Literacy coaching program undermined by cuts, says school board

The English Language School Board says a program meant to improve the literacy skills of P.E.I. students is being undermined by staffing cuts.

Officials say they're concerned about the results of the latest round of provincial student assessments that show fewer Island students in the early grades are reading and writing at grade level.

• P.E.I. provincial student assessments show room for improvement

For years, the school board has been developing a system of literacy coaches to try to improve Island students' reading and writing skills. The coacheswere supposed to be available at every school to work with teachers.

The board says when the program started for Grades 1 to 3 it led to improvements in common assessment results.

But when it expanded to higher grades, no new staff were made available and the existing coaches were spread too thin.

"So, you take the same number of coaches and you support many more teachers with them, so it does have an impact on the effectiveness, there's no question," said Tamara Hubley-Little, the board's director of curriculum delivery.

'New direction for education'

Now the board is trying to do the same work after losing six and a halfcoaching positions, a quarter of the total number cuts imposed by the Department of Education over the summer.

"Well, it was certainly very disappointing where you knew exactly where your resources were going to go both your human resources and your material resources so, you know, we are concerned about that."

On Friday, Education Minister Hal Perry defended the cuts, saying government is committed to putting education resources on the front lines, in classrooms.

And he repeated a statement made to teachers Thursday that changes are coming to the education system.

"There's room for improvement on student achievement and there's room for improvement on our collaboration and, again, in the next few weeks I'm going to be announcing more details on a new direction for education that will encourage more collaboration and input from all education partners."