Calgary Public Board's Chief Supe just got some flack for a trip she took to New Zealand to learn something about education. Hmm.  The Chairperson defended her, somewhat inarticulately, but she deserved the criticism.

First off, I know that Finland is getting lots of recognition for excellence in education, New Zealand not so much.  Finland has no beaches, though.  More, admin travel is a bit questionable when schools are cutting teaching staff.  After all, these are times of conference calls and TED talks, neither of which include hotel rooms nor airplane ticket. And, although there is no room service in the CBE office elephant, there must surely be one flunkey in that over-bloated bureaucracy who could be sent to fetch a coffee and a donut.

The worst outcome would be if the Chief actually came back with an idea that she wanted to implement.  The cost of that would be disastrous for classrooms across the city. A couple of administrations ago, the then Chief wanted the CBE to be known as a leader in education in the English speaking world, so she invented "Quality Learning" and hosted a convention-like event to promote it.  The first one seemed a success.  There were the usual array of ed celebs. Rex Murphy spoke at his wordy best.  There was much patting of sycophantic backs at the debrief dinner.  And there was  smattering of applause for the student journalists and their teachers who wrote the daily newsletters that became the only evidence that something had happened.  It was a quality learning experience for those young writers, for sure.

The second Quality Learning Conference was a financial disaster.  There were fine speakers, a classy venue, and lots of glossy promotion.  Few registered.  To fill the seats, teachers were offered several incentives.  Few registered.  Money was found to subsidize registrations, and in the final tally, although the attendance as less than stellar, it was face saving.  But the cost . . . A new group of student journalists did an amazing job of reporting on the variety of speakers on a daily basis.  Thus, there was some actual quality learning that took place. The loss of money was appalling, and pretty soon, the CBE had a new Chief Supe.

He went to a conference in Seattle and there heard about Pathways to Success, or some such edubabble phrase, and determined that Calgary Public ought to take that trail.  He presented the idea and told the bureaucracy and school administrators to do it.  Just figure it out and do it.  And they did, and it cost another pot full of money.  It also alienated much of the teaching staff (who were really very interested in teaching their classes) and almost every student.  The young people resented the time taken away from their learning.  Wow!  Now maybe there was something in that quality learning notion after all. (sarcasm, in case you missed it, or I missed it)  After many attempts at restructuring and even re-naming, Pathways turned right into oblivion, and CBE got a new Chief.

Now, I am no longer in the ed biz, so I won't feel the pain should Chief Johnson get buzzed by some sheep shearing notion from Middle Earth. However, I think Calgary students would be better served if the Board kept her at home and monitored her emails for silly and expensive education innovations.