A key area of work for the 2022-2023 school year will be addressing anti-racism and equity within the division through feedback from students, families, community, and staff
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The Edmonton Public School Board approved the division’s four-year education plan during its last meeting of the school year.
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The four-year plan for 2022-2026 outlines strategic priorities for the division to support improvement in student growth and achievement. It has three priorities: build on outstanding learning opportunities for all students; advance action towards anti-racism and reconciliation, and promote a comprehensive approach to student and staff well-being and mental health.
A key area of work for the 2022-2023 school year will be addressing anti-racism and equity within the division through feedback from students, families, community, and staff, as well as the Anti-racism and Equity Advisory Committee.
Ward G trustee Saadiq Sumar asked during the meeting how student demographic data will play into the second priority of moving towards anti-racism and reconciliation.
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Supt. Darrel Robertson said one area of missing data is how students from different communities are doing in school.
“At the very basic level, I would point to student achievement, and high school completion, as two indicators of obviously the success of our students,” Robertson said. “Being able to examine that data through a multitude of lenses that will come out of the extensive demographic information will be incredibly helpful, not only for the division, but I would also say will help to form school plans ultimately as well.”
Robertson said the division will be working with the community and schools and incrementally build an understanding of how the students are doing and what data should be collected.
“And how we need to action that data to actually ultimately improve the success of our students or enhance their path to success,” he said.
Another area the division will focus on in the coming year is a focus on student and staff well-being and resilience in response to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The education plan notes that work will be informed by a resilience survey that was distributed to students in Grades 4 to 12 in 2021-2022.