Developmental Evaluation of French Language Programs in a Large Urban District School Board: Stakeholders' Perceptions

• In Event: 77.030 - French as a Second Language Programs in Canada: Perception, Assessment, and Academic Outcomes

Abstract

Objectives: The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is one of the largest and most diverse school boards in Canada and in the world. This study examines challenges and successes of all three French programs in the board (French Immersion, Extended French, and Core French) from key stakeholder’s perspectives. Specifically, we seek to 1) measure how key stakeholders (e.g. parents/guardians, students, staff) report the quality of instruction, inclusive practices, equity of access, staffing, program viability, entry points and reasons for registering and deregistering in the three programs and 2) analyze how student, staff and parent/guardian characteristics and perceptions interact with each French program.
Perspectives: The provincial government of Ontario has acknowledged a need to increase French as a Second Language (FSL) student enrollment and retention (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2013). At the same time, studies suggest a decrease in enrollment in Core French programs (Boudreaux, 2011; Culligan, 2010). There are concerns about quality of FSL instruction, multiple entry points, inequities of access, staffing, and program viability in most school boards in Ontario (Sinay, 2010, 2015; Masson, Arnott, & Lapkin, 2017). Diversity in the board presents opportunities along with challenges to effective educational improvement and planning. The needs of over 90,000 students in Core French and 28,000 students in French Immersion and Extended French programs must be documented and examined.
Methods & Materials: Developmental evaluation is an opportunity to share and generate learning while engaging in a program as part of the team (Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon, 2010). Adopting a developmental evaluation design, this study was conducted in collaboration with the French Department of the board. Data was collected via questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaire data included parents/guardians (n= 1,988), students (n= 6,844), and staff (n= 1,427). Interview data included parents and community members (n=146), advisory committee members (n=27), students (n=81) and teachers (n=22).
Results: Initial analyses using two 3x3 ANOVAs on a subsample (n=7398) revealed a significant interaction effect between program and stakeholder on quality of teaching, albeit with a small effect size F(4,7397)= 4.61, p=.001, η2= .002. A significant interaction effect was also found between program and stakeholder on perceived inclusive practices F(4,7397)= 2.77, p= .026, η2= .001, though the effect size remained small. Initial effects analysis revealed that parents/guardians and students reported the quality of teaching and inclusive practices in Core French to be significantly lower than Extended French. Staff, in comparison, reported no significant difference on quality of teaching and inclusive practices across the three programs. Subsequent analyses will be employed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling to relate stakeholder’s perceptions to a wider variety of variables at the student and school level.
Scientific significance: This study is the most comprehensive evaluation of the French Programs in Canada’s largest and most diverse school board therefore, findings of this study have wide ranging of programming and policy implications on quality of instruction, inclusive practices, equity of access, staffing, program viability, and entry points. From a methodological standpoint, a mixed-method, developmental evaluation design allows triangulation of the results from all stakeholder’s perspectives.

Authors

• Erhan Sinay, Toronto District School Board

• Christine Marie Barron, OISE/University of Toronto

• Thomas Gerald Ryan, Nipissing University