Mr. Fawcett: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Approximately $572 million have been put into the Alberta Initiative for School Improve­ment since 2002. What I've heard from a lot of teachers and students and parents is that this money takes teachers out of the classroom and puts them into administrative or management-type roles. I'm curious as to what value taxpayers and students are receiving through this program. To the Minister of Education: are there any quantitative measurements in place to measure the outcomes of the AISI program?

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me say that we're celebrating the 10th anniversary of the AISI program. It has been an outstanding success for the Alberta education system. All AISI projects must meet criteria and requirements set out by the Educa­tion Partners Steering Committee, which is comprised of govern­ment, teachers, school authorities, parents, and educational institu­tions. I can tell you that there are very, very few circumstances where the process of AISI would take teachers out of the classroom and put money into administration. It's about teachers in the classroom doing applied research, and they're doing it very well.

Mr. Fawcett: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure that happens all the time. To the same minister: what measurable improvements in student outcomes can be attributed to the AISI program?

Mr. Hancock: Well, Mr. Speaker, there are hundreds of examples of AISI projects which have improved results in literacy, in numer­acy, in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit education practices, in distance learning, in student engagement, just to name a few. All results from the 10-year history are available publicly on the Education website. We have compiled reports and done studies on the various sectors of the AISI research to show, first of all, its impact, and secondly, to be able to share it so that the results of those projects can be used by other people.

Mr. Fawcett: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple weeks ago the minister spoke to the Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils and indicated that it was important for government to maximize its finite resources. Again to the Minister of Education: has any cost-benefit analysis been done to determine if AISI is indeed the best value per dollar as compared to something as, let's say, reducing class sizes or simply just increasing the base instruc­tional grants to school boards?

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, it's always necessary to learn how to do things better. You can learn how to do things better by doing research on the job; applied research is a very effective tool. It's more than just about money to schools. It empowers educators to be involved in the evolution of teaching and learning and learning how to do things better and then sharing that learning. They have to be able to take risks. Not all AISI projects succeed. If all of them succeeded, we wouldn't be pushing the envelope hard enough and far enough. So it's important. We've done a 10-year review, and what came back from that 10-year review, I'll just say one thing: world-class, world-leading example of a system-wide educational strategy that inspires teachers and administrators. That's the succinct statement that I can give you from the review that says that AISI is working for Albertans.