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View the AISI Annual Reports
Review our previous projects. (AISI Cycle II)
 In the years 2007-2010, Edmonton Catholic Schools will operate six AISI projects as approved by Alberta Education. Collectively, these projects are representative of the elements of district Goal Two: High Levels of Student Learning, as stated in the District Plan for Continuous Growth.
For more information about these projects, please contact Don Delaney at either
phone: 780-989-3017
or email: delaneyd@ecsd.net.
 Grades 1-9 Literacy Project (Alberta Education number 30052)
Pathways to Learning Through Formative Assessment (Alberta Education number 30053)
Primary Mathematical Literacy (Alberta Education number 30054)
Wellness Works (Alberta Education number 30055)
ESL Access to Academic English (Alberta Education number 30057)
Students in Transition Supports (Alberta Education number 30056)
1. Grades 1-9 Literacy Project (Alberta Education number 30052)
Grade Divisions Targeted: Div II, III
Number of Schools Served: 63
Number of students potentially served: 19,000
Total 3 year project budget: $7,048,318
This project will extend the key learnings of the successful Reading Intervention and Balanced Literacy initiatives, as well as further incorporate current research to implement best practices in reading and writing grades 1-9. It will cultivate and "grow" successful intervention strategies into the Grades 4 to 9 levels in the Elementary and Elementary-Junior High Schools and maintain those strategies in grades 1-3. This AISI project will fill a gap in school programming for at risk students who have fallen between the cracks earlier in their schooling for any number of reasons. Differentiating literacy strategies across all content areas will also be addressed. This project will help all students succeed and will address high school completion concerns. Schools will be required to submit action research projects that demonstrate student learning using pre, post, and ongoing assessment data and program differentiation strategies.
An additional action research grant will also be available to 5 schools that have a large percentage of struggling readers in their population.
2. Pathways to Learning Through Formative Assessment (Alberta Education number 30053)
Grade Divisions Targeted: Div III, IV
Number of Schools Served: 32
Number of students potentially served: 12,000
Total 3 year project budget: $750,000
The overall goals of this project is to improve grade 7-12 student learning and achievement in math and science As a district, we have implemented summative assessments in Mathematics 10 Pure and Applied, Mathematics 20 Pure and Applied, Chemistry 20, Biology 20, and Physics 20 through AISI Cycle II. Looking towards the new AISI cycle we hope to continue to increase achievement gains through the use of authentic learning tasks and formative assessment strategies in Math and Science classrooms.
Underlying the focus of classroom formative assessment is the belief that the role of education is to develop critical thinking, reasoning, and higher mental activities. Learning occurs when the learner is engaged in critical thought and making connections with applied knowledge. This assessment project would focus on increasing students' opportunities to engage in learning opportunities that involve higher mental activities. Campbell (2000) terms this as "authentic education," which is based on performance and reality.
We believe that focusing on formative assessment within the classroom context, encourages teachers to align curriculum and assessment throughout the learning process. Administrators, teachers, and district consultants will better be able to identify areas for growth and provide appropriate scaffolds for students through the close monitoring of achievement gains and the analysis of classroom based performance assessment tasks. Authentic assessments will assist teachers in determining Grade Level of Achievement (mandatory 2008).
3. Primary Mathematical Literacy (Alberta Education number 30054)
Grade Divisions Targeted: Div I
Number of Schools Served: 13
Number of students potentially served: 2,100
Total 3 year project budget: $498,000
The overall goals are to improve conceptual understanding in key areas of the Number Strand Alberta Program of Studies and to increase student's strategic competence (problem-solving ability) in real-world contexts. (counting, place value, the operations, number sense) The Primary Mathematical Literacy project targets improved student learning in mathematics by changing the quality of classroom instruction in the primary grades. The premise of the project is that by increasing teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and understanding of how student mathematical thinking develops, we can move our teachers along the spectrum from good math teachers to great teachers. This will help our students continue to improve their mathematics achievement.
The focus of the project will address the following four areas:
- to improve teaching and learning in the area of early mathematical literacy
- to develop a shared professional vocabulary in the area of mathematics teaching and learning
- to implement effective formative assessment practices
- to engage parents as partners in improving the mathematical literacy skills of their children
An important feature of this project is its ability to develop capacity within primary teachers to assess the individual needs of their students, implement an effective instructional strategy, and determine results and future learning directions. This will be achieved through developing a structured assessment procedure, tracking student growth, and investigating best practices that build math skills for primary students.
The length of the project will be three years (September 2006, 2007, and 2008). To facilitate sustainability following June of 2009, the project will begin in September 2006 with six core schools, adding 12 schools in September 2007.
Framework of the Project
Early Years Interview - provides teachers with a clear understanding of each child's mathematical thinking (as measured in Growth Points) in the key areas of early numeracy - counting, place value, addition and subtraction, and multiplication and division.
Young Mathematicians At Work Program - provides teachers with opportunities to construct a deep understanding of how mathematical thinking develops as well as pedagogical skills that are radically different from traditional math teaching. Teachers reflect upon implications of constructivist learning theory in their mathematics classes and experiment in concrete ways with new strategies and teaching paradigms that respect this new view of learning.
Advanced PD through First Steps and other professional development resources - builds a strong repertoire of assessments tasks, teaching tools, learning activities, etc. that address student needs identified through the Early Years Interview and classroom observations. Helps teachers understand developmental phases of mathematical thinking and implications for classroom teaching.
Professional Learning Communities - provide a framework for teachers to engage in meaningful conversations and problem solve around classroom issues. As well, grade-level and cross-grade sharing of experiences, math tasks and new ideas/strategies will help create a broad, shared knowledge-base across schools.
Content-focused coaching - enhances teacher reflective practice before, during and after teaching and therefore helps teachers become able to learn in and through their own practice. Also provides support for change right into the complex world of the classroom. Allows for both the assessment and refinement of daily mathematics teaching and learning in project schools. This type of coaching helps teachers to develop skills in personalizing instruction in their classroom to meet the needs to each individual student in meaningful ways.
4. Wellness Works (Alberta Education number 30055)
Grade Divisions Targeted: Div III
Number of Schools Served: 24
Number of students potentially served: 7000
Total 3 year project budget: $150,000*
*additional funding from Capital Health is possible in year 2.
Alberta Education and Alberta Health have partnered together to improve the health of school-aged children. They have partnered together in response to the ACOL recommendation to introduce a new wellness program for all students in the province, Kindergarten to Grade12. It is widely believed that the school is an important setting because children's health status affects their ability to learn, and conversely, educational attainment is a determining factor to students' health. Children's health status (physical, mental, and emotional) impacts their learning outcomes. The Comprehensive School Health approach is presently a framework that involves home, school, and community with a goal of increasing student health through the Health and Life Skills and CALM Programs of Studies. It demonstrates that health instruction within the context of a health-supporting school community environment enables and re-enforces the development of the necessary skills, attitudes, and behaviors for effective schools.
Schools will have the opportunity to become involved in the AISI Project, Wellness Works, through a volunteer commitment to the project. The first year, we will accept eight junior high schools to be involved in the project. The following year, eight more junior high schools will have the opportunity to be involved in the project, so that we can build capacity in the district. The final year of the project, nine junior high schools will participate in the project. Once a school commits to the project, they will conduct a Wellness Indicator Survey with their students, staff, and parents to identify what is currently happening in their school and provide baseline information for the project in June 2006. When the results have been assessed, the school will identify the issues that they would like to address. Schools will form a "Wellness Team" that will consist of representation from students, staff, parents, school health nurse, and any other interested parties. The school, along with their "Wellness Team" will develop one or two SMART Goals to help ensure that they are able to meet their identified issue. Schools will identify their areas of focus through SMART Goals, which will help schools know their true priorities. This will help them create a shared vision with their parents, staff, students, and community.
5. ESL Access to Academic English (Alberta Education number 30057)
Grade Divisions Targeted: Div III, IV
Number of Schools Served: 20
Number of students potentially served: 1000
Total 3 year project budget: $450,000.00
The overarching goal of this project is to improve the academic competency of English Language Learners (ELLs) with a focus on secondary students, by supporting them with strategic social, linguistic, and cultural approaches to fulfill their academic potential. This project will help teachers become better prepared to meet the complex diverse needs of these language learners in three-fold ways:
- through informed and directed instructional planning that enables them gain better access to content curriculum while increasing language proficiency,
- through effective supports to ensure optimal program placement and success in transitional years, and
- through increased cultural competency with its implications for successful learning.
Recent research on academic competency, as it relates to English language learners in the classroom, states that planning reflectively and strategically will provide teachers with a basis on which to provide systematic, intentional vocabulary and language teaching.
Developing a District ESL "student transition portfolio" will assist ESL students in successful transitioning from Division II to Division III and on to post-secondary education or the local job market.
A parent guide will be designed and translated to provide immigrant parents of secondary ESL students with a basic understanding of how our education systems works, what expectations revolve around the transitioning between divisions, and what supports are in place to help make the best decisions for placement in schools and programs that support language learning.
Building cultural competency with teachers and school communities will familiarize them with the intrinsic relationships between language, culture, identity, and cognition-relationships that need to be understood to create an identity-affirming context of empowerment that will help ELLs learn to their potential, as they move toward high school completion.
6. Students in Transition Supports (Alberta Education number 30056)
 Grade Divisions Targeted: Div III, IV.
Number of Schools Served: 32
Number of students potentially served: 1000
Total 3 year project budget: $2,037,710
Although there has been a significant increase over the last few years in the rate of high school completion for Edmonton Catholic schools, each year there continues to be many students who are leaving the district without successfully completing high school. Promising and effective practices were identified in cycle 2 which must be maintained in order to avoid a slippage effect on the rate of high school completion. In order to effect continued improvement and avoid a leveling out or ceiling effect, there is a need both to focus on a new direction for the project, and to identify specific target groups and strategies. For the majority of students, dropping out is not a single event but rather, is preceded by a pattern of course failure, poor attendance and repeated transitions between schools and programs. Edmonton Catholic Jurisdictional Completion Results show that the completion rates for movers (students changing jurisdictions) is a key area for improvement. Another concern which was identified in cycle 2 was the number of students who do not sucessfully make the transition from junior to senior high school and also those non- completers who are transitioning into 4th and 5th year programs. This points to the need to select the target group as being Students in Transition.
In response to these issues, the cycle III AISI project will focus on the following target groups:
- students transitioning from grade 9 into high school
- students transitioning between schools and programs
- students transitioning into 4th and 5th year programs
Another key learning from cycle 2 was that vulnerable students are most affected by organizational culture and attitudes of staff. For this reason, a major focus of the project, which includes all junior and senior high schools, Outreach sites, ALS, AELL, and LSS is to actively pursue district collaboration for the benefit of students experiencing difficulty completing high school.
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