ABSTRACT
In recent years, critics have taken schools to task for a multitude of sins. An unrelenting assault on the content, processes, and outcomes of schooling in Canada has elevated school reform to a major movement for all levels and for all populations. In the regular educational arena, a recent analysis of provincial and territorial reports, provided by the Council of Ministers of Education, shows specific educational trends. These include more cooperative efforts at the regional and national levels, more accountability to the public, information technology as an integral part of education, less funding to the administrative side of education to ensure that resources are allocated to classrooms, fewer school districts and boards, a focus on curriculum outcomes and standards to make education more relevant, improved levels of student achievement, more cost-effective ways to deliver programs, the implementation of comprehensive and multi-year assessment programs tied to curriculum standards and outcomes, transition programs, and the evaluation of current development and training programs (“Key trends,” 1996).
