37 anglophone schools in N.B. to test 2 monthly professional learning days

New Brunswick will add up to two professional learning days a month for staff at some schools in a pilot project starting this fall, Education Minister Claire Johnson says.

At 37 anglophone schools across the province, teachers will get up to 10 more days for professional learning, planning or training during the school year.

"This is not a day off," Johnson said at the announcement Friday in Saint John. "Teachers are going to be working hard on these days and doing things that are intentional and specific, because teachers have told us this is what they need, this is what they want. 

"They've consistently told us that they need more time to learn, more time to plan, more time to collaborate with colleagues and to reflect on students' progress."

Johnson said the days will fall on Fridays "to minimize disruptions for families."

She said the New Brunswick Teachers' Association and the Anglophone school districts consulted with parents from the school support committees and looked at other jurisdictions to see what is being done elsewhere.

Johnson said francophone schools have been doing this for a while now and undertook a similar pilot a few years ago.

Those results have been promising in terms of teacher happiness and improvements with literacy, numeracy and curbing chronic absenteeism, she said.

The anglophone pilot, she said, will be heavily evaluated with check-ins throughout the year and the tracking of teacher engagement and satisfaction and student success. 

The pilot will create additional student days off each month, but John said she believes it will also help with chronic absenteeism.

"When we know we're going to have a specific day off, and that's why it needs to be predictable, then students know that they're going to have a catch-up day, they're going to have a day to rest, which means that they may be going to school the rest of the time," she said.

Knowing the specific Fridays in advance could also allow for better planning of sports tournaments so that students don't need to be absent for sports as much, she said.

The learning time at participating schools will be the same as it is in provinces showing the best results in recent assessment tests, the government said.

Parent Laura Lynn Steeves, whose son is next year's student council president at Harbour View High School in Saint John, attended the news conference and talked to reporters afterward.