Their reports attest to their success, but it is artificial. In fact, they fail. At least 16,000 students with learning disabilities — that number would be much higher if all school service centers had responded — are in an “expectations-changing” regime. Expectations have been significantly lowered, coloring the fate of thousands of them.
Posted at 5:00 am
Louise Leduc The press
Marie-Pier Sarrazin is worried. Her daughter, who is in the 6th grade of a “normal” grade, will start high school next year when she is doing 4th grade maths because of great difficulties in this subject.
For them, their teacher has neither the same requirements nor the same correction as their student is under the regime of “expectation change”.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Marie-Pier Sarrazin fears her daughter’s success in high school will be hampered by the ‘modified expectations’ regime.
Mrs. Sarrazin, who follows her daughter’s development closely, would have preferred it if she were in a special class. There was no space.
However, if her daughter continues on this parallel path, “she will be prevented from completing a secondary school certificate”. “That’s why she might not have it. »
According to Égide Royer, a psychologist and full professor at the Faculty of Education at Laval University, parents have every right to worry. When the “change in expectations” is decided, he says, “the whole future of the young person is at stake”.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Dominique Dubois wants her son’s real difficulties to be documented and treated well.
For her part, Dominique Dubois only learned afterwards that her son’s teacher, who seemed well-meaning to her, had begun to evaluate him, following a mode of “expectation modification”.
Ms. Dubois demanded that it stop. “It’s important that we know the extent of his difficulties,” she says.
If her son wants to learn a trade that doesn’t require college education, Ms Dubois would wholeheartedly support it, she says. But for now, he’s drawn to jobs that require at least a bachelor’s degree. “It’s hard to stop him from dreaming. »
For those children, for whom these expectations can be modified, teachers no longer expect them to be proficient in the terms provided in the program. Instead of 30 words, for example, they only have to learn 15. No more disastrous grades. Their transcripts are modified, their grades are excluded from the class averages and thus from the school service center’s pass rate calculations.
Although the vast majority in a “normal” class will not have the same exams, they will not be proficient in the program material.
You will still be promoted to next year. Because in Quebec, since the educational reform of 2000, repetition has only been permitted in exceptional cases.
A momentous decision
Admittedly, these are young people who have great difficulties at school. However, before this change in expectations occurs, it is essential to ensure that the teachers have had best practice and that the child has received the services that their difficulties require, stresses Égide Royer. If this is the case, “we can think about it”, for those who, despite a plethora of measures, cannot make it.
But this decision should never be taken lightly, he stresses.
To find out how many children are under this modified expectation system, La Presse submitted a request for access to information to all Quebec school service centers and school boards.
At primary level there are 8679 young people. In secondary school 7801. But only 46 of the 71 organizations sent us their numbers. Seven others said they had no documents on the subject and 26 did not respond to our inquiry.
This means that there are actually many more students in Quebec than the 16,480 documented here.
Analyzing the figures, it is striking how much the use of this measure varies from one area to another. Thus, at the Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Service Center (west of the island of Montreal), 822 children (3% of the total) are placed in this way in the primary school and 1,812 in the secondary school (10.7%). At the Portages de l’Outaouais school service center, 857 primary school students (7.1% of students at this level) are in the process of changing their expectations.
It is much lower in the Pointe-de-l’Île school service center (east of Montreal), which also has many schools in disadvantaged areas. Only 130 students attend this course, which is 0.55% of primary school students.
“We are working not to change expectations unnecessarily as this will affect the degree,” says Me Valérie Biron, director of business services, communication and general secretariat of the School Service Center Pointe-de-l’Ie. “We have a rigorous decision-making process that may take several months while we attempt to take supportive action. Let’s get to the modification [des attentes] only if it can be shown that it is absolutely necessary. »
Surround children in trouble well?
In Quebec, are we helping young people with learning disabilities in the right way? Apart from the lack of professionals (specialist teachers, psychopedagogues, etc.), are there any good practices? The last special education policy dates back to 1999. It is still the one that can be found on the Ministry of Education’s website, with an introductory text photographed by François Legault, 23 years his junior when he was Minister of Education.
At that time, Minister Legault wrote, 115,333 students (11.6% of the school population) had adjustment or learning difficulties. Today, Mr. Royer points out, this is the case for 240,000 students, or nearly one in four students, who have an intervention plan, and among them will be young people for whom expectations will change.
For teachers, the regime of changing expectations is clearly increasing their task, notes Brigitte Bilodeau, vice-president for educational and professional records at the Federation of Teachers’ Unions.
Specifically, the bias for including struggling students means that teachers who solve fractions with their group also have children still struggling with reluctance to subtract.
“We ask regular teachers to teach as if they were in a special class,” but with groups of 26 students, Ms. Bilodeau points out.
“In my opinion, such a heterogeneous composition of classes is the main cause of the shortage,” she adds.
Ms. Bilodeau points out that changing expectations are often poorly explained to parents, who are taken aback when they find their child failing, contrary to what the report card says.
In the reports of the parents consulted by La Presse, no difference can be seen to the untrained eye.
Mathieu Labine-Daigneault, President and CEO of the Association des Orthopedagogues du Québec, is also concerned that the “change of expectations” and the resulting modified testimonies are not always implemented through perfect adherence to the rules of the art. “Research shows that when a student strays off the regular path, they rarely go back there. Therefore, regular checking is required. [de la situation]. »
He is concerned with the extent to which the level of “services that can be offered to the student” is taken into account in the decision.
With the collaboration of William Leclerc, La Presse
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13.5% exit rate from the education system without a degree or qualification
Source: latest data (for 2019-2020) from the Ministry of Education
23% Percentage of students who will not graduate from high school in five years
Source: latest data (for 2019-2020) from the Ministry of Education