Recently, many people have been writing my office with concerns about the diploma exams that were written at the end of January 2010. I asked the department to thoroughly investigate each of the issues that were raised. The diploma exam program in its present form is a significant milestone in students' formal education. These tests are designed to be exit exams that assess students' knowledge of the Alberta programs of study. Like the courses...

[Note: see the October 5 entry "Examining Change – Changing Exams" for more information on the change to the exam format. The revised exam schedule that moves chemistry and math to different days is available here.] Mrs. McQueen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education announced that the grade 12 diploma exams in math and science will no longer include a written response but will only include multiple choice numeric responses. Given that...

Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Inspiring education? Mr. Minister, your do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do government spent millions of taxpayer dollars on a feel-good travelling public relations road show entitled Inspiring Education. You spent thousands more on self congratulatory Success by 6 newspaper ads. The hypocritical actions of your ministry have more to do with conspiring than inspiring. Do you expect students, parents, teachers, or trustees to be inspired by your first round of $80 million cutbacks to...