INTRODUCTION

Boards of trustees support the improvement of learning for all students when their members unify and face the complex challenges of education governance together.

How do boards of trustees make a difference? Changes occur when trustees work together through board governance that is truly student-centred, making teaching and learning the first priority.

A district-wide focus on student achievement and well-being in school board leadership, and the use of evidence for planning, organizational learning, and accountability can create a positive impact for building and maintaining a culture of improvement.

Systems thinking is foundational to effective governance, enabling boards of trustees and directors of education to see their respective roles in the larger perspective of what other factors and relationships might be determining actions and outcomes. To govern effectively in the service of student achievement and well-being, it is essential to understand how all pieces in the organization connect. Systems thinking is connecting the dots.

By taking the time to review this module, you are demonstrating your commitment as a leader to promote student achievement and well‐being and confidence in Ontario’s publicly funded education system.

What Does Student Achievement and Well-being Really Mean?

The Ministry of Education’s Achieving Excellence, A Renewed Vision for Education in Ontario states the goal that students “will develop the knowledge, skills and characteristics that will lead them to become personally successful, economically productive and actively engaged citizens.” This goal is at the core of the government’s stated commitment to the success and well-being of every student. Children and students who have strong relationships and a positive sense of self – and who can understand and manage their own health and emotions – are in a better position to reach their full potential in the future. Their sense of well-being supports their learning because it makes them more resilient and better able to overcome challenges.

Ontario’s education system needs to help students build the knowledge and skills associated with positive well-being and become healthy, active, and engaged citizens. Student well-being is an important element of overall student success. Students cannot achieve academically if they feel unsafe at school or are bullied online. They cannot be expected to reach their full potential if they have mental health issues and if they do not receive the support they need, and they cannot be their best if they are not given the tools and motivation to adopt a healthy, active lifestyle, both inside and outside of school.

That is why the well-being of children and students needs to be the centre of the education system’s priorities, starting at the board table. Focusing on a positive learning experience helps all students reach their full potential in school and in life.

Legislation and policies have been put in place to promote positive school climates and address bullying and victimization through prevention and intervention. The province has also launched a comprehensive mental health and addictions strategy.

Policy direction is provided to support safe and inclusive learning environments through several Policy/Program Memoranda (PPM). Some of the more recent guidelines include:

• Policy/Program Memorandum 171: Attendance Support Programs (ASP)
• Policy/Program Memorandum 169: Student Mental Health
• Policy/Program Memorandum 168: Reading Instruction and Early Reading Screening

Student success goes substantially beyond literacy and numeracy, problem-solving, critical thinking and the development of social and emotional intelligence. Authentic achievement is a combination of academic, social, emotional and cultural, and spiritual wellness. This is expressed uniquely in Ontario where four publicly funded systems for students in Kindergarten through Grade 12 are supported. Parents with rights under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are guaranteed a French-language education for their children. Section 93 of the Constitution Act (BNA Act) protects the right to receive a Catholic education.

In Ontario, French is an official language of education instruction. The province’s aménagement linguistique policy was specifically developed to respond to the unique needs, in a minority setting, of Ontario’s French-language community and its educational institutions. French-language schools exist not only to educate their students but also to protect, enhance, and transmit the language and culture of the community they serve. French-language education creates and nurtures the emergence of young graduates who have a proud awareness of their identity as francophones and as Canadian citizens, who have acquired both official languages and have developed the competencies they need to pursue their goals. They are lifelong learners, and are actively involved socially, politically, environmentally, spiritually, culturally, and economically in the francophone community as well as in society as a whole.

Distinctive expectations for graduates of Catholic schools are determined and shaped by the vision and destiny of the human person emerging from the Catholic faith tradition in which a person is made in the image and likeness of God and destined for eternal life in Christ. For students in Ontario’s Catholic schools, student achievement is measured by both the successful mastering of Ministry of Education curricula as well as the “Expectations of the Ontario Catholic School Graduate.” Catholic schools have the goal of preparing young learners with an education described not only in terms of knowledge and skills, but in terms of values, attitudes and actions that reflect the Catholic faith. Catholic education views human life as an integration of body, mind, and spirit.

The public education system is founded on principles of universal access to education opportunities for all students regardless of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status or disability. Its mandate is to create an equitable and inclusive education system where all students, parents, school staff, and members of the school community are safe, welcomed and respected in schools, and where every student is supported and inspired to succeed in a culture of high expectations for learning. Our schools should be places where students not only learn about diversity but experience it.

Becoming a Cohesive Team

To govern effectively, trustees must work as a collective body to develop the board’s multi-year strategic plan (MYSP), with the aim of achieving goals related to the provincial priorities in education in the area of student achievement and in service of all the students and families in its jurisdiction. Section 169.2 of the Education Act highlights specific requirements for a school board’s MYSP – see Module 6 – The Strategic Role and Multi-year Strategic Planning for more on this. Individual trustees will come to this work with their own values and beliefs and with the issues that are pressing in their own constituency. The job of the collective board of trustees is to work together, accommodating diverse viewpoints, and to come to agreement on the strategic directions which will guide board decision-making.

While strong and diverging views will always be part of debate in the democratic forum of a board meeting, the board of trustee’s established strategic directions provide the framework for arriving at decisions that must be consistent with the goals the board has set for itself. This is what ensures staying the course on the issues of fundamental importance and what inspires continuing public confidence in the work of the board of trustees. This means that individual trustees must, at times, take a view of what is best for the school board as a whole even if their own local constituents may be unsupportive of the direction taken. With a strategic perspective trustees will focus on the big picture and act in terms of what is best for the system overall.

Maintaining Productive Partnerships

The board of trustees and the director of education must work together effectively to ensure good governance. To make board-wide improvements that meet community expectations, the board and the director of education need to spend time learning together and agreeing on approaches to building leadership that will have an impact on achieving the board’s goals. Based on this learning process, clear expectations on the part of both the board and the director can then be set. Well-defined, clearly articulated role descriptions of both the director and the board are critical to a productive relationship.

Regular communication and dialogue strengthen the foundation that has been established and ensure a board-director relationship that increases the effectiveness of the system as a whole. While trust and collaboration are essential, the board of trustees also plays an evaluative role in its responsibility to provide feedback to the director on their performance.

Setting the Board Strategic Plan

A key governance practice of a board of trustees is setting strategic directions in support of the belief that “all students can learn.” This must be done in a way that involves consultation with, and input from, the school board’s communities. A MYSP informed by diverse community voice guides measurable goals to hold the system accountable and to build public confidence in an education system. School board decisions, including resource allocation, should reflect the MYSP. Here, consideration of appropriately disaggregated data is critical. This includes a broad range of information such as demographics and race-based data, academic achievement rates, retention and graduation rates, data on numbers of students requiring special supports, and services in place to provide supports as well as qualitative data including student and community voice. Boards of trustees that have a reputation for sound governance practices will use comprehensive, reliable, and relevant data to set strategic directions or engage in any form of decision-making. Yet quantitative data alone is not helpful; analysis and interpretation with communities is required. By engaging communities and subject-matter experts in interpretation, different stories can be told, examined, and debated. Then effective action plans can be generated.

In working with the director of education, the board of trustees receives advice on how the data can be interpreted to assist the board in setting goals that addresses disparities in equity of outcomes for all students. The real work lies in the board of trustees’ commitment to improve achievement, success in school, and well-being for all the students of the board. In working with students, staff, parent and community groups, the board of trustees can consider the challenges that may be experienced among particular groups of students and receive advice about how to overcome the challenges. Addressing this in the setting of the board’s strategic directions is a significant step in raising expectations and building confidence. Boards of trustees can work purposefully with the director of education to set high standards, to push for excellence and equity, and to ensure a high quality of board programming that serves all students.

Carrying out their fiduciary responsibilities means that boards of trustees will also require the director of education to establish and maintain necessary sources of data and to provide the board of trustees with regular reports that are based on this data.

Having Clear Budget Priorities

Effective management of the school board’s budget is an outcome of clear articulation of the board’s priorities. When the board of trustees establishes its strategic directions and the goals it plans to achieve year-over-year, the board is also making a commitment to spending decisions that allow those goals to be achieved. In terms of monitoring accountability for how the budget is spent, the priorities of the board of trustees become the measuring stick. This process is an essential component of effective governance.

Supporting Staff

The board of trustees plays a crucial role in supporting the school board by governing according to established policies, principles and norms. Their actions significantly impact staff morale and the overall culture of the school board, communicating organizational values to both staff and the community.

Engaging with the Community

Increasingly, boards of trustees must deepen their understanding about their role in helping make sure all groups within a school community have ways to provide input, are heard, and are represented. They must also make sure the school board is proactive in seeking out these many, diverse voices. In deliberate, ongoing ways, effective boards establish and maintain protocols and processes that seek community involvement and commitment to schools in their jurisdiction.

When representing the views of all their constituents, individual trustees bring forward a rich perspective on needs and strategies in support of student achievement and well-being. Each trustee can contribute information, evidence, data, and questions about the issues as they understand them to inform a shared understanding around the board table. As trustees talk to each other and engage the director of education to arrive at shared understandings of the issues before them, they model a willingness to learn and to be clear about what is important for the board as a whole. Furthermore, this enables the board of trustees and individual trustees to advocate together for students and translate moral and resolute leadership into action. Ontario school boards also have a duty to engage with Indigenous communities through formal structures, dedicated positions, and policies that support Indigenous education and foster reconciliation. This engagement is essential for improving Indigenous student achievement and well-being and promoting a more inclusive and culturally responsive education system. For more on this, please see Module 16 – First Nation Trustees: Unique Roles and Responsibilities.

CONCLUSION

Boards of trustees, composed of representative community members, are the natural group to bring the community together in various forums to create a strategic plan that sets goals for student achievement and well-being, directs resources, holds the system accountable, and builds public confidence in an education system committed to excellence for all students.