a history of curriculum services canada
a history of curriculum services canada
a history of curriculum services canada
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The two-day pan-Canadian meeting in February was facilitated by Pauline Beggs, CSC’s<br />
Director <strong>of</strong> Review Services, with representatives from 9 provinces and territories. There was<br />
general support for the idea <strong>of</strong> a central service for the evaluation <strong>of</strong> learning resources from<br />
across Canada, since differences in <strong>curriculum</strong> itself throughout Canada were indicated to be<br />
minimal, despite the regional social and economic variations. A follow-up meeting was<br />
suggested, which CSC promised to host.<br />
The spring brought another new Ministry contract to OCC to evaluate and recommend Grade10<br />
textbooks in English, Mathematics, FSL (plus Grade 9 FSL), and History. New Ministry<br />
contracts included: 1) Grade 10 Textbook and Graphing Calculators Reviews; 2) Grade 10<br />
Course Pr<strong>of</strong>iles Extensions and Full (31); 3) Grade 11 Course Pr<strong>of</strong>iles for Workplace Courses<br />
(6); 4) 6 Crossover Courses for ILC (Distance Education on-line); and 5) Grade 4 to 6<br />
Implementation Resources (10 units) for the Elementary Curriculum Unit Planner.<br />
To ensure that all written reviews for clients were consistent in quality and methodology, a<br />
Quality Control Panel was initiated and managed by Pauline Beggs and the Executive Director.<br />
This process was seen as key to the ongoing success <strong>of</strong> the evaluation process.<br />
Meetings with key contacts at the Ministry also led to discussions <strong>of</strong> the possibility <strong>of</strong> another<br />
contract to review all <strong>curriculum</strong> planner units being written by school districts for elementary<br />
schools.<br />
The first document audit for the ISO 9002 accreditation process was passed in February “with<br />
flying colours.” A second staff audit, planned for mid-April, was also successful, with CSC and<br />
OCC becoming ISO 9002 registered by the consulting company, KPMG, on 18 April 2000.<br />
Because <strong>of</strong> the changes in organizational structure <strong>of</strong> CSC, a preliminary meeting was held in<br />
March to begin to address the necessary changes in policy. A draft proposal was prepared and<br />
presented to the Board <strong>of</strong> Directors in April, with the suggestion that the Board use the Annual<br />
Meeting in June to continue with the policy writing.<br />
The CSC website went live on April 28 and monitoring <strong>of</strong> the site between May and June<br />
indicated more than double the number <strong>of</strong> hits counted in the same time frame in 1999.<br />
Feedback from web users also indicated favourable responses to the website.<br />
The Grade 10 Textbook evaluation contract was completed in June and the next month was spent<br />
monitoring the electronic ordering system for the Toronto District School Board, so that results<br />
could be presented to the Ministry.<br />
Other efforts in the spring and summer <strong>of</strong> 2000 revolved around exploring possible partnerships.<br />
A promising link was made with le Centre de leadership en éducation (le CLÉ), and negotiations<br />
continued with the idea for the Bibliocentre to handle the fulfillment process for pdstore.com.<br />
Other contacts were made with the Canadian Education Association (CEA), ThinkQuest Canada,<br />
2000<br />
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