins is stepping down as superintendent in order to start his own secular independent high school in Victoria.
"The reason I'm doing it is about the independent part. If I was able to do this within a public system in a way that I could invent a school, start from scratch, and have a bunch of people start with me, including parents and kids that are up for this, I would do that. But I don't think that's possible," he told The Tyee.
But Hopkins' isn't leaving right away. New superintendent Lisa Halstead won't take over until April, and until then Hopkins will continue to serve as superintendent and collect a six-figure salary. A possible conflict of interest over board funds going towards an independent school planner is one of many concerns the local teachers' union has over Hopkins' plans.
"Who's financing this, who's backing it? I'm sure he's not starting this and then throwing his own money into it. What does he intend to accomplish by doing this?" asks Jack Braak, president of the Gulf Islands Teachers' Association.
It's a familiar debate in British Columbia that has only increased since the teachers' job action last year: how much change, if any, is needed in education? And who can provide the better learning setting -- public or private schools?
But instead of the provincial teachers' union taking on the Ministry of Education, this drama is playing out in one of the province's tiniest districts, where personalized learning is something everyone can agree on, but who should be providing it is not.
Competencies trump curriculum
Hopkins' future school, named the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, doesn't have a permanent home yet, but he hopes it will be near, if not in, downtown Victoria. That means he won't be competing with his current district for students, which is crucial since he's offering a similar education package.
But while both the district and the future Pacific School put emphasis on competency-based learning, such improving critical thinking and problem solving skills, Hopkins' school will go farther by eschewing the standard curriculum of segregated classes for interdisciplinary lessons that meld the subjects like math, science, and English into one lesson.
Required provincial learning outcomes will be met, but they'll be secondary to learning objectives like self-awareness, ethical awareness, and proficiency and understanding.
"I feel like the kind of teaching that I've done that has been very effective and has engaged students well is interdisciplinary and very project-based," says Hopkins, who taught at a public high school before he became superintendent six years ago.
Hopkins acknowledges the similarities between his school's philosophy and the Ministry of Education's BC Education Plan, which promotes learning competencies by promising "curriculum will be redesigned to reflect the core competencies, skills, and knowledge that students need to succeed in the 21st century."
But the provincial reform process moves too slowly and remains too focused on core learning outcomes for Hopkins.
May McKenzie, chair of the Gulf Island School Board, credits Hopkins for changing the way the district views education, and sympathized with his frustration over the slow moving public system.
"He really influenced the whole culture and climate of our district in terms of understanding the notion of personalized and place-based learning and really fostered people with passions and visions to develop programs," she told The Tyee.
"But working in the system is hard."
Hopkins' ultimate vision, however, is for the Pacific School to shut its doors because the rest of the province has adopted his reforms.
"My hope is that I get put out of business pretty quick and that people say 'Oh, you're right, that's a very good way to do things. We're going to do that now,' and then I don't have to do it as a private school anymore," he says.
Superintendent by day, school starter by night
Hopkins' contract stipulates he must give the board six months notice before leaving his position. That means until April he'll be pulling double duty: superintendent by day, school starter by nights and weekends. All the while earning his annual $155,565.03 salary, including pension contributions.
"Basically I just don't sleep anymore," he laughs, adding The Learningstorm Education Society, his non-profit organization made up of like-minded family and friends, is doing most of the work promoting the school.
He was initially worried the board would take issues with his work on the school.
"I told them right away that if you need me to not be working (on the school), then you need to dismiss me," he says.
But McKenzie isn't concerned: "What he does after the bell rings is his own business," he told The Tyee.
Braak disagrees, saying the superintendent's job doesn't end when class is out. He cites Hopkins' publicly paid for trip to the 21st Century Learning Conference in Banff, Alberta last October where, he later told Braak, he had discussions about his dream to open a school that led to an offer of funding from an unnamed company involved in the Alberta oil sands.
"He went to a conference that the public is paying for, and he's making contacts with people that he would make as a superintendent of a public school, but it also might benefit him in the future with his private school," says Braak, adding he has yet to bring his concerns to the board.
Hopkins says the Banff conversation happened outside of conference hours, and he refused the money. The only current funding for the school is his own, and while he will accept grants it won't be from oil sands companies or corporations like Pearson Education, an international textbook supplier and owner of the province-wide B.C. electronic Student Information System (BCeSIS), which he suspects is trying to make money off of B.C.'s education system.
Public education innovative, not industrial: Braak
The Pacific School is set to open its doors in September 2013 with no more than 50 pupils at a rate of $7,000 for B.C. residents and $10,500 for international students per year.
The province will have to wait another nine months after that before the Ministry of Education is scheduled to release the BC Education Program, the document that outlines the realization of the BC Education Plan.
Braak doubts the wisdom behind launching a school that's so far beyond provincial education changes.
"As a public education system we have to be reflective; we don't want to be the pendulum that moves one way dramatically and then a few years later says, 'let's go back,'" he says.
But Hopkins doesn't want to wait. He says considering all we know about how humans learn, sticking with an old education model is unsatisfying.
"If we were going to invent the education system now, it probably wouldn't look much like the way it does now because (it) is very industrial and was built during the height of the industrial revolution," he told The Tyee.
When asked if the industrial model reflected her district, board chair McKenzie says the district is moving away from it, thanks to Hopkins' help: "We're really at the forefront of a lot of stuff that's happening around education, around the globe. He really worked hard in this district to share his vision of 21st century ideas about learning."
But Braak says calling current teaching methods the industrial model ignores much of the innovation that's been happening in schools in the past century. He says what the Gulf Islands needs is more money.
"When there's not enough money to properly fund public education, you have to do two things: you have to reduce the expenses, and you have to increase the revenues," he says.
One spending reduction is moving to a four day school week, which Braak estimates saves the district $500,000 to $600,000. Increasing revenues comes from federal and provincial grants for programs like Connecting Generations, bringing students and local seniors together, or teacher coaching initiatives to improve teaching methods.
Unlike public schools, Braak says independent schools have the luxury of choosing only the students they can afford. He prefers a public system where anyone can attend, but repeats that it needs to be properly funded.
"In a public school, by taking everybody, then you're trying to meet the individual needs of those students that come into your school, otherwise you're not successful," he says. "That takes money." ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Ed Seedhouse
31 weeks ago
The "core competencies" that
The "core competencies" that every child needs are the ability to think and reason critically for themselves, understand the difference between propaganda and evidence, and know how to learn, or even better to love learning for it's own sake.
We do not know what job specific skills may be most important by 2030, but we will always need people who can think and reason critically, and who know how, and like, to learn.
Children are born natural learning machines and yet our schools manage to drive the love of learning for it's own sake out of most of them by the time they reach grade three. And TV advertising is our most important "course" of all, effectively teaching them how to think sloppily and reason poorly so they will consume "stuff".
So I call B.S. on this "core competency" stuff. The sooner we can purge our schools, whether public or private, of this nonsense the better.
coastscape
31 weeks ago
Children are born natural learning machines...
I did not buy into any school system with my child because it looked exactly the same after 40 years! He had a great start in life with many, many other children who also came from families who believed they were already learners and curious ones at that. He excelled in every thing he chose to learn about. A teacher, by traditional definition denies the child self-will and effort, and kills their spirit. Ya, he got the math and sciences and English, and 2 extra languages, but they were not his focus. They were the result of his real interests, - robots, technology and drawing. He had lots of friends because we didn't "home school" we "community schooled", and he mingled with adults and kids of all ages at every event. No bullying here. Ed, you have it right, children are born natural learners. I know, because my son is now studying post secondary level in his dream world of interests and he knew what he wanted to do all his life. He could always talk to both adults and his friends, and he could always carry on an intelligent conversation about the world around him. He was a critical thinker when he was born. Was it easy? No. It was new to us. I had to work from home. He had many projects and I had to be flexible and open. But his day started to look a lot like mine. Planned, and purposeful and rewarding.
rantnik
31 weeks ago
GULF ISLAND SCHOOL
I went to a one room school on a gulf island in the early sixties. We had only 10 students, 2 less than the required number at the time to keep a school open. The only teacher taught grade one through grade eight and I got to help him learn the new math so that he could mark my work.
This was not an industrial school, which is truly the proper term for most public schools these days. This was a school in which we all learned our own and each others lessons, we grew together in understanding and became better people for it.
I applaud the efforts of Jeff Hopkins for his efforts in trying to regain the lost art of educating young minds.
Skywalker
31 weeks ago
Something wrong with this picture.
So a superintendent can not affect change in the system he supervises and now wants to start his own private school to make changes? I wonder what if any changes he has ever proposed?
Amor de Cosmos
31 weeks ago
Another corporate welfare bum
Don't be fooled. Hopkins is another corporate welfare bum who will ultimately be taking from B.C. students for his own personal gain.
Our current model gives a 50% public per-student subsidy to the "private" schools. In other words, a community actually loses education funding for each student that enrolls in a "private" school. This has an especially harmful effect in smaller communities.
The public education system currently allows for very flexible models of delivery. There are all sorts of multi-age and alternative public schools throughout the province. Their are public wilderness schools etc etc etc. Hopkins could set up a program of choice within the public system if he wanted.
It is in this way that the so-called "private" schools actually undermine creative public school options, especially in smaller and rural districts.
Every student who end up in one of those schools takes away funding from the public system. In many smaller regions, the result is that the public school has to close altogether.
Given the significant amount of flexibility to develop programs of choice within the public system, I find it hard to accept that Hopkins is doing this for altruism.
Selling out funding for B.C. children, one child at a time.
rantnik
31 weeks ago
@Amor
You make some very good points for the existing industrial public school system and the fact that there are systems in place that address the problems. Unfortunetly the cost of those systems prohibit the enactment of them.
Years ago the ministry of education distributed to all of the schools an innovative well designed anti bullying program. None of the schools could implement this program as the funding needed to make it work has never been made available.
Private schools do indeed undermine the funding of the public system and should not be subsidized by our public school taxes.
On the other hand since the public system is broken those who can afford to have their children educated privately rather than warehousing them for 12 years should have every right to do so.
Grade schools are not a very good environment for real education as they do not and will never educate children as they deserve. Any move toward developing an approach to education that will actually work is alright by me.
Birch
31 weeks ago
Tensions
A number of tensions characterize debates about schooling such as the one above.
1. Learning for oneself vs. learning to be part of a larger society
-true, these are not necessarily antithetical, but they can be widely divergent. Learning what you want is fun and immediately rewarding; learning what you must as in graded schools can be wearing but aims for a longer time horizon, as well as for the benefit of more than just the student.
2. Who pays vs. who benefits
-Since the advent of public education, the understanding that looking after the intellectual and social development of our young is a benefit to all in society has driven the structure of taxation-based schooling. The idea that public money be spent on private schooling is controversial. Clearly well-educated youth will be less of a drain on society in future than badly educated ones, so the argument can be made that private schools deserve some public funding. However, schools that serve and condition an elite in society also promote a somewhat anti-egalitarian view of the world that is often anti-social, not something most citizens would support.
3. Tradition vs. Novelty
-Traditions remain traditional and useful because they have long proofs of success. Novelty is needed for new solutions to new (or newly recognized) problems. It's hard to promote traditional novelty.
We could go on about this for a loooooong time...
Van Isle
31 weeks ago
I hate to tell Mr. Hopkins
I hate to tell Mr. Hopkins this but, they already have a shit load of private independent schools in the Victoria area. Education/schooling as we know it is an industry/business. I told that once to a retired university prof; she had a hissy-fit and ranted on how an education is such a wonderful thing then started babbling on about how one is so much better if they have a university degree. Education is very fine but it's the schooling systems that can create the problems. I'm amazed on how many 'educated' people I meet and they can't even think for themselves.
Skywalker
31 weeks ago
The public school system is not broken...
...that is not to say that it is doing as good a job as it could with proper funding. Amor de Cosmos is right that funding private schools with public dollars takes away from public schools. When the government brags about how much money it spends on education, they include the private school subsidy.
In every school district there are economies of scale that can be achieved by having enough students. Hive off some of the students and the very inefficiency you worry about by having too few students and too small classes because the numbers are not there, becomes a reality.
Not only do the kids in public schools lose by subsidizing private schools but they lose again because course offerings might be limited due to the number of students. That private schools do not offer the same courses required by the curriculum always escapes the proponents of private schools.
You create a two-tiered system. One is for those who can afford to pay more and another for the average person. How does that create understanding and harmony in our society?
Irish 8th
31 weeks ago
Bring it on!
There may be a shit load of schools in Victoria, as Van Isle hates to suggest to the brave Mr. Hopkins, but none are innovative, critical thinking based, secular schools. They are traditional, stick-in-the-mud old school institutions, many of which continue to dress their students like stock brokers. Still banging on IB, Round Square, and Advanced Placement drums, these schools are mired in 'Tradition' with a capital T, a bedfellow of stodginess. If my kids were still in school, I'd put them in Mr. Hopkins school in a flash. We need more people like Mr. Hopkins - Good luck and welcome to Victoria!
Trevor Ragan
31 weeks ago
Private schools are healthy for our edcuation system
There are a few faulty premises regarding private school mentioned here:
1) private schools select students based upon the belief system of the families who go there. Students are doing better overall in private schools (our graduation rate is higher than public school by about 8%), but many of our independent schools also have a higher ratio of special needs students (and our funding model for them is much more restrictive than public school). We deal with the exact same issues the public school does, without the advantage of the public education system's large infrastructure. A high number of our students come over from the public system because they were not successful there.
2) We do not take money from communities. Funding is based on a per student formula, meaning that if you have less students, you get less funding BECAUSE you require less resources and personnel. The government only pays us 50% of the student grant (and sometimes none of the special purpose education grants), the government has a set budget that has increased the student grant over the past 10 years, so to say we take money away from communities is utterly false. Really, our students are still in those communities and our teachers are from those communities. Please don't marginalize our role in the community. So if the money stays in communities, isn't the competition it gives the public school healthy?
3) Unless Hopkins is running a non-funded private school (which outside of traditional Mennonite/Hudderite and International schools, are almost non-existent), he will still have the same obligations to the BC curriculum that the majority of independent schools have. In fact, independent schools have more accountability measures in place to ensure that teachers are following the BC curriculum. Independent school education is a different ballgame in some ways, and unless you have played it before, the chances of being successful with using it to try something outside of the provinces curriculum aren't as high as people think.
Skywalker
31 weeks ago
@ Trevor
I'm glad you admit that students in private schools are SELECTED. Still you go on to say that their graduation rates are higher etc. etc. Of course they are if you are selective. When you are forced to accept everyone who comes to the door and that includes students who have been ordered by a judge that it is school or juvenile detention, when you are forced to accept students on the margins who come to school hungry, or from dysfunctional families, when you are forced to accept students with the range of special needs like FAS or ADD, then if your stats are still higher, you will have something to brag about.
It the meantime it is your premise which is faulty.
ordinaryguy
31 weeks ago
Private schools
1.Private shools take tax payers money away from the public schools. If this money was put back into the public school they wouldn't have the finacial shortfall that they have every year.
2. Public schools have to take all students, private schools don't. Hence the grad rate difference.
3. Latest study from BC universities showed that public school students in high academic courses like physics scored better than private school students at university.
4. I've had students come back to my high school from private school saying that our schooling is better.
5. All teachers follow the BC curriculum period.
G West
30 weeks ago
End all public funding of private schools
Take the 250 million plus that will free up and put it back into the public system - then do some of the innovative things that have been done in Finland - which has the best public schools in the world.
This isn't rocket science.
Terri Robson
30 weeks ago
Public vs Private
One is all inclusive the other is not. to tell us in one breath that the Public system needs more money and in the other breath take it away to start a Private sschool, this is NOT reforming the system this is just another tool to break down the Public system.the U.S. is going through this now, soon there will be no public schools if the gates foundation and the koch bros have thier way, it will all be online.
A good article on this very subject affecting the U.S. and we in Canada are not far behind.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/fraudulent-educational-reform-in-america/5308649
imagineacircle
30 weeks ago
Love the increasing choices...
I think it would be excellent if there was real evidence of the school system wanting to change, but so far I don't see much in 30 years, since studying education as an undergrad and then graduate student, and then parenting kids in school over the last 13 years. Nor do the major education critics of our culture - check out Kieren Egan, Sir Kenneth Robinson and Jonathan Kozol. We've just moved our son to a private school and could not be happier with the quality of teachers, the leadership, the critical thinking demonstrated by the school team, the attitudes of the kids there, and some sound approaches based on educational theory. They didn't seem to have many issues around "selecting" students except about whether it would be a good fit for him - he'd probably lower their standardised test scores. They were mostly concerned that we'd be involved as a family and after that how to best utilise our strengths (as opposed to the public school which responded to every offer of help by drawing our attention to the need for people to sell cookie dough and wrapping paper). While we've had great teachers and great principals, we haven't had consistency in our experience with the public school system. A great teacher could be followed by a terrible teacher and there was no reflection on how the child did better last year than this year with the new teacher... it must be his fault or our fault. I decided I'd rather work a second job to pay for this rather than deal with the kind of unthinking focus on collegiality and staff needs, rather than the needs of the children. A deciding factor for us was finding out the school's focus on supporting scholarships for families that wanted to attend but couldn't afford it. Today I talked to some folks at yet another kind of alternative school that I hadn't heard of before, that is working for about 1000 kids in the Fraser Valley. I think it is really indicative when an respected educational leader decides to leave a system for reasons he states very clearly. Perhaps it is also indicative that the teacher from the Gulf Islands Teachers Association (bctf, local 64) has so many issues with the prospect of a new kind of school that will challenge the status quo, given that he is a representative of a system that has refused to incorporate any but the most cosmetic changes. When's the last time anyone heard the teacher's union suggest that we follow the lead of Finland (just for example)? I am glad to be out of a system that seems only to batten down its hatches when anyone suggests actual innovation, and I wish Mr Hopkins equal satisfaction as he expands the borders of what's possible in education. For parents wondering about whether they should find a private or independent school - go, check them out. I only wish we'd done this sooner.
igbymac
30 weeks ago
Ed Seedhouse and Skywalker
We all create our own reality from the information we are provided with or, perhaps, sense we have been provided with. The big question remains, "Why do we think what we think?"
In that sense there is no difference between propaganda and evidence. There is information.
As Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said, "The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject."
The vast majority of people, and I am thinking well in excess of 90% of us, never ask even the most fundamental questions about our social network or the imperialism of our culture as it is passed along down the line generation after generation.
And that is my segue with Skywalkers's comment, "the public school system is not broken, ..."
It's almost completely broken if you are trying to get free-thinking, creative and ambitious individuals to emerge as a result; if your needs are -- as the industrialist, institutional-designers' were -- to set the conditions to provide a compliant workforce for your various needs then, no, it's been working quite well the last 140 years.
Lesedi
22 weeks ago
End all private school funding?
Reading the comments above, a few comments:
a) There is a difference between 'private' and 'independent'; the former are for profit (i.e. no govt funding), the latter not-for-profit (governed by the ministry of independent schools and receiving funding as indicated in b) below).
b) The funding that ind. schools receive is based on their designation: cat 1 (50% funding, mostly religious schools), cat 2 (35% - most independent schools), cat 3 (mostly alternative schools - no funding) and cat 4 (international schools - no funding).
c) The common misunderstanding over govt subsidy of independent schools needs to be clarified for once and for all - in order for public schools to accommodate the current students enrolled at independent schools would require approx. an additional $875K of funding on operating costs alone; and then you still need to add to that the capital expenses. This is why no provincial govt (social or capitalist) wants to touch it - where will the funding come from? Teachers taking a pay cut? Somehow, I don't think that will happen ...
d) Independent schools are, in a bizarre way, making public education more affordable. Before criticizing the existence of ‘private schools’, please think again of the tax implications if they were no loner to exist. Remember, ‘private school’ parents do not get a tax break for the tuition they pay; they pay their taxes (that funds the public system) AND pay tuition.
@ G’West - Rocket science? My response: “the only substitute for knowledge is silence …” You would be well-advised to follow the latter.
Lesedi
22 weeks ago
End all public funding of private schools?
Reading the comments above, a few comments:
a) There is a difference between 'private' and 'independent'; the former are for profit (i.e. no govt funding), the latter not-for-profit (governed by the ministry of independent schools and receiving funding as indicated in b) below).
b) The funding that ind. schools receive is based on their designation: cat 1 (50% funding, mostly religious schools), cat 2 (35% - most independent schools), cat 3 (mostly alternative schools - no funding) and cat 4 (international schools - no funding).
c) The common misunderstanding over govt subsidy of independent schools needs to be clarified for once and for all - in order for public schools to accommodate the current students enrolled at independent schools would require approx. an additional $875K of funding on operating costs alone; and then you still need to add to that the capital expenses. This is why no provincial govt (social or capitalist) wants to touch it - where will the funding come from? Teachers taking a pay cut? Somehow, I don't think that will happen ...
d) Independent schools are, in a bizarre way, making public education more affordable. Before criticizing the existence of ‘private schools’, please think again of the tax implications if they were no loner to exist. Remember, ‘private school’ parents do not get a tax break for the tuition they pay; they pay their taxes (that funds the public system) AND pay tuition.
@ G’West - Rocket science? My advice: “the only substitute for knowledge is silence …” You would be well-advised to follow the latter.
Lesedi
22 weeks ago
End all public funding of private schools?
Reading the comments above, a few comments:
a) There is a difference between 'private' and 'independent'; the former are for profit (i.e. no govt funding), the latter not-for-profit (governed by the ministry of independent schools and receiving funding as indicated in b) below).
b) The funding that ind. schools receive is based on their designation: cat 1 (50% funding, mostly religious schools), cat 2 (35% - most independent schools), cat 3 (mostly alternative schools - no funding) and cat 4 (international schools - no funding).
c) The common misunderstanding over govt subsidy of independent schools needs to be clarified for once and for all - in order for public schools to accommodate the current students enrolled at independent schools would require approx. an additional $875K of funding on operating costs alone; and then you still need to add to that the capital expenses. This is why no provincial govt (social or capitalist) wants to touch it - where will the funding come from? Teachers taking a pay cut? Somehow, I don't think that will happen ...
d) Independent schools are, in a bizarre way, making public education more affordable. Before criticizing the existence of ‘private schools’, please think again of the tax implications if they were no loner to exist. Remember, ‘private school’ parents do not get a tax break for the tuition they pay; they pay their taxes (that funds the public system) AND pay tuition.
@ G’West - Rocket science? My response: “the only substitute for knowledge is silence …” You would be well-advised to follow the latter.
dish65
4 days ago
Leave your class issues at the door
I am the daughter of a public education. I was passed and passed over due to a high IQ. I now know that I had a learning disability. Presented with the same difficulties in my daughter and a more progressive education system, I enrolled her in a private school that embraces her differences and has helped to give her the tools to excell. Yes it is expensive, and is exclusive. I forgo many things to provide her the opportunity to be all that she can be. Sorry for those who feel the need to bring classism to this equation. Brovo for alternative learning. question? Are you against change, did you excell in the public school system, are you satisfied being a wheel in the cog? Do you recicle, use reusable bags, buy local products, suport green energy, have a cell phone, computer?. You kids do. Progress is for the leaders. Embrace this change, or soon your children will be the followers. Pubic education is flawed and the more we support change the faster your children will be given the ability to escape the class system of our antiquated education allows. Be a part of the solution, embrace this and bring it to everyone. If it fails you have lost nothing, if it succeds you can fight to make it your childrens right.