a history of curriculum services canada
a history of curriculum services canada
a history of curriculum services canada
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IX. 1999<br />
Overall, 100 secondary school <strong>curriculum</strong> specialists took part in the Course Pr<strong>of</strong>ile review<br />
process. Team leaders in each subject area were recruited and trained by February 17, and<br />
reviewers were recruited and trained by March 1. Feedback sessions were to take place in<br />
March, while the whole process was to finish in April, with the final documents being mounted<br />
on the OCC website and printed by the Waterloo District Board.<br />
An outside consultant was hired in January for one day a week for a period <strong>of</strong> six months, in<br />
order to review OCC’s measurement tools, and to revise training manuals in all subject areas.<br />
Also conducted in January was a review <strong>of</strong> the database and administrative details related to the<br />
hiring <strong>of</strong> teachers for work on the review; this process was contracted out to the management<br />
<strong>services</strong> <strong>of</strong> First Folio Resources, Inc..<br />
In order to protect itself from potential lawsuits arising from publishers who might not agree<br />
with OCC’s evaluations, legal advice was taken, and a more appropriate reformulation <strong>of</strong> the<br />
original legal contract was made.<br />
The month <strong>of</strong> January also involved some “house cleaning,” with a focus on a review <strong>of</strong> the<br />
process and future goals <strong>of</strong> OCC. This resulted in a one-day Strategic Planning Workshop with<br />
invited participants from key membership groups. Pauline Laing, former Director <strong>of</strong> the MET<br />
Curriculum Branch, was invited to act as facilitator for the day. A large part <strong>of</strong> the day was<br />
spent developing a concrete vision <strong>of</strong> OCC, and this involved reviewing certain aspects <strong>of</strong> the<br />
operating <strong>history</strong> <strong>of</strong> the organization. The day also included a presentation on the future <strong>of</strong><br />
education by Michael Fullan, Dean, Ontario Institute For Studies in Education <strong>of</strong> the University<br />
<strong>of</strong> Toronto. The day’s work, including the rewriting <strong>of</strong> a vision statement and a mission<br />
statement, was incorporated into OCC’s literature and submitted to the ISO 9002 application<br />
review process. The idea <strong>of</strong> producing a corporate brochure was also suggested and initiated,<br />
with a completion date set for April 1999.<br />
In December 1998, OCC had been approached by the chair <strong>of</strong> Pathfinder Learning Systems<br />
Corporation (PLSC) to explore a partnership in online electronic learning for secondary school<br />
teacher training. This led to the development <strong>of</strong> a proposal and a preliminary meeting with<br />
Bruce Smith, the Executive Assistant to the Minister, who showed a keen interest in the<br />
proposition. A more detailed proposal was therefore drafted in the new year, outlining the<br />
advantages <strong>of</strong> a joint venture between MET, OCC and PLSC, whereby MET would assume the<br />
role <strong>of</strong> <strong>curriculum</strong> policy expertise, OCC would provide an infrastructure to support training<br />
(i.e., a database <strong>of</strong> training units linked to MET’s requirements for the new <strong>curriculum</strong> and<br />
resources), and PLSC would provide the s<strong>of</strong>tware technology (i.e., delivery systems and<br />
educational design solutions).<br />
PLSC was proposing a search engine called Nautikos, which would allow greater electronic<br />
communication within Ontario and the possibility <strong>of</strong> connecting teachers to a variety <strong>of</strong> online<br />
©2008 Curriculum Services Canada 48